last time you were frustrated teaching a game

Something I just noticed. I hate teaching others how to play games I enjoy. Probably mostly due to me being horrible at explaining things. Last week I was attempting to teach my best friend how to play Titanfall and found myself getting frustrated to the point to where I couldn't look at the screen. He's used to playing Call of Duty, and I'm telling him to not play this like Call of Duty. To run on walls and stay on top of (or inside of) buildings. Naturally he was doing everything I told him not to. Yes, he played the training first. Has any one else encountered this problem with friends/family?

I tried to get my brother into dark souls. I kept telling him not to rush around.

He'd run into areas aggro every enemy, die. Then get mad at the game. I kept telling him to take it slow, be careful and to try and make the enemies fight on your terms. Couldn't get him out of the charge everything mindset for whatever reason. Like he was fighting one of those turtle knights in a tight hallway, i told him to move into the open room like 15 feet away so he had room to dodge but he was like "NAH I GOT THIS!" He then died and was like "this game is stupid"

i generally avoid putting myself in those scenarios, but recently for the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run i had to teach 3 other people who know either nothing or very little about Dota 2 how to play it. long story short i ended up uninstalling the game.

I just teach people the controls and let them figure out how to play the game. The "where do I go" or "what do I do" questions bother me a lot. I was able to figure it out on my own, I'm not sure why you can't.

I find when this happens it's usually my fault.

If I really just focus on teaching the concepts, being careful not to throw out too much info at once and be patient it usually goes pretty well.

@sethphotopoulos: That's because you weren't sitting with someone who knoew how to play when you were learning. If someone is learning something new and they are with a person who knows how to do it - they'll ask questions. If they are alone, they'll figure it out on their own (assuming we're not talking about nuclear physics or molecular biochemistry or something). They can figure it out on their own but will ask questions as that is usually the easier path.

I used to play games with my sister, and she was pretty good. The only thing that ever bothered me is that she has the worst spacial recognition I've ever seen, and constantly having to say "No, your left. LEFT. Now it's behind you!" gets pretty frustrating

Teaching my wife Ni no Kuni. It was a hair pulling event.

Anytime I have to teach my wife. I understand her having problems with Heavy Rain, that game is hard to control and the only reason I never noticed is because of my background with similar games.

But when she couldn't figure out how to solve the first puzzle in portal...that was a bad experience. I felt like I couldn't explain it any easier and it ended up with me grabbing the controller, dropping the cube on the damn button and the door opening. We then turned off the game and haven't returned since.

Conversely I don't get what is happening in candy crush so it was fun annoying her with questions about what the hell she was doing in that game.

You teach people how to play games by introducing it and then patiently answering questions if they have them.

You don't say "do this... No, not that, this... NO, that's not how you play!"

This. If I'm watching someone consistently fight what the game is trying to teach them I just write them off as not being good at games and consider it a lost cause. That way I don't have to get angry. The trick is introducing people to the right games. I got my Gran to figure out Threes, because that tutorial can teach practically anyone, but there were still plenty of questions.

We all take for granted how difficult it is to actually play video games, if you just don't.

I actually really enjoy teaching. And I have done a fair bit of it. It's always going to be a little bit frustrating though. Especially if you are impatient to just get them kickstarted so we can start playing. :P

The last time I was REALLY annoyed though, must have been an experience I had trying to help a guy who "wanted" to get into DotA. I sure couldn't fucking tell that he actually wanted to learn anything from the way he acted...

I wonder how many people are going to mention Quick Looks / GB Live streams.

My only problem is when people have no patience for the game itself. The kind of people who don't read screen pop-ups, listen to the basic instructions, don't recognize basic level design cues, get frustrated way too easily, and don't play the tutorial.

I've learned that it helps tremendously to watch someone do something first before actually attempting it yourself - but some people just don't have the self-control to sit around for five minutes seeing how a game is played and need to jump right in blind, dick around, and then complain that the game is impossible to understand. Those instances are when I get frustrated.

