World Of Warcraft Helps Older People With Cognitive Skills, Study Says

"World of Warcraft" isn't just for nerds and Mr. T -- it's also great for older folks.

TG Daily and other outlets have discovered a study in the journal Computers in Human Behavior that found older adults who played the online game saw their cognitive skills improve.

Researchers split 39 men and women between the ages of 60 and 77 into two groups. One group played "World of Warcraft" and the other didn't. Compared to the control group, some who played the game showed improved focus and spatial orientation.

The difference was especially clear amongst those who scored poorly before playing the game.

"We chose World of Warcraft because it has attributes we felt may produce benefits - it is a cognitively challenging game in a socially interactive environment that presents users with novel situations," Dr. Anne McLaughlin, an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State and co-author of a paper on the study told TG Daily.

Unfortunately, Health News Daily notes that playing "World of Warcraft" didn't seem to help participants' memory.

This isn't the first time gaming has seemed to help older people. According to a survey by Saga, one in 25 people over the age of 50 play Nintendo's Wii Fit game, which could provide some fitness benefits (though the researchers from Michigan State University point out that the benefits are not as great as a traditional workout.)

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Comments

[Mr Anonymous]

09:20 PM on 02/29/2012

It may improve their cognitive skills, but the blood pressure spikes from dealing with noobs could k*ll them.

[darcylu]

03:36 AM on 02/28/2012

I love WoW. My son forced me to play it one day and I was hooked for a year. But I stopped before Cataclysm. I miss it. But so many games, so little time.

I am currently stuck on Uncharted 3 the final boss fight on hard. But I will eventually get it done, or my son will have to do it for me (I beat it on the easier difficulty levels.

My husband was shocked at this story ... heh heh heh.

[StephenJK]

02:29 AM on 02/28/2012

I play a lot of MW3 and Skyrim. I played WoW for about a year before I gave it up. Too much time and money (and time IS money....or so they say). I have been playing FPS games since Rainbow Six on the original XBOX. You don't really notice how it keeps your brain exercised. Improved reaction time, analytical skills, problem solving. It's all there. Great brain exercise. For the real world, I play golf, disc golf, billiards and darts. I like games heavy on physics. :)

[HowlingVoyager]

08:50 PM on 02/27/2012

I am an older person.

There, I admit it. Although not in the age bracket cited here, I'm awfully close and certainly not in the cliched age bracket often referred to in game reviews. I don't play 'World of Warcaft'. I do, however, play 'Dungeons & Dragons Online' and 'Lord of the Rings Online'. Has it improved my cognitive skills?

Dunno, ask me later. Too busy right now...

[fds]

01:51 PM on 02/27/2012

Playing any video game that relies on reaction time helps cognition--especially first-person shooting games.

[StephenJK]

02:10 AM on 02/28/2012

Skyrim + MW3 = Megamind?

[RingSigniah]

01:22 PM on 02/27/2012

307-20. I was Kbaba and Rbabge (without knowing what they meant). It was a joke because our neighbor loved cabages. Also *, ' " and other names on the other site for the last 3 years. That was all me. You know, you can tell by the way I talk. Its coming. The truth is much stranger than (our)fiction (2u). The truth is bteter than fiction. Im so grateful. Dont worry, I will not destroy. I shall deal prudently. http://youtu.be/6widIfpgIbU

[JScott]

11:43 AM on 02/27/2012

Hmm I guess I'm outta luck I would find the video game BORING!!!!!!!!!!!

Video blackjack would be more interesting. Esp if I could win money.

[angelcakesinc]

02:00 AM on 02/28/2012

Nobody plays WoW for FUN, silly. Grinding isn't fun. You play it to feel superior and yell at stupid noobs who don't know what they're doing! Or at least that's why I did. Does that make me a bad person?

[darcylu]

03:39 AM on 02/28/2012

Yeah, I avoided you like the plague.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

09:40 AM on 02/27/2012

WoW? No way, too time consuming, too much boring leveling up make work, (if I get a part time job I want to be paid for it, not pAY to do it) and most of all TOO MANY JERKS!

[darcylu]

03:42 AM on 02/28/2012

Too many jerks is right, but I loved playing WoW.

[Mustang Marine]

08:25 AM on 02/27/2012

I like Jutland, myself.

