What games are you getting for your wife/girlfriend?

I'm sure there are plenty of CAGs that have girlfriends or wives (or boyfriends/husbands) that aren't (or weren't at one time) gamers.

My wife hasn't played any significant amount of games since her older brothers shared their Nintendo Entertainment System when she was little.

I've been a gamer my whole life, and it's something I would really love to share with her, as a co-op experience, or even simply as something we can discuss together.

I'd love to hear what everyone's experience has been (the women too!), in sharing our gaming fun with our non-gamer partners.

So, here's what my track has been...

Initially she had no interest in games, and we never really talked about it. Gradually, when I became more involved in the industry over the last 3 years (I'm a 3d artist), we discussed more about the industry and the business of games, but she never played anything.

I bought her a DS for christmas in 06 as a secondary gift, with New Super Mario Brothers. I thought maybe a new version of an old she actually had played might pique her interest. She didn't want it, so I went back and got a Brain Training game instead. She played a little of it, and basically doesn't use the DS anymore - it's mainly a dev machine for game projects I'm working on, now.

In the last year or so, two things happened. For my 30th birthday last December, my friends bought me Rock Band, and now she's my lead singer. While more a Karaoke game, than a traditional game, I was thrilled that we could play something together on a regular basis, and she really likes it. Recently, I got Burnout Paradise from my game rental service, and She played a bit of it, which she seemed to like. She put it down after a few hours, and hasn't expressed much interest since. I think what initially got her interested was a very simplified control scheme, and the visually interesting crashes.

I've got Lego Star Wars on the list that's coming after I send Burnout back (soon). On of my friends' girlfriend became an avid gamer in the last couple years, and she says it's one of her favorites.

I want to know what CAGs are buying their non-gamer partners that might appeal to them, and why.


Imelin Cain

My wife was not a gamer when we met. In fact the concept of adults playing games at all was a bit strange to her (apparently adult games of any kind are not very popular in Iran, where she grew up). I started playing some board and card games with her. Then she actually convinced me to get a xbox 360 (my gaming was all PC before that) so we could play video games together. She took a real liking to co-op shooters that we could play together starting with Perfect Dark Zero and then Halo. I consider myself VERY lucky in this regard. She also really likes Lego SW and Lego Indy.

A friend of mine convinced his girlfriend they should get a 360 after she had a blast playing Rock Band with other friends of theirs.

My wife is a non-gamer, has been for her entire life. She doesn't look down on the hobby since she's Japanese (lived in Tokyo most her life) and games are a generally accepted part of her culture. I've never tried to get her into games so I don't buy games I think she'll enjoy. Her interest in a single game is never a long term thing maybe only a few days or a couple weeks at the most.

She has enjoyed several games I've owned since we've been together, to name a few: Animal Crossing, Bust a Move, Brain Age, Wii Fit & Rockband/Guitar Hero. Never will she go out of her way to play something while I'm not around. So if I lose interest in something, she will too. I just asked her what her favorite game was and she said simply, "I don't have one, I don't like games."

Rarely does she gets involved in the story of a game but she won't hang around to watch gameplay. If a cool cutscene is going on she'll watch.

Video games are my hobby, and if she enjoys a game I'm playing that's cool. But I won't go out of my way to get something she might like, it's a lost cause. Besides if she's playing games who's gonna make me a sandwich

Crimson (my g/f), originally starting playing Rayman on the Wii and Viva Pinata on the 360, but now she's been putting in more time on Halo 3 when I play with her and Overlord when she plays alone.

She doesn't play all that often but it's always nice to see her get into something I've been doing since I was 6 on her own accord

~HotShotX

Cooking Mama and Cleaning Mama.

My girl plays rarely. She likes the old Mario games, Animal Crossing and Brain Age. I also got her to play SSX 3. I think that is awesome, because I think SSX3 is one of the best games from last generation.

I got my girlfriend interested after letting her play my copy of Pokemon Emerald about a year and a half ago. Soon after I got a DS with Nintendogs, she was playing the game constantly, so she ended up buying a DS on eBay. So I pretty much lucked into this.

She's played a lot of Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, Brain Age 2, and Pokemon Emerald and Pearl. She ended up enjoying Mario Kart DS and New Super Mario Bros. as well.

I think she originally started playing so that we could play together here and there and it wouldn't just be me playing without her. Now she probably plays her DS more than I play mine.

I got my lady a DS for her birthday with Pokemon Diamond. She loves it. Then I grabbed her Digimon World Dusk, and she loves that too. Then she just started playing Paper Mario on the Wii and she's a big fan of BoomBlocks.

Beat'em and Eat'em.

My girlfriend really seems to enjoy Cooking Mama and Elite Beat Agents. Guitar Hero and Rock Band on easy are good as well...Elebits was good, but a bit challenging. Considering we only get to see each other one weekend a month thanks to school/work schedules, I haven't had time to build her up into something like Contra 4...yet

My gf played Unreal Tournament her whole childhood with her whole family (lan style). So she was already decently into games when I met her (I didn't find out until a week or so into our relationship, were going on 3 years now.)

