How To Teach Video Games To A Non-Gamer

So, as a host of Game Theory, I've been

teach

ing through

video

games

since 2011, but how about just

teach

ing

video

games

to us older people? Players were lucky enough to start playing when the barrier to entry was much lower than it is today, as I personally grew up. games and their controls grew naturally along with me, my first system was my father's NES, which meant that all I had to understand were two buttons in four directions if you dropped a PlayStation 5 controller in a child's lap . from the 80s and then ask him to play the new Call of Duty.

I guarantee your brain would melt. You've got four buttons, two triggers for each finger, two control sticks, a directional pad, a touchpad, and oh yeah, if you press those sticks. they do something else too, it's no wonder there are more and more discussions online at the moment about what games are like for non-

gamer

s, but it's not just the controls they have to deal with here if I were to ask them what the first game you would probably give to someone who wants to learn video games, what would you say? Most people immediately jump to Mario, but have you really thought about how complicated even a game as simple as the original Mario is sure that the buttons are used to run, but only if you hold it down? down and good luck making it over those jumps if you're not running and pressing the jump button at the same time so we're already pressing two buttons simultaneously if that wasn't complicated enough what happens when mario suddenly collects a stream of fire that b button?

Now also used to throw fireballs, even the way you kill enemies you have to jump on their heads which requires control, aim and timing and if you miss, too bad for you, they will hit you and send you back to the beginning of the game. stage there is no easy way to get that power back up there there is no easy way to get your health back and again this is just talking about the first Mario, the simplest and most basic of them all in short learning games, it is difficult, much more difficult than most of us.

I realized and there are so many smaller steps in the process that didn't occur to me until recently when I slowly started introducing Ali to the world of gaming, which is why this episode exists. I want to provide a basic 10 step guide on how to introduce someone young or not to the world of gaming, it even comes with some gaming introductions along the way, it's not perfect by any means but it's based on my research and my personal experimentation with Ali, aka our gaming time together and in the At least a good first step to start a discussion about how to make this gaming world a little more open and inclusive for anyone who wants to try it.

I also encourage you as we move through this 10-step process to leave a comment below with your personal game recommendations or any personal experiences you or your loved ones have had while going through a similar journey. All that said, this one seems appropriate for the intro where he met up with Mario. a bunch of video game consoles, what's that 2012 release? Hello Internet, welcome to Game Theory, the show that's been ruining your gaming childhood for 13 years, so today I'm going to try to build a couple new gaming childhoods, like I mentioned. before Ali started showing interest in gaming, which is awesome, but it also puts a lot of pressure on me as a parent to be a good manager on his journey, which game should I get him to play first?

Should I start with the games I like the most? enjoyed as a child or that you will risk becoming frustrated if they are too difficult. We can always try games for kids, but in my experience, many of them are not exactly the best entry-level games like the recently released Bluey game. designed to be baby's first video game experience and yet it fails as a game and as a teaching tool also speedrunner Strat here oh W no no apparently not so I decided to investigate and do my own research to see what information is out there and Me It was surprising to see how many people had the same question as me, not just from parents trying to encourage their kids to play, but also from adults who have never experienced gaming before and are trying to get into the hobby.

So today we're creating a step-by-step guide, a curriculum, if you will, on how to go from Total Noob to Totally Epic, opening a cold bottle of Mountain Dew and letting the smell of Doritos waft into the room, my friends, Professor Matt, in the building, and how to be a

gamer

101 is already in session, let's start by going over my thought process and designing this guide for gamers. While researching this episode, I came across an amazing book called Learn to Play by Dr. Matthew White, a professor whose work is dedicated to teaching psychology. and game design, the book focuses primarily on teaching game developers how to create better tutorials.

There was so much fascinating stuff here about player psychology and how people learn that it turned out to be an invaluable resource for this particular episode, for example, when learning. something new, whether it's calculus and a new language or a new skill, our brain can only handle a limited amount of new information at a time, if we receive too much new information at once, our brain reaches what is known as cognitive overload, When you get to that point almost not. New information will always be transferred from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. This is exactly why scientists don't recommend preparing for a test the night before because some small bits of information stick around in the short term.

But in the long run those memories will be erased from your brain by the time you finish the test, so when creating our player guide, we're going to want to start with the simplest game possible and then slowly add more. and more complexity, I mean you have to learn to crawl before you can stand and stand before you can walk and walk before you can run, so without further ado, it's time to get into the one-touch list level and controls. movement starting our 10-step Journey video game we are going to start with the simplest possible controller setup without any controller.

I'm talking about touch screens and motion controls. You see the first hurdle any new gamer will have to overcome in building a relationship with Games are an abstraction, the idea that your actions here in the real world are affecting things out there in the digital world. A controller or keyboard with meaningless arbitrary buttons is very disconnected from what I see happening on a screen, but motion controls help close that gap if I move my arm and suddenly see a sword swinging on the screen or if I throw a punch and see the character attack in a similar way, that makes intuitive sense to me and the touch screens on my body also have a feeling of immediate direct feedback, but they also come with a slightly different benefit: they require no dexterity to hold the controllers and Pressing buttons is precise work that requires trained fine motor skills, but touching and rubbing a screen is actually much less cognitively and physically demanding.

