Long time luker, first time poster looking to get more active in the community here...
First things first, I'm not looking to start arguments of what game is better or negative comments about game choice will be ignored thoroughly. Okay so that's outta they way lets get into the meat of this thread:
Just like Cohh and his Kitties (and wife oh course!!!) he has chosen to game with someone special (all of us weirdos that watch him play from the shadows of the internet) and this thread is dedicated to talking about our experiences making that choice to game with someone special. In my case that would be my wife of almost two years who was not interested in gaming at all. It was during some hard times that I discovered Cohh and watched him while I filled out job application after job application and worked as an internet ads assessor.
She would watch with me on occasion and decided that she would start to try and play more complicated games that what she would previously play with me (about once ever three months or so). I was not successful at peaking her interest until we started playing Pandemic Legacy (board game) with another couple. After that she was watching me play Rocket League with my best buddy from High School and she decided that she wanted to play as well. She still only wanted to play about once every two months but now I've gotten her to ask to play games close to every other week or so and just recently I got her to ask to play games together three days in a row! Now if anyone else here has taken that step to include someone else in your gaming then you know that these first steps are always the most overwhelming for a "non-gamer".
The game that we are currently playing together is Rift with the intent to grow into the Elder Scrolls Online. She has watched me play way too many hours of Skyrim and Fallout (3, NV, and 4) and is intrigued by these universes. She is still completely terrified and usually angry at the general chat panels (we're still working on ignoring the trolls and such) but she's finally understanding how truly amazing entering into an unknown world and getting to explore it. It's been a crazy journey so far and I think that she'll keep playing with me as long as I get games that would interest her as well as me. I don't know if she'll ever start gaming on her own but, I can hope. She was very intrigued watching me play and other streamers playing Rise of the Tomb Raider (primarily Felicia Day).
At this point I feel like MMO's are a great way to get a non-gamer into gaming as the mechanics are usually a bit simpler and the worlds/ story lines are more based on exploration and comradely (not always the case). The Lego games were always a good choice for her as she could remember what the button mapping was since they found a system that worked and haven't really changed it drastically. But after these kinds of games, where are the really great Co-op games that I remember blazing through with my buddies, or spending hours killing hordes of enemies through out college? Most of the Co-op that I've seen lately seem a little lack luster or even not very much fun for the second person as they are treated as more of a side-kick than a second hero!
Enough of that soapbox though. Either way I'd love to just chat about others experiences getting others into gaming, what games (doesn't even have to be video games) they've really enjoyed sharing with others, and even if you have had experience streaming. They are all huge social leaps of faith and for those of us whom want to share a hobby and to increase it's intrinsic value and it's nice to hear what others have gone through.
Until next time!
