Help me get into video games

February 11, 2018 7:13 AM

Many therapists over the years have suggested getting into video games to help with my anxiety and depression. I have severe OCD. The OCD makes this endeavor more difficult than it should be. I get overwhelmed. Which games? Which systems? Can all games be played on all systems, etc. Details within

I have never been a gamer. I am looking to use video games to distract my mind and help me pass some time. Quieter forms of mediation (meditating and reading) leave too much space for my thoughts. I played video games as a kid (super Nintendo, etc) but was out of video games by the time that Playstation and Xbox and the like were big. It seems like there are so many options – iphone games, ipad games, laptop games. I have an older laptop, so I would probably not be looking for laptop games.

Which system is the “best?” I assume that a PS2 is better than a PS1, but can you play the same games on the 2 as the 1?

Here are some thought as to what I am looking for

-no sports. I don’t think that I am super into fantasy (dragons and orcs and such)

-something that may be on the simpler side. I find some of the modern controllers to be a bit difficult due to all of the buttons and joysticks on the controllers. This may not be a complete deal breaker if it is something that you get used to.

-I seem to like puzzle games (think tetris, 1010). These may get boring after a while, but I like being able to play these while having a glass of wine or tuning out. Simple concept. I played lots of Mario and left to right scrolling games as a kid.

-I am not looking for an expensive new hobby. I don’t mind spending some money, but am not looking to be spending $100 a month on new games. I don’t have any idea how quickly you “beat” games and have to buy new ones

-I am looking for single player options for me and other games that can be played with my girlfriend.
- I think that I am looking for the right balance of something that isn’t too primitive (space invaders) but not as complex as I am sure some of them get. I don’t want to get too stressed out figuring out this stuff.
- I do have a newer TV … smart TV. I don’t know if that matters.

FINALLY, I AM LOOKING FOR SOMETHING THAT I AM NOT GOING TO HAVE TO BE SUPER DEXTEROUS AND HAVE TO KEEP DYING AT SPECIFIC PARTS BECAUSE I CAN'T EVEN WALK CORRECTLY.

Thank you in advance

posted by kbbbo to Media & Arts (36 answers total)

Animal Crossing is incredibly soothing and also incredibly adorable. There’s a pocket version available on iOS, and the most recent version is on 3DS, Nintendo’s
portable/handheld system.
posted by itsamermaid at 7:23 AM on February 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm a fellow anxious person and I find Stardew Valley really good for this, and it seems lots of folks find it very soothing and meditative too. You just play as a l'il person taking over an abandoned farm, growing crops, and making friends with the people in your town. It's available on PC / Mac / Linux, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch.
posted by ITheCosmos at 7:26 AM on February 11, 2018 [16 favorites]

I played Stardew Valley for a while after my dad passed. It felt extremely therapeutic - you can't lose, you can choose what you do each day, doesn't require a lot of skill or dexterity. Its just another world to lose yourself in and grow a garden, or fight monsters, or make friends, or go fishing, or or...

I used Steam on my laptop, easy keyboard controls. I think you can also get it for Play station?

Another fun one I found very cathartic was Unravel, about a knitted creature that explores through a story. There are some scary spots and a little dexterity involved, mostly puzzle oriented though and beautiful music and scenery. Definitely on PlayStation and pretty cheap.
posted by danapiper at 7:27 AM on February 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

I’d tell you to play Civilization and other strategy games, since they’re turn-based, can be single- or multi-player, don’t require special controllers or dexterity, and aren’t orcs or sports. But Civ is a PC game, not a console game.

Same with The Sims. It’s fun and silly and has a strong building component. You spend as much time building things as you do playing the quests.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:28 AM on February 11, 2018

It barely even counts as gaming, but last summer I was going through a hugely stressful time and I started playing Angry Birds on my iPhone. I still play almost every night before bed because it turns out that it relaxes me more than any other form of pre-bedtime activity I've tried. It occupies my mind enough that I don't get that anxious mind-racing thing but it's also repetitive and low-stakes enough that it doesn't cause any adrenaline spikes. I've fallen asleep holding the phone which is pretty much unthinkable for me otherwise.
posted by the turtle's teeth at 7:29 AM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

You definitely want Stardew Valley. I play on the computer, which makes the controls way easier than on a console. Whenever my anxiety gets overwhelming, Stardew Valley turns it around.
posted by lilac girl at 7:31 AM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you have an iPhone, Osmos and rymdkapsel are meditative games that are fast-paced enough that they occupy your attention.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:32 AM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have played a lot of games but for non-stressful, play as long or as short as you want and largely satisfying, I continually come back to Planetbase. You build a base on a new planet, and you don't have to worry about enemies but you do have to deal with deadly weather conditions and balancing food, medical supplies and the happiness of your people.

