Keywords

1 Introduction

Older People are the fastest-growing segment of the population worldwide and it is predicted that a total of 2.1 billion people aged ≥60 years will appear in 2050 (Ackland et al. 2017). Despite the increase of the population, aging brings many physical challenges for older people, including sensory decrements, cognitive impairments, declines in motor skills, and chronic illnesses (Gerling et al. 2012). Thus, activities that require manual dexterity or memory, for instance, become more difficult for older people to perform (Vasconcelos et al. 2012). Furthermore, those changes affected older adults’ lifestyles from all aspects, such as social activities, entertainment, and learning (Cota et al. 2015).

A solution for mitigating the bad effect is the digital game, as some studies have suggested that engaging with digital games has a positive impact on the mental and physical well-being of older people (Jung et al. 2009). Nowadays, more and more gaming products become available for older people, which promotes the trend of older people playing games, especially mobile games as they are easier to learn and operate for older people than the traditional online games (Cota et al. 2015). However, addiction to games or excessive game playing has been one of the most prominent aspects discussed in the public and scientific debate about computer and video games. Many studies imply that excessive game playing does harm people, which appears in adolescents mostly (Kuss et al. 2012). As more and more older people begin their interaction with the mobile game, suggestions for them avoiding excessive game playing should be investigated and put forward.

To explore the factors for game addiction and excessive game playing, researchers conducted a lot of researches. Initially, people play digital games based on different motivations and factors. Older people invest in the game because they want to have social activities and entertainment and cultivate their skills that suffer from aging (Cota et al. 2015). From the perspective of factors, many researchers suggest that personality traits, demographic variables, social relationships can be important factors for game addiction for adolescents and young adults (Yen et al. 2009). However, studies on the factors for older people’s excessive game playing is few. For older people, social isolation is a significant feature of the aging life among various age-related changes, which typically refers to objective separation from other people and lack of social activities (Tomaka et al. 2006). Despite the evidence demonstrating the effect of social isolation on adolescents’ excessive game playing, the effect of social isolation for older mobile game users remains understudied. This gap warrants an investigation on the relationship between the older mobile game user’ excessive game playing and their social isolation.

Generally, games for older adults are becoming more and more widespread. Thus, it implies us excessive game playing deserved a study and exploration for that older adults could play the game in the right way and prevent the potential risk and damage from excessive game playing. Thus, this paper aims (1) to describe typical excessive online game playing behaviors and present warning signs among Chinese older adults; (2) to examine the possible factors on excessive online game playing among Chinese older adults. (3) to provide guidelines for preventing older adults from problematic online game playing and designing online games for older adults.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Excessive Game Playing

Excessive gaming has been identified as a specific subtype of Internet addiction (Block 2008). In many situations, excessive game playing is strongly associated with online game addiction. Previous studies focus on online game addiction in aspects of features of behaviors and personalities, potential factors, and possible effects on addicts’ life, most of them conducted among adolescents.

Many studies present typical behaviors and motives for excessive game playing. An investigation, based on 7069 gamers, revealed the addictive potential of gaming as well as the relationship between excessive gaming and aggressive attitudes and behavior (Grüsser et al. 2006). Another behavioral study presents that people may show some warning signs for potential game addiction, including a preoccupation with gaming, lying or hiding gaming use and loss of interest in other activities, social withdrawal, defensiveness and anger, psychological withdrawal, using gaming as an escape and continued use despite its consequences (Young 2009). In the term of motives, mechanics, relationship, escapism, advancement, competition, socializing, roleplaying seem to have a strong positive effect on game use (Kuss et al. 2012). Especially, s number of gaming motives have been linked to excessive online gaming in adolescents and young adults.

Studies on potential factors suggest personal traits, demographic variables, and social-cognitive factors affect game addiction/excessive game playing. Also, there are other categories for the factors. Some personalities, including neuroticism, sensation seeking, trait anxiety, state anxiety, and aggression, show a significant correlation with excessive game playing (Mehroof and Griffiths 2010). In another study, a total of 8941 adolescents were surveyed to explore the multi-dimensional discriminative factors for Internet addiction among adolescents regarding gender and age (Yen et al. 2009). Other factors, like gender, age, other demographical variables, depression, and low family monitoring, are also summarized in some studies.

To identify game addiction and excessive game playing, some diagnostic scale has been designed to measure addicted behaviors. One of the digital addiction scale measures behaviors in five aspects: deprivation, impulsivity, underperformance, low self-perception, and social isolation (Dilci 2019). Another classical game addiction scale measures the game behaviors from salience, tolerance, mood modification, relapse, withdrawal, conflict, and problems (Lemmens et al. 2009). These scales are modified in many studies to adapt to the characteristic of the population. For older adults, the scales should be modified slightly.

