Getting Wife into gaming

Modred189

Modred189

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So my wife is interested in trying to play video games, but is a nongamer. This is a good thing.

That said, I'm not sure where to start. I'm a PC gamer at heart, and so I don't have a huge exposure to beginning gaming, or a console for that matter.

So we have an opportunity here for me to joint the console generation.

ANyway, I need your help, [H], on how i should ease here into gaming. Should i go get a Wii for cheap and let her start with that, or would a 360 be a good place to begin?

I do have an HTPC (Q6600 and a 9800GT) and a logitech controller, so I could get her into Steam etc.


Ideas? I'm looking at platform and specific games.
 
I think FPSs are out of the question. I'm thinking adventure games, or kids games that appeal to adults. I love the Lego series.
 
Start her off on PC and she'll stay on PC. Wii has its place, but it doesn't represent gaming. In many ways consoles fill stereotypical roles in gaming, and the games you get are what people expect when they think of "computer games". If she's intelligent and articulate, she is unlikely to be enamored with a console. Consoles just don't do many genres well at all (especially strategy and simulation), but if she's big into sports or fighting games, console is the only game in town.

Get her a decent gaming PC and give her a bunch of the best examples of games from various genres. Do it together. Watch while she plays (at least until she's comfortable). Listen to her feedback on them. She'll tell you what she likes and doesn't like. Make sure she gives each game a fair shake and doesn't immediately give up because its too hard or unintuitive. Let her take things at her own pace, and support her gaming education with constructive feedback and dialog.

If she ends up being more interested in casual gaming, a console wouldn't be a bad idea, and with some gaming experience under her belt she'll have a better idea of what she's looking for next.
 
It will be kind of hard to recommend games to someone new to gaming. With that being said... I'd introduce her to games on your gaming rig to see what she likes/dislikes before spending money on her own hardware.
 
So, the XBL arcade is not going to be a good source of games for a new gamer? I suppose it would be no different than Steam for that kind of thing though...
 
Popcap always has fun casual style games, like Plants v Zombies, that can still present a challenge on later levels. From Dust might be interesting to her as well.

Perhaps even the FPS style tower defense, Orcs Must Die! might appeal just for the simpleness, humor and fun of the lower difficulties.
 
jealous. my gf will only play a select few games with me like trine 1 and 2 and lara croft guardian of light co-op. she wont play any fps or anything that uses m+kb. yeah first i would say get her on your steam account and try to find a few games she might be interested in and then if she finishes all of them decide which console based on her game preferences in steam. you can categorize games in steam and that might be a good way to keep track of what she likes and dislikes.

EDIT: saw someone mention lego games. my gf likes the star wars lego game and im waiting for the harry potter ones to go on sale to get them too. i would really ease her into any fps games, especially multiplayer like tf2 as it's likely to turn her off to all other games if she's no good at it if she's anything like my gf. :)
 
Depends, are you trying on getting her into gaming to game with you? Or just to game in general? If it just to gaming there are several games that could spark her interest; and remember it is her interest you should be sparking. Think of things that she likes, and see if there are games related to them. Or just get a few random games to try and see what she likes. Get her involved in an MMO maybe, many are F2P so initial cost is not a factor.

Sims 3
Tropico (or other building games)
MMO's (WoW, EQ2, etc)
Story driven RPG's like TES5:Skyrim
 
zacrobmer said:
Depends, are you trying on getting her into gaming to game with you? Or just to game in general? If it just to gaming there are several games that could spark her interest; and remember it is her interest you should be sparking. Think of things that she likes, and see if there are games related to them. Or just get a few random games to try and see what she likes. Get her involved in an MMO maybe, many are F2P so initial cost is not a factor.

Sims 3
Tropico (or other building games)
MMO's (WoW, EQ2, etc)
Story driven RPG's like TES5:Skyrim
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She has a strong mental stigma against gaming, but is interested in getting involved because I like it. (I was at a wedding this weekend and met a gamer-wife and I think she's jealous of the conversation I had). So, MY personal goal is to get her into gaming so we can game together. Hence why a console was on my list because 2player gaming is pretty thin on PCs.

