Did you ever try to make a non-Gamer Relative play a game?

[PDorr3]

I was just reminded of when my grandma used to come over to visit and we often play board games. So one day I reccomended we play goldeneye on n64. I set the handicaps so i die in one hit and so that she takes forever to kill.
Supprisingly she was able to move around and understand the game (she was about 70 at the time) and sometimes actualy kill me. She had to hold the controller in an awkward way and admitted the joystick was hard to use but she managed. (we played complex btw, one of the most complex levels in the game )

I also let my uncle play goldeneye (i was really into multiplayer on this game) and he was suprising good.

Any stories or memories?

[Jibbajaba]

My mom has always steered clear of games. One time last year she was up here visiting me (we live about 3 hours apart). I was playing Tee Off Golf on my DC while she was doing some shit on my computer, and she starts watching me and getting all interested. After she asked a few questions about it I said "You want to play? We can play 2-player..." fully expecting her to say no. To my surprise she said "sure, why not?" So I reset the game, and we start playing. After a while I get really tired and want to go to bed, and she asks "well can I keep playing?" "Sure, but unless you want to reset the game, you will have to play for both of us." So I went into the bedroom and went to sleep, and my 55 year old mom sat on the floor in front of the TV and kept switching controllers so she could keep playing. I thought that was pretty neat. Only time I ever saw her get into a video game.

Chris

[goatdan]

Heh...

My wife. All the time. So far, she has adjusted to Jawbreaker on my Pocket PC and that's about it. She did take me on in Tengen Tetris the other day, and she was surprisingly good.

She used to have amazing skills at Wolfenstien 3D, but she hasn't played in years (she dreamt about killing Nazis all the time, and decided it was time to stop.) She claims though that she beat the entire game with full 100%'s in under the time goals. If that's the case (and from one time that she walked me through a level, I believe that it is), that blows me away.

[Gapporin]

When I was younger, I had a friend whose mom had played almost every game with him. She was a fan of Abe's Odyssey co-op play, plowed through Final Fantasy VII, etc. etc. Well, for some reason (jealousy or otherwise, I have no idea), my mom got the notion of wanting to learn how to play games as well. I tried to teach her, but having to re-teach basic concepts ("Press Up to go Up. Press Down--no, that's left. Are you paying attention?") bored the heck out of me, and soon there was no fun to be had when I played a video game with my mother. She soon gave up.

Fast foward to last Christmas. I was playing a round of NES Golf at my grandparent's house, and my mom was sitting by me, watching me play. She then says, "That looks like fun. Can I play?" I kinda chuckled, and handed her the second controller. After I taught her the mechanics of video game golf, she took to it like newborn babies on breast milk. We played a round, and I think she got a score of something like +25. It didn't matter, though, because I was actually having fun playing with her. She hasn't tried to play any more games since then, however. (Although she wants to learn how to play DDR. My next project. :P) I think all this new-fangled technology scares her. :P

[Emily]

My two younger sisters were and are extremely girly.
Have you ever seen those mall bitches who chatter and giggle endlessly about nothing?My sisters are chicken-heads...they always have been, always will be.
When Pokemon first came out, i bought Pokemon Blue. I played it for months without wanting another game. They started getting curious and wanted to play constantly. They both ended up with gameboy colors and Pokemon Red. My sister is still a closet Pokemon frea; Pokemon Ruby is one of 3 games she plays on her DS.

[WanganRunner]

My sister never really played games until college, when she developed a near religious devotion to FF7 (like 4 years after it came out). Now all her IM names and email addys are "Mog" this or "Aeris" that.

My mom's husband (2nd one) fancies himself a gamer, even though he sucks ass. We'll play Halo and I'll give him all sorts of artificial handicaps, I wont' use the rocket launcher, whatever, and I'll still whup his ass every time.

The BEST instance of non-gamer-dom I've ever witnessed was my friend Mike's mom when I was a little kid. I had just gotten a Game Gear, at launch, and it was super cool. Mike's mom wouldn't let him have ANY videogames of any kind, claiming that "They rot your brain" (she was a math teacher). Then one night we were downstairs watching a movie or something in the basement, and I went upstairs to go to the bathroom.