Excessive game playing may impact individuals and families negatively and seriously. Online gaming is an emotionally draining and time-consuming activity. To create more time for the computer, gaming addicts neglect sleep, diet, exercise, hobbies, and socializing. They let their health go as they do not get the proper rest and nutrition they need. They may suffer some health problems from back strain, eye strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and repetitive stress injury (Hussain and Griffiths 2009; King et al. 2010; Young 2009).

2.2 Motivations for Game Playing by the Elderly

Various researches have focused on the motivation and reasons for the use of video games by the elderly. In general, motivations can be divided into external motivation and internal motivation. External motivation refers to the external motivation of the subject, such as the financial benefits obtained by completing a task. Internal motivation is related to a person’s expectation, interest, and taste, which comes from the internal factors of the individual (Frey and Osterloh 2001).

The elderly usually have different internal motivations to play video games, and the motivations will change with the extent of game exposure, and physical and cognitive ability (Brown 2012). By summarizing the previous studies, the internal motivations of games for the elderly can be classified into four types: social interaction, entertainment needs, functional/skill training, and other motivations (Boyle et al. 2012; Cota et al. 2015; Festl et al. 2013; Miller 1996).

First of all, for the elderly, social isolation is an important feature of their life, usually referring to the objective isolation from others and the lack of social activities (Tomaka et al. 2006). The reasons for this kind of social isolation are complex, such as inconvenience to take activities due to physical reasons, shrinking social circle, etc. Therefore, playing games can provide a kind of “virtual society” for the elderly, and thus breaking the state of social isolation. Many elderly people start playing games with such expectations. At the same time, the elderly usually possess a lot of free time, so they look forward to activities that can bring fun and kill time. Playing games as a wide range of public entertainment thus also attracts many elderly users for entertainment. Besides, some elderly people are worried about age-related changes, such as the decline of perception, cognitive function, and motor skills. As a result, many people began to play video games to develop and exercise these skills.

In cases of external motivations to play video games for the elderly, mechanism and element design of the game take a major part, and taking pride and getting communication with different generations also attribute to motivations. For the mechanism and element design of the game itself, some researches show that people prefer to play games on social networks for the following motivations: providing asynchronous games without establishing a daily commitment to the activity; allowing contact with other people in the game; providing rewards for each task; simulating competition; supporting state sharing and publishing, etc. (Omori and Felinto 2012). Other researches showed that immersion, fun, and entertainment of activities, increasing challenges and unexpected feedback of ongoing operations brought by games can also bring more external motivation to users (Boyle et al. 2012). A study that provides guidance on game design for the elderly points out that, in addition to the general principles of game design, cognitive challenges to make the elderly proud of their abilities can bring stronger external motivation (De Carvalho et al. 2012). Also, studies have shown that communication and proximity with different generations have also become the external motivation of some elderly people to play games, such as the elderly and children (Al Mahmud et al. 2010). The type of game is also an important factor affecting the game motivation of the elderly. For example, the incentive effect of reasoning games is stronger than an action game, and the incentive effect of games is stronger for exercising the memory ability and perception ability of the elderly (Cota et al. 2015). The women who have received higher education and the elderly paying attention to the development of cognitive function tend to play cognitive or strategic games (Alonso-Diaz et al. 2019).

The internal motivation of the old people to use games comes from their life characteristics, such as physiological and psychological changes, increased leisure time, and narrowed social scope, while the external motivation is closely related to the design of games and needs to be considered in combination with the internal motivation.

There are also studies on the motivation of the elderly to play games according to different types of games, and among them, one of the most various studied types is the massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). For MMORPGs, motivations for the elderly to play can be divided into mainly three parts: achievement, society, and immersion (see Table 1) (Yee 2007). The achievement motivation involves advancement, analyzing game mechanics, and competition. The sociality motivation involves helping and chatting with other players, developing meaningful relationships, and teamwork. The immersion motivation involves discovery, role-playing, avatar customization, and escapism. The analysis of motivations for MMORPGs assesses players’ motivations.

Table 1. Three motivational components for playing MMORPGs (Yee 2007).
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In the game design for the elderly, how to consider the external motivation and internal motivation, so that the game design can meet the deep needs of the elderly, is a process still needing a systematic review of the current research, and repeatedly verifications.

