Starting them off; your choice of an introductory game

[Ironic Pirate]

Castle Crashers, because it takes all of five minutes to learn.

Actually, stick to any game which is piss easy to pick up and play. Starting someone off by putting them in a complex game will never work on an adult. Never.

*prepares for people to cite example of it working and therefore making me look bad*

Actually, Castle Crashers is probably a good idea.

Anyway, I would actually start with little Flash Games, like Bowman 2 or Clear Vision. Just to get them used to the basic concepts.

Either that or Demos, as they would be designed to be simple and fun part introductions to a game.

 

[Enigmers]

Sam & Max or Castle Crashers, something light-hearted and fun.

 

[ANImaniac89]

Super Mario Bros.

My plan for when I have kids is that they will have to work to the current gen of gaming and they are lucky I don't make them start with Donkey Kong

 

[Zhukov]

Portal.

Might as well start with the top shelf.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

Super Mario (any)
Zelda (any)
LBP
World of Warcraft.

 

[imnot]

portal or half life/half life 2, halo 3 mabey because its a pretty simple but fun game.

 

[Baldry]

Well your going to want to start with some simple games like Crash bandicoot, Ratchet and Clank, littlebigplanet. You know games that have easy controls and are fun!

 

[natster43]

Most Nintendo games seem like they would be good introductory games. Especially the Mario games.

 

[jultub]

Start off by explaining that games are an incredibly diverse genre, and then give her some of the games that defined each genre. If she's open to it, she should enjoy something of it.

 

[PorkChopXpress]

Peggle haha

 

[Talon_Skywarp]

Demon's souls...

TBH- Show her some games and see which she likes the look of.

EDIT- Shadow of the Colossus

I showed my mate who hated games this...it blew his mind

 

[SimuLord]

Victoria, Capitalism 2, EVE Online.

(kidding! Those games---ESPECIALLY Victoria---smash brains of veteran gamers!)

Seriously, I'd recommend Chrono Trigger. Incredibly well-told story, simple gameplay mechanics that are as easy or as complicated as you like them, surprisingly well-paced with a minimum of grinding required.

Since the world needs more people playing city-builders (OK, MY perfect world is one in which everyone plays city builders), I'd say Tropico belongs on the list---it's very accessible and still holds up nine years later---a top-five all-time classic. Tropico 3 was a nice remake, but it...lacked something...when compared to the original. It just wasn't as tightly designed. The original's easy to learn, easy to play, and a certain Escapist forumite wrote an excellent strategy guide for it that you can find on GameFAQs.

Does she like Star Wars? If so, Knights of the Old Republic's very accessible if you can get past Bioware's gods-awful combat system. But hey, some people like Bioware.

 

[Lord Doomhammer]

I'd say try out halo, the first one, simple, awesome and very characteristic of modern gaming. but yea, half life 2 would be a good starting point too.

 

[Okuu_Fusion]

Maybe Ico... its pretty simple... not really hard...

Either that or Super Mario World...

 

[Dfskelleton]

Half Life 2 is a good choice, but other options I would say are Alan Wake, Silent Hill 2 (trust me, for some weird reason women REALLY like Silent Hill 2. Everyone does.) Or maybe try the game taht started it all:

Simple, well done difficulty, and you get to kill Nazis. Everyone loves to kill Nazis!

 

[jelock]

Any of the lego games, they are easy to and intuitive to understand, the graphical style is unlikely to immediately put them off and you can co-op with her so you can teach her as you play rather than just telling her what to do or taking over. They are not intimidating or require that you know your way around a controller. Plus they are just lots of fun.

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

I'd say start them off with something short. Aim for enjoyable gameplay to begin with, that doesn't last to long and become tedious. An FPS would probably be best for this. After they start taking interest in playing, try something more story based, like RPGs, then eventually RTSs and such.

I'f I were to say a specific FPS I'd say one of the CoD games. CoD2 or MW1 I think would work best. Or Portal.

 

[Ekonk]

Ratchet and Clank its fun, the controls are easy and you will enjoy playing it

I agree with this fellow young lady. Ratchet and Clank was the first game I played, and now I'm on the Escapist. So it was a good enough introduction for me.

It's colourful, funny, has awesome and hilarious weapons, many varied levels, and is all-round heartwarming.

 

[ALuckyChance]

The best games to introduce someone to would probably be a point-n'-click game, or something with much more focus on story than quick, trigger-happy gameplay.

In that case, I'd reccommend Oblivion as well, as you can spend a lot of time simply exploring around the game world.

As a side note, I have a 57-ish (I don't remember ages well) father who used to work in the railroad, and he rather enjoys Railroad Tycoon 3. Games like that and Simcity 4 would be good as well, once you ease them into it with the tutorials. They both have a focus on 'building' and don't really have any times where you really have to react quickly. Not to mention they're fun as hell.

 

[kickyourass]

Of the two you suggest Half Life 2 is definitely the better choice, it's much simpler and you don't need to keep 5 different plot threads straight while you're playing. but what ever you choose just make sure it's fairly easy to just pick up and play, that's the most important thing for a new gamer, but also make sure she plays with a few different styles so she can see what she likes.