Getting the Girlfriend Gaming - Our Reviews

[m0ondogy]

I sat on my couch one day playing a game of Rocket League. My rank had just reached the lowest gold level for the first time and one of my teammates quit seconds into the match. Somehow we were ahead with seconds to go. Epic save after epic save. My teammate and I were on fire. I was so into the match that I failed to notice her take a seat next to me on the couch.

A last second shot by the other team sailed towards the goal and my teammate was far out of position. I'm doing a full boost forward flip in attempt to get back. My angle gives me a single chance to cross the path of this goal bound ball. One last flip and slight areal boost, and I managed to tip it just enough to bounce of the wall above the goal then the ground to an amazing victory.

My girlfriend was not as excited as me. Apparently I was kicking my leg with every bit of ball contact in the last seconds. Old habits of my soccer days I guess. For her, though, I was the jerk who ignored her and kicked her for 7 minutes.

As she picked up the cup and I towled up the water kicked over at some point, she asked how I can get so into something like this.

This is coming from the girl on level 1000 and something of Candy Crush.

I know she has the ability to game in her, so I hand here the controller and set her up a match with some bots on the easiest settings. What a futile attempt that was.

.....

That got me thinking. Why is somebody who plays games all the time on her phone just so out of touch with the modern console game? The obvious answer was the interface. She has never held a controller before meeting me, and here I am giving her the newest one. Needless to say, she was intimidated and overwhelmed by this.

The concept of using two joysticks is so foreign to her as a non gamer, that she quit there. Thinking about it, I've never used this style of control in anything other than games and I was eased into over 20 years from the NES to the modern generation of games.

With that realization, my plan was formed and mind made up. She was going to play all my old games and consoles; relive my gaming past. NES to Genesis to SNES to Sega CD to Saturn to N64 to Playstation to Dreamcast to GCN to xbox to PS2. She agreed to play as long as I stuck to actually good games.

First up: Tetris on the NES

[Betagam7]

You are correct that modern controllers are off-putting to the uninitiated. Most of us started gaming with simple 2 button controllers or one button joysticks. We grew up as the controller evolved...and became increasingly impenetrable.

Although many people hated it, this was actually Nintendo's genius with the Wii and the true reason it achieved such market penetration. My strictly non-gaming girlfriend at the time who hadn't played a Mario game since the original NES title was able to get into, fall and love with and not just beat but actually 100% games like Galaxy, Mario Kart Wii and NSMB co-op....

...yet when I handed her the classic controller to try and play Mario 64 or the GC controller to play Sunshine she found it impossible and quit almost immediately.

[laurenhiya21]

It will be interesting to read other people's post on this. Unfortunately I can't really contribute much (my boyfriend is already a big gamer) but I've been curious on how people try and get others into gaming. I don't even know I would approach that ha.

[Erik_Twice]

I agree that the controller is a fairly serious wall when it comes to introducing people to gaming. I would stick to games with simple controls, preferably 2D to not have to fiddle around with the camera. And there's always boardgames and the like.

Also, new gamers tend to react poorly to time pressure.

[wclem]

Lego Games

[touchofkiel]

My girlfriend is also a 'mobile gamer' who isn't much interested in modern games, but she enjoys watching me play some games. She had the same anticipation for Angry Birds 2 that I had for SW Battlefront... needless to say, we were both disappointed.

She says she would enjoy modern games but she's afraid she would too addicted to them. But one day she asked me if I ever heard of a game called 'Until Dawn.' Not being a horror or 'cinematic game' type of guy, I was vaguely aware of it... but wait she just expressed interest in a PS4 game (she likes horror movies quite a bit)!!

This was a few months ago when it was newer, but this week I finally managed to get it - on sale on PSN right now for $24. We'll see how it goes when we both have the free time to get into it.

[jamiehollister22]

I showed my wife Ark: Survival Evolved and she now has 1,000 plus hours into the game. For whatever reason women love that game.

[PartridgeSenpai]

My current partner really hates games with a "sense of urgency." She really likes games like Animal Crossing and Tomodachi life, so I'm trying to think of games, especially ones we can play together, that don't have (at least not too much) a sense of impending danger.

[PotatoLand]

The only console game we have played together with my girlfriend is Little big planet. Just recently I tried to get her play Dynasty Warriors 8 with me. No luck there...

[Marina0403]

Find out if she has ever played video games. She may not be a full-blown gamer, but perhaps she played Mario games when she was younger. Maybe she likes playing an Internet game from time to time. If you know her gaming history, you'll have a better chance of finding a game she'll enjoy now.