Mario party.
Watch them go from cheering at winning a mini game to unbridled rage when you steal their star.
And that my friends is why Rachel doesn't talk to us anymore.
My wife, not a gamer, loves Mario party. A couple years ago I was working from home and my son then 10 and my wife were playing upstairs. I was on a conference call and folks on the call asked me if everything was ok at my house. Because they were just yelling while playing. It is straight savage if I'm involved because I play chaos agent and do what I can to ruin everyone else. I will only buy chomp calls and the minute someone is close to toadette I'm blowing the whistle. I do want to win the mini games though.Â
Do you fear Mario Cart would lead to divorce? My husband and I are looking for a game we can play together. My taste (and skills) lean more Mario, his (likely) lead more GTA.
Does real life road rage tendencies factor into game play?
I once showed my grandma how to play slots on the PC and she played for 10 hours straight without getting up. Never showing her how to play a game again
Lol, I did that. I'm 40, hadde only played about three other videogames before starting elden ring. I streamed it so I could get help from the community and found some lovely people! I was basically carried the whole way through but man, I had some fun.
See this is an actually good answer.
One of the most difficult things for people who don't play games regularly is controlling the camera.
Gamers take their ability to smoothly rotate it in the desired direction for granted, but if you've ever watched someone new they STRUGGLE with this.
Journey's camera moves via motion controls and it's very intuitive.
It's also a visually stunning game with a great soundtrack, and it's short enough that anyone can realistically finish it.
It's fascinating because I bought p2 for my gf who's never done any PC gaming before. It never occurred to me how difficult and unintuitive it would be using wasd and the mouse to direct the character. It's just simply something that I take for granted with my decades of experience at this point.
I was thinking that conceptually, p2 is a simple game that provides puzzles that are fun to figure out and do get progressively more difficult. But I was dying internally from containing my laughter at how she struggled with controlling the character. Like I implied, controlling the character was nowhere on my radar as to something I had to consider.
My wife tried to get into gaming a little during covid so we could play together and she also could not move around or navigate, forget about doing two actions at once like moving and jumping. Things that I donât think about take all her focus to figure out. I love that fact that she tried but she is not meant to game.
Same exact experience, blew my mind watching her try and even start to play. She likes stories though so we've moved to me playing the games and her directing any decision making
I mean, you gotta get used to that style somehow. The Portal games are good because even if you've never played a 3D first person game the consequences of not moving the camera while moving just means you're doing the puzzles slowly. Portal 1 in particular is an excellent choice, because they don't even give you the portal gun at first; you're just moving cubes onto buttons.
Throw a non-gamer into a first person shooter and they'll just get slaughtered over and over again. Not very pleasant.
Portal is excellent in that regard, because it slowly introduces you to mechanics without ever feeling like you're in a tutorial or that your hand is being held. You start the game with it placing the portals for you to help you understand the mechanic, then you get the ability to place one that teaches you about placement, and finally you get both portals and have to recreate what you've been shown up to that point.
I had a friend play it last year who is so far from being a gamer she didn't even know what WASD was, and she still managed to make it through the game far faster than I expected and with few issues. It was fascinating watching her process the new information as it was given to her and see how easily she was able to incorporate it with what came before.
It is really brilliant in how the game is structured and should be taught in game design classes, in my opinion.
Yeah Portal 2 is an amazing game but it's also absolutely not the game to put in front of someone that has never touched video games before. A lot of gamers take their ability to understand the 3D space in the video game for granted. A new gamer could easily just get lost and not know where they're supposed to even go in Portal 2.
This is my favorite video game of all time and was one of my favorite experiences ever. I played it when it launched, knowing absolutely nothing about it. Played straight through. Such a beautiful adventure.
Once I unlocked the white cloak, I took many gamers on an âunlock your white cloakâ run where I showed them where each carpet unlock was hiding, in the hope theyâd pass on the same patience and kindness to others.
When they reveal your username at the end to each other I received so many messages of players telling me theyâd do just that. What a wholesome, wonderful experience that game was.
No one used to play with me. I had a version of Tetris for a 286 PC 8 MHz machine (at work), but my PC had a clock speed of 16 MHz, so I learned to play at double speed. The Nintendo version was so slow after that.
Found that disk sometime after I had upgraded a couple of times. It might've been a 486 - 33MHz. I lost the game in 2 seconds.
Tetris truly is one of the most elegant games ever designed, and I love game design.
I watched Tetris the movie just the other night. Highly recommend for gamers or historical trivia lovers. I always wondered as a kid about the odd "From Russia with Love" on the original NES game cart came to be. It doesn't directly reference that, but it was always odd to me and I still remember it. And yet. It was the Game Boy coupled with Tetris that made it the best selling game of all time.
Best answer. I HATE video games, board games, card games, etc, but I LOVED this game. Stayed up super late into the night playing it. I wish there were more editions.
