How to make a 60 year old into a gamer

[NoiseMan]

My dad is wants to get me more and is willing to try video games and I want to hook him as much as possible. His experience with video games started and ended with the Pac-Man era so to speak. I would like to know which games that someone with practically no gaming experience can ease into. He really liked watching me playing red dead redemption undead nightmare.

[CheshireCatMoonSmile]

stanley parable is good

[Fosty]

SMIFFY eredeti hozzászólása:

I've just realised something scary, his dad was only roughly 2 years older than me at the start of the 2000s.

So you're approaching your 70s now? What games are you into?

My dad is in his 60s and played a lot of RTS, racing and flight sims. Now he plays a lot of Medieval Dynasty.

[Γαῖα]

metamec eredeti hozzászólása:

Please don't ruin your father's life. This kind of thing may start with good intentions, but usually ends with an anime girl pfp, shouting at people on forums and inappropriate cosplay on weekly outings to Walmart.

Im sure most people wont turn out like you.

[Kobs]

Get him to try VR he will be hooked on everything loll

[Peekaboo]

Splinter cell - the old one, Chaos theory. Perhaps

[Γαῖα]

metamec eredeti hozzászólása:

Γαῖα eredeti hozzászólása:

Im sure most people wont turn out like you.

Unfair. I don't shop at Walmart.

lol

[NoiseMan]

My dad isn’t sure what kinds of genres games come in. Is there a way to explain the most important game genres to him and what they are?

[Reggaejunkiedrew]

I think a lot of these suggestions would be far too mechanics heavy for someone like that. Maybe less so if he's savy with a computer In general but a lot of people that age struggle that kind of thing.

I'd suggest some more story focused /walking sim type games or adventure games. Stuff without a lot of systems you need to learn.

Telltale games (Back To The Future could be good)
What remains of Edith finch
Amnesia the dark descent
It Takes Two
Fozra Horizon 5
Islanders

For shooters, something linear without a lot of systems. Something like Half Life 2, Black Mesa, Max Payne, or FEAR.

If strategy games sound appealing to him the Warcraft 3 or Starcraft 2 campaigns are pretty accessible and simple to learn the basics. Maybe civ 5 for turn based but pretty much all turn based strategy games will be somewhat complex compared to most things.

If you have a Switch Nintendo games are pretty entry point for people who don't play games, Mario Oddesey is a good choice.

[Γαῖα]

NoiseMan eredeti hozzászólása:

My dad isn’t sure what kinds of genres games come in. Is there a way to explain the most important game genres to him and what they are?

Its better to give him a taste of the real thing if you have all the genres.

Because he is all fingers and thumbs with controllers/ mouse and keyboard, start with a simple turn based game as its less for him to brain work to begin with. For a first and third perspective try driving games on practice mode. If all you have is shooter types, find an area he can move and try stuff without getting shot. Side scrollers like sonic also to begin with.
The first important thing when teaching a beginner is keeping them engaged and not overloaded.
Every time they master the controls better, up the requirements. Dont forget to explain why something happened and above all be patient as it is a killer standing by watching someone make something you find easy, look so hard.

[Soap]

Γαῖα eredeti hozzászólása:

NoiseMan eredeti hozzászólása:

My dad isn’t sure what kinds of genres games come in. Is there a way to explain the most important game genres to him and what they are?

Its better to give him a taste of the real thing if you have all the genres.

Because he is all fingers and thumbs with controllers/ mouse and keyboard, start with a simple turn based game as its less for him to brain work to begin with. For a first and third perspective try driving games on practice mode. If all you have is shooter types, find an area he can move and try stuff without getting shot. Side scrollers like sonic also to begin with.
The first important thing when teaching a beginner is keeping them engaged and not overloaded.
Every time they master the controls better, up the requirements. Dont forget to explain why something happened and above all be patient as it is a killer standing by watching someone make something you find easy, look so hard.

