Is your granny a gamer?
Among the dozens of press releases which landed in my inbox last week was one with this arresting message:"A new survey reveals that a third of pensioners are keen online gamers."
Is that a story? Of course it is! The popular perception of online gamers is one of acne-scarred youths in darkened bedrooms, glued to their screens playing World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto, with an occasional pizza break.
In fact, this survey shows it's just as likely to be grandma sitting down after switching off Strictly Come Dancing for her daily Warcraft quests or a little drive-by shooting. And some of them are really addicted - the research shows that 118,000 British pensioners are online playing games for more than 15 hours a week. Wow!! It looks as though all of that feverish marketing from Nintendo and the like about spreading gaming to a new demographic is paying off.
Not so fast. This vision of wrinkled Warcrafters bears as much relation to reality as any other piece of questionable PR that lands on my desk. Look a little further down the press release and "a third of pensioners" translates into 24% of all pensioners, and 30% of state pensioners. Still, pretty impressive numbers, on the face of it. So how was this survey conducted? Well it involved "2,644 people surveyed at the end of September 2008." Sounds like a good sample - but what were they asked?
The question was this: "On average how many hours a week do you spend playing online games over your broadband internet connection?" Uh, oh, it looks as though the survey was conducted online - so all of those 2,644 respondents were people with broadband. In other words, they were among the minority of pensioners who are web users. The most recent figures from National Statistics show that 70% of people over 65 have never used the internet. So, the 24% of online pensioners supposedly playing games actually adds up to 7.2% of all pensioners.
And what about those 118,000 fanatical elderly gamers - 1% of 11.8 million UK pensioners according to the press release? Well even if you accept the extremely questionable premise that you can get a picture of the habits of the entire population from a survey like this, that number comes down to 36,000.
And what did they understand by online gaming? According to the press officer, that could include online bingo or any number of other "casual" games. Right. So we have 7% of pensioners playing anything from bingo to Sudoku to the Telegraph crossword online. Not quite such a good story.
So who is trying to sell this innumerate marketing ploy? It's a broadband comparison site - I won't name them - and their motives are pretty obvious. The website of the market research firm (again, I'm sparing their blushes) used to conduct this survey boasts: "XXX has already carried out thousands of surveys on behalf of our clients to make their brands into newspaper headlines. Simply let us know who you want to target with your campaign and let XXX take aim." It's a common tactic - conduct a survey, come up with some outlandish result, exaggerate that result in the headline on your press release and - hey presto! - your company's product gets free publicity on TV and in the newspapers.
So, while I'll admit that I've occasionally fallen for this kind of stunt in the past, I'm going to resist it this time. But don't be surprised if you pick up a paper this week and read "Secrets of the Granny Gamers."
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~34~RS~)
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It wouldn't be Tickbox on behalf of uSwitch would it?
Tickbox's site comes up if you google for that quote, and a google for "Tickbox uSwitch" brings up a number of results...
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I suspect that it's also in the best interest of the media as well though. If BBC Technology posted an outlandish article on their website, it would probably generate some traffic, get emailed about a bit, raise the profile of the site, and - in the case of the international version - generate some ad revenue.
After all, being the most objective and fair journalist in the world gives you nothing if your site has no foot-fall. Based on this, it's all the more admirable that you've ignored it.
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I'm in a 'grumpy hit and run' comment mood today so, without having read more than the first few sentences of the post, here goes:
I doubt Granny is playing WoW, maybe causal games like I don't know what. Does online gambling count? Old people like that sort of thing...
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Well that's 5min of my life I'll never get back.
Then again I'd only be reading more depressing news about the credit crunch so I suppose I should say thank you for the distraction.
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And how many pensioners are having internet sex? That would make a good headline...
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Anyone else reading this might be informed about the interesting 'scams' pulled by the PR brigade to get the 'churnalists' to give them free advertising copy by the excellent book 'Flat Earth News' by Nick Davies..