Also, I would like to avoid serious combat for now, based on her previous comments. Any 2player racing games for PC?
 
left 4 dead or portal/portal 2

Got my wife into L4D, then she wanted L4D2. She also watched me play portal and then wanted to play that as well as portal 2.
 
Modred189 said:
She has a strong mental stigma against gaming, but is interested in getting involved because I like it. (I was at a wedding this weekend and met a gamer-wife and I think she's jealous of the conversation I had). So, MY personal goal is to get her into gaming so we can game together. Hence why a console was on my list because 2player gaming is pretty thin on PCs.

Also, I would like to avoid serious combat for now, based on her previous comments. Any 2player racing games for PC?
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if you want 2p gaming on your pc, i cant recommend trine 1 and 2 and lara croft guardian of light highly enough. lara croft actually forces you to work together by giving you 2 people with different abilities and puzzles where you need both of you to work together. lego star wars is pretty fun and a LOT longer (i think we beat lara croft in about 5 hours and we have like 30 in star wars) but a lot of the time we just get super pissed and yell at each other. not in an unhealthy way, just in a "you idiot what are you doing!?" sort of way. still a lot of fun as long as both of you can remember that its a lego star wars game and is not even remotely important.
 
little big planet? xbox seems to gravitate toward a more violence friendly demographic, I'd pick up a ps3 or a cheap used wii
 
It's important when getting the wife/gf into games that you start off easy, start with some interesting positions, maybe some light spanking, work you way up to toys...

...wait, we talking about video games? Oh my bad :p Seriously though, I found some of the female variety like basic platforming or puzzle or adventure games. Something where you don't have to spend half an hour setting the scene, explaining convoluted controls and then 5 minutes later the game mechanic changes to another convoluted system you then have to spend another 10 minutes explaining.

When you think about it, that's what got MOST of us into gaming as kids, simple games with simple controls that are little more than skill testers or interesting puzzle games.

But it depends on her personality. I honestly don't know that many women who play games and the few who do it's mostly play puzzle and adventure and platformers. The only I can think of who do anything more than that are 2 who played first person shooters and they were both royal bitches :p
 
portal series.

is she a fan of star wars? SWTOR is pretty story driven. Chicks dig stories n shit.
 
Man... good luck. My wife is an enigma when it comes to gaming. A few months back she expressed interest in playing games with me, so I built her a nice little computer. She said she wanted to play L4D and Dead Island... so I bought her both. Dead Island she can't play for more than about 15 minutes without getting sick (I hope this is something she grows past, she otherwise enjoys the game) and L4D, while it also makes her kinda sick, she liked a bit. She really liked the idea of Portal, so I got her that too. That makes her head so dizzy she can't play it at all.

Then there's shit like she saw me playing Sonic and was all OMG I LOVE SONIC but I tried to get her to play Mario with me on Wii, and she's all fuck that I hate this game. I can't say I understand that logic. Tried Little Big Planet, and she just got bored. I tried to get her into Skyrim too, she hated it. I thought she'd be all into fucking up dragons, silly me. I also tried to get her into Mass Effect since she's a huge sci-fi nerd (really into Star Trek and Dr. Who and shit)... and she thought it was lame.
 
Viper87227 said:
Man... good luck. My wife is an enigma when it comes to gaming. A few months back she expressed interest in playing games with me, so I built her a nice little computer. She said she wanted to play L4D and Dead Island... so I bought her both. Dead Island she can't play for more than about 15 minutes without getting sick (I hope this is something she grows past, she otherwise enjoys the game) and L4D, while it also makes her kinda sick, she liked a bit. She really liked the idea of Portal, so I got her that too. That makes her head so dizzy she can't play it at all.