@ the OP

I concur with this. When your dad has time and wants to play it’s probably best to let him learn by trying some games and learning that way. Where that’s not practical to install too many games or whatever, that’s where you’d step in and help him figure out which to try first.

As for explaining game genres to him. Good question. It’s probably easy to find game genre descriptions online, but they can differ for complex one’s like RPG. I was trying to pull up an article to link for you but it’s not loading properly on my phone, so maybe I can post it later.

The Steam Store is good at using many different descriptive tags for games. So he doesn’t necessarily need to learn much to find games that are a good fit. Like it’s also possible to search for a theme he might like, such as might be used to designate movie genres like, western, military, or even just do a search for arcade games. It seems you have quite a few games already, so I’m sure you’ll be good at helping him with that.

[Basho]

i suggest trying out some free games first (unless you put him at your machine etc).
get a feeling for how WASD and such work in a simple game and move on from there.

if he likes military stuff, then:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/107410/Arma_3/

pretty popular with service personnel.

you could play it together too.

if he enjoys management type games, these can also be played in coop and are pretty chill (especially satisfactory)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/526870/Satisfactory/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Factorio/

[Incarnate]

**DeiRowtag eredeti hozzászólása:

Depend of his taste, story telling? Rpg with choice? Fps? Puzzle ? Relaxed games?

Just show him some stuff and let him pick something. Maybe he'll be into strategy games or anime. Who the hell knows. You have to try a bunch of stuff until you find that one genre or niche that hits you.

[Ailes]

Eld3r eredeti hozzászólása:

i think it is funny how some of guys think 60 years old makes the guy brain soft

I wouldn't necessarily say that, but when I was first writing my reply to this thread I was considering things like eye strain and such. I'm 32 and I'm wearing glasses and I already feel a tendency to avoid hyper-realistic 3D games because they seem to wear me and my eyes out faster than other games.

Of course that isn't really saying much about that 60 years old man, I have been gaming all my life and I neglect my health quite a bit so I should have seen it coming. But still, the body and the mind, they can be fickle things, and more often than not it gets worse with increased age.

As for the original question: I would try to narrow down by multi-/singleplayer and how breaks can be done (how the saving works) first. Even if OPs father is still able-bodied that doesn't mean he wants to or can (for outside reasons, I'm sure he has some other things to attend to at times too) play extended sessions with no way of saving the game or being dependent on others. A newbie should probably avoid PvP games at all costs, and the more toxic PvE ones as well - probably multiplayer altogether at first.

If he liked watching RDR it would only be logical to try and let him play that one, as others have mentioned. Or similar games. Rockstar hasn't been >that< lazy in the past decades, they pretty much defined an own kind of open-world genre.

[NoiseMan]

My dad just started playing. He has a hard time remembering what the buttons do and he has a hard time pressing the buttons without looking at them. He’s willing to get better and continue trying which is good. How can I help him get used to controllers and get him to properly hold a controller.

[Soap]

NoiseMan eredeti hozzászólása:

My dad just started playing. He has a hard time remembering what the buttons do and he has a hard time pressing the buttons without looking at them. He’s willing to get better and continue trying which is good. How can I help him get used to controllers and get him to properly hold a controller.

For remembering:
Take a screenshot or photo of the controls and print it out, or do a sketch of it. Then he can look at it as needed without needing to pause or go into options. Games used to all come with these in paper manuals. Now a lot of games have a way to see them in game, but some have digital manuals you can access from your Steam Library or maybe the game’s official website somehow.

For holding it:
idk other than just demonstrating for him, or understanding what the trouble is and seeing if there’s a different shape/size of controller that’s better for him. I think the most important thing is that he’s having fun. If he feels the need to hold it different, I’d just let him keep playing rather than stopping him. Unless he’s asking for additional help with that, I’d probably only demonstrate for him once before he starts playing a game each session. I think it’s more important for people to be comfortable when they’re playing, than holding a controller in the most efficient way.