I play through Steam on my (old) PC. It may work on a laptop! Highly recommend! $20! Eventually you will tire of the limited building options, but I can get very involved and forget about the political horrors of the world for an hour or a whole afternoon.

(I should get some Stardew Valley tips. All signs suggest I would like it but I am stuck on the very beginning where you have to find like 30 different people in town or something like that and I got annoyed and did not return.)
posted by Glinn at 7:34 AM on February 11, 2018

Response by poster: OP here - I just wanted to say that I don't get stressed by shooting or action. The stress comes from the game being too complicated (physically) or just not intuitive

THANKS!
posted by kbbbo at 7:37 AM on February 11, 2018

I’ve also been playing a lot of Gardenscapes, Homescapes, and Township on my iPad. The first two are basically evenly divided between Tetris-like strategy games and beating levels to restore a garden and a mansion respectively. The third is more like FarmVille, in that you’re raising crops and producing products, but you’re also building a town, and there are several mini-games and events within the game.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:43 AM on February 11, 2018

The games I keep coming back to on my phone (and also available on iPhone) are endless runners - you run, turn or change lanes, collect powerups and coins to buy new characters etc. While death happens, the games are designed to make starting a new game as smooth as possible. My favourites are Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers - the latter is totally kids stuff, but very relaxing and it switches to a new city with bright fun graphics every month, while the former is classic for a reason.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 7:51 AM on February 11, 2018

You might like Minecraft, especially on Peaceful or Creative mode at first. It's fun to just play around and do whatever you like in a simple, pretty little world, the controls are simple WASD or whatever keys/mouse you wanna set up, and there's a huge community out there if you want it, or you can just play with a friend, and it's perfectly fine to play entirely alone forever.
posted by The otter lady at 8:18 AM on February 11, 2018

Also, here’s an article you might like 11 Calming Games to Help You Relax - Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing included!
posted by itsamermaid at 8:20 AM on February 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

You may find this long article about how a gamer used Fallout 4 as a chill out space interesting - I spent 453 hours in Fallout 4 and all I got was this stinkin' inner peace.

I really enjoyed Assassin's Creed Black Flag, both for wandering about in cool locales and sailing around in my pirate ship. It's one of the few AC games I have got 100% on because I found it so engrossing to just sail about. AC Origins, the latest one, is hitting many of the same buttons for me, although it's quite a different game gameplay wise.

Whatever game you get, if it's a shooter or involves a fair amount of speed, bump it down to easy if you get flustered. I regularly play shooters on easy these days because it is simply not fun to die repeatedly, and I don't give a shit about whether I play games 'the way they were meant to be played' or not.
posted by Happy Dave at 8:24 AM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

No mans’s sky has proven really distracting for me in some of the ways you’re looking for, in a narrow “boring” band. It’s boring in the best way, more in its pacing than anything else. It’s not a “fast” game, but there’s plenty to see. Sometimes I just play tourist and take pictures of weird animals or sunsets. Other times I figure out how to puzzle together really complicated crafted items.

It’s pretty great, ymmv.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:40 AM on February 11, 2018

