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Grandparent News
Millions of Grandparents Playing Video Games with
Grandkids
PopCap finds 95% of grandparents say games
offers better bonding
 Aug. 30, 2007 Millions of grandparents in
particular grandmothers play computer games with their grandchildren.
In a survey of adults for PopCap Games, 36% said they are grandmothers
and 6% said they are grandfathers of children who play casual games.
And, 95% of the grandparents said the games provided an opportunity to
"bond with, or better relate to" their grandchildren.
PopCap Games, says it is the leading developer and
publisher of "casual" computer/video games.
Among the nearly 7,500 adult respondents who took
part in the largest survey of players, nearly a third (31%) indicated
they had children or grandchildren under 18 who played these
family-friendly puzzle, word and simple action games in their home.
And of these 2,298 "family gamers," 80% said they
played casual games with their children or grandchildren. Conservative
estimates peg the casual games market as being more than 200 million
people in size, meaning more than 50 million casual game players are
"family gamers" who enjoy experiencing the games in the company of
younger family members.
Leading survey firm Information Solutions Group
contacted 7,487 consumers and identified 2,298 as "family gamers."
Of those identified as family gamers, 79% were
female and 95% were age 30 or older, figures that closely reflect the
overall casual gamer audience.
As many as 44% of respondents identified themselves
as mothers (35% grandmothers) of children who play casual games.
On the male side, 16% identified themselves as
fathers and 6% grandfathers.
Time Well Spent -- Bonding, Education and More
Among adult "family gamers," 92% overall (and 95%
of grandparents in particular) said that they felt the games provided an
opportunity to "bond with, or better relate to" their children or
grandchildren.
And fully 70% of respondents said they see casual
games as providing valuable educational benefits.
On a related note, only 28% of adult family gamers
indicated they allowed their children or grandchildren to play
"hardcore" video games -- with fathers and grandfathers being
significantly more inclined to allow the playing of such games than
mothers and grandmothers (37% vs. 25%).
"Casual games span generations and genders in ways
that traditional 'hardcore' video games never have," noted Dr. Carl
Arinoldo, a Stony Brook, New York-based psychologist of 25 years, expert
on parent-child relationships and author of the new book Essentials of
Smart Parenting.
"This universal appeal, and the 'G-rated' content
of the games, makes them a great activity in which the whole family can
participate, with each generation enjoying the games in different ways
while also enjoying the interaction with other family members."
Great-grandmother Cheryl Yetter of Paskenta,
California plays PopCap's word puzzle game Bookworm(TM) with her 12-year
old granddaughter and finds that both bonding and educational
opportunities are plentiful.
"She loves the game, and when she spends the night,
it's great fun to play together," says Yetter, 64.
"Considering she doesn't really like to read,
Bookworm has been a valuable tool, as she's learned a lot of new words
and enjoys looking up some of the odd ones in the dictionary."
Interestingly, while parents and grandparents alike
saw benefits such as such as hand-eye coordination, learning and mental
workouts for their children or grandchildren, parents were considerably
more likely to perceive a reduction in stress levels among their
children than grandparents were. 23% of parents vs. just 6% of
grandparents noticed a correlation between children playing the games
and becoming more relaxed.
The average age of the children referenced by
parents or grandparents who took the survey was 10.2 years old, with 65%
being age 9 or older and 94% age 5 or older.
Among the children with whom adults said they play
the games, more than half (53%) were boys -- suggesting that games with
aggressive, violent and/or explicit content are not the only ones that
appeal to young males, despite long-standing perceptions to the
contrary.
Additional survey data pertaining to specific
casual game play among children under 18 will be presented in a separate
press release soon.
Cooperative Versus Competitive Play
Among adult purchasers of casual games who have one
or more children or grandchildren who play the games in their home, 94%
said that at least part of their game-play interaction with their
children or grandchildren was cooperative in nature -- working together
to solve puzzles, complete levels and so forth.
In addition, 52% said the game-play with their kids
or grandkids was typically a combination of competitive and cooperative
play.
Almost half (48%) of respondents indicated they had
multiple children or grandchildren who played the games in their home.
Of those respondents, 88% described the game-play interaction between
the children as at least partly cooperative, while 12% characterized
that interaction as strictly competitive.
"The casual games seem to promote more of a
cooperative 'let's work on this together' type of atmosphere, as opposed
to an aggressive, interpersonal competitive environment," observed Dr.
Arinoldo.
Benefits of Play
Many of the adults surveyed attributed a wide
spectrum of mental benefits to children playing casual games. Nearly
half (47%) of respondents observed an increase in their child's level of
interest and/or understanding in spelling, reading, vocabulary, and/or
history as a result of casual game play.
Mothers and grandmothers (49% each) observed these
benefits more often than fathers (41%) and grandfathers (38%). Further,
these benefits were observed far more frequently in children between the
ages of 5 and 12 (about 51.5% of the time) than in children age 13 to 17
(39% of the time).
In keeping with these observations, 66% of parents
and grandparents of children who play casual games said they would
welcome the use of such games in their children's or grandchildren's
schools.
More than one in ten (11%) survey respondents also
said that they purchase casual games for, and/or play casual games with,
a child with a physical or cognitive disability. The most common
benefits cited for children with disabilities were: skill-building,
hand-eye coordination improvement, positive reinforcement, stronger
concentration and increased confidence.
Frequency of Play
Nearly one quarter (24%) of those surveyed said
their children or grandchildren play casual games daily, with 71%
indicating child/grandchild game-play at least once a week. Nearly all
(96%) of respondents said they limited children's' game-playing sessions
to two hours or less. (Likewise, only 18% indicated that their children
or grandchildren played the games more than 9 hours per week.) Weekends
(55%) and "after school on weekdays" (43%) were cited as the most
popular times for kids to play casual games, with 32% also enjoying the
games at night before going to bed.
Editors Notes:
Survey Methodology
This international research was conducted by
Information Solutions Group (ISG;
http://www.infosolutionsgroup.com/) exclusively for PopCap Games.
The results are based on online surveys completed by 2,298 respondents
randomly selected between June 15 and June 29, 2007. The audience
consisted of 1,645 United States and 653 international PopCap.com
Website visitors; 483 were men and 1,815 were women. In theory, in 19
cases out of 20, the results will differ by no more than 2.0 percentage
points from what would have been obtained by seeking out and polling all
PopCap.com users age 18 and over. Smaller subgroups reflect larger
margins of sampling error. Other sources of error, such as variations in
the order of questions or the wording within the questionnaire, may also
contribute to different results.
About PopCap
PopCap Games (http://www.popcap.com/)
is the leading multi-platform provider of "casual games" -- fun,
easy-to-learn, captivating computer games that appeal to everyone from
age 6 to 106. Based in Seattle, Washington, PopCap was founded in 2000
and has a worldwide staff of over 120 people in Seattle, San Francisco,
Chicago, Vancouver, B.C. and Dublin. Its games have been downloaded more
than 350 million times by consumers worldwide, and its flagship title,
Bejeweled(R), has sold more than 10 million units across all platforms.
Constantly acclaimed by consumers and critics, PopCap's games are played
on the Web, desktop computers, myriad mobile devices (cell phones,
smartphones, PDAs, Pocket PCs, iPod and more), popular game consoles
(such as Xbox), and in-flight entertainment systems. PopCap is the only
casual games developer with leading market share across all major sales
channels, including Web portals, retail stores, mobile operators and
developers, and game device manufacturers.
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