Wives...

[gtmtnbiker]

My wife has no interest in any video games and that's fine with me. I'm fortunate that we have two daughters who love them.

[equalsign]

Not a wife, but I've gotten my girlfriend pretty into games. She only played those crap facebook games in the beginning, though she had a bit of Mario Kart and Rock Band experience. She played all the King's Quest games as a kid, and a few educational games. Nothing else really though. Started her with Animal Crossing, then Twilight Princess, then Braid, then Ocarina (GC), then Aquaria, then Zack and Wiki, then Majora's Mask (VC), then Paper Mario (VC), then the Phoenix Wright Trilogy, then Monkey Island Special, then Dawn of Sorrow, then Ghost Trick, then Miles Edgeworth, then Professor Layton, and now Okami. I'm sure there were a dozen other games mixed in, I just cannot remember them. I think she plans on playing the second Professor Layton game, Epic Mickey, SotC, or Civ IV next.

Animal Crossing is my typical gateway drug. I usually follow it up with a 3D Zelda on the Cube/VC after they've gotten comfortable with the controller thanks to AC. It's worked every time thus far. Girls dig horses .

I think the Virtual Console is great for getting people into retro games because it lets them use controllers they are already familiar with and lowers the learning curve.

I guess before we started dating we played some Rez, Samba de Amigo, Power Stone 2, and Crazy Taxi (including with the fishing controller ).

[EllertMichael]

Luckily, my girlfriend is awesome.

[Gamerforlife]

You know what guys? We should make a guide for gaming as couples. What games to use to get them into gaming, how to tidy up your collection so they don't get mad, and other useful stuff

Good genre to potentially hook a non gamer: Adventure, or simulation, depending on how complicated it is.

I speak from experience. I got my wife interested in games with Dreamfall: The Longest Journey and Harvest Moon.

In general, the less "twitch", the better. Twitch comes later.

I think it's an excellent idea ZeroAX. I can already see some qualifiers - dating, married, and for my personal situation - kids. Reason I say that, I think 10 years ago my wife would've had enjoyed sim games/strategy games, and stuff like Harvest Moon or Zelda Ocarina (encompassing elements like strategy, puzzles, action, storyline) but not the stuff that would turn her away = violence for violence sake, blood guts and gore.

However at this point, she would say she doesn't have the time to give a game like Harvest Moon, and in reality she probably doesn't. Again, for our situation and getting her involved, I think my best "in" are puzzle games. Quick...and potential to beat me:). She has always enjoyed Tetris and similar stuffs. Recently she has been giving WordJong and Boom Blox a little love. She rather be quilting still, but the wall is showing minor signs of weakness...

I do actually like the idea of seeing what games people have chosen or would choose to get a girl into gaming. Would be fun to see everyone put up a list. In the past, I have found Mega Man 8 and Castlevania:Symphony of the Night oddly effective in bringing a certain girl I knew more into gaming.

If I wanted to get a woman into gaming now, I'd probably try these:

Ico - It's an artsy love story. I think it would work on a lot of women
Viva Pinata - It's very easy to learn and a relaxing, fun title. Plus, lots of cute animals
Tetris(seems everyone loves Tetris including old people)
Any of those old Lucasarts games like the Monkey Island series. I think a lot of women would appreciate the puzzle aspect of it and the endearing dorkiness of Guybrush Threepwood-Felica Day certainly seems to love him

All women are different though and I'm not going to generalize. Some might prefer an action game or shooter or something with a good amount of violence, but I'd still have to find something easy for a newbie. Maybe an old fashioned beat'em up. Actually something modern like Dynasty Warriors would be easy to get into and it has the co-op so you can help out. I actually remember a Smallville episode showing Lois playing a Dynasty Warriors game. I was surprised to see a high rated show like that with such an obscure game series. Light gun games would work great too I think. A Time Crisis game or House of the Dead

[avrame]

I love the fact that Inazuma hasn't revisited this thread since his post on the second page Perfect little bomb, seeing that it is being mentioned some 70 posts later

My fiancee played a couple games with her brothers growing up, and never found a place for them aside for Mario Kart 64. When we started going out, she learned that I was an avid gamer, and tried to get back into it for my sake. I'm all for the suggestion on 'A Couple's Guide to Gaming', because from what I remember, one of our conversations when like this (when we first started dating):

Her: Okay, I guess we can play some games together, what do you have in mind?
Me: I dunno, how about something simple, like Tetris?
H: Is that the block game? Tetris?
M: Yeah, where you make lines.
H: Ohhh, I HATE Tetris.
M: ...WHAT?