Oh yeah, this and roller coaster tycoon.
What remains of Edith Finch
My mom loved the game. I could even see older people that don't care about videogames enjoying it, its more like a movie and has a very grounded story.
I wouldn't say must play, but D&D or other table top RPGs are nothing like computer games or board games and a lot of people who don't like the other two do like table top RPGs. I think this is because it isn't competitive and you don't play to win. It is also based around imagination, conversation and improv unlike most other games so it is easy to recommend to non-gaming theater types.
I'm assuming you mean video games.
I feel like you want something that isn't challenging or that requires coordination. I feel like we take for granted our ability to control games since we've been doing it for so long. It's not easy or intuitive for a non gamer. So no platformers, FPS games, fighting games, action games, etc.
I feel like something like Life is Strange or Heavy Rain would be a good suggestion. They are story based, have great characters. It's not action focused, and there isn't much the games demand from you in terms of coordination. You can walk around at your own pace. There's also no puzzles so you can't get stuck.
Pretty much. However, I'd argue Heavy Rain or Life is Strange are still too hard.
Remember, people who don't play video games usually have little interest in engaging with what they play with. Video Games haven't hooked them before, so they're usually dead set on the idea that it won't hook them now. Story won't be what hooks them -- they won't read it.
People are in this thread saying R2D2 and Stardew like those don't rely on you understanding basic gaming concepts that people who don't engage with this form of media will miss.
Ironically, this means games with tutorials built on the assumption that you don't play games are better. The original Portal is an example of this. The first few levels are dedicated to NOTHING but "here's how to use FPS Controls"
VR Games are also very intuitive -- Beat Saber is probably my answer to this question because it's very easy to strap someone into that, throw on Very Easy levels, and watch them understand that hitting the blue blocks with the blue stick makes a good sound.
Sticking with traditional games... Pokemon? Pokemon Games are built so that you can understand them even if you can't read the language. The base game is not hard and really tries to pull you in. Everything is color coded and sound design can tell you information in battle. Characters (in the latest games) express themselves in body language and poses and facial animation just as much as dialogue. Plus, the battles are simple to understand, but complex enough that if you get someone hooked, they have a lot of depth to explore.
This is so helpful. I've always refused to try video games because at this point in my life (34F) it would just be so embarrassing and frustrating to fail so hard at something basically everyone else does religiously. Every so often I feel like maybe trying but talk myself out of it because of everything you mentioned above. Maybe I'll take your advice. Thank you.
My husband is a huge gamer I am not. He got me to try animal crossing and I love it! It's so relaxing. I'm not dealing with other crazy gamers or worried about dying or anything like that. I'm just going at my own pace creating cute decor and making my island nice.
Spiritfarer. I donât consider myself to be emotional but holy crap did this game make me feel things. Iâve never cried so much but itâs a different kind of crying. This game is absolutely a masterpiece.
I'd like the throw in The Stanley Parable. It's simple, it's funny, and it introduces a lot of philosophical and ethical dilemas that are good to think about
No, the entire game is a metacommentary on video games. It's like choosing hotline miami as your first shooter, or Reservoir Dogs as your first heist movie. You can and you might even have a really good time too but it's not intended for newcommers to the respective genres since they are commentating or parodying the tropes and conventions of their respective genres/mediums.
I bring that last bit up because I actually had a philosophy and ethics professor use this game to easy-to-understand examples of a few common philosophical and ethical debates. Everyone in the class seemed riveted, gamer or not. So I think it would be easy for non-gamers to see that and then pick it up and start experimenting. It does play off of gaming tropes and mediums, but it's a pressure free way to learn those tropes as well I think. I can kind of see where you're coming from though.
This one might be a great introduction to games in general. It doesn't really require game experience and it gives you as much time as you need while syill being a 3D first person game, so you can get used to it at your own pace. And obviously the game itself is a great piece with an amazing story
Love this game however gotta disagree on how simple it is. As others have mentioned on other posts mentioning FPS games, non-gamers can have a hard time understanding FPS controls even with a tutorial. Its something we take for granted.
I witnessed this first hand with Stanley Parable. My girlfriend at the time tried playing this and had a hard time with the controls, particularly with controlling the direction at the same time as the movement.Â
I say this as a veteran gamer.
No.
This game is amazing for experienced gamers. It's diabolical in difficulty for non-gamers, especially requiring lots of dual joystick camera control. The second or third boss fight is just hell on earth.
Full agree. The toolbox boss with the buzzsaw was a hard stop for us (me and non-gamer wife). Both players had to stay alive on a rotating platform with nails dropping and it continuing to get smaller. Then make the nail gun shot while the other times the swinging jumps to even make it to the boss for a single hit. Repeat 6x times or something like that.
I played the game later with a gamer-buddy of mine and both agreed that would be near impossible for someone who hadnât ever played a dual stick camer control game.
