70-year-old raiding grandma…wait, wha?!?!

She plays World of Warcraft, knits stockings and socks, oh and yeah, she’s Level 70 IRL. Wow (no pun intended). Who woulda thought, right? [Read the article here]

But that’s the real question we all ask ourselves now. Who woulda thought?

I’ve gotta be honest. As a youngun who plays video games, the thought that the average gamer is around 30 years old and that the undead mage who keeps kiting you could actually be Grandma Pattie from next door is foreign, for even I – a member of the live-and-let-live generation – have my prejudices and stereotypes.

But then let’s go back to those statistics. 10 million+ players worldwide play WoW. There’s just no way they could all be teenage boys…which brings us to the idea that the gaming demographic (not just of WoW, but potentially all games) is quite unexpected and we, as gamers, contribute to that unexpectedness.

How many of us will grow ‘out’ of games? As you get older, you seem to get busier as you undertake an increasing number of responsibilities. There’s less time for play, and if there is, its usually something to relax the mind, rather than a game that challenges you mentally. I’m not that old yet, but you could say I’ve grown ‘out’ of TV, which I used to watch a lot of when I was younger. Will it be the same with games?

On the one hand, I do enjoy playing games and can’t imagine a time I won’t. But on the other hand, in ten years, I imagine I would have a career and a family, both of which would take priority in my life. Games would be a maybe, not a daily play.

But going back to the grandma. It actually makes a lot of sense to me that an elderly person would not only play, but actually be good at gaming. I mean, retirees/elderly folk, of all people, actually have the time to enjoy and play video games. Not only that, but one could argue that playing games may be a way of counteracting the common ailments of older people (like memory loss, for instance), because they are mentally stimulating. By this I mean in order to succeed in a game like WoW, for instance by consistently winning duels, you need an understanding of how to exploit the strengths and weaknesses of both your class, and your opponent’s. Tricky stuff.