Teaching friends how to play games

[markusman64ds]

It's Friday night. You have your friends over for a get-together. You decide to bring out a game none of your friends have ever played.

Do you just tell them which button does what, or do you go into a stage and give them a demonstration?

[Emperor Megas]

It's been a while since I've had friends over to play games, but when my s/o plays a new game with me I'll just tell her which buttons do what and explain things as we go along. It's usually something that's multiplayer though.

[kupomogli]

What I've noticed is that there are some of my friends, even those who do play games are extremely varying skill levels. My best friend and I seem to be able to pick up anything and play it well with no problem at all, regardless of game. However, other friends of mine seem to suck ass at any video game they haven't put a lot of time into. One of my friends plays nothing but Gran Turismo 5 and he's extremely good at the game, but had him over at my house playing a couple of other racing games. Wipeout HD and Chocobo Racing, it was like watching someone who's never played a game before.

So those friends of mine who suck at video games, or suck badly at anything they haven't played before, I start a new game, show them the actions and how the game plays. Then I either give them the controller to start at that point or restart the game. Usually things not looking very good. I never knew you couldn't die before the boss at the tutorial on Demon's Souls. Thanks to one of my friends, I've found out that before the tutorial boss, you have infinite health, even if it drops to 0.

[Gunstar Hero]

Some of my friends I just tell them the buttons especially if they have played the system or are generally good at games. But some friends (who can only play call of duty well) I have to go extremely in depth with even the simplest of games! And when it comes to versing those friends at games, I may as well not even tell them the buttons because they get creamed so quickly

[Kabrelle]

I'm a terrible teacher as I over explain things or describe things vaguely at times, even the simplest things, so I usually leave them to figure out the controls themselves. Usually proves to be better since they are more prone to remember what a button does by pushing it than if I told them what it does. Or I just let them read the instruction book.