In the past quarter, we have explored a lot of different genres of games, and had a lot of conversations about what the different genres mean, and struggled to give genre to games that did not seem to fall into any specific bucket. Before taking this class, I really only played action-adventure games — again a very large bucket in which many, many games could fit — and never really found any reason to branch out from my comfortable position playing the same kinds of games, and then just playing the sequels of those games. Certainly this may not be the best approach to gaming, but it was what I was used to. Whenever a friend of a friend heard that I liked video games, and wanted to learn a bit more about games and where to get started, I knew that my approach to playing video games was different than the average person, so I just told them Super Mario Bros, and other games that I was somewhat sure that they had heard about. However, this leads me to think about what are the best kinds of games to use to introduce someone who is new to gaming?
There is no real answer to this question, since of course everyone’s tastes are different, and every type of game appeals to a different kind of person for different reasons. I suppose one of the first thing would be to choose a beginner-friendly game where the controls are not too difficult to use. I know that a lot of the games that kids played when they were younger were platforming and racing games, but I wonder if anyone has another thoughts on some games or genres to suggest to new gamer that can help them see the merit in value in gaming as a form of entertainment as well as an artwork. Is the best approach to have them play the game and get a feel for it, or let them watch some gameplay first and get used to the gameplay before they actually do anything. Typically I try to let them play so they get the hang of things, but I’m interested to hear what other people suggest to new gamers, and what games usually get them hooked!
I found the question you posed in this post really interesting! After taking this class, thinking about what games to recommend, and how to recommend games in general, has been on my mind. In my opinion, I think we should take an approach to this that is similarly inspired by the content of this class, and use genre. If someone you know happens to be particularly interested in a particular genre of movies, for example (horror/sci-fi, etc.), then you could recommend them a popular game from that genre! It could be an easy way to pique their interest quick.