[mrjohnny212]

09:45 PM on 02/25/2012

I'm 53 and have been on wowcrack since 06. There are plenty of older players, you just need to find the right server or guild and play with the kind of people you like to spend time with. Our guild is mixed and quite civilised.

[Devout Skeptic]

05:22 PM on 02/25/2012

I've been trying to get my dad, who is 65, to play either WoW or Glitch with me for months now. I am showing him this article.

[darcylu]

04:35 AM on 02/28/2012

My son set up a free-trial for me and literally handed me the laptop ready to go. I had always refused, because I had so many things to do and didn't need another one. But I loved it, and when my free-trial was up, I started one in my husbands name and that was it. I gladly paid after that.

You never know. lol

[anitaroosevelt]

05:10 PM on 02/25/2012

Hey. What's the word on Angry Birds ?

Any cognitive benefit there?

[StephenJK]

02:13 AM on 02/28/2012

Nope...

[darcylu]

03:45 AM on 02/28/2012

Lol. But it was kind of fun to play ... not WoW fun, but okay.

[anitaroosevelt]

10:12 AM on 02/28/2012

I've wasted so much time..............:-)

[WakeTheDaniels]

03:09 AM on 02/25/2012

I would go as far to say it has more to do with learning something new and finding joy in connecting with people, and has little to do with WoW or games in general. Video games do however provide an enjoyable and anonymous format free from the stigmas older people are plagued by.

[darcylu]

03:47 AM on 02/28/2012

But WoW is jut too much fun, I would recommend it.

[unbozo]

03:57 AM on 02/28/2012

I played Wow, but am playing SWTOR now and having a good time!

[Candide33]

06:02 PM on 02/24/2012

http://youtu.be/urNyg1ftMIU

Makes you wonder what is on the other side of the screen

[Candide33]

05:53 PM on 02/24/2012

I am old and my husband is old, and we have played video games since they were invented. WoW is ok, but I like the free to play games better because people from all over the world play those so you get to talk to people from Egypt and Bolivia and Japan all in the same group.

I am playing Star Wars the old republic now but everyone on my server is American... BORING! I might go back to playing LOTR or Perfect World.

[IndyGuy]

07:35 PM on 02/24/2012

Nice! I thought I was getting too old for games (I'm 46 and have been playing video/computer games since the 70's). My father just turned 84 and plays his Wii and DS all the time. He told me he actually feels more mentally alert playing his word puzzle games. The good thing about games like WoW (I'm not into it, but love Skyrim) is they make you think of a solution. It also requires you to work with others.

I'm glad you and your husband are still playing games! I've already fanned you for the Mr. Spock pic!

[Candide33]

08:55 PM on 02/24/2012

Never too old for games, my aunt was 84 when she died and she was still playing Nintendo ... we had to buy any that we found at garage sales to have spare parts!

Hubby and I play online games together and our grown kids play with us too and we have LAN parties with computers on every vertical surface in the room, we order pizza and play all night sometimes.

Tomorrow we are doing a guild dungeon crawl on Star Wars The Old Republic, we have over 300 people in our guild and overflow guild so that ought to be awesome.

I have Skyrim, it is one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen and I have seen just about every game LOL.

I wish I could play without logging on to Steam though because I would like to be able to take it with me on my laptop, do you have a console game or PC version?

[SickHippie]

03:40 PM on 02/25/2012

You should give Rift a shot sometime, it's a lot of fun. SW:TOR is okay, but it really feels like if you're not in a guild you're not playing. I was hoping it would be more like SW:Galaxies, but I guess that was too much to hope for.

Oh, and LotRO was and still is great.

[Candide33]

04:27 PM on 02/25/2012

I like Rift, I did the beta on that one, did the beta on SWTOR too, and both of them are better in a guild. I really liked the auto party feature on Rift, it was really unique to be able to make party on the fly.

I never played SW Galaxies, I generally like the fantasy realm games better than the sci-fi but my son plays SWTOR with me so it is ok.

I did the beta for Aion then played for a bit, I think that is the only game I have ever played that the beta was better than the game lol. I didn't realize that a game could have too many servers!! We ended up so spread out that you could play for days without seeing another person.

You are right, LotRO is great, nice to look at, the quests are not too simple and you can actually grind out a level if you are so inclined. I would just like better armor or more of it. But being a F2P is good because it has more people from different countries.