She's now into all games. She owns her own 360 and plays COD4, Saints Row and Viva Pinata ect. But shes also highly addicted to her DS. And she has watched me play pretty much every game in the last 3 years. Including the entire MGS4 experience. She also watched E3 with me and I keep her up to date on all the news (and she took me to E4all on my birthday and went to the Joystiq party).

So... it took some time. But I made her a hardcore gamer. Heh.

[quote name='Rodimus']
She has enjoyed several games I've owned since we've been together, to name a few: Animal Crossing, Bust a Move, Brain Age, Wii Fit & Rockband/Guitar Hero. Never will she go out of her way to play something while I'm not around. ...[/quote]

I think that's a pretty good description of my situation. My wife doesn't mind that I play games (unless I'm playing "too much"), but she will watch a good cutscene, or if the graphics are really good. She played the Viva Pinata Demo with me, and she thought that was kind of cool.

I still haven't crossed that "plays on her own" barrier. She sang a few RockBand songs on her own when I was upstairs, but that's about it. I'm not trying to force the situation, and I'm not trying to bring her into the fold so that I won't feel like I'm "leaving her out". So if she really doesn't want to play, that's fine. However, I'd love to be able to go co-op and have fun together.

Is the Wii the best way to go for this? We have a blast playing RockBand, talking about which songs are hard, and looking forward to the week's new DLC, but it seems like there is a pretty good collection of family-friendly multiplayer games for the Wii. I remember playing ... Warioware? ... on the Wii at a friends house. I thought it was sort of mindless and lame, but she had a lot of fun.

Does anyone have multiple platforms and find their partner drawn to one over the other, or certain types of games?

I got my wife into gaming with Tiger Woods 04. It was such an easy concept to understand. Now she is an avid gamer who has beaten Oblivion three times (I really don't like the game). We buy a lot of co-op games, like Marvel Ultimate Alliance where more than just the two of us can play. I've found that if you get another girl involved yours will be more willing to try it.

I'm a lucky guy because my wife likes to play all kinds of games. She is really into RPGs (her favorites are Final Fantasy series, Lunar series, and Oblivion). We are also both looking forward to Soul Calibur IV coming out tomorrow, because we have played all the other ones with each other in the past. Her current obsession is Civilization Revolution on the DS. We also play lots of Guitar Hero together.

[quote name='trek813']I got my wife into gaming with Tiger Woods 04. It was such an easy concept to understand. Now she is an avid gamer who has beaten Oblivion three times (I really don't like the game). We buy a lot of co-op games, like Marvel Ultimate Alliance where more than just the two of us can play. I've found that if you get another girl involved yours will be more willing to try it.[/quote]

Man... I can only wish...

[quote name='trek813']I've found that if you get another girl involved yours will be more willing to try it.[/QUOTE]

We still talking about videogames?

LIPS & that in the movies game. she actually got excited about it when i showed her. usually she just watches reality tv & ignores my gaming. so it's pretty cool that she's interested.

we have a wii too but that only comes out when company comes over.

[quote name='Rodimus']Video games are my hobby, and if she enjoys a game I'm playing that's cool. But I won't go out of my way to get something she might like, it's a lost cause. Besides if she's playing games who's gonna make me a sandwich [/QUOTE]

Ditto with Rodimus (I wish I had that sandwich portion ). I bought her a DS as a "gateway" into gaming and hoped the Wii would grow any interest. Over two years, my fiance still won't play a game on her own accord. Which is fine by me - she relaxes and has her "me" time by shopping while I get to play my games alone.

Win-Win for both of us, really.

I am, however, making a big push for us to play more non-traditional boardgames (e.g. Pandemic, Carcassone, etc) since they're typically more interactive and thoughtful than video games. They're also a great family activity when we have kids, to boot.

[quote name='Ecofreak']Ditto with Rodimus (I wish I had that sandwich portion ). I bought her a DS as a "gateway" into gaming and hoped the Wii would grow any interest. Over two years, my fiance still won't play a game on her own accord. Which is fine by me - she relaxes and has her "me" time by shopping while I get to play my games alone.

Win-Win for both of us, really.

I am, however, making a big push for us to play more non-traditional boardgames (e.g. Pandemic, Carcassone, etc) since they're typically more interactive and thoughtful than video games. They're also a great family activity when we have kids, to boot.[/quote]

My wife watches a lot of cooking/food shows, and antiques roadshow, and she likes to shop and use my iPod Touch to surf the web, so she has her things to do. Thankfully, she's not just sitting there angrily watching me play.

