Guide - Getting Your Friends into Video Games... (For Real This Time)

Almost a year ago I wrote a guide for this website. Some would say How to Trick Your Friends Into Thinking Games Are Good wasn’t the most earnest of writing but (actually I have nothing to add to that). In the last year, I feel I’ve become a less cynical person… Kinda. So I’ve decided to take a second swing at this.

All of these players are either really nervous or really need to use the bathroom.

I use to spend hours when I was five, six, and, frankly, older than I’d like to admit running in tries as All Blacks against a digitised team of Spaniards forced to go easy on me in EA’s Rugby 2005. I’d race through the same levels of Lego games without a memory card, seeing how far I could reach before bedtime. I would circle opening levels for hours jumping against walls, punching every enemy and everything else that wasn’t the objective, happy to roam.

As a child this was magical, entertainment literally beyond anything I could dream. But these seemingly pointless pursuits were important. A crucial foundation many of us laid when we were young; hours of muscle memory, expectations and unwritten rules drilled into our subconscious.

If I hadn’t spent countless days replaying the first level of Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire on the PS2, I’m confident to say I’d be confounded by how ridiculous video games appear. A lump of plastic that looks like a cross between an adult toy and TV remote with 16 buttons? That’s how you control this ugly bandicoot. Eating turkey dinners off the floor fo a Nazi castle? That heals your wounds.  Control this quipping police-recruit-slash-government-super-spy from half a foot behind his should? You’ll eventually stop getting motion sick. Ridiculous. Yet, somehow, gaming has evolved from niche subculture, to pop culture, to culture.

Because of this many that never got into games or fell off at a young age now seek to jump in and if your reading this, you are likely the video game friend. This means, at some point or another, you’ve been turned to and asked, “Where should I start?”. Like being asked, “What book should I read?” or “What clothes should I wear?”, when asked without context there is no good answers to this question. There are however three bad ones to avoid.

Firstly, don’t recommend popular games. Anything from Fortnite to League of Legends is a bad idea, they expect players to have a base knowledge of gaming norms, which is a great way to frustrate your friend.
Second, classic games they might have heard of. Mario sounds like a great idea until you remember that games get more inscrutable the further you go back. Everything created for the NES until the PS2 was only beaten by people with too much time or a physical guide. Anyone that claims otherwise is definitely lying to you.
The final bad recommendation is your favourite game. Anything you hold dear, keep it to yourself! That is unless you like explaining why ”Actually Ico is a great piece of modern art, full stop”.

I feel like I’m getting snarky so figure out what’s worth recommending instead. Here’s three I recently suggested to a friend. They’re recent, simple but most importantly they’re surprising experiences.

Tetris Effect:

Tetsuya Mizuguchi takes more psychedelics than you.

Tetris is a great place to start for anyone, owing to the fact its Tetris. Blocks fall from the sky and you position them so that they create a line across your screen to clear them. One objective that once you complete for the first time there’s no turning back. The instant gratification of seeing a line flick away in a burst of particles and colour quickly leads to an addictive loop of setting up combos, clearing Tetris-es and ramping speed.

With Tetris Effect, Tetsuya Mizuguchi takes the best of soviet entertainment and added synaesthesia, leading one of the most visual mesmerising games around. It is a marvel of making what was old feel new and - unlike many other retro games - it has a wonderfully low skill floor.

What Remains of Edith Finch:

The creepiest thing in this game is millennial owning a house.

No one forgets the first movie to make them cry and it’s the same with games. Edith Finch is a stirring look at loss, mental wellbeing and regret, told through vignettes of a family doomed to tragedy. But it is also beautiful contemplation on hope. It’s a game that will lead someone new to first-person controls gently through a beautiful and eerie house at their own pace, lacing a new mechanic in with each family member’s tale. This it’s a great way to begin to teach someone the basics of gaming’s linguistics and how to hide their watery eyes while playing.

Kentucky Route Zero:

KRZ is five acts and four interstitials that took seven years to come. It is a game that feels considered to a tee and it is wholly unique, making it almost unfair to classify it as a game. Brimming with striking art, a surrealist tone and pointed messages about capitalism far beyond what almost anyone new to games would ever expect. Gameplay is never the focus here, instead inconsequential choices create a world, backstories and context that will floor unexpecting players with emotional gut punches. This is a game not just people new to games, but anyone with a passing interest.

And if your friend doesn’t like any of these… I dunno, they probably already play Candy Crush on their phone they’ll be fine.
Damnit so close.