Amid rousing applause and cheers, seniors in a retirement complex in the Washington suburbs have hopped onto the videogame craze, belatedly but with a vengeance, swinging their arms in a virtual game of bowling.
While video games are aimed more usually at younger audiences, Nintendo's Wii, the mega-popular, new generation home console, has become all the rage in 3,000-resident Riderwood, one of the largest retirement communities in the US, located in a Washington suburb.
Its popularity is largely due to a wireless handheld controller that requires players to replicate athletic movement, albeit minimal, but easily within the capabilities of more elderly players.
PHOTO:AFP
Erickson Retirement Communities, which runs the complex, has installed 25 Wii machines around Riderwood to encourage social interaction and exercising among the seniors.
"I love it," said Elaine Fowler, 82, a fiercely competitive player who gets around in a motorized wheelchair. "I'm here since day one. I feel really good when I get a strike and a spare."
Every week, some 20 retirees gather to play one of Wii's sports games, in which players holding a wireless controller swing their arms to simulate a volleyball return, a virtual boxing punch, or a baseball bat swing.
At a recent battle for bowling supremacy, opposing teams gathered around two screens set up side by side as team members took turns "rolling" the bowling ball down a virtual lane to knock down as many pins as possible.
While bowling is the most popular virtual sport among Riderwood residents, golf and baseball are also strong, as are fishing and boxing competitions.
"We had a group of ladies who did a boxing session, and a 90-year-old lady got a knock out!" said Earl Davis, 73, a complex resident who comes out to cheer on competitors.
"It's the first time older people are embracing video games," Nintendo spokeswoman Eileen Tanner said. "It's pretty big."
She said players over the age of 30 make up about 27 percent of the buyers of what has become the world's best-selling "next-generation" games console -- outselling rival Sony's PlayStation 3 three-fold in Japan and North America last year, according to a survey by magazine publisher Enterbrain and games analyst Hiroshi Kamide at KBC Security, both in Tokyo.
A recent study in the British Medical Journal found that although those hoping to get fit and lose weight should probably try more strenuous activities, the console's design did prompt the use of basic motor control and fundamental movement skills.
"It's an exercise but minimal exercise, the type of exercise those people need, because they are not used to it," said Earl Davis, a retired navy officer who teaches Wii movements to novices at Riderwood.
Octogenarian Flo Lawrence, an avid fan, agreed.
"It's physical, but without the effort, and you get satisfaction out of it," she said. It "gets you out of your apartment and you are with people."
Wheelchair-bound Marie Tsucalas, 93, is a newcomer to the games.
"I like to do something new," she said, as she aligned the keys on the motion sensitive hand controller. "I'm pretty busy with my cooking shows on the residence's TV network and my cards game, poker included."
Among the bowling participants, the five in wheelchairs were the most enthusiastic.
The video game system "is good for a variety of things," Davis said. "People who don't know each other are laughing, teasing each other. It brings back a competitive spirit too."
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS