MARYLAND: Amid rousing applause and cheers, seniors in a retirement complex in the Washington suburbs have hopped onto the videogame craze, belatedly but with a vengeance, swinging their arms in a virtual game of bowling.

While video games are aimed more usually at younger audiences, Nintendo’s Wii, the mega-popular, new generation home console, has become all the rage in 3,000-resident Riderwood, one of the largest retirement communities in the United States, located in a Washington suburb.

Its popularity is largely due to a wireless handheld controller that requires players to replicate athletic movement, albeit minimal, but easily within the capabilities of more elderly players.

Erickson Retirement Communities, which runs the complex, has installed 25 Wii machines around Riderwood to encourage social interaction and exercising among the seniors.

“I love it,” said Elaine Fowler, 82, a fiercely competitive player who gets around in a motorised wheelchair. “I’m here since day one. I feel really good when I get a strike and a spare.” Every week, some 20 retirees gather to play one of Wii’s sports games, in which players holding a wireless controller swing their arms to simulate a volleyball return, a virtual boxing punch, or a baseball bat swing.

While bowling is the most popular virtual sport among Riderwood residents, golf and baseball are also strong, as are fishing and boxing competitions.

“We had a group of ladies who did a boxing session, and a 90-year-old lady got a knock out!” said Earl Davis, 73, a resident who comes out to cheer.

“It’s the first time older people are embracing video games,” Nintendo spokeswoman Eileen Tanner said. “It’s pretty big.” She said players over the age of 30 make up about 27 per cent of the buyers of what has become the world’s best-selling “next-generation” games console — outselling rival Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) three-fold in Japan and North America last year, according to a survey by magazine publisher Enterbrain and games analyst Hiroshi Kamide at KBC Security.

A recent study in the British Medical Journal found that although those hoping to get fit and lose weight should probably try more strenuous activities, the console’s design did prompt the use of basic motor control and fundamental movement skills.

“It’s an exercise but minimal exercise, the type of exercise those people need, because they are not used to it,” said Earl Davis, a retired navy officer.

—AFP