My father has all the patience in the world, and so teaching him how to play even complex games like EVE, EU IV, or Civ was super easy. He was willing to watch me play, figure out the basics, and play the tutorials. One girlfriend I had, who played a ton of COD4 and actually liked games, just was terrible at MGS. When MGS 4 came out, she really wanted to find out what everyone was talking about, and when she found out that I had played all of the MGS games up to that point, begged me to pull out the PS2 and let her play MGS 1, 2, and 3. It was a train wreck. She wouldn't read the codecs, follow instructions, and would miss clearly displayed information on the screen. She tried to run through all the levels, as I explained like an angel that it was a stealth game that she couldn't rush. Finally, she gave up, declared MGS a trash game with crappy mechanics for weirdos (excluding me, of course, babe) We broke up a few months later, but damn, it was dumb experience.

@billymaysrip: Well my definition of a bad gamer is someone who lacks patients, on both the macro and micro level. Whether that's Cod fiends on GTA Online who think they're hunters and can't help themselves chasing my around corners into my AP pistol, or people who aren't willing to engage with Dark Souls when they're likely completely capable of reading slowly telegraphed attacks, and have the spatial awareness to dodge correctly.

People who don't play games obviously just see no value in it, so as soon as it's difficult, they also have no patience for it. Also, Brad is sometimes annoying during Quick Looks because of this as well. A lot of gamers will approach a game and get upset when it doesn't reflect their expectations, rather than taking a second to step back, and look at what they are being presented with, and why.

Our backgrounds also colour our expectations, and we're quick to assume we're good gamers when we've played a lot of a particular style, when frequently we're just not. I never had a proper console until years into the PS3 cycle, and my first device that had an analogue stick was a PSP, so naturally my gaming nowadays tends towards 3rd person action and RPGs rather than FPS. I look at MOBAs and my brain just becomes white noise. I'll never been good at those games because I just don't have the patience to learn. It's just important to keep your tastes eclectic so you can judge when a game is actually badly made or if you're just bad yourself.

I think a lot of us fail to remember that when suggesting other games to non gamers as well. If the game doesn't match the way a person thinks they're gonna struggle with it. If they continue to fight that and are unable to learn something new then, what can I say. It's what separates us from the apes.

I think this scenario is familiar to all of us. Jon Snow is both wilfully resistant to engaging with it, whilst also displaying a clear lack of understanding for any of the language of gaming that we're all so fluent in. They feed each other. Also, if you feel you've ever been frustrated, I'm sure you'll feel something for Charlie.

Yeah, that's another thing you have to keep in mind. If you're trying to introduce someone to video games, you don't toss them straight into Counter Strike or Temple of Elemental Evil. That's counter-productive.

As for your Titanfall situation, @micemoney, you should have just let them learn. Maybe softly mention abilities like wall-jumping, but he was relating the game to something he knows well. He would have either figured out that Titanfall does have some differences or he would have quit and never returned, and there's not much you can do if he does the latter.

Why not? That shit's hilarious.

I mean, you'd have to walk them around Hommlet for six hours before they ever get to any combat.

On an "I'm taking this comment far too seriously" level, it probably wouldn't be hilarious to toss any non-gamer into an in-depth RPG.

@jazz_bcaz: You know nothing, Jon Snow. Charlie Brooker seems like a reasonable guy, though. Giant Bomb should hire him for GB UK.

I hear you. I mean, he's pretty causal as far as playing games go. He'll play some COD and some other AAA games like The Last of Us. Point is, he's not new to gaming. Titanfall's training mode is pretty thorough, and does a great job of explaining the game to new players IMO. He went through all of that, yet during an actual match, he for some reason wouldn't call for his titan. When your titan is ready, the game does it's damnest to let you know by flashing text right in front of the screen, and dialogue from some of the characters. He's dying excessively, and I'm just sitting there like "dude, CALL YOUR FUCKING TITAN." He's like "Oh. Wait, how do you do that? When did it say it was ready?" ... I wanted to spit blood.

