Hopefully
Playing games on consoles was easy '93... pop in cartridge, power on.
Playing games on PCs involved editing and renaming Config.sys, autoexec.bat, making sure you had enough harddisk space to install off a dozen floppy disks, configuring sound emulators, IRQs... all just to achieve more-or-less the same end.
Mr Phillips: I am reading your comment in the context of a news story just last week regarding the election of Police Commissioners and the decision to make said process online-only. I'm assuming that you that at the very minimum is that there should be "a realistic bombproof way" for everyone to use government services (democratic participation, health, council), and also sources of information and education (thus text, images, video).
Many of the 'confused old grannies' are able and willing to learn technology... it's just that the technology keeps changing. It doesn't stand still for long enough for people to learn fluently.
A 'format' is like CD, SNES, Master System, Playstation, XBOX. Formats which stood still for several years. iPad, with its walled garden, seems close to this concept, but deliberately priced beyond the "uneducated masses" (but not beyond a fair few "grannies").
Obviously a simple, reliable, bombproof and secure system of connecting via 3rd party wi-fi hotspots (for those who don't have their own) and then authentication is as important for democratic participation as much as an individual device platform is.
Device diversity inevitable: Can't be fun to hold a tablet when you arthritis, for example.