The Gamer Types of Seniors and Gamification Strategies Toward Physical Activity

Gamification strategies were utilized as persuasive designs for promoting physical activities in recent years. However, the “one-size-fits-all” design approach cannot be employed effectively to convince all users to engage in targeted behaviors. Consequently, personalized gamified interactions which require an adaptation of gameful experiences to the user’s preferences were applied to drive users more effectively. The aim of this study was to investigate the gamer types among the seniors, and which gamification strategies are affected by the same gamer types, thereby engaging in more physical activities. We conducted an online questionnaire to investigate the gamer types of seniors. Based on the results, seniors can be divided into three categories of gamers: Easygoing, Socializer and Achiever. For the Easygoing, they showed little preference for gamification strategies and were more difficult to drive by specific strategies. The Socializer tends to be driven by socially oriented gamification strategies, but disliked punishment in games. Furthermore, the Achiever preferred to pursue personal achievements rather than interacting with others in games. The findings of this study contribute to HCI Community with the preliminary investigations on the gamer types of seniors, arriving at a better understanding of how persuasive technology can be designed to meet the needs of seniors.