He started to get the hang of it later on and all was well.

OK, for the record, I'm a pretty "hardcore" (for lack of a better term) video game playing dude, and when I played the Titanfall beta, I almost completely ignored getting into my Titan aside from the first few times it was available. I just liked the speed and agility of being on foot more than I did the tank-ish slow power you get from being in a Titan. I'm pretty sure that Jeff Gerstmann, when he played, said the same thing, and he's been playing games both obscure and popular long before I ever touched a controller. I usually did pretty well in matches, too.

Even if he's completely fucking up, you need to let him continue to fuck up until he gets tired of fucking up and starts playing well. That's what I was trying to say.

I should probably take that to heart. I think it is a good general rule. The only game I really end up having to teach people is smash and i'm very bad at it. The game itself is very complex and my explinations end up a jarble jarble of mechanics and fighting game theory that is probably not understandable to anyone who don't already have an understanding of fighting games on some level.

@krataur: He already has a long an extensive career writing about media, starting with PC Zone and now writes for the Guardian and television. As much as I love GB I'm not sure it's a higher rung on the ladder.

Side note: He's the only person I've known to champion video games on television, and do so successfully. If the American users on this board didn't catch this, I'd recommend it. 90 minutes, chronicling the loose history of video games in a countdown format of 25 significant games, approachable without any prior knowledge yet comprehensive enough to satisfy people who do play games.

I have infinite patience in teaching someone....do they have the patience to be taught? The amount of times I have to teach my dad or sister to play a game and one of them for what ever reasons "I DONT FUCKING KNOW!" with me going "I KNOW YOU DONT KNOW I AM TELLING! FFS!!"

It's been frustrating occasionally trying to teach my dad more modern games. He used to be an arcade shark and played a fair amount of NES and handhelds, but fell out of consoles around the time Sony introduced the Dualshock. This means he's played almost no 3d games with camera controls. He has a ton of trouble trying to play a dual analog shooter or anything that requires the use of both sticks at once. I've noticed a few other people I've tried to teach flounder at controlling movement and camera at the same time. I think it's one of the biggest stumbling blocks that us "gamers" don't notice at all to learning modern video games. He likes more traditional style games though, and that's good enough for me.

I stopped yelling at my friends and browbeating them for playing "wrong" when I was in elementary school. If I'm playing a fighting game, for instance, I'll play badly on purpose, usually winning the first match and losing the second, to get them to enjoy the game. A lot of people I know and a lot of my family members will throw the controller down and walk away if they lose too much or "can't" understand the game, so just destroying them isn't going to help me recruit anyone to play with. You feel less bad playing disingenuously than you do watching someone get frustrated and walk away.

I don't know people I could teach playing a game to.

@jazz_bcaz Ah man, thanks for the heads up on the documentary; anything Charlie Brooker is worth checking out. I’m sure you've seen this, but for those unaware:

@patchcoat: I'm still waiting for that game where you push Myleene Klass into a canal.

Trying to teach my mam how to play ANY game ever, she loves them but she is garbage at them and cannot understand any basic concepts until they've been explained 10-20 times.

A specific occasion? I had tried to get a couple of friends round mine to play Splosion Man and they absolutely could not understand the 3 jump, recharge on surfaces system. Then trying to get the co-op jumps synced, my god! Its such a frustrating feeling. I guess its like anything you try to teach and someone just can't get it, you find it so easy to grasp that you just can't believe the other person doesn't cop on, trying to explain a simple maths problem to someone who can't manage maths comes to mind, very frustrating but not really their fault...

@jazz_bcaz That whole Myleene Klass pushin’ business is pure shovelware. Nah, pleasantly greetin’ the locals is where it’s at, mate.

It actually wasn't a video game, but I tried teaching one of my friends how to play hockey... It was hilarious, but painful lol.

Any time I try and teach my dad the controls. I'm not going to go into it for fear of an aneurysm.

And don't get me started on trying to teach my cousin chest.. Smh.