Girls&Gaming

[Plurralbles]

De Blob. Chibi Robo. Okami. These colorful, unique games are the kind that I'd introduce her to.

In my experience, people who are new to video games can't handle FPS. Male or female, anyone who's not used to a video game controller will turn Left 4 Dead into an escort mission and won't be able to navigate through Portal.

I suggest racing games, particularly ones that aren't very serious simulations. I've seen people who've hardly ever play video games do surprisingly well at Mario Kart and Split Second.

Someone who's new to video games could also have fun in fighting games, if you stack the odds in their favour. I remember my dad's pride after he won a hard-fought round of Soul Calibur IV. When he started a victory jig, I reminded him that he had a lightsaber and I had a soup ladle.

If, as some people I know, she's thoroughly incompetent with a controller, there's a game I invented for that case. Play Civilization: Revolution, and let her make all of the decisions. I've had some very fun games happen this way, especially when my friend demanded we use nothing but cavalry charges as a tactic well into World War II.

Dude, I'm a 17 year gamer and had tons of trouble with portal... During the transition between portals the camera goes ape-shit and in reality, you can't control yourselfmoving forward in the air during a jump, but in Portal you can and that fucks you up too when you're trying to get back into a portal after popping out of it and shooting the other end to the next platform. It's not 100% easy.

Mario Kart is hit or miss.
I like the fighting game idea though. Very few people I'm around hate to play the Soul Caliber series.

RTS and strategy games too if they're not Europa Universalis deep.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Assuming she would only be interested in cute/silly games is a giant misstep.

 

[Therumancer]

My stepmother started with Adventure games like the various "quest" series that were visually pretty (for the time) and relatively easy to beat with a walkthrough. She later moved on to other things. Companies with names like "The Adventure Game Company" still produce them and they aren't typically all that expensive. You also have tons of "hidden object games" and the like which are created specifically for girls, not to mention the "Nancy Drew" games which are up to like 20+ titles in the series.

At any rate, it's hard to say with current games, but a path like adventure games, to survival horror-type titles (puzzle solving with combat), and then onto other things like RPGs and shooters might work.

 

[SideburnsPuppy]

-snipified-

Controllers are really bloody complicated. When you look at it, you've got four triggers, ten face buttons (start/select, d-pad, face buttons), and two 360-degree (or at least 8-directional) analog knobs. When you were playing Castlevania, that had four face buttons (start/select, face buttons) and a d-pad. The new controllers are flat-out hard to interact with. I started gaming on a PS1, and I would rarely get past the tutorial level. After a year or two of learning the layout of the controller, and generally generating "gamer logic" that I started having fun.

(Examples of gamer logic: If there are a bunch of enemies in a given area, there's probably something good nearby, if I got a new item/ability mid-dungeon, it's going to be necessary to beat the boss at the end of said dungeon, the final boss battle will have me use all the items/abilities I've accumulated thus far, a boss probably won't respond to attacks that have been working on mooks thus far, so I have to look around for things to interact with (or use my convenient new item/ability), the left analog stick typically controls movement, right controls camera with inverted control in action/adventure, non-inverted in a shooter, the bottom button on the diamond of face buttons will usually jump, the right-hand face button will almost always attack, and in a hack'n'slasher the right-hand face button will do a quick attack, with the top button doing a slower, stronger attack, and a combo you can almost always fall back upon is light-light-heavy. In shooters, the trigger on the right-hand side will shoot. If you see a slightly elevated platform, get the hell on it, and always pay attention to red text. In an RPG, if you're at a loss for things to do, talk to everyone in town, and if things are getting too hard, it may be time to go out and level. These are all things that I thought of at the top of my head, and they're all present in almost all games applicable. Kinda makes you think how many mechanics we take for granted, huh?)

Also, being three, your mind was way, way open to learning new skills. If this girl he's trying to get into gaming is now an adult, it's going to be hard for her to learn a new skill, and even more so by having sixteen different ways to input. This isn't just for girls, this is everyone. You would experience similar problems trying to get your dad into gaming.

So, now that I've spent my entire post thus far arguing with you, I'm going to try and be friendly. Are you an Eva fan? I liked the TV series well enough, but I thought Rebuild was waaaay better. I've never seen End of Evangelion, though I've heard it's really good.

And, on the subject of the thread: World of Goo is awesome. It uses skills that almost everyone has, and puzzle games are consistently satisfying for everyone. The Lego games are also really fun, and they don't outright punish you for making mistakes, so you can experiment until you have a good sense of gamer logic. Everybody has fond memories of Lego (it's the greatest toy ever, hands down), and if she's into Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones, or Harry Potter, that can only help.

