Asklemmy

... Yes?

Start wherever. Buy games with interesting covers or play free demos.

You are already a gamer!

I’m a 36 year old woman who grew up playing them with my dad. My sister is a year younger than me get than me. She grew out of it a bit but she still plays “cozy”, low to no pressure games. I like long role playing games with interesting stories.

If you want any recommendations or a new friend to play with, I’m here! I also know of several gaming groups for women.

I’d like to know more about what you’re interested to give better suggestions but here are a few that might pique your interest.

Balatro is a recently popular card game. You can play it on your phone or on a computer. It works sort of like poker, but you apply effects to the cards to multiply your score.

A Little To The Left is a puzzle game. You play the owner of a mischievous cat and your goal is to reorganize the messes that your cat made throughout the house, like sorting the mail, organizing a battery draw, displaying sea shells you collected etc

Unpacking is also a puzzle game. You literally unpack boxes in various rooms. Sometimes it’s hard to make everything fit. As you progress through each level, you learn about the main character’s life.

If you want something more traditional, Ori and the Blind Forest is absolutely beautiful. In that, you play as a small guardian spirit and you navigate through a forest solving puzzles, collecting items, and jumping between platforms (sorta like Mario).

My wife didn't typically game in the traditional sense, but games she's enjoyed in the past are the older Mario games, the Sims, and project zomboid (which she describes as the Sims but with zombies).

She's also got like 100 hours in power washing simulator and she's too scared to try Stardew valley because she knows it'll consume her life.

What gaming is like for a non-gamer

This guy had his non-gaming wife try different games, very enlightening for your purposes

I'm a 30-something woman myself. I've been gaming longer than I've had a phone. Here's my two cents:

You're already into videogames. Fuck what the haters say about mobile gaming not being """true""" gaming (whatever the heck that means), they're just sour they can't game whenever wherever without investing a ton of time. Then again, maybe I'm just mad because I've recently invested a ton of time into Youtube's playables.

If you want to get into PC or console gaming, I recommend starting off with popular E rated games in the genres you already know you like. Generally these games are more complex than mobile games, but this type will usually introduce difficulty curves to gradually transition you into their mechanics and complexity and teach you to be a master without having to look up training online.

If you want to branch out, start with genre-bending/-blending games. I'm personally a fan of puzzle-platformers, as those are my two favorite genres; while I'm not big on card games, they recently had an explosion in popularity, so there's a blend of just about every genre you could want.

Get a Switch Lite and go from there. If you already have a midrange PC with decent iGPU, download Steam and play an older but highly rated game.

Don’t spend too much before deciding if it is for you. Find the cheapest entry point.

This is like asking if you should get into books or movies! The answer is absolutely! 💜 There are so so many games.

The genre "cozy game" is a pretty good place to start, I think. They focus more on the vibe than challenges.

Definitely stay away from games that use phrases like "souls like". Those are games that are trying to be intentionally difficult for the sake of being difficult.

A lot of this depends on what sort of console or computer you have access to. A lot of indie games are not very taxing and you can probably play them on your computer easily even if it isn't a gaming computer. Things like Stardew Valley and Spiritfarer come to mind.

A lot of women I know who aren’t the typical “gamer” type really enjoy Stardew Valley. It’s a little farming game where you live in a town, foster relationships with the townspeople, and generally go about small town life. Very cute game, especially fun with friends.

Also Minecraft, it’s very open ended and there are many ways to play it.

As for how to start, an affordable laptop will run both of these fairly well, if you want Nintendo games you’ll probably have to get a Nintendo Switch.

Definitely make a Steam account though, you’ll find pretty much all the games you could want in one place there (Minecraft is separate).

This game recommendation thingy might be helpful: https://apps.quanticfoundry.com/surveys/start/gamerprofile/

In the profile you choose what you are looking for in a gaming experience - it doesn't matter if you don't know yet or need to make up some answers. There are questions like "How important is working towards a common goal with other players?"

It's a place to start anyway.

I'm 31 and I only really started playing games around 4 years ago, apart from playing on bootleg NES consoles or C64 as a kid.

It is worth it if you have fun doing it, and you probably will!

If you don’t know where to start, you probably still haven’t figure out what genres you'd be into.