Then there's shit like she saw me playing Sonic and was all OMG I LOVE SONIC but I tried to get her to play Mario with me on Wii, and she's all fuck that I hate this game. I can't say I understand that logic. Tried Little Big Planet, and she just got bored. I tried to get her into Skyrim too, she hated it. I thought she'd be all into fucking up dragons, silly me. I also tried to get her into Mass Effect since she's a huge sci-fi nerd (really into Star Trek and Dr. Who and shit)... and she thought it was lame.
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Unfortunately I don't think she'll grow past it. All of those games (DI, L4D, Portal) are terrible for people who get simulator sickness, especially Dead Island. Try adjusting the FOV and use the Dead Island tweaker tool thing to turn down the blur/HDR/bloom/whatever-else-the-fuck-vomited-on-the-screen-under-the-guise-of-"art" and see if that stops her simulator sickness. It didn't stop mine, because my sickness in Dead Island is related to the fucking head bobbing which you CAN'T turn off, but I know a lot of other people were helped by raising the FOV and getting rid of some of the ugly arse post processing.
 
Upfront she might be interested in games with a strong story and easier gameplay.

Some suggestions:

Mass Effect series
Alan Wake + American Nightmare
Portal 2 co-op
 
Tudz said:
I found some of the female variety like basic platforming or puzzle or adventure games. Something where you don't have to spend half an hour setting the scene, explaining convoluted controls and then 5 minutes later the game mechanic changes to another convoluted system you then have to spend another 10 minutes explaining.

When you think about it, that's what got MOST of us into gaming as kids, simple games with simple controls that are little more than skill testers or interesting puzzle games.
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THIS seems like a really good point. back in the day, I got started on mario etc on the NES, and (lol) Croc and HL on the PC. Simple games with good gameplay.
 
My GF mostly played point-and-click adventure games like Monkey Island and Machinarium, as well as The Sims 3. She said she wanted to become a "real gamer" so I introduced her to Skyrim. Now she won't stop playing it. :(
 
Start with Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2. Play with you and her only for a while then start playing with other people once she starts to enjoy it. My fiance and I play L4D and now she plays COD/BF3.
 
Modred189 said:
THIS seems like a really good point. back in the day, I got started on mario etc on the NES, and (lol) Croc and HL on the PC. Simple games with good gameplay.
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This is a good start. Adventure, puzzle, and story based games.
 
When ever someone is new, they could get in then get out. So go cheap, take your Q6600 run steam and grab lots of great F2P and just plain Free games.

Alien swarm is a great game that is very simple and you can coop with here. Just start easy. TF2 appeals to all skill levels if she is not too serious it can be funny. My wife really liked playing UT2k4 against bots.

I really think that people will get into and like anything if they have someone to guide them into PC gaming. The only reason a ton of people console game is because it has alot of advertising and a fake low barrier to entry. Well you have the free system, and you can expose here.

Trine is great too, jamestown is easy to play but difficult to master. Terraria is cheap entertainment. The hardest part is going to be finding out what suits here style. And while alot of people think FPS is too hard at a basic level its actually far easier to play than just about any other type of game. Point and shot, move, it makes sense my kids got it when they were 3.
 
I read briefly what people were mentioning here but I did not see any racing games. A friend of mine has a gf who doesn't game but really enjoys driving games like burnout revenge, paradise, and forza. Having a steering wheel in my house helped a lot.
 
If she's not a gamer she's going to have a hard time grasping the basic concepts of how games flow and the automatic understanding of what you're trying to achieve. With that being said, games like Portal and Left 4 Dead are going to be extremely difficult for her. She's not going to understand her ammo count, health left, how to get more stuff... or that you even need to do that. Anything that's going to need reaction time in order to win and survive needs to be out the window (until later).

Plants vs.Zombies
World of Goo
Bastion

I can't recommend those three titles enough to someone that wants to start playing games.
 