Have you considered tabletop gaming? It's good because you can interact at your own pace, leaving room for social interaction between in-game interaction. I like Ancient Odysseys: Treasure Awaits, details of which can be found in the first issue of Check for Traps on this very site. I also read a pretty good article on here aboot board games, and I've heard good things aboot Settlers of Cattan.

And sorry for the wall of text, everybody. I only hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and if she's a sadist, you can always do terrible things to some Sims. That's always fun.

 

[Doctragon]

This is a tough question to answer because I haven't gotten too many people into gaming. But here are some general tips:
Maybe a good way to start out is to ask her if she's interested in trying some games. If she says yes then show her your games and let her go through them and pick out one she'd like to try. Of course, answer any questions she may have about the game.

A co-op game would really be better to start off with. Even a versus game would be a good start. However, go a little easy on her. Being beaten up on the first time you play a certain game isn't that fun and may turn her off it completely. When she gets a little better maybe try flogging her a couple of times and see how she takes it. Hopefully she will embrace the competition.

Next, if it's a single player game then sit with her and walk her through it until she seems comfortable. Don't be over-bearing and certainly don't critique what she's doing. Instruct her until she starts to get used to it but don't get angry or upset with her.

If she doesn't find anything she likes then try things you don't own. Look for demos, this would be easier on PC, and ask her what sort of genres she likes in other things. Such as if she likes comedy movies, maybe go for something like the Sam and Max (that's on 360, right?) series. If she likes action then start off with an action game. Romance, go for Harvest Moon or better yet, Rune Factory (since she'll get the farming, relation ship building and RPG-style fighting).

Don't limit her or tell her what games she can and can't play. If she picks up an FPS and says she wants to play that don't say it might be too hard for her. If she finds it too hard or not enjoyable she'll probably tell her and pick something else.

Try something that has different play options. Like she might play Rune Factory and want to concentrate on farming instead of fighting or vice versa. She may enjoy the freedom of being able to choose what she wants to do instead of having to do one thing. And if you have a DS there are many LEGO titles to enjoy!

While I hope these tips are helpful, you need to find what interests her. Hell, my mum went from playing Solitare, Majong, Bejewelled and Duke Nukem 1 (which was also the first game I played ) to playing Kingdom Hearts. Definitely try Plants vs. Zombies though. It's a really great game and I've showed a guy that plays games regularly and a WoW player it and they've both gotten addicted. If you're a dedicated gamer or not, it's a really fun game.

EDIT: If she's cool with the whole turn-based RPG thing, I know I'm usually not, try 'Mario and Luigi Partners in Time'. It's a very nice looking game, you don't have to grind a lot like you do with some turn-based RPG's, it's fairly simple and it has a good story. Plus chances are she's played a Mario game at least one point in her life so she'll enjoy the nostalgia thing, like someone else said (Sorry, I forgot your user-name). Also on the DS.

 

[Doctragon]

I noticed back in the late 80s and early 90s when I was about 5 years old, I noticed a lot of girls enjoyed Tetris and Mario more than anything else. So in modern times you might try offering her to play something that will make her nostalgic from that time period. Puzzle games and platformers. I know you said no Sony, but I think girls would also appreciate Kingdom Hearts due to identifying the Disney characters she likely knows from her childhood.

Mainly anything that she will recognize from the past she will likely appreciate.

I was going to suggest that actually but didn't since he said he doesn't like Sony. Try 'Epic Micky' when it comes out, I think that comes out on 360 but I'm not too sure...

But yeah, if you're willing to go for it then try Kingdom Hearts. A PS2 probably won't set you back too much. There's also a DS one too but it's somewhat confusing if you haven't played the series and doesn't have as many Disney characters. But if you want to give it a shot it's called Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. A good game but as I said, kinda confusing.

 

[Weaver]

Are you shitting me? I played Castlevania III, almost to the end, when I was just 3-years-old. Have you ever played that game? Don't preach to me about difficulty being too much. I'm sorry that you think that girls can't comprehend anything, but that's your own sexist outlook on life. Oh wait, girls can't possible enjoy challenging games, or needing to think at all when it comes to any kind of entertainment. I guess I should just get back to the kitchen or something before anyone notices I somehow escaped.

He didn't mean women couldn't play games, he meant that starting any new gamer on a difficult game was a bad idea irrespective of gender.