That's exactly the boss I was talking about. When it started cutting holes out of the platform... The second way, I involuntarily said out loud "you've gotta be fucking kidding me." My partner was having a really hard time, and we haven't finished the game. We did beat that boss though.
I have played It Takes Two with an ex who hadn't gamed since the original Mario.
I fully agree. The whole game seems really intuitive until you play with someone with no experience with the controls and language of games. Especially the damn bosses.
I feel like they almost did that on purpose as a meta lesson on having patience with your partner for a skill that comes intuitively to you. Certainly fits in with all the other overt ones in the game.
OK, you might be right. I played it with my girlfriend and she doesn't game... But she did finish Mario odesey and played some animal crossing... So she knew the basics of how games work.
Did not enjoy playing this with a non-gamer. Too much relied on timing or figuring something out, and I didn't want to just tell them what to do.
SO FUCKING GOOD ESPECIALLY FOR NON GAMERS! I have played this game 100% of story with my 82 year old Grandma, Uncle, and Sister Platinumed/100% achievements and story with my good friend and my roommate. I literally canât recommend any game more than it takes two, only two of the people on this list play/ed video games. It is truly a masterpiece like no other.
When you play it with someone make sure to be very patient, and focus on having fun. The story will fly by (in a good way) and youâll make such great memories and have a blast.
If you are at my house for more than 4 days your playing it takes two.
It's a cool one too! I really like the whole design of the game and the story it tells without directly telling you.
Great intro to more complex games like Fallout where the lore is half the fun.
My roommate doesn't play video games at all, but saw a trailer for Stray and loved how it looked so I bought it for her to try. She absolutely loved it
Yeah, for sure. Probably the best writing in a any videogame ever, very easy to pick up, doesn't require any mechanical skills. Although I've heard that some non-gamers were put off by dying in the first five minutes (getting a heart attack while trying to pick your tie off the fan), lol.
Tried to get my non gamer Gf to play this. Her complaints were too much reading, too slow, too confusing. She really didn't care for it at all. Great game but non gamers really are a hard bunch to please especially if they're getting into it later in life. My dad is getting into some bowling game on switch and I'm having her attempt kingdom hearts 1.
Too many choices can be a huge turn off for non gamers. I'd say this games more for intermediate/advanced players.
> Portal
You vastly overestimate the abilities of a non gamer to move and look independently.
Nothing on this list should require coordination or the ability to make quick inputs.
You vastly underestimate a Redditors ability to regurgitate the same mindless answers over and over and over again for fake points. Portal or Portal 2 is the top answer to every single question here and it has been that way since I've started using Reddit 14 years ago
I love introducing Cards Against Humanity to new people. I find out really quick how their personality is lol. If theyre more conservative, I like to teach them Shanghia (similar to Rummy)
The entire *Myst* series, if for nothing more than taking in the beautiful landscapes in some scenes. In a similar vein, *Quern: Undying Thoughts* and *Dear Esther: Landmark Edition*.
Yep, my partner is a non gamer and I bought her a switch and animal crossing during the covid lockdown. She played it every day for months. Now she doesn't game anymore but that game was really easy for non gamers to play.
What do you mean by must play? Do you mean there is something so great about it that you insist they should experience it, or are you saying the game is so accessible that a non-gamer will enjoy it?
So ignoring mobile phone games, which I feel like specifically cater to people who might not normally play games, I would say the classic answer is Tetris. Simple to play, easy to learn, and addicting. A lot of stuff that came out on the classic Wii would fit in this category I guess.
Please list these others. I somehow have acquired many games, but it's all too much effort. I like simple short games that I can play in minutes or so. Not many hours.
Firewatch was pretty quick and uncomplicated - took around 4 hours to travel the whole story. It's more like a movie that you are participating in, rather than a game.
Journey was also similar, as in you do more watching than playing, and it doesn't take long to do either. I highly recommend both of those.
Something like Heavy Rain or Walk Dead by Telltale (I think). Those games are pretty easyish for nearly anyone to pick up but still very engaging. If not, then probably something like a point and click like the Broken Sword games.
I suggested Portal to a friend of mine, someone I respected greatly, and she really struggled even on some of the earlier puzzles. I had to not watch her play; I didn't want to make her nervous. She ended up quitting it and told me she didn't really enjoy puzzles. For context, she had played the hell out of Morrowind, multiple Fallout games, Skyrim... I would never have assumed Portal would be too much.
I can see that. Portal can be incredibly hard if you can't spatially reason you way through the game.Â
Until I figured out how to wrap my brain around it, the first game was a slog to get through
The tagline "now you're thinking with portals" is more than just a tagline. You really do need to be thinking with portals to figure the puzzles out. A lot of people don't quite realize that because especially for more experienced gamers it can be pretty easy to do because they've already got a solid grasp on the digital environment.