You might like Steam Deck, an affordable console-like handheld PC, because:

• It offers a wide variety of games from all generations, so if you want to experiment with different genres you can always find something for yourself - you can purchase a game on Steam store and if it’s not for you, just return it below 2h of gameplay
• Very user friendly, easy to navigate for non-techies, despite being PC, for the most part it just works, great entry for folks with no prior experience with PC gaming
• It's a handheld! Take it with you anywhere easily, play in bed, on couch, toilet, whatever. If you're used to playing on a phone, this might be appealing
• you can still dock it as a regular PC and have mouse+keyboard+external screen if you want to try gaming this way
• if you want to tinker to explore even further, you can emulate older consoles, play with 3rd party launchers, use it for other things than gaming, even replace the software completely - it is all possible

Other choices are perfectly valid like Nintendo Switch, Xbox or PS5, but they’re within their respective closed ecosystems. With Xbox and PS5 you’re also stuck with TV. Consoles have limited backwards compatibility, so for example Switch only supports games for Switch, PS5 supports games for PS5 and PS4, and it’s a bit better with Xbox iirc.

If you want Nintendo Switch (if games like Mario or Zelda are appealing to you), maybe wait a little bit as they’re cooking new generation for release soon-ish, and the current one is old and miserable in terms of performance.

I'd say start with some of the most popular games, like Mario and Pokemon. Those are the two biggest video game franchises in the world, they're very accessible and even decades later still a ton of fun.

edit: FWIW, Nintendo is a problematic video game company and trying to destroy video game preservation of their games (and trying to prevent community-run video game competitions/tournaments of their games), but they still have made some of the best video games of all time.

Yes. Start with Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing. From there, post threads asking for suggestions based on what you liked.

Just avoid games that cost a lot or have lots of micro transactions. Its like smoking cigarettes, better to not start.

Worth getting into? Absolutely. It can be very cheap, too.

Where to start? That's the trick question. It will depend on whether you start with console or PC, the latter having a much more extensive catalogue of games, plus emulation of older systems.

My personal recommendation is getting a PC, it doesn't even need to be a gamer one, anything that isn't a piece of shit and was released in the past 4 or so years will do good for playing low end games and emulate anything up to N64 and possibly Dreamcast games (2003 and earlier). You can use a variety of console controllers on computer, so it's fine. Whe searching for ROMs, be sure to have uBlock Origin installed on your web browser.

If you have any friends, talk to them, see what they're playing or would recommend you to play. If you don't, download steam and download demos of games that look somewhat interesting to you. Check GOG as well, it tends to have some older PC games as well, plus demos and whatnot.

Try out a variety of genres. It's possible one game of a certain genre might not "click" with you, but another might.

If you like puzzle games I suggest trying portal. Portal 1 is inexpensive on Steam and playable on any modern PC including on Linux. It's low pressure, has some humor, not very violent, and you can restart from anywhere you like.

Stardew Valley.

My wife is a 30+ woman and she loved (among others) OneShot, World of Goo, and Final Fantasy XV.

OneShot is an atmospheric, story-based game with some puzzle elements and a lot of lovable characters. On the flip side, there's a lot of walking and it's easy to get lost. Nevertheless, there's a deep connection you as the player can build with the characters and the world they inhabit.

World of Goo is a physics-based building game, where you build bridges and towers out of cute sentient rubber-like balls, but beneath the solid physics, art and music there lies a deep social commentary too.

Final Fantasy XV is the most mainstream of these, but it is an entry into the FF games specifically designed for newcomers in mind. It follows four main and several supporting characters on a journey that starts as a road trip interspersed with beginner-friendly but still jaw-droppingly well rendered and animated combat and slowly but surely escalated to an epic catharsis.

I would highly recommend Portal and Portal 2 as primers for basically all your 3D games. Not only did Yahzee give The Orange Box in general a glowing review, but they teach you basic gaming mechanics almost intuitively.

I will say, as a 30 year old man I had the urge to start playing games because they just looked so good these days. I played a little here and there growing up, but all of my friends were gamers and I just wasn’t interested. When I got interested, I found a lot of fun and joy in it.

I’m still not your typical gamer. I find a few games I really love and I keep playing them over and over—great campaigns with great story telling and great characters and great graphics are so much of it. Since I started playing video games in like 2020, I’ve basically played four games, but two of them I’ve played a bunch of times (red dead redemption II and Cyberpunk).