I had left my Game Gear in their living room apparently, and Mike's mom was sitting there on the couch playing Columns, and was pretty embarassed when I saw her doing it. It was definitely one of the top 5 funniest fucking things I've ever seen in my life.

[PDorr3]

My sister never really played games until college, when she developed a near religious devotion to FF7 (like 4 years after it came out). Now all her IM names and email addys are "Mog" this or "Aeris" that.

My mom's husband (2nd one) fancies himself a gamer, even though he sucks ass. We'll play Halo and I'll give him all sorts of artificial handicaps, I wont' use the rocket launcher, whatever, and I'll still whup his ass every time.

The BEST instance of non-gamer-dom I've ever witnessed was my friend Mike's mom when I was a little kid. I had just gotten a Game Gear, at launch, and it was super cool. Mike's mom wouldn't let him have ANY videogames of any kind, claiming that "They rot your brain" (she was a math teacher). Then one night we were downstairs watching a movie or something in the basement, and I went upstairs to go to the bathroom.

I had left my Game Gear in their living room apparently, and Mike's mom was sitting there on the couch playing Columns, and was pretty embarassed when I saw her doing it. It was definitely one of the top 5 funniest fucking things I've ever seen in my life.

did she say anything after u saw her?

[WanganRunner]

No, she didn't notice that I had seen her until the 2nd time, when I was on my way back downstairs, then I just sorta grinned and went down the stairs.

I didn't actually have to walk through the living room, but on the way back I stood at the top of the stairs blatantly (visible from the living room) for a sec so she'd notice me for sure.

I wish I'd been old enough to actually say something witty, lol.

[Kroogah]

Mom played the Hell out of every puzzle game we got our hands on. Tetris, Tetris 2, Tetris Attack, Dr. Mario, Yoshi, Yoshi's Cookie, Kirby's Avalanche, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Columns....she's tried a few non-puzzle games, most notably Sonic 2 and Ghosts 'n Goblins. I tried to get her to play Animal Crossing but she never bothered after the initial chores.

All the Game Gears I've ever owned were played by her more than by me. Super Columns religiously.

My dad would occasionally play arcade games, and he played the NES when it was new. Contra, Rad Racer and Mach Rider were his games. He was never big into video games until I bought an Xbox. He bugs me all the time to play Tiger Woods PGA Tour (actually, we both used to play Hot Shots Golf all the time before we tried Tiger) and sometimes Top Spin or Project Gotham.

Outside of those 2, not really. They're either intimidated or don't see the point (e.g. why play Top Spin when you can play real tennis)

[RCM]

Christmas 2003 my brother gave me the eyetoy and I got my grandma to play the window washing minigame. She was really into it.

THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM

[Damon Plus]

My girlfriend used to play Dr. Mario and Bubble Bubble with me, and Super Mario Bros and Kirby´s Adventure by herself.

I play with my sister games like Gunstar Heroes, ISSD, Super Mario Kart,Contra, River City Ransom, Super Off Road, Super Dodgeball, Pro Wrlesting and Ice Hockey (she is VERY GOOD playing Ice Hockey, we are always even until the last minute, in wich I usually win )

Then there´s my mother and father trying to hit the "fucking stupid ducks" on Duck Hunt

[PDorr3]

My girlfriend used to play Dr. Mario and Bubble Bubble with me, and Super Mario Bros and Kirby´s Adventure by herself.

I play with my sister games like Gunstar Heroes, ISSD, Super Mario Kart,Contra, River City Ransom, Super Off Road, Super Dodgeball, Pro Wrlesting and Ice Hockey (she is VERY GOOD playing Ice Hockey, we are always even until the last minute, in wich I usually win )

Then there´s my mother and father trying to hit the "fucking stupid ducks" on Duck Hunt

have them try to play shooting gallery on sega master system. hitting the targets gets devistatingly hard! its alot of fun though

[Videogamerdaryll]

Did you ever try to make a non-Gamer Relative play a game?