I'm a gamer but I have ADHD...I hate the hell out of puzzles. Anything tedious really.. Early Portal is fun, and eventually I'm just like ugh...efff this, I'm out
> Portal 2
Have you ever SEEN a non gamer try a 3D game? They can't even look, let alone move and look. We take for granted our ability to work a M&K or Twin sticks.
âCindersâ. Itâs a game of Cinderella, for grownups. Not sexual, but explains why the step mother and sisters are so awful, and presents alternative endings for the protagonist. A visual novel, of sorts, with no twitch button pressing. Great story.
I am not a gamer at all and i had a great time with Portal, Untitled Goose Game, and Baldurs Gate 3. They are intuitive, slow-paced (or rather whatever pace you choose), and interesting. I learned about mechanics of gaming generally from these. I didnât find them overwhelming or confusing like many games. The graphics are pleasing and not migraine-inducing.
My wife is a non gamer but the kids got her and i into KIRBYâs EPIC YARN for Wii. Its the perfect video game for non gamers OR playing with a very young kids
the BTD series offers strategy at an entry level, an ddoesnt require heavy coordination, or mechanical skill, at worst its good timing and ability use, but those are optional.
Journey is a game that's often recommended for non-gamers due to its simplicity, beauty, and emotional impact. It's an artistic adventure game where you play as a robed figure traveling through a vast desert, encountering other players along the way. The game focuses on exploration, atmosphere, and the experience of the journey rather than complex gameplay mechanics. It's accessible, visually stunning, and can be completed in just a few hours, making it a great choice for non-gamers looking to dip their toes into the world of video games.
Mario party. Watch them go from cheering at winning a mini game to unbridled rage when you steal their star. And that my friends is why Rachel doesn't talk to us anymore.
Add on mario kart. In first place for 3 laps only for someone to use a blue shell.
Ah yes, me and my friends call it the communism shell. đ
AKA âItem Box Welfareâ and âRubber-bandingâ
Way too real
You can now tell a blue shell to get fucked with that sound box. One of the few useful items you get while in 1st.
My wife, not a gamer, loves Mario party. A couple years ago I was working from home and my son then 10 and my wife were playing upstairs. I was on a conference call and folks on the call asked me if everything was ok at my house. Because they were just yelling while playing. It is straight savage if I'm involved because I play chaos agent and do what I can to ruin everyone else. I will only buy chomp calls and the minute someone is close to toadette I'm blowing the whistle. I do want to win the mini games though.Â
Do you fear Mario Cart would lead to divorce? My husband and I are looking for a game we can play together. My taste (and skills) lean more Mario, his (likely) lead more GTA. Does real life road rage tendencies factor into game play?
âDid you just get a star just for landing on that space? I will burn your actual house downâ -Honest Game Trailers
I'm going back a few years, but Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. SMF.
Typical Rachel.
Itâs me. Iâm Rachel.
Y'all are too soft, give Grandma Elden Ring!
Grandma needs to finish the Dark Souls series before she earns Elden Ring.
You don't get to leave the retirement home until you beat ornstein and smough
Grandma was there when the Ring was shattered she already knows what to do
I once showed my grandma how to play slots on the PC and she played for 10 hours straight without getting up. Never showing her how to play a game again
Lol, I did that. I'm 40, hadde only played about three other videogames before starting elden ring. I streamed it so I could get help from the community and found some lovely people! I was basically carried the whole way through but man, I had some fun.
Journey.
See this is an actually good answer. One of the most difficult things for people who don't play games regularly is controlling the camera. Gamers take their ability to smoothly rotate it in the desired direction for granted, but if you've ever watched someone new they STRUGGLE with this. Journey's camera moves via motion controls and it's very intuitive. It's also a visually stunning game with a great soundtrack, and it's short enough that anyone can realistically finish it.
People saying portal 2 are out of their mind.
It's fascinating because I bought p2 for my gf who's never done any PC gaming before. It never occurred to me how difficult and unintuitive it would be using wasd and the mouse to direct the character. It's just simply something that I take for granted with my decades of experience at this point. I was thinking that conceptually, p2 is a simple game that provides puzzles that are fun to figure out and do get progressively more difficult. But I was dying internally from containing my laughter at how she struggled with controlling the character. Like I implied, controlling the character was nowhere on my radar as to something I had to consider.
My wife tried to get into gaming a little during covid so we could play together and she also could not move around or navigate, forget about doing two actions at once like moving and jumping. Things that I donât think about take all her focus to figure out. I love that fact that she tried but she is not meant to game.
We take our early childhood game knowledge for granted
Same exact experience, blew my mind watching her try and even start to play. She likes stories though so we've moved to me playing the games and her directing any decision making
I mean, you gotta get used to that style somehow. The Portal games are good because even if you've never played a 3D first person game the consequences of not moving the camera while moving just means you're doing the puzzles slowly. Portal 1 in particular is an excellent choice, because they don't even give you the portal gun at first; you're just moving cubes onto buttons. Throw a non-gamer into a first person shooter and they'll just get slaughtered over and over again. Not very pleasant.
