Games for Health: A Thought from Day One

Well, now I finally know firsthand what the buzz is about! Day one of this year’s Games for Health conference was a thoroughly enjoyable primer on this incredible field. Having been up since about 4 a.m. in addition to being brand new to this space, many of my notes unfortunately make less sense to me at the moment than I hoped they would. So rather than get into any of the specific topics raised during some sessions I attended, I’ll start and finish this health games post with a brief personal note. 

The one time I might have ever been anything approximating a gamer was during the Atari 2600 days, when like so many of my pals, I sported blistered palms from marathon sessions of Pitfall and Track and Field. During some background reading a few days ago, I came across some telling industry information from the Entertainment Software Association. One statistic that really stuck with me is that the average age of the most frequent game purchaser is not 17 or 18, but 39. I don’t recall if that stat spoke to people buying games for themselves or for their children, but either way it got me thinking. With all the incredible developments taking place in the field today, when my little guy hits the gaming age, I have a feeling his dad is going to catch the bug again, too.