I've been really trying to get my girlfriend into gaming (that's not the Sims). We played Scott Pilgrim for a little while, and that was fun. I even got her into Fable II. I tried getting her into Saint's Row II, but she couldn't handle the camera. I have just recently gotten her to start playing Knights of the Old Republic II on my 360. Good news: she is really getting sucked into it. Bad news: I cannot stand to watch her play.

That's a big thing I've started to notice about non-gamers. If they play Tetris, or the Sims, or something similar, they don't have to use what I have started to call 'Gamer Logic'. However, when a non-gamer goes to play something a little more hardcore, they exhibit a completely different brand of problem solving that I am used to. I have been playing games since I can remember (I've been a hardcore gamer since '99), so if I have to solve a problem by, say, sticking a pulley in a rubber chicken, I just slap my forehead because I didn't think of it sooner. My girlfriend doesn't work like that, and neither do people that haven't been ingrained by this. When my girlfriend played Saint's Row II, she fell off the roof of the prison and died within minutes of starting because trying to manipulate the camera with the right stick was an inconvenient and alien idea.

Things like directing the camera, navigating menus, and solving nontraditional puzzles are things that I've been doing for years, and just seeing someone struggling to do any of this has got to be one of the most frustrating things I have ever. I want to help my girlfriend out, but me hovering over her just makes things more frustrating for her. So, I sit back and try to prevent myself from developing an ulcer. In the meantime, she is picking it up like a pro.

Has anyone else run into this?

I'm looking for a good place to geek out about games, so I figure this is the perfect place to do it. I'm too tired to really post anything now, but I hope to write about game systems, why some games work while others don't, and just some general commentary on the general state of gaming.