Older adults are often excluded of the game design process in the game industry (De Schutter, 2010). Moreover, the representation of older adults in game reflects stereotypes which not represents the diversity of this population. From a critical play perspective, we consider games as social, cultural and political objects (Flanagan, 2009). In order to improve games inclusiveness, we propose to engage older adults not only as end-users but as creators within an intergenerational game design process. We discuss the opportunities of guiding the participatory intergenerational game design using the gerontoludic manifesto proposed by De Schutter and Abeele (2015).
About the presenters
Bob De Schutter is the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Applied Game Design at the College of Education, Health & Society and the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies, and a Research Fellow of the Scripps Gerontology Center of Miami University (Oxford, OH). His interdisciplinary research and teaching interests include game design, the older audience of digital games, and the use of digital games for non-entertainment purposes.
Margarida Romero is professor of educational technology at Université Laval (Canada). Her research is oriented towards the inclusive, humanistic and creative uses of technologies (creative design and programming of games and educational robots) for the development of the 21st century skills across the lifespan: cooperation and communication, problem solving, creativity and computational thinking.