PopCap Games: disabled gamers 20 percent of casual audience

PopCap Games, the multiplatform provider of casual games such as Bejeweled and Peggle,has released the results of a recent survey where it found that morethan one in five casual game players were suffering from a disability,with more than 10 percent having games prescribed or recommended bytheir doctor.
Why are they playing these games? 94 percent of disabled gamers saidthat games seem to provide "physical or mental benefits." What'sinteresting is that people suffering from different disabilities citeddifferent benefits they gained from their play sessions.

Physical

: Stress relief (84 percent) and     distraction from issues related to disability (73
percent
)
Mental

: Stress relief (87
percent
) and     mood-lifting (78
percent
)
Developmental/Learning

: Improved concentration (79
percent
) and improved coordination/manual dexterity (73
percent
)

"Those withdevelopmental/learning disabilities cited learning (pattern recognition,spelling, typing skills) far more often (61 percent) than those with disabilities thatwere mental (26 percent) or physical (23 percent)," the report stated.

Gary Robinsonexplains the appeal of casual games. "Bejeweled 2, Bookworm,and other games with simple controls, yet mentally challenging andengaging activity, are ideal for me, because my mind moves as quicklyas the next guy's, but I type with a mouth-stick. Let’s just say thatplaying the games helps my whole well-being; sometimes they give me adirect and immediate purpose in life, and that’s an important sensationto have every so often."

Gary says he plays for four or more hours each day, and while thatsounds a little excessive, you have to remember that many game playersspend much more time than that on their hobby, and Gary is getting muchmore out of the experience.
You have to remember that this report was released by one of the mostpopular providers of casual games, but it's still an interesting lookat what people believe they get out of gaming. It would be hard toprove most of these benefits medically, but does that really matter? Ifit feels like you can concentrate better because of games, it willprobably help with concentration, and stress relief is rarely a badthing. Or maybe it's simply nice to take part in a hobby that everyoneelse enjoys at the same level. The third option is that Bookworm is just really, really fun.