I thought Monument Valley had a wonderful meditative quality. I also loved Animal Crossing on the DS--it might be worth noting that reviews of the new mobile version are mixed; it may or may not have the same relaxed, meandering quality that the earlier version had.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 8:49 AM on February 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Minecraft! The manual building mode servers are really great - designing and building a structure/system is something you might really get into, and they take as much skill and effort as you want to put into it (ex: I once made a multi-story lava and glass maze with another player. It took us something like 3 months to build, and when we were done we staged a competition with (in-game) prizes for the first 3 to finish. A few people got REALLY into solving it and I think the fastest person through was like 3.5 hours.) I actually really loved Minecraft and mostly stopped playing because the awesome server I played on got really quiet. But you can also do this locally in a single person world, there’s monsters you can battle at different difficulties, and you could set up a world for just you and your girlfriend to play collaboratively.
posted by DoubleLune at 9:43 AM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you think Mario would still appeal to you, you might enjoy Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch. If you put it in guided mode, it will tell you where to go to complete the quests, and although you can die if you run out of hearts, if you just stand still for a few seconds, your hearts will recharge. Cons: There are a lot of special moves that require combinations of buttons/joysticks to perform. I can never remember them, but it seems like you can get through the game without them, and there's an in-game guide that's easy to get to if you want to try them out.

Stardew Valley is also available for the Switch if that interests you, though I wonder if the open-world-ness of it would stress you out (I prefer my video games with a little more direction -- I stop playing when there are too many options, because I can't decide what to do).

Also for the Switch: Snipperclips is a good coop puzzle game you can play with your girlfriend. I also really enjoyed SteamWorld Dig 2.

Finally, some PC games I think you might enjoy:
Firewatch: your character is a guy who's trying to get away from life for a summer and volunteers to work in a fire tower. As he hikes around the area (and talks to someone in another tower over the radio), he discovers a mystery. There's not really any action in this game, so the controls are simple and you're just uncovering the story as you go. It's a quiet, contemplative game, though the graphics might stretch your laptop.
Broken Age: Another story based game with no action. Because it's 2-D animated, it'll probably run better on your laptop.
posted by natabat at 9:43 AM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Also, you might enjoy Steam as a platform - it’s computer games, so you don’t need to invest in a new gaming system, and has a large variety of free and paid games.
posted by DoubleLune at 9:44 AM on February 11, 2018

I think you might actually be pleasantly surprised by how non-stressful games can be compared to the original Nintendo days. There is a lot more guidance and hand-holding in the beginning of starting a new game, and if you do mess up or die, you are usually only set back a tiny bit because the game autosaves. If you're trying not to spend a lot of money, you might try the Wii. You can get one used for under $100. No, you don't need a smart TV. You can get games cheap and I would think you could spend a month at least on each game before needing a new one. Wii games I liked are Zelda: Skyward Sword, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Brothers, Boom Blox. A lot of Wii games are pretty casual.
posted by katieanne at 10:12 AM on February 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

DCSS, free to play online or download to your laptop. Works fine on old computers. No dexterity required, lots of fun to be had if you enjoy learning about all the ins and outs of tactical fantasy sword & sorcery fighting.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:30 AM on February 11, 2018

I use iphone games to relax or to distract myself from my own thoughts. Phone games aren't considered to be serious gaming, I guess, but you probably already have a phone and downloading some free or inexpensive games is a pretty low barrier to entry compared to buying a whole new system.

Bejeweled is popular with many of my friends. Right now I'm into Plants vs Zombies 2, Paperback, and Boggle - games I can play for a few minutes and then set aside. In the past I've enjoyed Angry Birds, Grayout, Roll the Ball, Blackbar, Monument Leo's Fortune, Tiny Wings, The Silent Age, and Machinarium (more enjoyable on laptop than phone IMO), and Badland.

When I have a long flight coming up I'll google top ten lists for IOS games and download several new one and use the flight to try them out.
posted by bunderful at 10:36 AM on February 11, 2018

I'd buy an NVidia Shield TV and spend the $8 a month on GeForce Now. Lots of Android games, including quite a few PC classics as normal and then the $8 buys you the ability to play a decent library of PC games using NVidia's hardware. If your internet connection is decent, you can't really tell they are being streamed over the Internet.

And since it's basically the most powerful Android box on the planet, it will emulate most games on most consoles up to the GameCube/Wii.

Plus, if you ever do end up with a PC good enough to play modern AAA titles, you can stream them to the TV using the network. ;)
posted by wierdo at 10:50 AM on February 11, 2018

I have a PS4 and like it quite a lot. I like being able to sprawl on the sofa and play, and the controller feels very comfortable in the hand. I also use it as my main media player, with apps for Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Plex, etc. (You can play blu-rays/dvds on it, too.) It has enough uses that I don't feel like I dropped a bunch of $$ on just a game system. You don't need to buy PS+ to play the kind of games you're interested in, that's mostly for online multiplayer games (COD, Battlefront, Overwatch...) and the monthly freebies.

