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Disabled Gamers Comprise 20% of Casual Video Games Audience

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 6:43 AM Category: Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game News, Meryl's Notes Blog 4 comments

Snippets taken from long press release.

According to a new survey conducted by Information Solutions Group on behalf of PopCap Games, more than one in five (20.5%) players of casual video games have a physical, mental or developmental disability.

Those with disabilities report that they experience more significant benefits from playing and view their game-playing activity as a more important factor in their lives than do non-disabled consumers.

The most common types of disabilities and medical conditions cited by respondents, by category, were:

Physical: Rheumatoid Arthritis/Osteoarthritis (14%); Fibromyalgia (11%); Multiple Sclerosis (7%).
Mental: Moderate/Severe Depression (41%); Bipolar Disorder (16%); Anxiety Disorder (15%).
Developmental/Learning: ADD/ADHD (46%); Autism (15%); Dyslexia (11%).

The majority (61%) of those survey respondents with a physical disability are age 50 or older, while slightly more than half (52%) of those with a developmental/learning disability are under 18 years of age.

Perceived Benefits of Play

Fully 94% of disabled players of casual games said they believe playing casual games “provides physical or mental benefits” — compared to 80% of casual game players overall. The most common benefits cited by disabled gamers (when asked to choose as many as applied) were stress relief (81%), mood lifting (69%), distraction from issues related to disability (66%), improved concentration (59%) and mental workouts (58%).

Interestingly, the top benefits varied significantly based on the type of disability; the top three benefits by disability type were:

Physical: Stress relief (84%) and distraction from issues related to disability (73%)
Mental: Stress relief (87%) and mood-lifting (78%)
Developmental/Learning: Improved concentration (79%) and improved coordination/manual dexterity (73%)

Those with developmental/learning disabilities cited learning (pattern recognition, spelling, typing skills) far more often (61%) than those with disabilities that were mental (26%) or physical (23%).

Furthermore, 77% of disabled players said playing casual games provides them with “additional benefits over and above what a typical non-disabled player might experience.”

Of the “additional benefits,” responses were numerous and varied, often citing deeper sensations of achievement and “belonging,” or distraction from loneliness and/or chronic pain. As one respondent put it, “Our son with Attention Deficit Disorder does not really remember he has a disability when he is playing.”

Dr. Carl Arinoldo, a Stony Brook, New York-based psychologist of 25 years’ experience who has treated patients with a range of physical and mental disabilities, agrees: “With some forms of depression, a person may be very focused on something that clearly amounts to a misperception of reality. So the chance to distance themselves from the perceived negative situation and relax may allow them to think more clearly and consider the situation later in a more realistic manner.”

You get the idea… casual games rule!!!

If you want all of the gory details, GamesIndustry has posted the entire press release.