I’m a 30 year old woman who’s only really played card and puzzle games on my phone. Im considering new hobbies. Is it worth trying to get into video games for the first time. Where would I even start.
What sort of experience are you interested in? Something challenging and competitive would have you looking at very different games than something relaxing. I’d probably recommend stardew valley for a first game as it’s widely regarded and cozy but not without challenges
A lot of women I know who aren’t the typical “gamer” type really enjoy Stardew Valley. It’s a little farming game where you live in a town, foster relationships with the townspeople, and generally go about small town life. Very cute game, especially fun with friends.
Also Minecraft, it’s very open ended and there are many ways to play it.
As for how to start, an affordable laptop will run both of these fairly well, if you want Nintendo games you’ll probably have to get a Nintendo Switch.
Definitely make a Steam account though, you’ll find pretty much all the games you could want in one place there (Minecraft is separate).
This game recommendation thingy might be helpful: https://apps.quanticfoundry.com/surveys/start/gamerprofile/
In the profile you choose what you are looking for in a gaming experience - it doesn’t matter if you don’t know yet or need to make up some answers. There are questions like “How important is working towards a common goal with other players?”
It’s a place to start anyway.
My wife is a 30+ woman and she loved (among others) OneShot, World of Goo, and Final Fantasy XV.
OneShot is an atmospheric, story-based game with some puzzle elements and a lot of lovable characters. On the flip side, there’s a lot of walking and it’s easy to get lost. Nevertheless, there’s a deep connection you as the player can build with the characters and the world they inhabit.
World of Goo is a physics-based building game, where you build bridges and towers out of cute sentient rubber-like balls, but beneath the solid physics, art and music there lies a deep social commentary too.
Final Fantasy XV is the most mainstream of these, but it is an entry into the FF games specifically designed for newcomers in mind. It follows four main and several supporting characters on a journey that starts as a road trip interspersed with beginner-friendly but still jaw-droppingly well rendered and animated combat and slowly but surely escalated to an epic catharsis.
World of goo… 100%. My wife and I have also played through this together and she enjoyed it. I also started a Baldurs Gate 3 playthrough with her making most of the decisions and me actually playing the game. That went pretty well, but it’s a long ass game
I’d say start with some of the most popular games, like Mario and Pokemon. Those are the two biggest video game franchises in the world, they’re very accessible and even decades later still a ton of fun.
edit: FWIW, Nintendo is a problematic video game company and trying to destroy video game preservation of their games (and trying to prevent community-run video game competitions/tournaments of their games), but they still have made some of the best video games of all time.
Try out open-source games too, not just the big corporate games. Space Station 14, OpenTTD, Endless Sky, Naev, plenty of choices. Saw someone here rant about how the “videogames industry has become very rotten” and decided I’d point you to a non-rotten part of it.
Can I go completely 180 and suggest programming as a hobby? If you want a hobby where you’re in a computer. Then try learning to program little things. If you work on a computer then it’ll make things easier for you in the future, it’ll keep your brain sharp and teaches you problem solving.
Get a switch lite, yeah. I highly recommend playing star fox 64, Pokemon stadium, and the older legend of Zelda games. They are very good entry points into gaming and are all available via a Nintendo online membership.
App games are video games so if you think playing on your phone is worth it, then playing on a dedicated gaming device should be worth it too.
You can start by choosing a platform. You can stick to mobile (Switch, Steam Deck), go console (Xbox, PS5, Switch), or a gaming PC.
Plus 1 to this. A lot of great games have broken through to mobile, and are really affordable. Two specific recommendations:
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Balatro— if you have any familiarity with poker this will make a ton of sense to you. It’s very popular, easy to pick up, and has a lot of depth.
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Listen to video game podcasts for recommendations. I love The Besties, but there are a ton. Try the games they recommend. If you like what they say is good, then you’ve found a reliable source of Future recommendations. If not, try another podcast!
I really do recommend the hobby. It’s a lot of fun, there are a bunch of different kinds of games, and the landscape is constantly evolving so there’s always something new (or old—retro games are super fun) to discover. Take your time and try a bunch of different things!
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What gaming is like for a non-gamer
This guy had his non-gaming wife try different games, very enlightening for your purposes
Excellent video!
I’m a 30-something woman myself. I’ve been gaming longer than I’ve had a phone. Here’s my two cents:
You’re already into videogames. Fuck what the haters say about mobile gaming not being “”“true”“” gaming (whatever the heck that means), they’re just sour they can’t game whenever wherever without investing a ton of time. Then again, maybe I’m just mad because I’ve recently invested a ton of time into Youtube’s playables.
If you want to get into PC or console gaming, I recommend starting off with popular E rated games in the genres you already know you like. Generally these games are more complex than mobile games, but this type will usually introduce difficulty curves to gradually transition you into their mechanics and complexity and teach you to be a master without having to look up training online.
If you want to branch out, start with genre-bending/-blending games. I’m personally a fan of puzzle-platformers, as those are my two favorite genres; while I’m not big on card games, they recently had an explosion in popularity, so there’s a blend of just about every genre you could want.
Stardew Valley.
Worth getting into? Absolutely. It can be very cheap, too.
Where to start? That’s the trick question. It will depend on whether you start with console or PC, the latter having a much more extensive catalogue of games, plus emulation of older systems.
My personal recommendation is getting a PC, it doesn’t even need to be a gamer one, anything that isn’t a piece of shit and was released in the past 4 or so years will do good for playing low end games and emulate anything up to N64 and possibly Dreamcast games (2003 and earlier). You can use a variety of console controllers on computer, so it’s fine. Whe searching for ROMs, be sure to have uBlock Origin installed on your web browser.
If you have any friends, talk to them, see what they’re playing or would recommend you to play. If you don’t, download steam and download demos of games that look somewhat interesting to you. Check GOG as well, it tends to have some older PC games as well, plus demos and whatnot.
Try out a variety of genres. It’s possible one game of a certain genre might not “click” with you, but another might.
I would highly recommend Portal and Portal 2 as primers for basically all your 3D games. Not only did Yahzee give The Orange Box in general a glowing review, but they teach you basic gaming mechanics almost intuitively.
Others have said it and I agree, Stardew Valley. Don’t even need to buy a console.
Depending on your tolerance for low resolution graphics there are a literal lifetimes worth of games from NES to PS1 that can be emulated at better quality features available than the originals.
Evoquest 1-2 would be wild for you, the gameplay is designed to replicate the evolution from 8 bit to modern mobile gaming platforms. You’ll get a chance to “catch up” on what games have been like with a coherent story tying it together.
If you want to get into multi-player stuff there are a lot of MMOs out there for mobile as well.
