Let’s see, in 20 years I’ll be 71 … so yeah, the answer will still be Dungeons & Dragons. Hopefully, it’ll be with the Blackrazor Guild, but if not, there’s always the grandchildren and their friends.
More important, I think, is how we will play these games and what opportunities for community we’ll have in our golden years (golden, because we will finally have defeated the black dragon Woryx, and looted his hoard…)
It’s something my friends and I have discussed in passing – being able to continue gaming once the kids are in college and retirement becomes a serious consideration. Being able to find like-minded gamers to play with into our 70s no, 80s, and 90s is the dream.
And why not? The next decade or so should be the easiest, as we’re all still relatively healthy and able to travel … and don’t have to take care of young children (well, that’s true for some of us; others had kids later in life, but if the rest of us aren’t running to softball and scouts, that’ll make it easier to accommodate their schedules).
A decade out – into our sixties – is when we may need to start thinking about retirement communities and make sure the people around us are part of the gaming clan.
Why play bingo when you can sling dice?
Our 70s and 80s become more challenging, as physical and mental difficulties become our every day reality. In anticipation of that, it’s critical we think about accessible technologies for gaming today. They exist, but many people tend to think about them as afterthoughts (save those for whom they are critical). But I’m willing to bet most of us will need some sort of assistive tolls as we get older including:
- Large print text
- Audio text rule books
- Tactile dice (eg dice with raised pips)
- Oversized dice
I’m focused on vision and physical accessibility tools here because my dad has macular degeneration and Parkinson’s, so there’s a chance I could develop them as well. Seeing how he’s declined in his 80s gives me an idea of what I’d need to keep gaming.
That said, accessible gaming is a wide big topic, with a variety of current and potential tools. Getting to know them now can only help out community going forward.