Please read it again.

Difficulty would have to be taken into consideration though; We've all played games for years, but they're exceptionally difficult to get a grasp of, both in terms of controllers or actual mechanics.

He's saying a controller is too difficult to understand. That you can't play, unless you've played for years. Simple game mechanics are too complicated.

Navigating 3d space with two thumbsticks is weird for anyone, and the first time I used dual analogues for an fps I fell off a cliff and died immediately, and I'd been playing for years beforehand.

That's his own problem, because I've rarely seen any game that take both analog sticks to move around. And even with the ones that do, they aren't that hard to get used to.

It's why the wii is so popular, everyone knows how to shake a plastic remote in front of a tv.

And that Wii is made for girls, because it's just shaking something around, and doesn't need to be as complicated as something with more than 2 buttons. Because after all, you know, girls can't understand how to use a controller.

The literal fact of the matter is that people take time to become accustomed to a new user interface. ALL people. This is not a subjective thing, every person on the planet, of course with varying degrees of learning speed, need to learn an unfamiliar control scheme for anything. From driving a car, to typing on a keyboard, to using a mouse, to opening a door and to, of course, using a controller to play a video game. These all take time to learn and some people learn faster than others. I know people the first time they stepped into a car pretty much just got it. I, on the other hand, was a terrible and nervous driver.

A more relevant example: My dad can play PC games just fine, but he couldn't even walk around in twilight princess without running into walls and getting lost even though he had a map.

 

[jthm]

Chibi Robo, Katamari Damacy, Mario Galaxy 2. etc.

 

[aithilin]

Well, as a girl gamer, I'd say that games with female protagonists and excellent stories have caught my attention.

If she likes horror, try the Fatal Frame/Project Zero set of games because the story is top notch at the gameplay is only mildly annoying when the camera refuses to co-operate.

There's "Beyond Good & Evil" and "Psychonauts" for good writing and a bit of a quirky idea behind the gameplay. Or "Okami" for something that is aesthetically stunning.

WoW is usually good for a month or two of playing, so are the Sims games or any of the "Harvest Moon" series. But depending on the platforms, I'd say stick with the easy-to-learn games if she hasn't really picked it up before. If you're looking for couple-games to play, Rock Band is a good one (and I recommend the Lego one only for the atmosphere and animations).

Otherwise there's Myst, Red Dead Redemption, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, Prince of Persia... and the ones mentioned above that I've gotten some enjoyment out of.

Bring her to a store, rent a bunch for a weekend that she's picked out to try, and see what sticks. If she's interested in games, she'll find something. If not, don't patronize her or push her into your hobby.

 

[Keava]

I see some of you say that controllers are difficult because they have buttons. The hell?

Keyboard has more buttons. My mouse has more buttons. Controllers are as simple as gaming can ever get without using your thoughts. Even more so the controllers are designed in such way that natural way of holding them pretty much tells you everything.
These days whenever you start a game you have flashy screens telling you : To move press [...], To shoot press [...] and of course Press X to not die.
Back in the days you either had to go through 100 pages long instruction provided in paper form or just figure things yourself. Usable props didn't glow like Christmas trees so you know what to use, big scary test saying "Hold B to smash the door" didn't appear and every 5 seconds games didn't ask you to press Y to dodge attack.
All those new functions, you consider complexity are nothing but easy-mode to let people get into games much easier than it used to be.

 

[Doctragon]

But yeah, if you're willing to go for it then try Kingdom Hearts. A PS2 probably won't set you back too much. There's also a DS one too but it's somewhat confusing if you haven't played the series and doesn't have as many Disney characters. But if you want to give it a shot it's called Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. A good game but as I said, kinda confusing.

Yea I wouldn't recommend starting anywhere else than the original Kingdom Hearts. 358/2 days focuses more on the non-Disney characters of KH and probably won't make a lot of since without knowing the rest of the story.

OP: I don't intend to start a Sony vs Nintendo vs Mircrosoft war, but what's your beef with Sony?

Yeah exactly but it is a really good series and such a good thing to start a gamer on. Good story, characters you remember/can relate to and some very nice game-play. It has some really awesome features too, like being able to fly thanks to tinkerbell. Who doesn't remember growing up with Disney characters? I know I was so excited to play in The Nightmare Before Christmas and Lion King worlds. And since it's a series it gives her something to follow, it won't just be one the one game she liked.

I'm also curious about that... Why no Sony love?