3 Method

3.1 Procedure

6 participates are gathered by contacting older game users whom the researchers already knew. They are all over 52 years old, with 5 of them retired and 1 still working (4 male and 2 females). They play different games, with their times for the game ranging from 0–5 h/day. When they came to the study, a questionnaire was used to assess background variables, game playing behaviors, and personalities, firstly. Then, a deep semi-structured interview was conducted. Table 2 shows the basic information about the six participates.

Table 2. Basic information about the three participates
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3.2 Measurements

Background Variables. The first questionnaire assessed demographics, including questions about age, gender, and education. Moreover, it included questions about habitual behaviors as well as game use, and computer game preference, weekly time spent on gaming, and the highest number of hours spent in a single gaming session.

Excessive Game Playing Behavior. To assess problems with gaming, the 21-item Game Addiction Scale (Lemmens et al. 2009) was translated from English into Chinese, and the consistency of translations was checked by yet another party to ensure the translated questionnaire’s representation validity. The 21-item GAS assesses seven dimensions of game-related problems, including salience, tolerance, mood modification, relapse, withdrawal, conflict, and problems.

Personalities. To assess the participants’ personality, the Mini-IPIP Scales (Donnellan et al. 2006) was translated from English into Chinese, and the consistency of translations was checked by yet another party to ensure the translated questionnaire’s representation validity. The Mini-IPIP Scales assesses five dimensions of personality, including extraversion; agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and intellect/imagination.

3.3 Semi-structured Interview

A semi-structured interview was conducted with every older game user to know their game use, life states, motivations, attitudes, potential factors for excessive game playing, impacts, and expectations for the game. The shortest time for the interview is 30 min and the longest time for the interview is 70 min. The interview was recorded and turned into a manuscript and was analyzed.

Generally, the outline was divided into three parts: game experience, older life, and excessive game playing. In the part of game experience, general game use, motives/reasons for game playing, interactions and experiences in the game, and impacts of game playing were questioned. In the second part, we mainly focused on daily activities, social life, health condition, psychological well-being, and personality. In the last part, we mainly questioned their self-assessment for game playing, self-control for game playing, alternatives for the game, and attitudes towards the game for older adults. When interviewing, the subject put questions according to the outline mainly and made a detailed inquiry for possible other phenomena, factors, and reasons. Thus, lots of detailed inquiries are conducted according to the answer in the practical interviewing process.

4 Results

4.1 Game Experiences

The six participants have different game experiences, which represents several typical game playing patterns.

Interview 1 is 58 years old, whose occupation is an interior designer, living with a son. He began to play games about 3–4 years ago, lasted for 2 years, stopped playing the game because of his wife’s disease, and played again after his wife’s death. Now, he plays the game about 2.5 h/day recently, usually in the morning and in the evening. One of the reasons for his excessive game playing is escaping from reality and releasing a bad mood. When he takes the self-assessment, he thinks he is under control. If something has to be done, he can stop playing games immediately. Also, he has some other hobbies that are more important than playing a game, like a cricket fighting. Interview 2 is 65 years old, whose occupation is a manager, living with wife and granddaughter. He began to play the game for killing time and obtaining achievements. Recently, he played the game about 5 h/day, usually all day long except time for meals, housework, and looking after granddaughter. He often plays the game until 1 a.m. and once felt uncomfortable because of excessive game playing. When losing too many game currencies, he feels angry. In reality, he is active in some community activities, like voluntary activities. Generally, he is looking for more offline activities for older adults. Interview 3 is 62 years old and is a retired teacher, living with his wife. He began to play games about 1 year ago, for killing time, continue to play for achievements and stimulations. One of the important features of him is that he enjoys the opponent process. Recently, he plays the game about 4 h/day, usually all day long except time for meals, housework, and exercise. He often feels unsatisfied with the age-related physical changes and concerns about the older life. Thus, he wants to obtain achievements and stimulations through online games to make him believe in himself and overcome the sense of loss and depression. Interviewee 4 and 5 are 57 years old and 52 years old, who are a couple and both workers. They began to play games about 5 months ago because their son recommended the game to them considering that the couple lacks entertainment. However, they play the game for little time every day. Interviewee 6 is 82 years old, whose previous occupation was a manager in government. She began to play the game after she was introduced to the game in the hospital. Limited to her health condition, she cannot play the game for too long in daily life. She mentioned that she may feel uncomfortable when she interacts with people who are younger than her, which prevents her from interacting with others. Also, limited time for the game is a struggle.