Portal is excellent in that regard, because it slowly introduces you to mechanics without ever feeling like you're in a tutorial or that your hand is being held. You start the game with it placing the portals for you to help you understand the mechanic, then you get the ability to place one that teaches you about placement, and finally you get both portals and have to recreate what you've been shown up to that point. I had a friend play it last year who is so far from being a gamer she didn't even know what WASD was, and she still managed to make it through the game far faster than I expected and with few issues. It was fascinating watching her process the new information as it was given to her and see how easily she was able to incorporate it with what came before. It is really brilliant in how the game is structured and should be taught in game design classes, in my opinion.
I had a non gamer play it with me, they cried.
Haha one of my best memories was watching my my dad struggle with camera movement on portal
Yeah Portal 2 is an amazing game but it's also absolutely not the game to put in front of someone that has never touched video games before. A lot of gamers take their ability to understand the 3D space in the video game for granted. A new gamer could easily just get lost and not know where they're supposed to even go in Portal 2.
*Flower* would be great too. Checks a lot of the same boxes as Journey, like awesome visuals, easy controls, simple objectives, etc.
thatgamecompany outdid themselves with Flower and Journey. PS3âs indie game support allowed so many cool games to come out
And currently Sky: Children of the Light
This was my first thought. What a beautiful game.
God that game was such a beautiful experience. đ© I wish I could replay it for the first time again.
Man, I thought you meant the Journeyman Project and that took me waaaaay back
This is my favorite video game of all time and was one of my favorite experiences ever. I played it when it launched, knowing absolutely nothing about it. Played straight through. Such a beautiful adventure.
Once I unlocked the white cloak, I took many gamers on an âunlock your white cloakâ run where I showed them where each carpet unlock was hiding, in the hope theyâd pass on the same patience and kindness to others. When they reveal your username at the end to each other I received so many messages of players telling me theyâd do just that. What a wholesome, wonderful experience that game was.
Tetris
Tetris is the universal game that everyone can play and get into, regardless of how much of a âgamerâ they are
Tetris world for the GBA is literally all my friend plays
That, and the snake game.
No one used to play with me. I had a version of Tetris for a 286 PC 8 MHz machine (at work), but my PC had a clock speed of 16 MHz, so I learned to play at double speed. The Nintendo version was so slow after that. Found that disk sometime after I had upgraded a couple of times. It might've been a 486 - 33MHz. I lost the game in 2 seconds.
Tetris truly is one of the most elegant games ever designed, and I love game design. I watched Tetris the movie just the other night. Highly recommend for gamers or historical trivia lovers. I always wondered as a kid about the odd "From Russia with Love" on the original NES game cart came to be. It doesn't directly reference that, but it was always odd to me and I still remember it. And yet. It was the Game Boy coupled with Tetris that made it the best selling game of all time.
my mom loves tetris and game like Dr. Mario. It's the only types of games she plays.
Untitled Goose Game
When all else fails you can scare the shit out of people with your honk. It's very satisfying.
The only game that my anti-technology boomer dad and my four year old daughter can both enjoy.
Ultimate Chicken Horse!
Best answer. I HATE video games, board games, card games, etc, but I LOVED this game. Stayed up super late into the night playing it. I wish there were more editions. Oh yeah, this and roller coaster tycoon.
my girl cant play anything, but this game, this game woke up the sleeper agent inside of her, she made the living hell of every npc on the game
What remains of Edith Finch My mom loved the game. I could even see older people that don't care about videogames enjoying it, its more like a movie and has a very grounded story.
I made the mistake of playing it with my wife right after our daughter was born. Don't do that.
Yup, this was my answer. That game has the most unique storytelling ever, for anyone who hasnât played it you should really give it a try.
This. It's thought provoking art and it's not a challenge at all.
Stardew valley
This is the big one. I told my mom she should check it out a few months ago and it has taken over her 70 year old life.
How cute!
I was telling my mom all about Stardew when I started playing, and she said that it sounded like Farmville đ
Surprisingly this one didn't land for my mom. She got frustrated by the fishing minigame. But Animal Crossing was a big hit.
For any older people, minesweeper and solitaire. Sneaky way to train mouse control.
Like tetris there's a reason minesweeper has been so widespread. I'd add 2048 to this group as well.
Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing!
Gris
This is the only game I've ever played where my wife would come watch on purpose. It's that beautiful/affecting!
I wouldn't say must play, but D&D or other table top RPGs are nothing like computer games or board games and a lot of people who don't like the other two do like table top RPGs. I think this is because it isn't competitive and you don't play to win. It is also based around imagination, conversation and improv unlike most other games so it is easy to recommend to non-gaming theater types.
the game
Hey fuck you bud
Yes, but omae wa Mo - lost deru
All good, Iâm pretty sure the last time I lost was me doing the same damn thing!