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another pointless survey that serves no purpose at all, surveys are only correct when all parties of a specific demographic are surveyed, which would mean they would have to survey the whole nation
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So granny isn't playing WoW. All surveys involve some sort of number 'fudging' so this is no surprise really.
As for commenter five, I don't want to know that granny is getting 'down and dirty' online. But on a similar point, I've just set my grandmother up with Sky TV and the only channels she can find (an her attempts to find BBC 1) are the Adult channels on the EPG.
Every now and then I get a phone call taking if I'd go and sort out her television - by returning the volume to a reasonable level (she knows where the volume up key is, hasn't found the volume down key yet) and switching the TV back to the good ole BBC. (I'm now using the (grand)parental controls to disable the Adult shows.)
I think serious work needs to be done to help the older generation master technology. I think they are getting a raw deal right now, with handed down ancient computers. Lets get them new computers, loaded up with WoW and a nice fast internet connection. And even a social network aimed at their demographic - help with the loneliness often associated with those liking alone. :-)
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I agree that surveys are at best unrepesentative and at worst deliberately misleading but what I really came away with after reading this post was the ongoing issue of pigeonholing people according to the types of games they play.
Videogames specifically are still viewed as frivolous and a bit "sad" by a great many people. In some instances by the same people who would happily sit down and play poker all night. Is there really any difference between Gran playing online bingo and Grandson questing on WOW? Sure, the experiences are very different but they're both playing games, interacting with others and using technology. Why should one experience be considered a more "valid" type of game than another?
To pick up on rosscbrown's comment, there is work is being done on how older users access digital services (I'm involved in one myself) but it's expensive, time consuming and not very fashionable therefore underfunded. A bit daft really when for all intents and purposes it's about investing in our own futures.
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I would point out that at the UNISON Retired Members Conference last month a motion was passed regarding the calculation of a Pensioners Price Index for linking retail prices to the Old Age Pension. The original motion asked for the removal of some items from the government's Price Index on the basis that they were not relevant to pensioners' shopping. An amendment to include video games in the pensioners' shopping was passed unanimously on the basis that many pensioners enjoy playing these games. I understand the point you are making but how many pensioners have you surveyed?
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Although highlighting the over-hyping of this story is important, it is also important to remember that online casual games are still games. There is nothing wrong with playing online sudoko or bingo, and the same skills are required to both play and make new games of this type as are needed for more complex casual games. If only one stopped looking at computer games only in the context of AAA products, one would find that computer games are in fact highly popular for all walks of life, ages and genders. This is something to be celebrated, not dismissed due to the lack of AAA stardom!
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It makes you wonder if the current online gamers (me included) will still continue to play into our old age. A lot of time will pass and technology will change, I just hope we can keep up and avoid the need for children/grandchildren to help us.
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@12, I think we will continue to play the games we play now long into old-age but I'm not too sure if we'll adapt to playing the games of the next generation(s).
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rory.....
i know my granny is not a gamer...
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In my World of Warcraft guild, one of our members is both a grandmother and a pensioner, so it does happen. However, I'd imagine the numbers of pensioners on WoW would be quite few.
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Sony released a teaser trailer for the Playstation 9 which I think it said should be out in 2025 or sometime near that.
It contained synthetic chemicals that were giving out by the game in question which we humans would inhale, thus giving an illusion that you the player was really "inside" the game. Kind o9f like virtual reality but without the image making it look unrealistic.
Now, on point, if this is the case then yes in 2025 I can very well believe that granny's will be playing video games... but as for now?
Not a chance!
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I agree with the survey actually. None of my female friends who are in their 20s stay at home on a Saturday night playing online bingo. Whereas my 62 year old grandma found this website with a long list of free bingo bonuses (some website called latestbingobonus i think). I had to sit with her for an entire evening and helped her to sign up to all those sites one by one. She spent the next 3 weeks playing bingo with free money. That was great fun for her and she even made some friends in the chat rooms, without ever spending a penny. She's even into bingo lingo now, sends me messages like WTG and BRB, oh dear...
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