Games seek to bring seniors to their feet

HINGHAM -- At age 81, George Mason donated his golf clubs to charity, retiring forever from the links or so he thought.

"I'd had a heart attack, and I didn't envision myself on a golf course ever again," he said.

But the other day, Mason, now 84, stepped to the tee and clobbered a 200-yard drive onto the fairway of a Par 4.

Don't look for him on the Senior PGA tour quite yet. Mason's triumphant return to golfing occurred on a video game.

Last week, his retirement community, Linden Ponds in Hingham , wired a Nintendo Wii to the 68-inch television in its lobby. Since then, the residents, whose average age is 77, have been golfing, bowling, boxing, and playing tennis and baseball on the video-game system, which lets players simulate the physical movement of real sports.

In senior citizens like Mason, Nintendo sees a new target demographic: the elderly gamer. The video-game maker provided the $250 Wii system for free to Linden Ponds and more than a dozen other retirement communities across the nation. Nintendo hopes these seniors will convince their friends that video games aren't just for kids.

"Our strategy is making sure it's in the right place for the elderly to touch and feel the Wii for themselves," said Perrin Kaplan , a Nintendo vice president. "Our target is everyone from 5 to 95."

For seniors who can't play sports any more, the Wii approximates the motion of the games they once enjoyed. It requires players to swing a motion-detecting controller like a golf club, bowling ball, tennis racquet, or other piece of athletic equipment. But the fast pace and sensitive controller can overwhelm some elders who have never played video games. In Wii baseball, Linden Ponds resident Bernadette MacPherson mastered the technique of pitching but as a batter struggled through strikeout after strikeout.

"I'm glad you don't play for the Red Sox!" Mason shouted from across the room.

"A lot of the people in here have never turned on a computer, let alone used a video game," said Christine Hansen, Linden Ponds' marketing director . "But so far, the residents have really taken to the Wii."

The Wii is the only major video game system that comes with a motion-detection device, allowing players to simulate sports activities. It has sold 2.8 million copies since its release in November, more than any competitor's system, including Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360. When Nintendo rolled out the Wii last year, the company pitched it as the entertainment console of the future. But from exercise buffs to physical therapists to librarians, gamers are devising uses for the system that have nothing to do with entertainment.

A 26-year-old computer programmer in Philadelphia conducted what he calls "The Wii Sports Experiment." For a month and a half, Mickey DeLorenzo monitored his health while playing the Wii for 30 minutes per day. He claims that swinging his arms in bowling and punching the air in boxing helped him lose 9 pounds, build upper-body muscle, and lower his heart-rate. "For some people, the Wii definitely can supplement the gym," DeLorenzo said. "You get a very high cardio workout."

On Traineo.com, a networking website for exercisers, more than 2,100 people have joined a group for Wii players. They swap tips about using the game to tighten abs, firm biceps, and lower blood pressure. Traineo offered prizes to the member who made the best home video about exercising with the Wii. "I don't think you should replace going to the gym with playing a video game," said Traineo spokeswoman Jennifer Lee . "But it's a good stepping stone for getting there."

In Seattle, librarians contacted Nintendo about getting the Wii to attract visitors to the library who aren't interested in reading.

Physical therapists are also adding video games to their patients' regimens. "We have a patient right now, a police officer, who's playing a target-practice game on Wii to get ready for returning to work," said Dave Nissenbaum , director of the Sport and Spine Clinic in Madison, Wis. "Rehab can be a little boring, but people love this." Kaplan, the Nintendo vice president, also cited Mary Jane Zamora , a California resident who plays the Wii to build strength and agility as she recovers from breast cancer.

And then there are the senior citizens. The elderly represent one of the hardest demographic for Nintendo to penetrate, because so few have ever played video games, Kaplan said.

Nintendo has been trying for years to create games that appeal to middle-aged and senior players. Last year, the company introduced Brain Age, a set of mental puzzles designed for older players. But the key to marketing video games to seniors turned out to be exercising their bodies, not their minds. Seniors first began playing the Wii at a retirement community in Chicago, where they organized Wii bowling tournaments. Nintendo was surprised. The system hadn't been intended for seniors. In fact, the Wii, which lets users create virtual characters to represent themselves, does not include white as a hair-color option.

At Linden Ponds, the introduction of the Wii elicited mixed reactions. Most seniors thought the games were fun, but Louise Stitt , 77, said she will leave video games to her grandchildren.

"I tried the golf, and I was terrible," she said. "I don't think it gives you a fair test of skill."

But Courtney Sullivan , a community resources coordinator at Linden Ponds, remains optimistic that residents will adjust to the game.

"They have a lot of different games for this machine," she told one frustrated senior. "I'm still trying to find Wii bridge."

Robbie Brown can be reached at jbrown@globe.com.