Sure..All the time..

But,then they usually want to take whatever it is they played home with them..

[SuperNES]

yeah, my dad is actually pretty good at FPS'es. it sucks though because whenever we play multiplayer, all he wants to do is co-op. whenever i get a new game, something like this always hapens:

Me: hey dad check out this cool new game
My dad: cool does it have multiplayer?
Me: yeah,
My dad: does it have co-op?
Me: no.
My dad: *makes farting noise with mouth and waves hand as to say "well then it sucks"*
Me: ugh.

maybe its because he has a problem with 'killing' his own son in deathmatch, or maybe because he always gets his butt kicked.

we have played through both halo and halo 2 on co-op, and are working on ghost recon. he has been known, though, to play splinter cell or rainbow six: rouge spear till like 1:00 am

My mom, on the other hand:


the only time she has ever played videogames were once playing rallisport challenge against me and my dad, when she took like 5 minutes longer to finish the race, and when i tried to teach her how to play Halo 2.
i would be like "mom, move the left control stick to move" *thing somes up on screen telling her to use the left stick to move*
Her: what? those look like mushrooms!
Me: okay, whatever. use the left mushroom to move! push it forward to go forward!
Her: like this? *looks at floor and spins around shooting the ground*
Me: no, just get in the tank.

needless to say, it was difficult for her to score any kills. the only time she killed me was when she was randomly swinging the energy sword around and i accidentally jumped in front of her.(oh yeah, she is okay at simpsons road rage.)

aaaand my grandma used to be obsessed with tetris for the game boy pocket. now she always plays solitaire but that doesnt really count.

[ghostangelofcky]

Chrono Trigger, works every time.

[whoisKeel]

Back in the Street Fighter II days for snes, I had my mom play my friend. She held the controller upside down, hit buttons like crazy, and beat his ass. I never let him live that down for as long as I knew him.

[drewbrim]

Back when I was growing up my brother and I used to have our birthday parties at a place called Major Magic's (like Chuck'E Cheese only more video games and less ticket games). Anyways every time we went it was hard to tear good ol dad away from Time Pilot.

I can't wait for the day I can save up the money to give him the actual arcade game.

*On a side note, was there ever a good (ie recent ) port of this game?

[Wavelflack]

It's on Arcade Advanced. I suppose if you have a GBA player..

[Pantechnicon]

-Bought my mom a Gameboy way back in 1990. I had just bought one for myself for Christmas and discovered the addictive power of the Tetris pack-in. Figured my mom would like it so I got her one for her birthday. Fifteen years later she still keeps her Gameboy in her nightstand and the Tetris cart is the only game that's ever been in the thing.

-Got my wife to play deathmatch in Quake II once or twice. She wasn't too bad. I'm not sure this counts b/c Mrs. P is a gamer, but she's in denial about it.

-Best/worst story is my father. Shortly after I got my brand new smokin 386SX back in 1992 I picked up Star Trek: 25th Anniversary for it and the old man, in a feeble attempt to try and appreciate my way of enjoying life, thought he'd give it a try. The problem is that my father is, in a sense, still very much trapped in the "rebellion" mindset that he began experiencing as a teenager in the 1960's. Nobody tells him what to do. Thus it was not really to his liking when, as we're battling the Klingons, I start yelling things like "Go left...no, right!! Raise your shields!! FIRE THE PHASERS, DAMMIT!!!" He stuck with it all of five minutes, and said it wasn't worth the hassle if I was going to sit there yelling at him the whole time. What a sorehead...

[mieu_c]

When I was real young my family would always hang out together.. aunts, uncles, grandparents.. moms and dads.. you know the whole gang.
Well once we got a Nintendo our weekends were NUTS! My Uncle Gene would get so f-ing crazy about super mario. He would be cursing at the top of his lungs.. I always thought that was cool cause I learned new words to call my friends. anyway... we had these matchs where we would have teams to try and beat the game... it was so much fun. Then of course there was tetris. Mom was real good at it. I was better of course Now those days are over.. sniff sniff.. no more