Fun times. It was stuff like that that helped bring us closer together. I'm all for sharing a hobby, or a least taking an interest in your significant other's hobby, but don't see how a relationship can work where one side absolutely HATES anothers hobby...

For a fun note, games I played together with my fiancee:
Mario Kart 64
Professor Layton
Phoenix Wright
Animal Crossing
Borderlands
Trickster Online

[Uncle Jenkins]

As far as games go, my wife only likes older ones. She actually introduced me to some games that I wasn't even aware of, like Little Nemo and Trick Shooting for the NES.

[Original_Name]

Any female who is even remotely "girly" loves... LOVES Space Channel 5/Part 2. At least this is true with Filipinas. Space Channel 5/Crazy Taxi/Power Stone 2 made a believer out of eight pinays at once... one of them even said "Fuck Sony, I love the Zango Dreamcatch!" Oh, bless those Tagalog-speaking, karaoke-loving, horrible joke-telling young lasses. Anyway, I assume this works with ladies of all ancestry, but particularly if you're trying to convert a Quillosa, Malabanan, or Oallares, just pull out SC5.

[J T]

Even my wife who hates video games secretly enjoys Space Channel 5, but she really hates to admit it.

[aaron]

Any female who is even remotely "girly" loves... LOVES Space Channel 5/Part 2. At least this is true with Filipinas. Space Channel 5/Crazy Taxi/Power Stone 2 made a believer out of eight pinays at once... one of them even said "Fuck Sony, I love the Zango Dreamcatch!" Oh, bless those Tagalog-speaking, karaoke-loving, horrible joke-telling young lasses. Anyway, I assume this works with ladies of all ancestry, but particularly if you're trying to convert a Quillosa, Malabanan, or Oallares, just pull out SC5.

this is quite possibly the funniest post i've ever read on this board.

[vash23n]

Wow this thread has gone in so many directions. I have changed what I wanted to say in my reply a dozen times already - response regarding original post>don't start stuff with Inazuma>tell inazuma how much I disagree with him>response regarding original post>games my wife plays... phew

I will go with the last. My wife is not a big gamer. She does not mind me playing games (except for those times I forget to stuff around the house). She likes the little games on the iPhone and loves the Super Mario Bros. games. She also beat Ocarina of time about a year ago and has been working at Marjora's Mask for some time. It is always a blast. She is playing, and I am watching, and it is awesome! I get excited to see the games played again and always see stuff I completely forgot about. I would say the main reason she is not as big a gamer as I am is because she doesn't have time. I think about how often I don't have time to play the more engrossing games and settle for NHL 2006. Most of the time, i am playing these easy games that I can shut off whenever I feel like it. She doesn't have any games like that so it seems like she plays less when actually she probably plays the same amount of the more engrossing games as I do.

As to why I got married. We had been together for 5-6 years - lived together, supported each other, loved each other. We both have nothing so there is none of this popular gold digging going down. Not unless she wants half of my school loans and credit card debt. We decided to get married one weekend. We got a justice of the peace who found a spot in a park by a river in Lancaster. No one there except my parents and a couple of her friends she had been visiting and couldn't resist telling. Now we get to file joint income taxes (good for me because I make about half she does) and we can more easily pool our money (gasp we share our money) to pay for our collective debts. We had also been looking at the benefit of one of us getting the other on their health insurance since we had each gone through periods of time without any coverage. Now, it turns out, we both have separate insurance plans with our own work places because those plans don't cover spouses.

So does this take anything away from our relationship? No. We don't need to prove how much we love each other by not being married. We were close enough in that sense, and getting married allowed us to better take care of ourselves financially. I always thought it funny that marriage haters don't decide to take advantage of the system for themselves. If you and your partner both think the thing strange, why not use the system to their advantage since it obviously isn't insulting either of you. Ultimately, to each his own. People should be able to do, love, live with, and live like they want.