How to Introduce Someone to Video Games

Video games have been around for a while, but there are still a large number of people who are totally alien to gaming. Some people grew up before the days of Nintendo, and other's just pursued other interests. Whether it's your grandma or your girlfriend, you can open them up to the worlds of magic that entertained you for hours on end. Read on to learn how to introduce someone to video games.

Things You'll Need

• A video game console
• Someone who hasn't played video games before
• A variety of different kinds of games in your library

Instructions

1. Know what interests your friend or family member has. If they like those small puzzles in thrift stores, then they may fall in love with mini-game collections. If they like action movies, they may enjoy some of the shooters or other action games out there. People who are big literature buffs tend to enjoy role playing games, because of their story-centric nature and heavy text dialog. You'll want to introduce them to games that appeal to those interests.

2. Play those games in front of them and gauge their interest to the game. Watch how they react to the characters and game play. If they like what they see, hand them the controller.

3. Start slow and easy. Turn the difficulty down at first, and start with games that have simple controls. Don't be afraid to give hints, but let them explore about on their own.

4. If they seem to catch on, give them some alone time with the game. Let them borrow it and the system. If not, go on to another kind of game.

5. Draw them into the social experience of gaming. Bring around gaming friends who play similar games, to talk and trade other games with. If your new gaming companion has a competitive streak, bring them around to challenge others.

Tips & Warnings

• Explain why games are so important to you. In most cases, games have in-depth story lines just like a novel or a movie, and it can have the same kind of impact on a person as well.

• Older games (from the 8-bit era and before) appealed to a much smaller market, and with the exception of a few of the high quality classics, most of them probably won't do much for non-gamers.

• Complicated controls can ruin the experience for non-gamers. Common commands like the "fireball" motion (rolling down, down-forward and forward on the d-pad) are totally alien, complicated and cumbersome to most people who didn't grow up gaming. You'll find that this pretty much rules out a lot of fighting games with controls like this.

• It's easy to get frustrated when someone gets stuck in a game. Make sure that whoever you're introducing to games has the proper support to get through those tough dungeons and levels. If you don't, it's easy for someone to give up altogether.

• Inversely, if you back seat game too much, it's easy to turn someone off of gaming as well. Let someone explore the game until they get hopelessly stuck.