Flower and Journey are both beautiful and relaxing games. The Lego games are all much more fun than they have any right to be, with fun puzzles and pop-culture references galore. They also have couch co-op so you can play with your gf.

I learned to play modern games as an adult who hadn't played anything since Duck Hunt with the Assassin's Creed series. I died a lot, I walked into walls a lot, but the gorgeous settings and fun history tidbits kept me going. The newest one is set in Cleopatra-era Egypt, and is totally beautiful. You can climb the pyramids! Eventually it just clicks--the biggest thing is coordinating your movement with the camera movement. Once you have that down (and it just takes a bit of practice), everything else will fall into place. The controls are pretty similar across most games, so you won't be starting from square one on each new game.

I try to buy games that have high replayability, to get the most for my $$. RPGs like Dragon Age, Fallout, Elder Scrolls can all be played over and over, trying out new character builds and story choices. Games like Dishonored that have different outcomes depending on your play style (stealth, no-kill, high damage murdereveryone...).

Then there are games that just have great stories like The Last of Us, which doesn't change with replaying, but has such a good story I played it four times.
posted by lovecrafty at 10:58 AM on February 11, 2018

Oh, and the new Assassin's Creed has a 'discovery mode' where you can basically turn off the combat and just wander around the world exploring without worrying about random battle encounters.
posted by lovecrafty at 11:01 AM on February 11, 2018

If you like building stuff, OpenTTD. It's free and runs on (maybe literally) any computer released on the past 10 years. It's a huge timesink, a Civilization-level timesink, if you ever read any post on the blue about it, only about building a transport company. You can remove any challenge by tweaking some settings if you want.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:28 AM on February 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Abzu! Stare at fishes! (There are some mild puzzle sections and a few more intense bits, but they're always followed by some beautiful catharsis.)
posted by tobascodagama at 11:39 AM on February 11, 2018

Endless ocean 1 and 2 on the wii (and Wii U since it’s backward compatible) are incredibly soothing and fun. They do have a story too! I thought they were a joke till I played them and fell in love and I’m a pretty avid gamer.
posted by Crystalinne at 12:42 PM on February 11, 2018

Seconding any of the Lego games, we have been playing them as a family and enjoying them a lot either solo or in co-op mode. I have pretty much zero reflexes, and it's fine. The failure mode is "get exploded into Lego bits, lose a few coins and reassemble and never ever die."

I also love Stardew Valley. Our old laptop runs it fine so you would probably be good. You can go all-in on the plot or just go fishing every day forever. It's less of a game-game though.

Most systems are not inter-compatible, but a lot of games come out on multiple systems. If you are seeing if you enjoy video games in general, there is no shame at all in buying a used system one generation behind the current one (says the person who just bought a PS3 a few months ago.) There are a ton of fun things to play, there are already tons of FAQ's and detailed walkthroughs if you get stuck, and everything is much less expensive than new.
posted by tchemgrrl at 12:53 PM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

There's a reason so many people still play Candy Crush Saga. It's challenging enough to not get boring, easy enough to be addictive, and stupid enough to pick up for 5 minutes and then put down again, to de-stress. Plus it works on your phone or your laptop and you don't have to buy anything.
posted by Mchelly at 2:18 PM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

For mental health, I play a lot of phone games, especially Threes, I Love Nikki, and the Cube Escape games. The latter are a bit sinister but I find the lack of a time limit and nice graphics soothing.

For console games, there are a lot of story-forward "walking simulator" games now, many of which are amazing. My favorites are What Remains of Edith Finch and Night in the Woods. Others are Oxenfree, Firewatch, Gone Home, and Tacoma.
posted by tofu_crouton at 2:23 PM on February 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

How about some comedy? Try The Stanley Parable, Jazzpunk, To Be or Not To Be, or West of Loathing. These should all be low-stress, since you really don't die and the game just wants to tell you more jokes.

