Recently talked to a 90+ year old man in a park in front of his nursing home, guy is a former RC plane enthusiast. Can’t do anything now because of his age, though. Bored all the time, sitting in the park is his highlight.
Thinking of donating an old gaming PC that can somewhat run the Microsoft flight simulator. Would that be a good idea? Can the average 80-90 year old use that at all, just speaking sensorically and motor skill wise?
Are there any other thoughts you have on that idea?
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Maybe not yet, but soon. I’m a member of the first gaming generation. I started with C64 and various ‘standolone one game hand consoles’ that Nintendo built back then before NES.
One thing you have to understand is that in the 80’s males older than me thought gaming was for children only. Only childish nerds were interested about such things. “Cool” kids feared they’d get socially ostracized if caught using a computer, let alone playing video games.
This attitude is still quite strong in 50+ and fact that we revert back as we get old makes it worse. From their perspective it’s same as giving then shitload of legos/dublos to build stuff and they will resent you for insulting their dignity.
I think in 20 years PCs and consoles will be basic hardware for nursing homes.
While this is stereotypically true, my grandparents that passed away 14 years ago were avid gamers. They adored their NES and bought a SNES when the NES died. I think it is worth inquiring with local nursing homes to see if they have anyone that has gaming experience. My grandma’s favorite game was Loopz. Grandpa’s was golf. Puzzle games especially are good for that age group as they keep the brain busy but don’t necessarily require adept fine motor speed like other genres.
There are always exceptions. I’ve got few geezers as steam friends, but I’ve met much more 50+ colleagues who laugh at me for telling I’m a gamer.
If not that 90+ man, someone else is bound to get really interested in playing Flight Simulator, or anything else you might leave there. Bonus points if you throw in a flight stick.
I’d guess they can find ways to use a computer, even if the residents can’t play Flight Simulator
Maybe some other game that’s not reliant on reaction, or something else entirely
They’d probably be best off with PCs and a LAN in their bedrooms, and a console room elsewhere.
Sounds like a great idea - I suspect the biggest obstacle will be finding someone at the home who is confident enough in what to do with it to be willing to accept it.
I’ve run into similar issues with schools where they are hesitant to accept donations of things like that because they don’t want to be saddled with equipment they don’t know how to use and maintain. Maybe worth seeing if you can raise a bit of money for a second hand Xbox or something?
Yes, I’ve thought about the issue as well. I’ve thought about offering to maintain that single PC myself. A console could be a good idea, though! Not sure about accessibility/variety of input methods (and variety of games, I thought Steam could be best)
Does he have much experience with computers? Not sure if it’d be easier to set him up with something like ChimeraOS that just runs Steam and the game or a basic desktop environment so he can write stuff and browse the internet.
In the aged care home I work in, we’ve had a few who can work a smart phone but most can barely work their TV. Being into RC planes might work in his favour.