But that's a good point about boardgames. We're both huge fans of Catan and Puerto Rico, so we try to play those when we have company over (that knows how to play them). She watches me play Catan for XBLA, but hasn't really played it because it's a one-player game, and she likes playing with people she knows.

Great discussion, I love the suggestion about the Golf game. She never really played any sports throughout her life, but the machanics of a golf game are pretty simple.

The Lego games seem really fun and engaging, but I have doubts about the ease-of-play when it comes to controls. When I bought my 360, I got Kameo to see if she would like it, and she wasn't used to the dual-stick controls, so it frustrated her.

My lady loves playing Zelda. She will play Zelda for hours and hours til its beat.

But she also loves Army of Two, Rainbow six vegas, Gears of War, SvR, and arcade games like Geometry Wars and N+. She just likes good games, but completely random at the same time.

Fat Princess

This is probably a bad stereotype, but I find it to be true: females usually prefer RPGs. I think the ones with tons of blood and violence aren't that appealing to the vast majority of them. Of course, there are exceptions

I think the best way to get your gf into playing games is to start her on playing games with you. a lot of girls (even if they arnt that into games) will play with you because it means they get to spend time with you. then they find out they actually enjoy playing some games.

my ex used to beg me to play g.r.a.w. with her whenever she was over. then one day she saw me playing indigo prophecy and said she wanted to try so i let her....she wouldnt put it down and beat it in a couple days. she went on to others also

so in my personal experience...games you can play together and games with a good storyline are the way to go.

I'm not getting any game in particular for her. So far she doesn't enjoy Rock Bank (drums) so I'll definitely pick up Rock Band 2 on day one.

My fiancee and I only play Rock Band nowadays. We played Lego Star Wars for a bit, but now even I am sucked in. I switch it up on rare occasions, but now it is Rock Band DLC and bargain bin games. She plays guitar/bass/vocals (she couldn't get into drums either), while I play a little of everything (everything better than drums lol).

She also likes Brain Age, Feeding Frenzy, and other PC casual game lines, so I pick those up for her when they are on sale (like that 50% off sale).

[quote name='SuperhumanChichi']This is probably a bad stereotype, but I find it to be true: females usually prefer RPGs. I think the ones with tons of blood and violence aren't that appealing to the vast majority of them. Of course, there are exceptions[/quote]


My fiancee is the opposite. She hates the "damn talky games" and prefers action games, not necessarily bloody or shooting, but where there is gameplay going on. To her, storyline gets in the way of the game.

On a side note, what RPGs DON'T have violence?

[quote name='SpiderLocMTGO']My fiancee is the opposite. She hates the "damn talky games" and prefers action games, not necessarily bloody or shooting, but where there is gameplay going on. To her, storyline gets in the way of the game.

On a side note, what RPGs DON'T have violence?[/quote]
Any of the Harvest Moon games immediatly come to mind....

My wife enjoys all kinds of games. She has her own DS and once the DS Lite came out she had to have that, lol. Her current favorites include GH 3, Rockband, both Pikmins, Animal Crossing, Culdcept Saga and Call of Duty 4. She is really looking forward to Animal Crossing Wii and the new Viva Pinata game. Before we got together she hadn't picked up a controller since the NES era. She also enjoys PC games as well such as WoW and Diablo 2. She is really looking forward to Spore so im in the process of building her a new pc so she can play it well, her old system is really starting to show its age. Mu advice is that if you see her watching you play a game ask her if she would like to give it a try, you never know. Then you may find yourself having to wait to play, like i do, lol.

My wife just beat Prof. Layton, she loved it. She is currently playing Crosswords DS.

[quote name='bigfans']this is a game for lady[/quote] No, it looks like every other crapass, imbalanced, f2p Korean MMO doomed for failure over here. I've had enough of those.

Definitely Rock Band 2. She loves rock band

My wife is looking forward to:

Ghostbusters (she's a HUGE GB fan)
Fable II
possibly Fallout 3

She wants Mass Effect since she is a Bioware junkie. We just got our 360 about 2 weeks ago.

[quote name='SuperhumanChichi']This is probably a bad stereotype, but I find it to be true: females usually prefer RPGs. I think the ones with tons of blood and violence aren't that appealing to the vast majority of them. Of course, there are exceptions[/quote]

Ultimately I think girls like to complete a mission, with some sense to it. If the story shapes the gameplay in sensible way, they're able to appreciate the game as a whole better.

Guys stereotypically could care less, they just wanna blow things up like the testosterone fueled machines they are.

My girl likes rhythm games and rpgs. She's definitely a gamer, but not nearly as obsessed as me.

Hopefully I'll be getting my gf CoD 4 when she gets her new laptop for school :]

My wife enjoys the Star Ocean series, Tales of..., Lunar, New Super Mario Bros., Lego games, and just about anything Hack n' Slash (so long as the blood can be turned off).

I know some women with gaming preferences across the board. But out of all the women I know, they will almost always play Karaoke revolution and a fighting game.