Games for new gamers?

[SirSlade]

Hey everyone,

So Steve, on his first few episodes at least, posed a vey good question to the devs he was interviewing for Tone Control; what game would you start someone who hasn't played games before on? I've found myself in this situation recently and have come up mostly blank. My friend knows about games a bit, watched someone play Portal and enjoyed that, and currently I've started her on Broken Age, which she's loving. So my question to you all is: what are your ideas for games to introduce people to gaming with?

I was thinking of Gone Home next, as the slower paced story driven games are appealing to my friend, but I think this question is greatin a broad sense too.

Cheers,

Slade

P.s. apologies if this has come up before, I did scour the forum a bit but didnt find anything.

[TychoCelchuuu]

This is like asking for movies for new movie watchers and books for new readers. There's no one correct answer: it depends entirely on the person. For some people, Kentucky Route Zero or Broken Age will be the perfect first game. For others, Portal or Gone Home will be great. For others, it will be Civilization or XCOM. For others, Threes or Words With Friends. For others, World of Goo or Microsoft Flight Simulator X. For others, SpaceChem or Sim City. And so on and so forth.

I think in general first person games are very bad for people over the age of twenty-something and strategy games are bad for teenagers who aren't already nerds. Threes will probably work on anyone, as will Words with Friends, whereas something like Kentucky Route Zero is perfect for someone dubious of the idea that games can be something other than a waste of time (Papers, Please or Cart Life are other good options there).

The ones that always work are Twine games, but even then there's no one right Twine game to start someone off with: Howling Dogs is perfect for one person, a Kiss is perfect for another person.

[Merus]

I think it probably matters more what she finds appealing about games. A lot of the problem with this kind of question is that it assumes that there's a hierarchy of approachability where Portal is either higher or lower on the list than Broken Age, when in reality they're not broadly comparable. Some people have trouble navigating in 3D space, while others have no problems with it. A friend of mine that I thought would really like Gone Home spent most of the conversation complaining about not being able to navigate and how the voiceovers aren't connected to anything she's doing. You really can't tell.

 

I think it is also a little bullshit to have a 'gateway' game; optimise for finding a game that they'd like a lot first, hopefully without too much assumed knowledge, over a game that has obvious appeal. Yes, Portal has jokes, but if someone who does not play games is asking you for advice on games then they're likely interested enough to give it a fair shake.

 

If your friend likes slower, story driven games, you could very easily point her towards some relatively accessible RPGs like Mass Effect. I'd go with Gone Home first, mostly to see if she navigates 3D space particularly well. There are also the Wadjet Eye adventure games, which are all very well done.

[Reyturner]

Forgiving coop games. The first Video game my wife ever played was Halo ODST and she loved it (once we figured out she needed to invert her controls... maybe it's genetic).

Tomb Raider and the Guardian of Light was another big hit.

[SirSlade]

TychoCelchuu and Merus, you two both bring up great and valid points, it's absolutely tailored to the individual as to what kind of games someone is going to like. However, I think Merus was closer to the point that I was trying to get at but failed to explain thoroughly. I'm not looking for a 'gateway' game, but I was more referring to the low barrier of assumed knowledge. There definitely is, for lack of a better term, a hierarchy of  games in regards to what they expect a player to know coming into it, and this is much harder to teach when jumping into something like Dark Souls as opposed to Gone Home. Even in adventure games there's a weirdness that can require you to click randomly on any and everything if you're stuck in a puzzle and don't know what item is needed to finish it, and as I've come to realize not everyone is going to know that going in and miss something that isn't called out plainly. This is what I was getting at in terms of suggestions because over the years, to my own detriment I feel, I seem to have become disassociated with what it's like to come into gaming without a large history of playing.

 

I do like the idea of co-op games though, Reyturner, I think that's a good direction to be able to guide someone through and be more involved. My friend did ask occasionally if I was bored just watching and helping out so this is a great suggestion.

[Bjorn]

If you're not aware of it, Co-Optimus has an extensive searchable database of coop games.   Makes it a lot easier to find games on whatever platforms you own that have local co-op. 

 

I'd suggest the Lego games.  My wife and I have played most of them.  They're great games for when we want something that's fun and goofy, but not particularly challenging.

[baekgom84]

Like others have said, I think it often depends on the person. My wife has slowly become more and more interested in gaming as she watches me play, but anything that is even slightly mechanically challenging is off-limits for her (this includes games with QTEs like The Walking Dead, and FPS perspective is hard for her to navigate, so Gone Home is also out). On the other hand, she quickly gets bored with the sort of games that are often recommended for young kids, and as a non-native speaker of English, she can find wordy adventure games a little off-putting. The one game that I got her somewhat invested in was - somewhat absurdly - XCOM. When set to easy, it was a good balance of letting her take her time with decisions, while also not being too wordy, patronizing, or very clearly for children.

[TychoCelchuuu]

The one game that I got her somewhat invested in was - somewhat absurdly - XCOM.

See, I don't think that's absurd at all. That's why I mentioned XCOM in my post as one of the games that might work. There is zero time pressure in that game, the player doesn't have to navigate 3d space, it has a good tutorial, and it very quickly gets you into stuff that only games can provide: strategic decisions, resource management, emergent narratives based on randomly generated outcomes, and so on.