Nintendo Wii touches retirees

Nintendo‘s flagship console, the Wii, has never been more popular with non-gamers throughout the world. 82-year old Ruth Ebert, for one, had no previous interest in video games. She left that to her one and only granddaughter. “I missed that part of our culture. Soap operas, yes. Video games, no,” she commented.

However, today she tried her hand at Wii Sports tennis on the Nintendo Wii, right in her retirement community home in Virginia. “It was funny, because normally I would not be someone who would do that,” Ebert reasoned out. While she never challenged a machine in a match, she found herself going head-to-head with racket-swinging AI.

While her own tennis experiences allowed her to take an early lead in the game, she eventually lost to the consistent performing opponent in the end.

But unlike some gamers, she didn’t mind losing to a video game. Unlike against actual humans, she said, “It couldn’t rub [the fact that I lost] in.” Today, it’s no wonder that the Wii has gone far beyond the normal gaming bracket that the industry had touched just a year ago.

But after Nintendo brought out the underpowered but innovative Wii and its magical wand wireless remote, everyone from cancer patients to toddlers and even casual gaming nuns now drop their “non-gamer” headdresses for a chance for Wiimote waving fun.

Flora Dierbach, aged 72, is the chairwoman of the Erickson Retirement Communities’ entertainment community. Down over at the retirement home at Chicago, the committee planned out a Wii bowling tournament to appease the growing popularity of Wii bowling among the elderly.

“It’s a very social thing and it’s good exercise … and you don’t have to throw a 16-pound (7.25-kg) bowling ball to get results. We just had a ball with it. You think it’s your grandkids’ game and it’s not,” Dierbach said. The competition brought complete strangers together in a flurry of cheers and hugs as the tournament rolled on.  And all that comes without slipping a disc.

Nintendo‘s flagship console, the Wii, has never been more popular with non-gamers throughout the world. 82-year old Ruth Ebert, for one, had no previous interest in video games. She left that to her one and only granddaughter. “I missed that part of our culture. Soap operas, yes. Video games, no,” she commented.

However, today she tried her hand at Wii Sports tennis on the Nintendo Wii, right in her retirement community home in Virginia. “It was funny, because normally I would not be someone who would do that,” Ebert reasoned out. While she never challenged a machine in a match, she found herself going head-to-head with racket-swinging AI.

While her own tennis experiences allowed her to take an early lead in the game, she eventually lost to the consistent performing opponent in the end.

But unlike some gamers, she didn’t mind losing to a video game. Unlike against actual humans, she said, “It couldn’t rub [the fact that I lost] in.” Today, it’s no wonder that the Wii has gone far beyond the normal gaming bracket that the industry had touched just a year ago.

But after Nintendo brought out the underpowered but innovative Wii and its magical wand wireless remote, everyone from cancer patients to toddlers and even casual gaming nuns now drop their “non-gamer” headdresses for a chance for Wiimote waving fun.

Flora Dierbach, aged 72, is the chairwoman of the Erickson Retirement Communities’ entertainment community. Down over at the retirement home at Chicago, the committee planned out a Wii bowling tournament to appease the growing popularity of Wii bowling among the elderly.

“It’s a very social thing and it’s good exercise … and you don’t have to throw a 16-pound (7.25-kg) bowling ball to get results. We just had a ball with it. You think it’s your grandkids’ game and it’s not,” Dierbach said. The competition brought complete strangers together in a flurry of cheers and hugs as the tournament rolled on.  And all that comes without slipping a disc.