In summary, all six interviewees believe that their game playing behaviors are under control. The direct reason for game playing is killing time but deep reasons and motives are different. Achievements and fun from games are important roles for them. Alternatives for games are not available enough for them. Some individual difference indicates some different guidelines.

4.2 Typical Excessive Game Playing Behaviors for Older Adults

Based on the results of the interview, we can summary some typical excessive game playing behaviors for older adults.

Firstly, the older adults’ time for the game is quite long. This is because they usually have more free time, with no work and less sleep. Secondly, the games that they are playing are relatively traditional and easy. Next, they may be more immersed in the game since they have more time for learning and experiencing new games. Besides, the older adults claim to have more reliable self-control for not excessive game playing. Thus, they are generally open-minded to other activities while playing games. Also, there are some warning signs of excessive game playing for older adults, including some physical changes after long-time game playing, delays for meals and housework, and conflicts with families.

Several situations may lead to excessive game playing for older adults. The first situation is the resilience of adversity among older adults. As Interviewee 1 implies, he must release the bad mood after his wife’s death. The second situation is the tries to new things, especially smartphones. And the third situation is the observations for other people playing the game. In these situations, older adults show different motives for excessive game playing, including the pursuit of stimulation and challenge, loyalty for the game, the pursuit of achievements, and escaping from reality.

Finally, we summarized several possible factors for older adults’ excessive game playing, including depression, loss of families, low connectedness with peers, low connectedness with the community, and little community activities. Also, there are some risks for adults, such as irritable personality is dangerous for bringing out illness, like hypertension and delays in having meals, taking medicine, and exercising.

4.3 Guidelines for Preventing Excessive Game Playing for Older Adults

Based on the results of the current study, we believe that some guidelines for preventing older adults from problematic online game playing and designing online games for older adults can be put forward. For the improvement of the problem, we can discuss that from the aspect of community and the aspect of technology.

From the perspective of the community, more off-line activities that are different from games should be organized. One of the major reasons for older adults playing games is to kill time. The deeper cause is that they face no other meaningful activities so that they choose to kill time in the virtual world. The participants of the current study suggest that off-line activities can be combined with their necessary activities, such as shopping in the supermarket, walking in the park, and taking care of their grandchildren. Once the real activities occupied their free time, they can decrease their time for game playing.

From the perspective of technology, there are some design suggestions. Firstly, more design elements that improve older adults’ social interactions in the game should be considered since older adults imply that they are looking for more real and deep social interactions in the virtual game. Secondly, a system for reminding of important things like having meals or taking medicine can be added in the game design, which will be a helpful way for preventing causes that will harm their health. Finally, the game mechanics should be proper for older adults. For example, it should be smoother when it comes to competition in the game since older adults are hard to affording huge losses or gaining.

Generally, game design for older adults can be meaningful but difficult. Thus, it deserves more attention to older adults’ game playing behaviors and their challenges.

5 Conclusions

In this study, we interviewed and surveyed 6 current older game users regarding their gaming behavior, living conditions, problems as consequences of gaming, and game motivations. Results indicated that older game users are significantly more likely to experience gaming-related problems and that some types of gaming motivations significantly predicted excessive gaming. Low connectedness to family, having friends with habitual gaming behavior, and living in rural areas also had discriminative effects on older game users’ investment.

Specifically, typical excessive game playing behaviors for older adults include a long time spent on the game, immersing in the game. However, they may hold more reliable self-control for not excessive game playing and an open-mind to other activities while playing games. Also, three situations and motives are presented in the brief study. Furthermore, we find that depression, loss of families, low connectedness with peers, low connectedness with community, little community activities may be some possible factors for older adults’ excessive game playing. From the perspective of impact, there are some risks for older people that irritable personality is dangerous for bringing out illness, like hypertension. Also, it may bring delays in having meals, taking medicine, and exercising. Thus, the game designed for older adults may be smoother in competition. And a system for reminding of important things like having meals and taking medicine can be added to the game.

To conclude, understanding the behaviors and motivations associated with the development of excessive behaviors related to playing online games will promote future research and will pave the way for addiction prevention and treatment approaches for older adults. Discerning motivations for addictive game behaviors serve the purpose of informing clinical practice and research in the new field of problematic online gaming of older game users. The reasons for playing online games serve as a first step to understand how initial high engagement can develop into a potential behavioral addiction. Moreover, understanding that specific situations may lead to excessive game playing for older adults is important. The above findings support the necessity of offering guidelines for older users’ game design and emphasize the importance of preventing older adults from being damaged by games specially designed for them.