I just realized that the most obvious choice for new players is Stardew Valley. I never really thought about it. Even newer Mario or Minecraft could be a barrier. Controlling cameras can be confusing and difficult for newer players. Stardew doesn’t require you to be good at twin stick mechanics (although that is used for the slingshot if you want to do that). It gives you lots of encouragement and is very straightforward with missions. The screen is never cluttered with junk or pop-ups. It gets more complex as you progress but you’ll never be “stuck”. The fishing and fighting games teaches how to use button control and timing. Everything feels rewarding like you are making progress. Not to mention it’s pretty universally loved and will run on almost any PC and is available on all consoles or tablet or mobile devices

I’d recommend Portal and its (much better) sequel Portal 2. Excellent puzzle games, good writing, fun characters and short. It should take you abojt 3-5 hours if you have never played a 3D video game before.

Oh and btw the website linked is Steam, the most beloved PC game buying plateform. Be aware that you shouldn’t buy the games at full price on stem, check websites like instant gaming, humble bundle or fanatical to get better deals (-80% sometimes!) On these alternative websites you will get a code that has to be activated in the steam app (downloaded on your computer). Search “activate steam game code” on YouTube for explanations on how to do that.

Portal should cost about ~3$ now (it’s a 2007 game so it can run on basically anything)

It’s just like any other hobby, you have to see and decide for yourself! All I can say as a person who’s been playing video games for 27 years and loves them for both their mechanics and their artistic potential is that so far it has been time well spent!

To start, i’d first think about what kind of games tempt you most. You have a wide array of genres from which to choose, like cerebral real-time strategy or 4x games (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate), narrative and player expression centric role-playing games, action-packed shooters, or agile and clever platformers.

Then, you can use storefronts like Steam or Epic and run general searches based on genres - I’d recommend sorting according to top sellers/most purchased, as score-based sorting isn’t always reliable.

At the end of it all, however, the most important factor is whatever tempts you in any way. Steam (this is what I use most of the time) offers Demos for a lot of games nowadays, so you should be able to try pretty much whatever tempts you! Be it flashy graphics, an interesting story hook, or just sheer bloodlust, everything is valid!

I’ll leave a list of games I think would serve as a gentle introduction to this hobby below - they’re also not resource intensive, so you should be able to play them on any consumer laptop (or smartphone, some of them!):

• Stardew Valley - management-like game, you have to administrate a farm. But there’s a lot of extra complexity I won’t spoil

• Cloudpunk - combination of cyberpunk delivery person simulator and role-playing game, I’ve found it both relaxing and gripping!

• Cultist Simulator - it’s technically a card game, but what you actually do is balance having a socially acceptable life with investigating incomprehensible forces and leading a cult

• Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic I and II - these two are meat-and-potatoes role-playing games with really solid stories, well-written and presented characters, a neat progression system which sees you unlocking awesome Force powers and/or other valuable perks, and the combat, I find, is the perfect mix of engaging and lenient

• Rocket League - this is as a taste of faster-paced action, basic multiplayer interactions, and relatively high-end graphis - it’s football with cars, but awesome!

As an extra note, you may notice I’ve left links from everywhere. That’s because you’ll have to select a game storefront (it’s a whole thing nowadays, but you really don’t need to interact with that side of the hobby if you don’t want to…). The storefronts share most of their libraries of games, but there are a few exceptions, so it’s best to check them all out before sticking with one. Some examples of such:

• Steam is the most popular and is good, but you can’t run games without running Steam, plus it periodically needs to connect to the internet. Things are fairly priced, the community features are nice, the community is ok, frequent sales. They also offer a no-questions full refund if you choose to do so within two hours of play time, so that’s a way to try out games without Demos.

• GOG (Good Old Games) is basically Steam, less meaty. However, the main strongpoint is that, beyond installing the game through their platform, that game then exists as its own independent entity, not requiring any periodic validation through an internet connection (unless the game itself is online), no shady 3rd party software installed alongside the game to “protect it from piracy,” etc. The games are as yours as they could possibly be in a digital-only environment.

• Epic wants to be Steam’s direct rival, so their storefront has many of the same features, but it’s not as popular within the community. I honestly have no opinion about them.

Other than that, all I can say is try to explore the hobby, check out gaming outlets, watch Lets-Plays on YouTube, and you can always lean on the online community for suggestions and tips! Also applicable to myself!

It’s definitely worth trying if you’re interested.

I would not recommend buying a console or gaming PC first as that is a money sink that you’re not sure is worth it yet. My gaming PC broke when I arrived at university, and I got by playing less graphically intensive games on my standard laptop for a few years.

Good games I’d recommend to start with:

• Stardew Valley — cosy, charming farming game that you can play at your own pace. Has great characters that you get to know, and fun, simple, rewarding gameplay. My girlfriend got really into this game.
• Minecraft — this is where many of us started as kids. It’s an excellent game that’s fun for all ages. There isn’t a clear goal so it’s more about making your own fun.
• Vampire Survivors — extremely fun, simple, cheap, and addicting game. Play at your own risk.
• LIMBO — a puzzle game classic with a unique, dark aesthetic. Only takes a couple of hours to complete.
• INSIDE — made by the same people as Limbo. Grabbed me and wouldn’t let go for the whole 4 hour experience. I don’t play many puzzle games but I couldn’t get enough of this one. Probably because of the narrative.

