Playing games until we're old

Studying the effects of video games on older adults is hard

Issue #24 of LFG: Learning from Games takes a look at what I, and many of you, might be doing in a couple of decades from now as retirees.

Hello JOMT Reader!

I’m not close to retiring, but I do often think about what I will be doing in my retirement years. Because video games feature very heavily in my life right now, I hope I will still be playing when I’ve got a head full of white/grey hair.¹ In fact,

Mike Berger Games

wrote a post about millennial retirees and how they will be playing video games long into retirement.

Millennials’ Ultimate Retirement Plan: Gaming

Studies are already showing the impact of using video games on things like rehabilitation in older adults.² Other studies have shown the impact of exergames on older adults³ and there is data on the effect video games have on psychological well-being. While all of these contribute to health, none of them feel like the complete story. So, what does it mean to be “healthy” especially as we age?

One answer to this is a concept called human flourishing. It’s a catch-all term to describe the many dimensions of health. The degree to which we flourish is what we would typically describe as “healthy” although it includes much more than physical and mental health. There are five key aspects or domains of human flourishing⁴:

1. Happiness and life satisfaction

2. Physical and mental health

3. Meaning and purpose

4. Character and virtue

5. Close social relationships

Research to date has not addressed how video games affect all of these domains, instead focusing on one or two domains. But what is the impact of video games on all aspects of our health and well-being?

This is the big question researchers in Japan wanted to answer, using survey data they collected from over 1200 older adults. The questions, which ranged from demographic characteristics — like education and marital status — to health outcomes, were compared between gamers and non-gamers. The goal was to determine whether any aspect of human flourishing was affected by playing video games.

Key differences between gamers and non-gamers

Let’s start with the distinction between gamers and non-gamers in this older adult population. There were four possible answers to the question “Have you played video games with a PC, phones, tablets, or consoles in the last five years?”: playing regularly, have played, know video games but have not played, and do not know video games. Only those who answered “playing regularly” were counted as gamers.

In terms of education level, marital status, and home living status, there were no differences between gamers and non-gamers. The vast majority of older adults in this study had more than 10 years of education, were married, and were living with someone.

In terms of health, there were some interesting observations. First, most participants — regardless of whether or not they were gamers — rated themselves as not deprived, meaning that they believed they got or had what they deserved.⁵ There was also no difference between physical activity levels between gamers and non-gamers, suggesting that being a regular video game player doesn’t necessarily mean a sedentary lifestyle.

Surprisingly, the difference between gamers and non-gamers shows up in whether or not they participate in hobby groups or meet up with their friends. In contrast to expectations, gamers participated in hobby groups and met with friends more than their non-gamer counterparts.

Unfortunately, none of the domains of human flourishing were affected by video games, including psychological well-being.

What does this mean?

Trying to measure the effects of something as broad as the effects of video gaming with a measure as broad as human flourishing was bound to be challenging. The researchers acknowledge this too, saying “it [the study] does indeed sacrifice depth for breadth.”

It’s hard to reconcile how a broad study like this could conclude that video games have no effect on psychological well-being, while a more focused study concludes that there is definitely a benefit to playing video games, and yet a third study concludes that video games are bad.

There are specific questions, like the types of video games that these older adults were playing, who they were playing with, and motivations for playing, that the researchers didn’t ask that could have changed the results. But more questions means more time and money to conduct the research, both of which don’t come in infinite amounts. It’s the sacrifice they made to study the effects of gaming from a broad perspective.

Social media use often goes hand-in-hand with video gaming habits, but the researchers didn’t ask any questions or group participants based on social media use. Some of the benefits and effects of video gaming may overlap with those of social media use, which should be addressed in future research.

Final remarks

I realize that this seesaw of results and non-results feels like we’re getting no where in terms of the effects of video gaming on our health. I like to think about these seesaws like looking through the instrument at the optometrist’s office: we know that we’re looking at the letters on the back wall, but we don’t know which lenses we need to see clearly. The results and non-results are because we’re asking “is A or B better?”

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash || The repeated broad and focused questions researchers ask about the effects of gaming will eventually give us a very clear set of lenses to see the entirety of the letters on the back wall (i.e., the effects of gaming on health). We just have to get there.

I’m hopeful that we’re getting closer and closer to that complete picture. But in the meantime, I’m still planning to play games until I can’t hold a controller (or mouse)!

If you want to read more about this study, you can access the article here for free: https://www.jmir.org/2025/1/e69080

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1. Not in VR though, as I don’t think I would be able to handle the motion sickness.

2. https://jneuroengrehab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12984-025-01551-w
This article describes a pilot study about a video game that dynamically and automatically adapts its difficulty depending on the skill level of player for rehabilitation.

3. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsc.12249
This article describes the effects of an exergame on brain function and heart health in older adults.

4. https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1702996114
This is the original article that describes and names the domains of human flourishing.

5. As someone of Japanese descent, I can say that this might have to do more with cultural upbringing and mindset than anything related to health or flourishing.