 

[Weaver]

On a slight side note of games with female lead protagonists has anyone here played "Legend of Princess"? It's a sort of zelda tribute game (kind of). It's indie, it's free and it's awesome! (it's also short) You can get it here if you're interested: http://www.konjak.org/section.php?section=princess

 

[TheDoctorsCompanion.]

Teehee! I love lego star wars. I feel like that and Portal are the only games I really enjoy, besides button mashers like Street Fighter and Tekken. Maybe she might like those kind of games?

 

[Ashhearth]

My girlfriend has only recently started playing games (edit: Now I think about it, she has been for about six months or so now - oh, how fast they grow up!). We've gone through most of the console shooters available on the xbox (Gears, Borderlands, L4D and so on) but we eventually ran out. We're currently settled on playing Guild Wars, only exclusively with each other. It's a good entertaining timesink, if you're interesting in something online. Relatively cheap too.

Dang! I didn't really think there were too many GW players left especially here on the Escapist. This actually might get me started on playing again.

OT: most Lego games have co-op and are reasonably fun other than that I would stick to other co-op games that have already been mentioned.

 

[Rarhnor]

A LOT of sexism going on in this thread. (insert appropriate smiley here)

More often than not, I find the female gender being drought towards many of the mainstream titles (Halo, BattleField series). But my unproffesional and complete inexperienced suggestion is, to get her something selfaware and/or humorous (humorous is the way to go). Something like Ratchet and Clank or the like (in consideration that you are a "sony hater").

Seeing the lego series as a platform genre with solid story, held together with humor for entertainment, it is probably that formula you should base your purchase on. I can't mention any recently released (good) platformers...

I miss the first 4 years of the millenium shift. We had solid platformers up over our knees!

Edit: Many are suggesting Co-op, but i personally think this is a bad idea, since she should be able to enjoy the game alone, unless she wants to play for the sake of you.

 

[Chamale]

De Blob. Chibi Robo. Okami. These colorful, unique games are the kind that I'd introduce her to.

In my experience, people who are new to video games can't handle FPS. Male or female, anyone who's not used to a video game controller will turn Left 4 Dead into an escort mission and won't be able to navigate through Portal.

Dude, I'm a 17 year gamer and had tons of trouble with portal... During the transition between portals the camera goes ape-shit and in reality, you can't control yourselfmoving forward in the air during a jump, but in Portal you can and that fucks you up too when you're trying to get back into a portal after popping out of it and shooting the other end to the next platform. It's not 100% easy.

Yeah, but my mom couldn't beat test chamber 1. Her spatial reasoning just couldn't really handle portals, and she was always staring at the floor. Not being able to see her own feet caused her to look downward, until she was looking directly downward searching for them.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Well... where did you start out with games? Gender doesn't come into it that much, you just have to get her started and then let her figure out what she likes for herself. Platform type games tend to be a good introduction to gaming. I would suggest Ratchet and Clank or Spyro but they are only on Playstation.
So I'm saying- try fable 2. The combat and controls are simple enough and easy enough for a beginner and the game has isn't all serious. Any game that makes her laugh is probably going to help win her over to gaming. I suppose that depends on personality though.

 

[Serenegoose]

I'm ignoring gender in this post, just for clarity.

1: When introducing any non-gamer to games, the biggest problem is absolutely, invariably, you. When you go 'try this out' and then sit over someones shoulder as they fumble around with it, you're putting them off. They're going to feel embarrassed. They're going to want to stop playing. I Guarantee it. Give the newbie some space to fuck up without feeling watched.

2: On that note, clean UIs are a must. Think back to playing sonic or mario. You've got a few controls. Jump, left, right, and duck. The goal is simple. "Get to the right hand side of the screen". That's how a lot of us got our break into games and everything follows from that. So pick a game with intuitive controls and goals.

3: Find out what they want to play. Does your target like action, or plot, or something else? How do their hobbies inform you? Do they play chess or watch Aliens? There's no point introducing someone to HL2 when they're not interested in shooting aliens in a hellish dystopia when they'd be much happier blasting zombies with their horde of plants.

4: Just in case you forgot, see number 1.

5: Give them time, as well as space. Assume that I made an amusing pun about space-time here.

6: Don't expect miracles. Some people aren't gamers because they aren't gamers.

 

[Doctragon]

I just thought of a great story-based game! Professor Layton has some good stories and has very fun puzzles. It also looks fantastic. Very fun game, not too hard either!

 

[Rakkana]

Harvest moon!

No better way for girls to break into the gaming industry.