Exploring Malay Older User Motivation to Play Mobile Games

Recent studies show that playing games brings cognitive and psychological benefits to the older adults. In Malay culture, any older adults who play games will be perceived negatively. This is due to our belief that games are only meant for children and older adults should spend their time on spiritual or religious activities. There is evidence from our previous study that our older adults do play games, thus, we were motivated to find out why and how they played games. We tested a mobile game with five (5) older adults who are gamers aged between 56 and 63. From our study, we learned that gaming motivation among older adults can be described as intrinsic: psychological benefits and enjoyment. Like other young gamers, our older adults were seen immersed and enjoying themselves when playing with the game, however, unlike young gamers, they preferred to play alone and played it short but frequent. Aware of the negative perception towards them, some of the older adults have approached the game creatively: playing and chanting zikir (dzikr) at the same time. The findings from this study can provide opportunities for the game developers to innovate and create competitive advantage in gaming industry and consequently help older adults in improving their quality of life.