Turning a Non-Gamer Into a Gamer
Whether it’s your girlfriend or boyfriend, friend or cousin, mom or dad, etc… Spreading our slightly addictive hobby of gaming is very tempting to do, no matter who is it we’re spending time with. It opens up a way to bond with the people in our lives’ even more.However, getting our loves one to jump into an alien hobby isn’t even. Is getting your girlfriend addicted to COD even possible? The answer is “Yes.” Will it be hard? Well,that depends. Same goes for when you’re teaching someone just about anything new, if there open about the idea and willing to experiment then the whole process will be easier. If not, and you still want to give it a try, going over the benefits of gaming wouldn’t hurt.
For starters tell them that Gamers gain better visual and decision-making abilities compared to Non-Gamer (studies done researchers from Duke University). According to Greg Appelbaum, Duke researcher, putting a lot of time into these kinds of games can increase experience, and allow the gamers to have a better sense of visual placement and decision-making. Along with this, gaming boost brain Power and multitasking skills. “Studies that show video gamers show improved skills in vision, attention and certain aspects of cognition. And these skills are not just gaming skills, but real-world skills. They perform better than non-gamers on certain tests of attention, speed, accuracy, vision and multitasking,” says Beveller (Professor at the University of Rochester) Any of these examples sound familiar, as a gamer? These are tasks faced inside gaming from a range of genres. Going over the benefits should certainly help when it comes to convincing someone to, at the very least, give it a chance.
Going on from there, it’s crucial to choose your first few games wisely. Play it safe with some casual games that anyone is sure to love and understand. Starting off with a complicated and difficult game is the last thing you want to do. While many games might come second nature to you, many Non-Gamers still need to get past the initial awkwardness of using a controller/keyboard and the mouse/thumbstick to move and look around. Depending on how you feel about them, the casual space of mobile gaming isn’t a bad place to start off in but there are definitely alternatives. In Zelda they don’t just dump you off in a dungeon; they first give you the basics and help you build up your way to that given point. With that in mind, Simple controls are KEY. Easy concepts and addictive gameplay are the way to go. Indie games are a great example of this with generally simple controls and non-complicated concepts to grasp.
An important and good tactic would be to exploit their interests. Look into their hobbies, their favorite movies, what they typically do for fun. Do whatever it takes to find out, ask them questions; check their browser history (with caution) and anything else. Use that information to gauge their interest and decide with genres they would potentially enjoy most. Everyone has a favorite game genre, but most people don’t even know it yet. Eventually, you may come to the conclusion that the potential genres fall over “hardcore”/ more advanced gameplay styles. You must simply bear with this for now and assist them in getting some hours of gaming into more simple games, using what they learned from there and THEN building up with advanced games. FPS’s, MMO’s and fighting are a good example of advanced games.
Next finding the right games and holding their hand through them is what’s needed, after playing the first few successful games they should now be getting a few for what they like/dislike for a game and a general opinion of gaming as a whole. Local multiplayer games are a must and I find owning a Nintendo platform is extremely helpful (but it’s possible to find these on other platforms). Basically, you want anything that sparks the addictive nature in us. From there, experimenting with more advanced games and helping get the hang of it until they understand should be the last step. At this point they should be well into gaming, getting this far should show that they at least maintained the interest. Where they go from here is up to you and your newly appointed gaming addict!