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Tudz said:
Unfortunately I don't think she'll grow past it. All of those games (DI, L4D, Portal) are terrible for people who get simulator sickness, especially Dead Island. Try adjusting the FOV and use the Dead Island tweaker tool thing to turn down the blur/HDR/bloom/whatever-else-the-fuck-vomited-on-the-screen-under-the-guise-of-"art" and see if that stops her simulator sickness. It didn't stop mine, because my sickness in Dead Island is related to the fucking head bobbing which you CAN'T turn off, but I know a lot of other people were helped by raising the FOV and getting rid of some of the ugly arse post processing.
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LOL Agree 100% on Dead Island. The head bobbing would get me so close to barfing I had to quit which was fine since the game is an absolute disgrace to zombie survival fans.
L4D1 and 2 never gave me any problems.
 
tunatime said:
don't get her hocked on a mmo what ever you do....
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LOL I had a buddy of mine had his wife play WOW and next thing you know the house is a pigsty and she ends up having an affair with a local guildie. I think as part of the reconciliation plan she had to give up MMO's and obviously cut contact with any of her "online friends".
 
fdiaz78 said:
LOL I had a buddy of mine had his wife play WOW and next thing you know the house is a pigsty and she ends up having an affair with a local guildie. I think as part of the reconciliation plan she had to give up MMO's and obviously cut contact with any of her "online friends".
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I, too, know someone whose fiancee broke up with them for someone on WoW. Totally fucked up.
 
fdiaz78 said:
LOL I had a buddy of mine had his wife play WOW and next thing you know the house is a pigsty and she ends up having an affair with a local guildie. I think as part of the reconciliation plan she had to give up MMO's and obviously cut contact with any of her "online friends".
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LOL, I think it's a good idea to stay away from the "soul destroying" genres like MMO's.
 
Well, like I said, if you want her to ignore you for long periods of time and play an "MMO-like" game, have her try Oblivion or Skyrim. No risk of online break-ups there. :p
 
If your wife likes the idea of slapping someone around like my girlfriend does, Rayman Origins is a surefire fun time. Also, my girlfriend actually digs the LEGO games, as well. Those are enjoyable options.
 
Get a cheap 360. Grab some fun games off of the Xbox Live Arcade (lots of great choices).

Don't just throw a computer at her and go "Look honey STEAM!!!!" you'll just overwhelm her. You might be a PC only gamer but a console is a nice "soft" start to gaming. Overwhelming her might turn her off from gaming period so just find something really fun and go from there.

Genre's to avoid : FPS (this is a no-brainer , most girls simply don't like FPS games) , RTS ( this is kind of a toss up , most people love'em or hate'em) and Simulation (unless you want to bore her to death).

My GF is a pretty heavy gamer but she started out small with consoles , it help build her desire for bigger and greater things (like PC gaming) and now she plays virtually all the same games I play (including Battlefield 3).
 
Actually, some girls really dig modding up their characters in different clothes, makeup, body/face appearances in Oblivion, Fallout, and Skyrim. Getting Mods to work is a lot easier than it used to be.
 
Some people really think girls are retarded.

If a girl is using a PC for every day activities like FB, email and so on she can handle steam its no more complicated. Log in, click on library to look at games, click on store to search for games.

Same with FPS gaming, point and shoot is all you need to know, way less complicated than RTS or MMO. Stop thinking like a noobie has to come in and own it up. My 5 year old daughter has a blast in TF2 she has been doing that since she was 3, she doesn't manage ammo, back then should couldn't even do enough math to think about it. The guns automatically reload and they dont even need to know how to switch weapons since the starting weapon is fine for a novice, To think a grown woman cannot handle those concepts but will be able to comprehend abstract games with weird things like leveling up and build trees is incorrect and a misunderstanding of what human intelligence is.

TF2 on payload is just about the simplest thing I can think of and even if they have no clue what is going on the action stays together its impossible not to be part of the game.
 
My wife likes designing the character in a game more than actually playing it. Maybe yours would like some kind of fashion/full time design game.
 
Sims?

Maybe introduce Sims 2 or 3 and see where it goes? My wife loved the hell out of creating her characters, using cheat codes to get boatloads of money and designing her house, etc.
 
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