Lecture title: Who Will You Make Your Games For? Embracing the Rise of Silver Gamers

Abstract:
The rise of gaming among older adults, known as “silver gamers,” offers a unique opportunity to explore its benefits and challenges. This presentation will examine the socio-cultural factors, including demographic aging, digitization, and the ludification of culture, that drive older adults to adopt digital gaming and its implications for active aging, as well as for the future of the gaming industry. The presentation is based on a combination of existing research and the author’s qualitative investigations, including virtual ethnography on online forums for mature gamers and interviews with Polish silver gamers aged 58 and above.

About the speaker:
Dr. Damian Gałuszka is a sociologist specializing in the study of socio-technological phenomena, with a particular focus on digital solutions such as video games, virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), and automation. He is a graduate of the AGH University of Krakow, Jagiellonian University, and the Collegium Invisibile association. Currently, he serves as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Humanities at AGH and collaborates with the EduVRLab Laboratory (www.eduvrlab.agh.edu.pl/index-en.html).