An introduction to video gaming..

[watashiwa]

If you had a friend who was interested in video games, but never really played them before, what games would you consider starting them off with?

I'm looking to introduce a friend of mine to video games, but they probably have no skills, and I want some ideas on what I could have them try to play so that they could have a good time.

The games I hope you mention won't be too difficult. (Either challenge-wise or the game's control, etc,.)

The systems the games are on don't matter.

Just want it to be fun for them and hopefully maybe get them ready to try stuff more challenging in the future..

[Rubius-sama]

I would say Wii Sports on the Wii for a start, and then maybe some games on the DS if he/she doesn't mind a small screen (new gamers usually do mind).

[Dre_o]

Uhh...wow..I swear I'll get back to you on this one. I just think it's kind of impossible for someone to really "get into videogames". How old is this person? In their teens I assume? Because it's going to be rather difficult to "get into" games.

I was born playing video games. I remember playing Donkey Kong Country and Pokemon in my bedroom. It really isn't something you can pick up, you need to GROW UP with it.

But when I get back from errands I must run, I shall try and suggest a few games.

[watashiwa]

On 2007-12-18 14:07, Dre_o wrote:
How old is this person?

29. =P

[Scrub]

Buy a wii and get games for that, mostly Mario crap. That stuffs all really easy to just pick and play, and have a good time with it. Really, any Wii game is just the sort of casual stuff that you'd want to stick to, so I'd say just about any game for the entire system should do fine.

Just keep it casual. Don't try to turn someone into a "gamer", for the love of God. There's too many as it is and we're all terrible people.

[TetsuyaHikari]

Hmmm..I grew up with video games myself, so..ummm...this might be kind of difficult, but what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

For PS2, I would suggest:

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Dynasty Warriors 5 Xtreme Legends (any of the Dynasty Warriors games are really easy to pick up and play, since it is a hack-and-slash type)

Devil Kings (like Dynasty Warriors, but have different characters and a bit of a different setup)

Grandia 3

Shadow Hearts

Resident Evil 4

Silent Hill 2 - 4

Steambot Chronicles (the controls can be a little awkward at first, but once you get them down (which should take about 30 minutes or so, maybe an hour, depending) it's a REALLY great game. It's really open-ended)

Katamari Damacy (This game is pretty simple, since it just involves you rolling up items and making your katamari bigger and bigger, but I've found it to be rather fun, despite being so simple)

.hack//G.U. (I think he would really enjoy this series. Once again, the setup is pretty simplistic and it is an RPG. We have all three volumes out in the States. I'm just going to tell you to skip over the old .hack series, since those get quite repetitive after a while)

Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core (this is the latest installment of a 2D fighter I thoroughly enjoy. The difficulty has been increased a little since the last installment we got, however..this one will give him access to every new character (only two, but hey, lol) and every new feature. If I was to recommend any sort of fighter to him, it would be this one)

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (or 5 if you have a PS3) (This is a game I would recommend to anybody, honestly. It's a really fluid 3D fighter and it actually has an easy learning curve. They have different characters for different styles of playing. It is easy to learn, but it also caters to those who wish to take their skill a step further for more advanced fighting. So this fighter would be recommended for beginners and veterans of the series. I really like it)

That's about all I can come up with, for starters. It was kind of difficult to come up with these though, since I'm just so used to playing them myself, lol. Well, I hope for the best and welcome to the world of gaming !

[ABDUR101]

You can't really start them off on an 'easy' game. You need to start them off on games that will garner their attention and give them the opportunity to take it easy until they learn the controls and mechanics, and then be able to crank up the difficulty if they need to.

Personally, I'd start someone off on an arcadish game. LIVE has some great ones, like Assault Heroes and so on so they can get an idea of how the controls work, and then introduce them to an old-school fighting game(MK and SF were what I was playing as a very young kid), then give them some action-rpg fun(along the lines of Diablo 2, isometric action), then a standard FPS, then an all out rpg.

Start off easy so they understand the controls, then choose games that add to basic "Press A to fire, B to jump" with "Do this button combo to do this special move", etc. RPG's should be last because of all the stat tracking, element resists, etc.

Really depends on the person and how much they can get into it.

[Darkly]

i think a good co-op game will help alot, it's more fun to teach whilst your doing it at the same time - Timespliters 2 was great fun on co-op plus it had a good multiplayer too, lots of run and gun action that can really get him into FPS.

[Sinue_v2]

It doesn't matter. Seriously. Whether the game is hard or not, it doesn't matter so long as he's with friends and having fun. Try a wide range of games from your collection and find something you can both get into. Do Co-Op at first, and as he gets better - try going competitive. Find out what he likes in his games and then go from there.

Games are a past-time, a recreation. They're not a niche club which you must be initiated into. If he likes them, he'll pick up on them on his own.

That being said, you really can't go wrong with Halo 3 either if your friend is a guy. Sure it's not the best shooter, but it's decent and easily accessible to most casuals. I know quite a few older gamers who play Halo 3, and only Halo 3 - such as my friend GranpaRabbit. Well, that and Uno. Motherfucker LOVES Uno.

[Split]

ninja gaiden lolz dmc3 double lolz

no seriously any Mario game would be a good start, then Halo 1 once he's a bit more experienced