Easing Your Girlfriend Into Gaming

Let's face it, if your girlfriend isn't exactly into gaming, then she's not going to be too lenient towards huge, 12 hour grind sessions. She isn't going to understand that bathing and eating can be put on the back burner. She really isn't going to understand how the sun could hurt ones eyes so damn much. That is until you slowly drip that MMO-rphine into her system. Suddenly it all becomes clear. She thinks as if she's in game and wonders why the fuck you haven't been leveling your crafts to make her some gear. You'll also see a lot more compassion towards your gaming habits. Hell, she might even look cool to your gaming buddies.

This is not an easy task. Some of you may get as lucky as I did, and hook a girl who's already dabbled in games. Or, you might even get someone who is freaking 1337 2 the max. Now, let's assume you've got the typical girlfriend. She wants you to leave the house gasp! And, she wants you to do activities that don't require you sitting in front of a screen double gasp! This is a mini guide on getting her to ease her way into gaming. Don't throw her right into WoW, or whatever your poison is, unless your poison happens to be on the list! Let's take a look at our first step, the gateway drug, if you will.

FACEBOOK APPS

Love them, or hate them, this is one of the greatest ways to get a chick into gaming. All of these games have RPG elements in them, already. There's the concept of leveling up, rare items, forming parties (finding and adding neighbors), and it all sets off the so called accomplishment trigger in the brain. You know? The one that has us hooked on our favorite game.

These games are definitely easy for her to get into. I'm sure she has a Facebook, already, and it probably already has tons of wall posts from people trying to get her to raise their barns, or what have you. Games like these are casual, but do have an addictive edge to them. You'll find people that haven't gamed much in the past habitually starting to work on their apps. Little do they know they just might be the next generation of gamers to fill up our servers and run our guilds.

So she has taken the bait...now on to phase two.

PHANTASY STAR ONLINE (GAMECUBE)

PSO is one of those pick up and play games. It's super simple, yet oh-so-addicting. The lure here is to ask her if she wants to do something and you can suggest a two player game. Just tell her you level up like in farmville. Now, I chose this game for a couple of reasons. It's simple; this will get her used to the basic traditional RPG mechanics. She'll have to learn to heal herself, to manage her stats, and to properly gear herself. This will also expose her to the grind we all know and love. The best part is the co-op mode as a lure. You -could- play online, but there's a chance that she might not be too used to the gaming community, and it could possibly scare her away.

You could also try Phantasy Star Universe. This game isn't as simple as PSO, but it still isn't a very difficult game. The huge draw for her would probably be the insane customization. Characters can be very unique in this game. The clothing system in game is usually pretty appealing to a female.

So, you got this far. Pretty good, even if you don't get any further, you could probably squeeze 1000 hours of solid gameplay out of PSO. But, if she's still interested, let's continue.

DRAGONICA ONLINE

AWW SO CUTE! Very cute graphics, indeed, but more of that traditional MMORPG feel to it. There are instances, and this time you'll have to work with more than just the two of you to get anywhere in game. The goal, here, is to bribe her with cuteness. I could list a ton more games that have very cutesy graphics to them, but I particularly like DO, and I plan on reviewing it in the future.

Be careful, though, with some of these freebie anime style games. If you hadn't noticed how sexified the women are, you might need to get your eyes checked. There are games where the world is full of nothing but huge breasted women who wear cleavage exposing clothing, and have that perfect hour glass shape. Heck, she might even be into it, but I'm not even going there.

At this point you basically have her, she is probably open to all suggestions, she is probably craving different games now. You probably ruined her life but, fuck it, you just made a solid gaming buddy. So now that she's come this far, go ahead, do it. You know you want to. Still here, huh? Just freaking go to the website and get her the free trial. You know what I'm talking about right?

WORLD OF WARCRAFT

MMO bliss in a box. Blizzard has a habit of taking a genre, looking into the successful games of its past and mashing them all together to form a great game. I'm not going to go into too many details about this game, 'cause I want to review it, but it's not going to be for a long time. I've only been severely addicted to two MMOs in my life, and this is one of them. Approach with caution!