Never Played Video Games?

[Rheinmetall]

Yes, to my mother. Twice. The first time was when I asked her to take the controler in her hands and shoot with the grenade launcher those spiders in Resident Evil 2, because I was too freaked out by the spectacle.
The second time was recently. She has to stay in the hospital for days and for many times. I bought her a smart phone to kill her time and I showed her how to play Angry birds and a couple of other games. I think she has a mild interest for this, and mostly she loves the sound effects of Angry Birds.

 

[sage42]

Then I had my dad play Portal. What really surprised me is how difficult it was for him to walk and look at the same time. This seems second nature to us, but apparently it is extremely hard to move and look somewhere simultaneously.

My girlfriend is the same way, it astounds me it really does, but I understand. She does like the Fable series and the Lego games though.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I got my brother into gaming. We were at a Best Buy when he was really young (maybe 3 or 4) and we played a Guitar Hero demo together. The results were hilarious of course but it started him out on being a little gamer-guy.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

Got my dad started on FPS games back in the day with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, now he enjoys the occasional game of Halo or Gears of War with me but he's not really super into it.

I suggest if you want to get someone into an FPS or shooter to try older games first. Doom doesn't look up or down just side to side and will automatically hit an elevated foe without having to control both the X and Y axis. Once they get good at that it's time to try something a little more advanced. Controlling both the X and Y axis is what seems to confuse (and nauseate) most newbies.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

I tried to get my mom to play Halo. She spent the first 10 minutes staring at the ceiling, then started spinning around so fast she got dizzy and had to stop.

Then I had my dad play Portal. What really surprised me is how difficult it was for him to walk and look at the same time. This seems second nature to us, but apparently it is extremely hard to move and look somewhere simultaneously.

Yeah, we shouldn't take for granted how difficult it is to move in a 3D space. We know left stick is move and right stick is look, but to a newcomer it makes zero sense whatsoever.

My mom already played Solitaire on PC. Recently, I picked up a Namco games collection and let my parents play Pac-Man. They reasonably enjoyed it and played for a bit, but not much now.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Then I had my dad play Portal. What really surprised me is how difficult it was for him to walk and look at the same time. This seems second nature to us, but apparently it is extremely hard to move and look somewhere simultaneously.

You know, much as I game, looking around and moving at the same time is still a pain in the arse for me. Then again I have a serious disconnect between shooting guns in real life vs in video games. Good at the former, shite at the latter. Some people just don't do well with it. And some people like one of my mates, gets vertigo from playing games like Portal(which is only fun if you enjoy your friends possibly throwing up on you when they run to the bathroom).

I've introduced my brother to a few games. He did better at Bayonetta than I did, and he enjoys parts of Little Big Planet. But for the most part lately, he doesn't touch my PS3 any more. He mostly sticks to the desktop and plays Second Life. And use to play the crap out of Zynga games. My mum and dad both enjoy playing Bejeweled, my dad enjoying it more than my mum. I have Bejeweled on my PS3 and play it when I'm just trying to play something and clear my head at the same time. But that's more a I-can-play-this-and-work-out-more-important-things-in-my-head kind of game for me. And the rare occasions I play with the sound on, the click of the jewels as they move and the sound of me clearing them also comforts and calms me down. Otherwise the best I really do is just suggest things to others they may like.

 

[arnoldthebird]

My dad wanted to play Dynasty Warriors...the only game that I thought would guarantee a win, yet he some how managed to die on Beginner difficulty

 

[Darkmantle]

I tried teaching a friend of mine how to play Starcraft...

That session ended with me nuking her crappy little base with 4 ghosts at the exact same time to show her 'How to spot a nuke attack, and why you need detectors'.

...I don't show people how to play video games anymore. I do give them information if they ever want to get into gaming, and have successfully converted a handful of Uni friends to pokemon (1 hour of public transport to get to Uni? Perfect time to take out that pesky Team Plasma!) so I'm not out of the game just yet.

EDIT: I also introduced my Dad to Duke Nukem Forever, as he had a PS3 (just as a Blu-Ray player) and really liked Duke 3D.
He still hasn't been able to get past the first boss without help...

Multiplayer games are a TERRIBLE place to start, especially if you are way more skilled than them, it will just make them mad :/. when I introduced my friends to sc2, i just let them play the campaign... It takes you in baby steps.

 

[DeadFOAM]

My girlfriend. She never played video games or watched much TV.

I'm doing my best to change that.

 

[Thyunda]

My dad wanted to play Dynasty Warriors...the only game that I thought would guarantee a win, yet he some how managed to die on Beginner difficulty

And that's the game where my brother, upset that I took the only Tiger Collar in DW5 Empires, actively TRIED to get killed.

The concentrated masses of the entire enemy army managed to knock him down to three quarters of his health bar in the time it took me to conquer the rest of the battlefield AND destroy the army attacking him.

You...just...can't die!

 

[Guffe]

My cousins <.<
I'm not sure they're parents liked it at one time but they got used to it.
Their dad even fell in love with the Metroid series for the GameCube...
What can I say? I saved 3 peoples lives xD

 

[TK421]

I got my girlfriend to play Skyrim. She used to hate video games, but now she plays Skyrim every single time she comes over.

At first she had trouble looking and moving at the same time. I marveled at how she had trouble with that, but then I remembered when I first tried to play Turok: Evolution(my first shooter after the N64) I had trouble with that as well.

 

[Aeriath]

A few years ago I got that sick of me ma saying that she'd never play a video game that I bought her a DS for her birthday.

She's now hooked on brain training and Prof Layton!

Exactly the same situation here!

She also picked up LoZ: Phantom Hourglass after having a look through my game collection and liked that a lot, although I ended up having to help her on some of the bosses.

She also occassionally likes to play Cut the Rope and a few other games on mine or my brothers phone.

My dad used to play games back in the Sega Mega Drive days but he isn't interested in them much anymore beyond the card games that come with Windows.

 

[DaSpoony]

Some really fantastic stories here!

Oh, and so some of you are clear, I in no way mean 'forcing' anyone to play. Just introducing someone to gaming who doesn't understand it, whether it be by buying them a console, or just setting them up a game of Tetris on their computer

 

[Valanthe]

I don't think I've ever gotten someone into gaming per se, but when my sister, after years of watching me play WoW over my shoulder, finally asked for help in starting her own character, I was more than happy to help. I started her out on my account (She even made a mage, she has good taste!) and pretty soon she had her own account and was putting as many if not more hours into it than I was.

 

[C F]

My mom played a Gameboy when she was younger; she's actually pretty boss at classics like Tetris.
Woe betide her if she plays anything else though, for she's the only one in the house who doesn't play modern titles. She watches play on occasion, and we explain things to her. While watching my brother one day, she thought the sheer number of controls one must use for Modern Warfare is amazing. "This button is for primary grenades, this is for secondary grenades, this one..."

I'm honestly thinking about trying to get her to play Portal. It's more simplistic than other modern titles, and it's puzzle-oriented. She likes puzzles, and she will emerge a gamer if she manages to get the hang of and beat Portal. The problem is, she never has free time. I might have to do a bit of give-and-take with her responsibilities in order to manage a few consecutive hours of play-time for her.

 

[thejackyl]

The best, imo for people who differ greatly in skill (i.e. you who plays games as a main hobby and someone who doesn't play them at all) is to play a co-op game where one player can carry the other. And where death isn't a penalty for both people.

Gears of War and the like are great from beginners (play on easy, and you'll only get angry when you're forced to split up.)

Also Tetris and other puzzle games are really good, since it's usually the ability to think quickly, not how to master the controls that you need to do. Ghost Trick is a good game for that imo.