Getting my girlfriend into games.

So my girlfriend has been really trying to get into games. She loves the idea of playing them and always wants to watch me play but she has problems playing them herself. Problem is she's just aaaaawful at them, just can't seem to get the hang of navigating in a 3D space,, and anything that really requires quick reflexes usually becomes very frustrating. My question is have anyone else had any luck finding good games to start their non gaming partners, friends, family out on.

I mean, does she have any kind of starting point? Like, anything she played when she was younger that she was OK at? Or is she just across the board terrible?

Also, does she have a preference on amount of story? Is she more into games that are mostly just gameplay mechanics with almost no story (Mario games), or games with buttloads of story and pretty young men with fancy haircuts (JRPGs)?

For what it's worth, I think the Mario games take it pretty easy these days (Nintendo seems to intentionally keep the difficulty relatively low, so that newcomers to the series can play the games). The enemies are pretty passive or easy to run past. You have to wall jump a handful of times, but it's usually pretty obvious because they put two walls super close to each other.

There was that Video Games 101 thread, wherein people produced a list of games they felt were good for beginners.

I stand by my Antichamber, Stanley Parable, and Bastion recommendations, because I feel like they're all fairly gentle games that encourage exploration.

"...just can't seem to get the hang of navigating in a 3D space"

that just takes time, relax.

My ex-girl friend didn't play any games when we were together. After about 10 years of no contact she messaged me on facebook (she had just divorced), and in that time she played a bunch of games. Not with me, of course, but the point is you can't make time move faster because you are impatient.

I have two recommendations.

1. Limbo... 2d space, requires a little bit of reflexes, but not too much, and it's simple. New gamers should always start with simple.
2. Why not something turn-based? Something like XCOM, CIV5 or Persona? Take reflexes and spacial navigation completely out of the equation.

Minecraft. I find that most non-gamers have trouble with two sticks+3D space and the two people I've gotten into games learned more with Minecraft than anything else.

As far as getting used to navigating in 3D space in a safe, fun environment, maybe try some old racing games like Super Mario Kart or even the Animal Crossing series. AC is super good for getting your feet wet a bit.

Turn-based RPGs are usually pretty good, too. Just run around and not have to stress about going fast. Don't underestimate the value of puzzle games, as well.

There has to be some person out there that has made a freeware piece of software for this purpose. If not, someone should really get on that.

Costume Quest?

mario games taught me all the reflexes and syntax of platforming games in a 2D and 3D space when I was young so you should definitely try any of the mario series old or new

depends, some ladies like FPS games and some don't. I tend to not force that onto them even if the game is "you really have to see this, this isn't like those other games" type of excuse. I've found fighting games tend to generally be really positive with women, especially if a girlfriend has a good sense of humor and can laugh at some of the designs. I had a girlfriend who ADORED Rumble Rose on the PS2, considering how CRAZY the story mode was. And I had another girlfriend who enjoyed playing Atari 2600 games because they were just so abstract from realism of most modern games. And I dated another girl who just enjoyed talking about costume design and we would sit a character in a corner just nit picking the costume a part on what work and what doesn't.

I feel, like if the art and the graphic design is good, most women enjoy video games.

Battlefield 4.

This is pretty much what I'm getting at. It helps to know what kind of games that OP's girlfriend wants to play in the first place. If she wants to play an FPS but is just having trouble with the controls and orienting herself, that's one thing. If she's not even into FPS games and it might be easier to get her to start with a Mario 3D platformer, that's something else.

I bought A Link to the Past on my Wii U as a good primer for all things video games, and my girlfriend's been slowly making her way through it. It's taken a lot of work, and a few looks at a walkthrough, but it's still a great introduction into reflexes and game system logic. As for 3D games I bought Journey for her to play and that ended up working quite well because of the no-stress style of gameplay it mostly has.

Change your name, burn down the house, move away.

Oh I had some experiences trying to show off Portal 1, and the ladies would just end up getting frustrated. I'd say "it's a lot like a tank." and they replied "when did you ever pilot a tank?" It's an analogy I thought could apply, but still doesn't. Even if you have your best interest in mind, it's not an easy concept to explain controls and orientation well. Hell, it took me a long time to go WASD like around Quake 1, I remember early FPS I never used the mouse because they didn't even have Z axis.

I don't know, everyone has their own gate way into games. Like even 2d mario games, you always come across an aunt or an elderly person who just runs into the goomba or falls into the pits. I still think it has to do with some designs or themes that gets them hooked into it, because remember Sims and WoW have HUGE female audience and those are some hardcore games. Even I have problems orienting the camera when making Sims machinima but I know a woman who's in a hospital with Multiple Sclerosis and she's rocking a whole family in a big mansion.

Let her play anything she thinks interesting. Don't bother with looking for the "entry game" game. We all learned how to play games by simply playing them. Quick reflexes in video games isn't something you're just born with, but something that you gain overtime by playing multiple titles. I'm sure that if I could remember the entirety of my childhood, it was filled with a plethora of frustrating deaths and restarts in video games I take for granted today.

Want it easy, though? Get her an SNES/N64. The SNES will give her a slew of cheap games that are a quick challenge, and the N64 will giver her the challenge of watching games being realized in 3D for the first time. No mechanics here to take for granted...the game developers didn't know what they were doing for a good while!

Hope that helps, but anyway...good luck!

Play Bomberman.

Dark Souls.

Then dump her.

Just went to find this article because the point you quoted from it is pretty fascinating to me. Great read - great points. I had never looked at the controller from the perspective of something that is literally out of this world. So far beyond something they would use in daily life that it is alien, and it controls alien concepts.

I feel like I'll have to remember that next time I'm hopelessly on the teaching end of a video game. Much obliged, sir.

We started with WoW since she liked the idea of blue space goat ladies and having a cool ghostly wolf as a pet. Also it has a fairly nice learning curve and doesn't require much twitching in 3D space until end-game (and even then it's fairly forgiving).

From there it eventually blossomed into Terraria, L4D, Borderlands 1 & 2, Dungeon Defenders, Starbound, TERA Online, Warframe...

When we started she only had experience with Genesis and N64 controllers and couldn't possibly ever use a keyboard and mouse combo; not to mention learning the dreaded circle strafe. She had literally never controlled a game with WASD before. Now she uses the combo like a pro, fancy steelseries keyboard with 100s of macros and rainbow colors and chewing through Naga mice ferociously.

It's a beautiful thing.

Easiest way that I know:

I would highly recommend Limbo as well if you haven't tried it already. My sister, who hasn't played games since original Sonic the Hedgehog, completed it with some difficulty at times but loved the atmosphere and art style. Same with Brade. I would also recommend the Mass Effect series on low difficulty. Tell her she can ask you for pointers but don't push her forward. The story centric nature of it can help overcome some of the frustration she gets from not controlling well, and you also have squad mates to help you out. Either that, or you can do the gameplay and she can make the story choices