Wii bowler beats real bowler in senior videogame tourney

Hal Winters’ perfect bowling stance and years of experience on the lanes couldn’t hold off his opponent, Nancy Davies, even though she was a novice who only took up the game last year.

The difference may be that Winters mastered the game chucking 12-pound balls down oiled wood planks and Davies learned her bowling with the joystick of a Nintendo Wii.

Davies is 84. Winters is 79. And like many older Americans, they love the game system, with its lifelike motions and mild workouts.

Both are residents of the Riderwood retirement community, where the Wii has become all the rage among the community’s 3,000 residents.

Riderwood, on the eastern edge of Montgomery County, got its three Wiis in March, spokesman Daniel Dunne said. It became so popular that the community now hosts the occasional tournament in the system’s sports games, including hockey and shooting, for residents.

Riderwood residents are part of a national trend among seniors who are picking up the Wii. For most, it’s the first time they have ever actually tried video games — a medium that has, until recently, been the domain of teenage boys.

Tiffany Lundquist, spokeswoman for the Maryland chapter of AARP, said the organization’s biggest feature at its annual members meeting in Boston this summer was a Wii booth. They’ve picked up on the health aspects of the Wii, in which users physically act out the game while holding a joystick in front of a television.

“People were just streaming in all day to try it out,” Lundquist said. “As technology and the Internet and all of those things became more and more [part] of our daily lives, the 50-plus cohort is plugging in almost as fast as any other group.”

It’s also helping to bring people together. Virtual Wii bowling leagues are popping up in retirement communities. Davies said she may even begin playing against her grandsons over the holidays, though she’s not sure she’ll be able to continue her winning streak at Riderwood, especially since her competitors were starting to wonder where she got her skills.

“You’re a ringer, that’s what you are,” Winters said to Davies, as friends surrounded them, teasing him over his 202-182 loss. Winters was champion of a bowling tournament earlier this year, after all.

“I got lucky,” the novice player shot back.

Sure, but she has seen her grandsons play.

And, she used to work at a Bethesda bowling alley.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/a-1123493~Novice_beats_bowling_champion_in_seniors_tournament_____on_Wii.html