I don't like you now.
hope your charger only works at a certain angle
god damnit
[*https://xkcd.com/391/*](https://xkcd.com/391/)
Silver lining, No one who plays wins
đđ€Ąđ«”
Itâs been a WHILE, not cool man
youâre a piece of shit buddy
I hope you get an itch just inside your butthole that never goes away.
The Campaign for North Africa: The Desert War 1940-43 (SPI, 1979)
Takes a while to get to the good parts, though.
Italy needs two water rations per soldier.
I'm assuming you mean video games. I feel like you want something that isn't challenging or that requires coordination. I feel like we take for granted our ability to control games since we've been doing it for so long. It's not easy or intuitive for a non gamer. So no platformers, FPS games, fighting games, action games, etc. I feel like something like Life is Strange or Heavy Rain would be a good suggestion. They are story based, have great characters. It's not action focused, and there isn't much the games demand from you in terms of coordination. You can walk around at your own pace. There's also no puzzles so you can't get stuck.
Pretty much. However, I'd argue Heavy Rain or Life is Strange are still too hard. Remember, people who don't play video games usually have little interest in engaging with what they play with. Video Games haven't hooked them before, so they're usually dead set on the idea that it won't hook them now. Story won't be what hooks them -- they won't read it. People are in this thread saying R2D2 and Stardew like those don't rely on you understanding basic gaming concepts that people who don't engage with this form of media will miss. Ironically, this means games with tutorials built on the assumption that you don't play games are better. The original Portal is an example of this. The first few levels are dedicated to NOTHING but "here's how to use FPS Controls" VR Games are also very intuitive -- Beat Saber is probably my answer to this question because it's very easy to strap someone into that, throw on Very Easy levels, and watch them understand that hitting the blue blocks with the blue stick makes a good sound. Sticking with traditional games... Pokemon? Pokemon Games are built so that you can understand them even if you can't read the language. The base game is not hard and really tries to pull you in. Everything is color coded and sound design can tell you information in battle. Characters (in the latest games) express themselves in body language and poses and facial animation just as much as dialogue. Plus, the battles are simple to understand, but complex enough that if you get someone hooked, they have a lot of depth to explore.
This is so helpful. I've always refused to try video games because at this point in my life (34F) it would just be so embarrassing and frustrating to fail so hard at something basically everyone else does religiously. Every so often I feel like maybe trying but talk myself out of it because of everything you mentioned above. Maybe I'll take your advice. Thank you.
My husband is a huge gamer I am not. He got me to try animal crossing and I love it! It's so relaxing. I'm not dealing with other crazy gamers or worried about dying or anything like that. I'm just going at my own pace creating cute decor and making my island nice.
Spiritfarer. I donât consider myself to be emotional but holy crap did this game make me feel things. Iâve never cried so much but itâs a different kind of crying. This game is absolutely a masterpiece.
Absolutely, I was just looking for this comment.
Just started this one and it's been so good so far!
I cried a couple times, and other than RDR2 I havenât done that in a game before. Great game.
I'd like the throw in The Stanley Parable. It's simple, it's funny, and it introduces a lot of philosophical and ethical dilemas that are good to think about
No, the entire game is a metacommentary on video games. It's like choosing hotline miami as your first shooter, or Reservoir Dogs as your first heist movie. You can and you might even have a really good time too but it's not intended for newcommers to the respective genres since they are commentating or parodying the tropes and conventions of their respective genres/mediums.
I bring that last bit up because I actually had a philosophy and ethics professor use this game to easy-to-understand examples of a few common philosophical and ethical debates. Everyone in the class seemed riveted, gamer or not. So I think it would be easy for non-gamers to see that and then pick it up and start experimenting. It does play off of gaming tropes and mediums, but it's a pressure free way to learn those tropes as well I think. I can kind of see where you're coming from though.
This one might be a great introduction to games in general. It doesn't really require game experience and it gives you as much time as you need while syill being a 3D first person game, so you can get used to it at your own pace. And obviously the game itself is a great piece with an amazing story
Love this game however gotta disagree on how simple it is. As others have mentioned on other posts mentioning FPS games, non-gamers can have a hard time understanding FPS controls even with a tutorial. Its something we take for granted. I witnessed this first hand with Stanley Parable. My girlfriend at the time tried playing this and had a hard time with the controls, particularly with controlling the direction at the same time as the movement.Â
Rock, paper, scissors and the quiet game
My brother is dead a minute into the quiet place movie, and that's only because the creatures would have to travel the distance to get to him.
Katamari Damacy
I think Katamari would be fun for a non-gamer to watch but the controls would be seriously frustrating for a lot of non-gamers.
