Once in a while, Evelyn Gundlach, 87, and Ursula Cezanne, 80, will get stopped by teenagers while walking around Berlin and asked if they would pose for a selfie with them.
Thanks to YouTube, these octogenarian ladies have become celebrities.
The two belong to a group of senior citizens – the oldest is 90 – who are filmed while testing computer games in a German-language video series called ‘Senioren zocken’ (Gaming seniors). Many viewers find the clips sweet and funny, and the channel has 400,000 subscribers.
The seniors are shown playing the same games their grandchildren are usually preoccupied with, such as ‘Grand Theft Auto V,’ ‘Minecraft’ or ‘Fortnite.’ The show is so popular, it has won the digital prize of the German TV industry’s prestigious Golden Cameras awards.
Gundlach and Cezanne are friends who first became acquainted at an opera casting, and as extras on the stage, they have some experience in the limelight. Speaking with a Berlin dialect, they are the type of pensioner with a full appointment calendar who’s constantly on the move. For ‘Senioren zocken,’ they are paid an expense allowance.
It’s not all fun and games though, as the seniors must grapple with the new and unusual challenges that come with gaming. For one, their generation did not learn much English in school, so they’re not as quick to pick up on the instructions and terms that are in English.
Learning how to keep an eye on the monitor while at the same time operating the console has also been a challenge – but a fun one.
“It’s like getting drunk,” Cezanne says with a giggle.
“I love playing Mario Kart,” says Gundlach, while Cezanne says she prefers ‘Forza Horizon 4’ because she can race through the countryside and feel free.
However, they don’t like war games or violent shooting games. “One simply does not play such games,” Gundlach says emphatically. This is where she draws the line. Cezanne relates how much fear she felt when she sat out Allied bombing raids in a Berlin air raid bunker as a girl. However, she says she aims to overcome those fears and test out such games so that youngsters can get her opinion on them.
The producers of ‘Senioren’ zocken are two media professionals named Joschka and Sebastjan who prefer to stay behind the scenes. The two purchase the games for the seniors, and so far they have made 120 videos. The channel gets its financing from ads and other projects.
The idea is not entirely a new one, as in the United States there has already been a show called ‘Elders React’ for some time now.
Episodes are filmed in a studio set up in a Berlin apartment. At a recent filming, Gundlach is given a hot water bottle to warm her feet as she prepares to play a game called ‘Red Dead Redemption 2.’
For her friend Cezanne, even just reading the title is the first challenge as she sits with headphones and game console in hand before a green wall. Joschka explains the game set in the Wild West to her.
Playing the role of Western hero Arthur, Cezanne drives a coach through a forest and promptly crashes into undergrowth. It takes her a few tries before she finally reaches a Western saloon.
“I am totally wiped out once again,” she says. She thought the game was difficult, but nice. She preferred not to shoot any guns.
As Cezanne and Gundlach play another game together, they can hardly contain themselves from laughing as they hold a buzzing apparatus that, by moving it around in the air, can simulate milking a cow or shaving. “This is a nursing home vibrator!” one of them exclaims and both cackle loudly at their joke. Asked if they thought nursing homes should have video games, they don’t hesitate: Yes, absolutely.
Meanwhile, Gundlach is not only a fan of video games, but also card games such as rummy and solitaire, which she plays on her own tablet.
She has five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren who are very proud of her. But she is puzzled by people watching others play games online. “What’s so funny about that?” she asks.
In her family, the 87-year-old is the only one who is enthusiastic about computer games. “I am just so happy that I can do this. I wouldn’t ever want to miss it,” she says. – DPA