80 Days is mostly text adventure: you're Passepartout trying to get Phileas Fogg around the world— but you're not at all restricted to Jules Verne's route. Extremely well written and replayable.

It can be a lot of fun to tool around Europe in European Truck Simulator 2. There's an American Truck Simulator too.

These are all PC games. Most of them are not very graphics-intensive.
posted by zompist at 3:04 AM on February 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

> Which system is the “best?” I assume that a PS2 is better than a PS1, but can you play the same games on the 2 as the 1?

Epic flame wars have been fought over which one is “the best”. IMHO the “best” system is the one with the biggest collection of games you want to play, and/or the greatest likelihood of having more games you want to play. For instance, for the last generation I had an XBox 360; I was constantly envious of the PS3’s stream of cool artsy games. Which were partially funded by Sony and thus exclusive to it. This round I have a PS4 and I’m pretty happy with that choice.

Most games are going to come out on all the current consoles, and maybe PCs as well. It’s really the exclusives that define the choice for me. If you want Nintendo’s properties, you want a Switch. If you want a bunch of games for your inner twelve year old boy, you want an XBoxOne. If you want artsy games, get a PS4.

You can often play the games for the previous console from a company on the new one, but not always. The PS4, for instance, does this by emulating the PS3 on a computer at a data center somewhere, and streaming the video to you, which is completely impossible on my mediocre internet connection made even worse by having a WiFi repeater between the console and the modem. Not sure what the XBone and Switch do with regards to 360/Wii games as I don’t have either.

Some modern games will require you to use every button on the controller regularly while playing them. Including the inobvious “push down on the thumb sticks” L3/R3 buttons. Others will use one or two sticks and 2-4 buttons, leaving the rest ignored. It really varies.

I’m not gonna make any game recommendations because one of the non-artsy PS4 exclusives I loved was Bloodborne, which is very much DIE EARLY DIE OFTEN.

Puzzle games are much more common on phones/tablets than on consoles in my experience. Be warned, a LOT of phone/tablet games are designed to get you to constantly spend money on in-app purchases.

You might want to ask around your friends and see if anyone local has a last-generation console they’ll loan to you or sell for cheap. You’ll have a huge library of cheap games to wander through.
posted by egypturnash at 3:47 AM on February 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you have android, check out Merge Dragons. It hits all my organizational tics and has nice puzzles. I think it's also on Facebook.

Another Android/FB one I've enjoyed is Cross Stitch World (also on FB, including free puzzle coupons). It is basically paint by number on your phone and I find it pretty soothing/relaxing even at short bursts. I recommend having/using a capacitive stylus to make the painting easier. I've paid a bit for extra puzzles.

Picross games are another category of puzzles that may appeal to you. Some have better or worse control schemes than others. Koi Picross is a pretty good one and that company makes more.

I have the Switch, Wii, and PS3 also. I'd recommend the Switch and Super Mario Odyssey and/or Zelda: Breath of the Wild as relaxing immersive experiences that aren't complicated. If you have/get a playstation-family console, check out the Ratchet and Clank series.

Really, though, the best way to get into gaming is probably using something you already have so it's a simple first step and to stay out of analysis paralysis. A computer or smart phone is an easy way to get started.

I've been using gaming to help soothe my own OCD for a while now and can help give you tips if you want. Feel free to MeMail me (OP or anyone) - I'm happy to talk!
posted by bookdragoness at 9:47 AM on February 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

You could try casual games - hidden object or task / time management. A lot of these have the option to turn off time limits if that's something you would find too stressful.

Caveat: I honestly don't know how this sort of game would interact with OCD.

You can download them from the internet on to a PC or laptop. I'm sure there are 'phone and tablet versions too. My links below are to PC versions but there are other options on the site. My laptop is also older and these all work fine.

Ones you could try (all single player):

Hidden Objects:

* Mysteriez - this is an incredibly simple game where you just have to locate numbers on the screen and click on them. No option to turn off the time limit on this one, which can make it a bit more stressful.
* The Scruffs - slightly more complex hidden object game.
* Dream Inn: Driftwood - find objects and select options to restore an inn.

Task Management:

* Roads of Rome - clear roads ...
* Weather Lord - manage the weather in order to grow stuff.