Now I’m looking at Stalker 2 and I think that might be my next game I want to play to death. Gotta wait to hear how people feel about it though.

Start with stardew valley and thank me later.

Something else to consider is that it's a wonderful social window if you have friends that you don't get to hang out with very often due to geography and life.

I have a couple of good friends who are too far away after I moved to another area. We play games online and have a nice social hangout for a few hours each Saturday. Voice chatting works great.

It's fantastic to be able to regularly spend time with them.

Get a switch lite, yeah. I highly recommend playing star fox 64, Pokemon stadium, and the older legend of Zelda games. They are very good entry points into gaming and are all available via a Nintendo online membership.

Can I go completely 180 and suggest programming as a hobby? If you want a hobby where you're in a computer. Then try learning to program little things. If you work on a computer then it'll make things easier for you in the future, it'll keep your brain sharp and teaches you problem solving.

Try out open-source games too, not just the big corporate games. Space Station 14, OpenTTD, Endless Sky, Naev, plenty of choices. Saw someone here rant about how the "videogames industry has become very rotten" and decided I'd point you to a non-rotten part of it.

App games are video games so if you think playing on your phone is worth it, then playing on a dedicated gaming device should be worth it too.

You can start by choosing a platform. You can stick to mobile (Switch, Steam Deck), go console (Xbox, PS5, Switch), or a gaming PC.

Yes games are fun. I made friends, had so many memorable adventures with complete strangers, managed to keep in touch with family and close ones no matter the distances.

Honestly its about how you want to game, do you like something chill? Or something more like adventurous? How long do you see yourself playin? Something that is played on a desk or a couch? Do you like "gamey games", or do you like realism in your games?

First, you need a system if you dont have one. A system is needed to run a game.

If you are a comeplete beginner the switch by nintendo is in my experience a great onboarding experience, but that might be a bit expensive in the long run once you accumulate games. The system is a bit underpowered, but delivers such great experiences through their exclusive nintendo game titles. Great on the go, light, great for couch co-op, has online play.

Playstation and xbox are very easy to manage, and deliver more on the realism side of games while still having great gamplay first experiences. Its honestly a great balance, old ones are just as great since the old games are cheap and usually have great classics. (Warning about compatibility though). Couch gaming, has online gaming and couch+online coop.

The PC is extreme: its kinda hard to build the right machine for your needs, it can deliver whatever experience you want (it can basically "cheat" and pretend to be a playstation or switch gameboys etc through emulation, a process that is not very beginner friendly), has ALL the games (except the latest nintendo ones, except through the mentioned emulation) but can be pretty expensive if you want a high quality graphical performance to the point where you can see a cyborg sweat running down his firm and physics enhanced abs. You use launchers to go to an online store to buy games that you have to find on the internet and download, like Steam (my fav) Epic (they give a free non freemium game each week I believe!) Gog (very privacy, and consumer oriented ) and many others. Some miscreants will tell you that you can (gasp!) Pirate (arr) games, so a good system could potentially cost less in the long run! Its more of a gaming on desk unless you dont mind having a big PC next to your tv. Couch co op games are rare, but the online experience is really good.

My two cents, get minecraft if you like legos. You can also make it prettier on PC. It runs well on even old laptops. Its a great entry for anyone. If its not what you are looking for, you can look up what youd like!

Also please newcomer, do not EVER pay for the microtransactions, for they plague us all. Games should be about fun, not a tool for extracting wealth from people who just want to go on cool adventures, explore strange worlds, meet interesting characters or experience lives never lived.

I wanted to make this shorter but I get excited about theses things. Gl hf!

Lots of good advice here, but I would just add, start with your interests and work out from there. You like puzzle games? Portal is a great physics puzzle game, so you might like that. It's also a 3D platformer, so you'll find out if you like games with a lot of running and jumping. It's also technically a first-person shooter (not in the sense that you shoot enemies, but you do shoot a portal gun at walls), so if you don't like that aspect of the game, you'll know that FPSs aren't for you.

Doesn't have to be the type of gameplay either. You like designing things? Maybe try the Sims or Animal Crossing. Like horror movies? Maybe start with something simple but creepy, like Limbo. Detective stories? Something like Strange Horticulture might be up your alley.