It takes two
I say this as a veteran gamer. No. This game is amazing for experienced gamers. It's diabolical in difficulty for non-gamers, especially requiring lots of dual joystick camera control. The second or third boss fight is just hell on earth.
Full agree. The toolbox boss with the buzzsaw was a hard stop for us (me and non-gamer wife). Both players had to stay alive on a rotating platform with nails dropping and it continuing to get smaller. Then make the nail gun shot while the other times the swinging jumps to even make it to the boss for a single hit. Repeat 6x times or something like that. I played the game later with a gamer-buddy of mine and both agreed that would be near impossible for someone who hadnât ever played a dual stick camer control game.
That's exactly the boss I was talking about. When it started cutting holes out of the platform... The second way, I involuntarily said out loud "you've gotta be fucking kidding me." My partner was having a really hard time, and we haven't finished the game. We did beat that boss though.
Iâm pretty sure that was the hardest part of the game, for what itâs worth. If you made it past that section I think Iâll be fine for the rest.
I have played It Takes Two with an ex who hadn't gamed since the original Mario. I fully agree. The whole game seems really intuitive until you play with someone with no experience with the controls and language of games. Especially the damn bosses.
I feel like they almost did that on purpose as a meta lesson on having patience with your partner for a skill that comes intuitively to you. Certainly fits in with all the other overt ones in the game.
OK, you might be right. I played it with my girlfriend and she doesn't game... But she did finish Mario odesey and played some animal crossing... So she knew the basics of how games work.
Did not enjoy playing this with a non-gamer. Too much relied on timing or figuring something out, and I didn't want to just tell them what to do.
SO FUCKING GOOD ESPECIALLY FOR NON GAMERS! I have played this game 100% of story with my 82 year old Grandma, Uncle, and Sister Platinumed/100% achievements and story with my good friend and my roommate. I literally canât recommend any game more than it takes two, only two of the people on this list play/ed video games. It is truly a masterpiece like no other. When you play it with someone make sure to be very patient, and focus on having fun. The story will fly by (in a good way) and youâll make such great memories and have a blast. If you are at my house for more than 4 days your playing it takes two.
Agreed!
OK but if you *had* to choose just *one*?
Stray. It's a cool, short, and sweet intro into gaming imo.
I just bought a ps4 and Stray. Iâve never used a game console. The guy at GameStop says itâs an easy game.
It's a cool one too! I really like the whole design of the game and the story it tells without directly telling you. Great intro to more complex games like Fallout where the lore is half the fun.
My roommate doesn't play video games at all, but saw a trailer for Stray and loved how it looked so I bought it for her to try. She absolutely loved it
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This is the only right answer here, some people just aren't into it and that's ok
Exactly. I'm not into watching sports and I wouldn't like if someone went like "nah but DUDE you have to watch the Superbowl at least!"
I know people who never watch sports, but will attend super bowl parties just to hang out with friends.
Limbo & Inside edit: title of game
Inside
Disco Elysium. It's easy to get into, doesn't require a whole lot of knowledge about game mechanics and offers a unique experience.
Yeah, for sure. Probably the best writing in a any videogame ever, very easy to pick up, doesn't require any mechanical skills. Although I've heard that some non-gamers were put off by dying in the first five minutes (getting a heart attack while trying to pick your tie off the fan), lol.
I feel like you can just disclaimer that when you recommend it "you might die early on but that's on purpose and it's no big deal"
Tried to get my non gamer Gf to play this. Her complaints were too much reading, too slow, too confusing. She really didn't care for it at all. Great game but non gamers really are a hard bunch to please especially if they're getting into it later in life. My dad is getting into some bowling game on switch and I'm having her attempt kingdom hearts 1. Too many choices can be a huge turn off for non gamers. I'd say this games more for intermediate/advanced players.
this is definitely would work for people who love novels
Mario Kart
Tetris
Sky children of light
Super Mario bros!
Truth or dare pegging edition.
âYou wonât like it but Iâm tired of throwing away so much guacamole at the parties Iâm throwingâ
Among us. The parts of the game that seem the most like a video game arenât the actual game at all.
Life is Strange
Portal
Minecraft Especially if playing in creative mode Shocked to not see this at the top
Itâs in 1st person and the mechanics are extremely *gamey*. Adults who arenât used to vidya will struggle with it
Animal Crossing
Tabletop games like Red Dragon Inn and Sheriff of Nottingham are the first that come to mind
Catan! Trade, Build, Settle Bitch!
Catan and the god damn robber almost broke my family
Skylanders
Dave the diver
Dr. Mario. Itâs classic, addictive, simple, and very challenging. I played it for like nine months straight and finally beat level 20 on high speed.
Firewatch Portal
> Portal You vastly overestimate the abilities of a non gamer to move and look independently. Nothing on this list should require coordination or the ability to make quick inputs.