There are hundreds of this type of game - the ones I have listed are relatively simple and also not dark (quite a lot of hidden object games are about terrible events). There are free trials at the site I have linked. If you want to buy them they are usually £8, not sure what they are in dollars.

Would text adventures be any good? Don't want to dump a load of ideas on you if not, but let us know if this is something that might work.
posted by paduasoy at 12:01 PM on February 12, 2018

You've got a lot of great suggestions on video game titles to check out, so I'm going to address some of you basic questions/concerns.

- Consoles are pretty much equal when it comes to performance, it really comes down to which games you want to play. Some games are only on Playstaion, some are only on Xbox, some are only on Nintendo Switch, etc. Most (or at least the majority of) games that are on the Playstation are also on the Xbox, and vice versa. Nintendo products (Switch, Wii, DS) tend to be exclusive to Nintendo systems, and they don't tend to play a lot of Xbox or Playstation games. Xbox and Playstation tend to have more graphics intensive, action-y and shooter games (not that Nintendo doesn't have some of these), while Nintendo tends to be more cartoonish graphics and puzzles or adventure (and not that Xbox or Playstation doesn't have those either). PC gaming runs the gamut; many Xbox and Playstation games are on the PC (though not many Nintendo games), and there are lots of games that are only ever on the PC. There are also lots of games you can play on even old laptops. If you're looking at something with 3D graphics you might struggle, but there are a lot of puzzle and story games, and even some action games that have 2D or simplistic 3D graphics that will probably run on your laptop.

- For your question about whether you can play the same games on 2 as the 1--what you're talking about is "backwards compatability." Most newer consoles are backwards compatible with games for previous generations, though the extent to which that compatability works can vary. I had a couple problems running PS1 games on a PS2, but also they may have just been glitchy games. I've never had trouble running a Nintendo DS game on the 2DS or 3DS (tip: 2DS and 3DS are the same system, in terms of processing speed/graphics quality, the 3DS just has a 3D capability, and the 2DS is a cheaper version without the 3D capability). If you're considering a particular console, I would say google "[console] backwards compatability" and see what comes up.

- All those buttons can definitely be overwhelming! It is, however, something that I think you can get used to with enough practice. Both my partner and I actually had trouble with the Switch at first, because it has almost twice the number of buttons as typical controllers. At first we kept yelling "THERE'S TOO MANY FUCKING BUTTONS" but after a couple of weeks we both got the hang of it. So I think part if it is just acclimating.

- How long it takes to beat a game varies sooooo widely. Some games only take an hour to complete. Others you can put hundreds and hundreds of hours into. A few things to look out for: Open world games (Breath of the Wild, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Skyrim) tend to have a LOT for you to do, so you can get tons of hours out of them. Multiplayer fighting games (Overwatch, Team Fortress) don't have a ton of unique content, but can be played over and over again in unique ways with other players, so you can get a lot of use of them. Roleplaying games (RPGs) usually have a linear storyline with a fixed endpoint, and don't have as much replay value, but you can usually get a good 10-20 hours out of them. Indie/art games tend to be much shorter, a couple of hours or so. However, I think you'll find that they're generally priced accordingly--a big open world game is probably $60, while a short indie title is $5-10. A great website is howlongtobeat.com, which shows generally how long people take to beat the game. It also compares how long it takes to beat just the main story, versus extra content, versus doing EVERYTHING in the game, which shows a lot of the variability--Skyrim, for example, shows at 32 hours for the main story, but 222 hours for completionist. I got about 120 hours out of it.

- For games you can play with your girlfriend, terms to look out for are "multiplayer" and "co-op." "Local co-op" means that you and her can play from the same console or PC, whereas "online multiplayer" means you and she will both have to have your own console or PC and your own copies of the game + an internet connection.

- Some genres to avoid if you don't want that "arrrghhh my fingers aren't this dexterous why do I keep dying!!!" feel: platformer, bullet hell, shoot 'em ups (different from a first person shooter/FPS), rhythm, racing. Some genres to look into: point and click, simulation, visual novel, turn-based strategy.

Good luck! There's so many great games out there that sound like they'll fit your tastes. Hopefully this helps you with some of the basics of getting into gaming.
posted by brook horse at 6:28 PM on February 12, 2018 [4 favorites]