The results found that approximately 60% of the respondents were male, and the majority of all respondents were aged between 55 and 59 years. The first section focused on playing patterns (amount of gameplay and highest level reached), the second asked about the respondents’ social interactions in WoW, the third section focused on challenges older adults face when playing (personal life problems and physical problems), and the fourth section asked for demographic information. A questionnaire consisting of four sections was used. A total of 354 older players answered the survey, and 176 out of those gave demographic data such as marital status, education, work situation, gender, and living situation. Older adults were defined as being 55 years of age and above. The study focuses on the social motivations of older adults in the game World of Warcraft (WoW).Īn online survey was developed and published on eight WoW player forums.
A lot of research has been focused on the social aspects and playing habits of younger players, ignoring the older demographic which spends a large amount of time in-game as well. The article “Older Adults’ Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs)” by Fan Zhang and David Kaufman looks into the social world of older adults in the game World of Warcraft, investigating the reasons and motivations for social play among older gamers. Playing video games has often been credited to being a thing mostly young people do, but in recent years the consensus has clearly started to shift.