The most important thing is to look around and see what catches your interest. Read some reviews, watch some gameplay footage, and find something that's right for you. Don't just say, "I'm going to do video games now," and buy a Call of Duty or Dark Souls because, "gamers," like them.

Steam for your PC will have a large library of free games you can try, and also paid games. If you like board or card games there is an application called table top simulator. This opens up access to traditional board games people have converted to PC--when you can't find it as a standalone game. Also a suggestion for standalone games if you are into cards:

• Wingspan. It has a steep learning curve but hours of fun once you learn it.

• Dominion. If you like this genre of game it can be a lot of fun.

• Catan. if you have played Catan board game and enjoy it, you can also play online for free https://catanuniverse.com/en/game/

Loads of great experiences and tons of diversity. I've had lot of great experiences through video games and it's never too late to start.

You could start with by looking through some video game threads and asking more specific question like "I'm new to video games, what are some games that you recommend that are not to hard to pick up" or something.

Recommend: Portal

I personally think you should give Portal a shot, it's a 3D puzzle game that you can run on any computer and is one of the best games of all time, it's also pretty funny on top of that.

If you have a PC download steam and get half life 2 for free.

We all have our type of game. Try out a ton of new genres. Maybe you don't like shooters and you like simulators. Or maybe you like roguelikes. Or just platformers or building games. Don't stop trying new things till you find the genre that is right for you, then ask people for recommendations within that genre.

I had a comment earlier that had a bunch of.free games, I will try to post links later.

If you're unsure, buy a nice used ps4 with some games for dirt cheap to see if you like it. If you do, I suggest eventually moving forward with the PC route. Either a steam deck or a laptop and an Xbox controller. If you know you're liking gaming you could go all out on a gaming desktop PC.

Consoles are nice, but a PC game library is compatible for decades of games, and you can buy them for a lot less $ most of the time.

A place to start might be a friend or family member who is into video games.

Gaming hardware can be a little costly, so you may want to visit with someone and play a selection of games before deciding which direction you'd like to start in. I'll also point out that video games are often the very most fun when shared with friends.

If my 30 year old woman friend came up to me one day and said "Hey I've never really played video games before and I'd like to give them a try, but don't know where to start," I think we'd talk awhile first to see if I can find what games are interesting to you. I see a lot of people in this comment section recommending Stardew Valley, which is a game I deeply like and respect though I have seen people bounce right off it, including someone recently here on Lemmy. So while I would recommend giving it a look, if you do bounce off it, don't just go "video games aren't for me," maybe cozy games aren't for you.

Some questions I might ask are:

Are you looking for a more relaxing or more exciting experience?

Would you like your play sessions to be challenging, contemplative, creative, or competitive?

Are you more interested in story, or gameplay?

How important are flashy fancy graphics to you?

Where will your gameplay sessions fit into your life? Do you want something to do during your daily train ride? Will this replace your daily television hour? Is it what you're going to do all Saturday afternoon?

Do you see yourself playing games on your couch, at a desk, or on the go?

Do you want to enjoy games alone, or with friends? Will you gather in one place to play together, or play across the internet?

Do you have a genre of fiction you like? Are you into historical drama, sci-fi, fantasy, slapstick comedy?

How do you feel about horror? Both the psychological Lovecraftian existential crisis type, and the "oh god a 10 foot monster with 50 mouths for a mouth just jumped out behind a tree and roared" type?

Games can be one of the nice forms of entertainment like tv series or films, so i'd say yes.

Just try to look for really good games, like zelda breath of the wild, bioshock infinite, twelve minutes, sayonara wild hearts and so on. No online games, no infinite games, no games that are more like a job than a game (where you have to grind for everything) and so on. Games that let you enjoy the gameplay, the art and the story without making you feel like ''oh i have to login or i lose the fit and i have to get the daily rewards and bla bla bla''.

IMHO it's worth getting into games because they are a mainstream form of entertainment these days (just like movies) and there are incredibly well made games and all sorts of genres, so that everyone can find something. It's also a fun hobby, at least as long as you play either with friends, or singleplayer, or a multiplayer game with a non-toxic community. Stay away from popular e-sports titles, they're usually filled with toxic teenagers.

If you like puzzle games, there are some great ones, for example Portal 1+2 or The Talos Principle 1+2 are probably the most polished ones out there, these are AAA games made by big studios, who don't usually do puzzle games as they're somewhat niche but there are some exceptions thankfully. Portal 2 is the highest ranked game of all time on Steam (I think it's deserved).