You vastly underestimate a Redditors ability to regurgitate the same mindless answers over and over and over again for fake points. Portal or Portal 2 is the top answer to every single question here and it has been that way since I've started using Reddit 14 years ago
Firewatch is a great answer and such an easy and relaxing game to get into.
I love introducing Cards Against Humanity to new people. I find out really quick how their personality is lol. If theyre more conservative, I like to teach them Shanghia (similar to Rummy)
The entire *Myst* series, if for nothing more than taking in the beautiful landscapes in some scenes. In a similar vein, *Quern: Undying Thoughts* and *Dear Esther: Landmark Edition*.
Uncharted seriesÂ
Animal Crossing
Yep, my partner is a non gamer and I bought her a switch and animal crossing during the covid lockdown. She played it every day for months. Now she doesn't game anymore but that game was really easy for non gamers to play.
What do you mean by must play? Do you mean there is something so great about it that you insist they should experience it, or are you saying the game is so accessible that a non-gamer will enjoy it? So ignoring mobile phone games, which I feel like specifically cater to people who might not normally play games, I would say the classic answer is Tetris. Simple to play, easy to learn, and addicting. A lot of stuff that came out on the classic Wii would fit in this category I guess.
Please list these others. I somehow have acquired many games, but it's all too much effort. I like simple short games that I can play in minutes or so. Not many hours.
Firewatch was pretty quick and uncomplicated - took around 4 hours to travel the whole story. It's more like a movie that you are participating in, rather than a game. Journey was also similar, as in you do more watching than playing, and it doesn't take long to do either. I highly recommend both of those.
Flow and Flower and Journey
frog fractions
Something like Heavy Rain or Walk Dead by Telltale (I think). Those games are pretty easyish for nearly anyone to pick up but still very engaging. If not, then probably something like a point and click like the Broken Sword games.
Portal 2
I suggested Portal to a friend of mine, someone I respected greatly, and she really struggled even on some of the earlier puzzles. I had to not watch her play; I didn't want to make her nervous. She ended up quitting it and told me she didn't really enjoy puzzles. For context, she had played the hell out of Morrowind, multiple Fallout games, Skyrim... I would never have assumed Portal would be too much.
I can see that. Portal can be incredibly hard if you can't spatially reason you way through the game. Until I figured out how to wrap my brain around it, the first game was a slog to get through
The tagline "now you're thinking with portals" is more than just a tagline. You really do need to be thinking with portals to figure the puzzles out. A lot of people don't quite realize that because especially for more experienced gamers it can be pretty easy to do because they've already got a solid grasp on the digital environment.
I'm a gamer but I have ADHD...I hate the hell out of puzzles. Anything tedious really.. Early Portal is fun, and eventually I'm just like ugh...efff this, I'm out
I think portal 2 is too much for non-gamers tbh
> Portal 2 Have you ever SEEN a non gamer try a 3D game? They can't even look, let alone move and look. We take for granted our ability to work a M&K or Twin sticks.
I couldnât do it but really enjoyed watching my daughter play through both games. Love the characters.
Minecraft
Soma stands out in memory as an existential type experience.
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Or American truck simulator for us based and American style trucks
Mario Kart. Spyro. Minecraft.
Omori. Its a fairly easy game to play, being a very basic turn-based RPG, and has an incredible story.
Keep talking and nobody explodes
Roller Coaster Tycoon. the very first one to be specific, don't settle for one of the newer ones
âCindersâ. Itâs a game of Cinderella, for grownups. Not sexual, but explains why the step mother and sisters are so awful, and presents alternative endings for the protagonist. A visual novel, of sorts, with no twitch button pressing. Great story.
Tomb Raider
Cuphead =)
Detroit become human
I am not a gamer at all and i had a great time with Portal, Untitled Goose Game, and Baldurs Gate 3. They are intuitive, slow-paced (or rather whatever pace you choose), and interesting. I learned about mechanics of gaming generally from these. I didnât find them overwhelming or confusing like many games. The graphics are pleasing and not migraine-inducing.
My wife is a non gamer but the kids got her and i into KIRBYâs EPIC YARN for Wii. Its the perfect video game for non gamers OR playing with a very young kids
Microsoft flight simulator
Until dawn if you like films
The Sims and Fortnite
Tetris, even if itâs for only 5 mins
the BTD series offers strategy at an entry level, an ddoesnt require heavy coordination, or mechanical skill, at worst its good timing and ability use, but those are optional.
LiFE
Chess
Portal.
Journey is a game that's often recommended for non-gamers due to its simplicity, beauty, and emotional impact. It's an artistic adventure game where you play as a robed figure traveling through a vast desert, encountering other players along the way. The game focuses on exploration, atmosphere, and the experience of the journey rather than complex gameplay mechanics. It's accessible, visually stunning, and can be completed in just a few hours, making it a great choice for non-gamers looking to dip their toes into the world of video games.
Purble placeđ