Those can all be played on the average laptop or desktop anyone would have.

Best of luck on your journey! Feel free to reply with any questions or suggestions for specific genres and such. My girlfriend didn’t play video games until I introduced them to her, and the most important thing was that I didn’t try to force any games on her, just show her what there was and let her interest lead the way. So take a look at all the suggestions people are leaving and go with what interests you most. And if you’re not enjoying a game, it’s okay to go play a different one.

(Also, Steam provides free, no-questions-asked refunds for any games purchased that both 1) were bought less than 2 weeks ago, and 2) have less than 2 hours of game time. So you can always demo a game to see if you like it and return it easily if not.)

Its such a vast ocean, I would just start with whatever catches your attention. Theres so many different kinds if games for all types of people that you should probably assess what you think is fun, and pick a game sort of involved with that? I tend to like cooperative games, RPGs, and games about exploring more than I like competitive games like First Person Shooters. I also really like racing games.

Slay the Spire is a card based video game.

In general, it’s worth getting to video games. I would caution against trying corporate-created games, mainly because they are a money sink (for you) first and worthwhile entertainment second. There are a lot of “indie” games out there typically created by people truly passionate on their craft… you can take a look at them and see if it interests you.

• Stardew Valley
• Songs of Conquest
• No Man’s Sky
• Factorio
• Disco Elysium

Yes. I highly recommend it. You don’t need to get a high end gaming PC or spend a lot of money on new titles. You can go to websites like GOG (DRM-Free games), or Steam (more mainstream platform with more games) to pick up some older games at massive discounts, and they are likely to run well on your normal PC with minimal spending to test the waters. If you enjoy it and want to spend more money for a better experience with newer games, that’s entirely optional.

What kind of games are you interested in?

Start with stardew valley and thank me later.

There are some decent to good video games available on Android & iPhone, of a wide variety of genres.

If you have the self discipline to not let gaming take over all your spare time (whistles innocently while totally not looking in mirror), it’s absolutely worth getting into.

Where to start? I recommend keeping it simple. If you don’t already own a desktop or laptop computer at home, it’s probably easiest to stick with games on your phone.

• ask friends & family what games they play, particularly those who fall on the same side of the Apple/Google divide as you.
• open your app store and look at lists of popular games by genre. Pick a free one, download it, and try it out. If you don’t like it, delete it and try another one.
• if there’s a news or culture site whose judgement you trust & like to follow, even if it’s not a technology or gaming related site, it’s worth spending a couple minutes to see if they have review articles or recommendation lists available. You can even find a related Lemmy community and ask there.

Personally, I play the following:

• an older logic puzzle game
• a free klondike solitaire game
• Egg, Inc - this is an idle incremental game available on both iOS & Android
• Leaf Blower Revolution - just started this one. It’s in the idle incremental genre as well. Available on iOS, Android, and through Steam. Supports cross platform play by way of cloud saves. I picked it up a week ago and it has been fun so far.

I don’t have the reflexes for active combat games. I like RPGs but prefer to play those on desktop.

Heck yeah, my wife didn’t play video games before she met me. Now she’s obsessed with Assassins Creed, and Stardew Valley. Like others have said, there’s something for everyone out there. You just gotta try stuff and see what you like.

Considering you’re already into card games, give Balatro a try. It’s got it’s basis in poker, but puts some extra spice on it that might interest you.

Chants of Sennar is also a strong recommend. It’s a puzzle game based around intuitive language translation, but also has a really strong story that keeps it interesting.

maybe something like Minecraft or terraria? I’d recommend starting with the classics, no shooter games or stuff like that.

Video Games are a broad medium, akin to reading. Asking “should I get into books?” would be similarly difficult to answer.

Also, be mindful of sturgeon’s law. 90% of everything is crap. For every “Taylor Swift” that was widely popular and successful, there’s 9 meh bands no one remembers.

All of that said, it’s a wide and deep medium with a lot of experiences.

If you like card games, there’re related genres. Deck builders are popular. Slay the Spire is popular. Cobalt Core is fun and not as hard. Monster Train is pretty good.

Those are all also “rogue lites”, so you could make the leap from there to something like FTL.

Lots of options.

Probably don’t spend a lot of money up front. Stuff goes on sale on Steam pretty often.

Probably avoid “gacha” games that are free to play or have “loot box” stuff. Those tend to be exploitive and bad.

If you want to try an FPS, the original Half-Life is amazing (if visually dated), and was designed to ease the player into the experience as opposed to something like Doom or Dusk that throws you into the action without any tutorials. I’m biased though, Half-Life is my favorite FPS of all time lol.

It goes on sale for around $2 regularly, which is a nice bonus. I second the Portal and Stardew recommendations of others too.