There are also tons of great indie puzzle games out there, of course.

Somewhat related to puzzle games are "point and click" adventure games. That genre was very popular in the 80s and 90s, now it's also rather niche, but still some great ones are being developed all the time. Adventure games are (also) about story-telling and solving many puzzles to advance in the game. You usually find lots of items in those and have to combine them in various ways and interact with the game world and its characters to solve puzzles and advance the story. That's maybe the key difference between those and more focussed puzzle games where it's more about the puzzles, less about item combinations and character dialogs. But adventures can also contain quite challenging puzzles none the less.

Genres are hard to distinguish these days because so many games are a blend of different genres. Anyway, you probably want to stay away from games tagged with "action" or "e-sports" and primarily look for "adventure", "puzzle" or "casual" tags.

I got my 75 year old father into video games.

With him, I started by getting him an xbox and an xbox live account (which allows playing multiplayer games online).

We play World of Tanks now together quite a bit.

Oh, there are so many kinds!

If you have a PC, why don't you check out some free-to-play games on Stream? Or even a couple demos to see what you may like. I wouldn't go straight into getting major equipment until you know a little more about what you like.

My grandma has been playing video games since before I was born. Her tastes have changed as she's gotten older, but there's absolutely something for everyone.

If you're 100% a beginner, I may even go a step back to some flash games. Just to get used to moving around (if not using a controller) and some of the more common UI. There's also a interesting series on YouTube called "gaming for non gamers" about a man and his wife who is trying out different genres. He goes over some things she misses just because she's not used to it since some mechanics they just assume you know these days.

And be easy in yourself! A new hobby always has some rough points. There will be bad games, matches, complete wastes of time. But there will be some truly remarks gems in there. Good luck!

What sort of experience are you interested in? Something challenging and competitive would have you looking at very different games than something relaxing. I’d probably recommend stardew valley for a first game as it’s widely regarded and cozy but not without challenges

Others have said it and I agree, Stardew Valley. Don't even need to buy a console.

Depending on your tolerance for low resolution graphics there are a literal lifetimes worth of games from NES to PS1 that can be emulated at better quality features available than the originals.

Evoquest 1-2 would be wild for you, the gameplay is designed to replicate the evolution from 8 bit to modern mobile gaming platforms. You'll get a chance to "catch up" on what games have been like with a coherent story tying it together.

If you want to get into multi-player stuff there are a lot of MMOs out there for mobile as well.

Yes

Yes, it is worth getting into video games. Mental quickness, friends, and less Alzheimers are some benefits.

People in this post are making excellent recommendations for quality commercial games.

I can recommend starting out in videogames, by getting into Free Software (Libre) games.

Libre Games cost nothing, have no spyware, and usually have positive, helpful, DIY focused communities.

Here is a post I made that lists a few of my favourite free games on desktop and mobile.

https://lemmy.world/post/20786563

If any on this list are too difficult or hard to set up, just skip.

--//--

Historical note

The Fool's Errand game, from 1987, sold very well with women gamers. Over 50% IIRC.

It is a tricky puzzle game with Tarot Card theming and an excellent sense of humour.

Fool's Errand is not Free Software though, and way out of print. It could probably be emulated on a device that you have, PC or phone.

Game detail at Wikipedia

Play original Mac version online

PC version online

Very much so. As people have mentioned there’s a lot of good advice here. A Nintendo Switch might be worth checking out as a starting point. It’s handheld and can also connect to your TV to play on a larger screen.

I would only recommend short games. Ive been gaming my whole life and basically quit recently, because I was playing grindy games that were so exhausting mentally.

Even great games like Terraria, Minecraft and dont starve leave me exhausted. Such huge time sinks. Ive moved onto hobbies that are much more satisfying.

Depends on what you want to achieve.

Video games are an easy way of losing yourself in a hobby for an afternoon. Can become addictive and you may lose the entire weekend.

Do you want games that focus on the social aspect and make friends? The story? Quick reactions and precise timing? Building something? Compete? Challenge yourself and improve (at ultimately a pointless task in a video game)? Simulate something accurately?

Before you start, as a gamer what do you non gamers do to spend your free time on anyway?