That being said, I want to offer a few major red flags here for younger players look at the exposure time to all of these screens. When it comes to screen time, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children stay completely away from screens until at least 18 months of age, with video calls being the one exception we all have. I personally know the iPad kid horror stories for Steph and me. We kept Ali away from screens for 2 full years and when we finally opened the door it was only through very select educational apps that we monitored for very short periods of time.

The academy recommends no more than 1 hour of screen time per day until age five. We have had a lot of success with a daily maximum of about 30 minutes when it comes to games to play. I can't recommend anything more than the kids at Con Academy. is a free app with educational games ranging from reading to memory, math, and zero microtransactions. There are also individual pathways that track your child's progress based on her skill level in early learning topics. Other honorable mentions here covering a wider range of ages. The puzzle app. just offers a ton of free puzzles that can be customized to be easy, hard or anywhere in between polygrams which is a fantastic tangram game as long as you pay a couple of dollars to get rid of the ads and lastly there is Lucas and his friends suite of apps that cover everything from puzzles and coloring to math and spelling, basically games don't have to be games so much as experiences or tapping a screen generates some form of action and when it comes to game controls movement, I think we're probably all familiar with the winner here with Sports, it's the fourth best-selling game of all time for a reason, it was the pioneer in opening up gaming to a new generation, both young and old, titles newer ones like One Two Switch, yes they are okay, but not that good. so good in terms of simple one on one games I see something I do, what works and makes sense, just level two joystick or d-pad, okay, so with the new knowledge that you can affect a digital world, it's Time to put it aside. iPads and wiimotes and moving on to real controllers when you look online for recommendations on what age to start playing a console until age six tends to come up more, it is around this age that children can first develop the physical dexterity to do stuff. like buttoning and unbuttoning shirts themselves, which means they should also be able to hold a controller and press a button at the same time, so if your player is old enough to dress themselves then I'd say you should be able to move on to the next game console level that said most current controllers are going to be too much for a new player to get started with, so it's important that we remove all those bells and whistles and start with a single joystick or d-pad with no buttons , this part of the process is about mastering how to move in a virtual space, so let's get them comfortable with the idea of ​​controlling a character on the screen with a physical device.

When it came time to reach this milestone in our house, we found a lot of success with the Super Monkey Ball series. Kids are already used to rolling balls and aiming things at the goal, so the concept literally needs no explanation. Add to this a complete lack of dialogue in cute monkey characters and you have a winning formula. all titles in the franchise I highly recommend Super Monkey Ball 3D for 3DS because it is forgiving. Later Monkey Ball titles have the difficulty ramp up quite quickly, but in Super Monkey Ball 3D there are guardrails in place for almost the entire game, helping to ensure that your new player can experience a lot of success quickly with minimal amounts of frustration and that will be a nice transition to the next big obstacle and a big point of frustration in adding a level three joystick with buttons plus a single function button. 2D without losing State, well the next step in the journey is time to add that first button, which may not seem like a big deal to us, but for a new player moving while jumping or attacking is a big milestone, I can't tell you.

The number of times I've seen kids die in the first glomba of the original Mario seems super easy to us, but for most first time players that thing could very well be a final boss to jump on, it takes precision in timing and Lo Worst of all are multiple buttons and nothing can kill your enthusiasm for playing a game like hitting a wall or in this case a slow moving Goomba, so we not only need a 2D game with a single button, but also one flawless. a huge leap in skill, meaning we need a safe space to explore and play without the game punishing us for making mistakes.

Now it is true that licensed games are not the best, but Paw Patrol on a roll is a perfect example for this step of learning. The process is literally a 2D side-scroller where you practice platforming. Make sure there are bones and collectible medallions floating around to encourage you to search, but you don't have to complete anything and, most important of all, there are no enemies to hit or pits to fall into. It's purely a game about you versus the platforms as you get the hang of moving through a 2D virtual space. Best of all, the dialogue in the game is spoken, making it perfect for any young player who is still learning toread.

There are a couple of moments where you have to press another button for a special event, but these moments are not urgent, so awareness is already starting to build for The Wider controller with zero pressure level, number four joystick with one button and only one function, lossless three-dimensional state. having mastered movement through a two-dimensional space it makes sense to move on to moving through a three-dimensional space the same rules apply here you are looking for something where a button does one thing and one thing only and without failure State and once again Ryder and The Gang knocks it out of the park with their licensed Paw Patrol Mighty pup save Adventure Bay game.

It's exactly the same concept as the 2D game, but now in three dimensions with a fixed camera, this also opens up new challenges of up and down controls. By measuring jump distances from just the starting level you can see how players are trained step by step, how to jump over things like Nets and go up and down ramps, obviously not all new players will be very excited to save . Adventure Bay of all places, I wouldn't expect that, but again I use it as a great role model when looking for a game to use with your player, something cozy where the focus is purely on movement and reaching an end goal, joystick level five. plus a button with a single function. 2D stall states are fine, so now that we've conquered the hurdle of moving and jumping in 2D and 3D spaces, we can now start mixing in real obstacles and enemies.

You know the things that are meant to impede our progress. Now remember what I mentioned before about Mario. We want a game where a button does one thing and that thing has to remain constant pretty much all the time. Basically, we are looking for a game that is purely about running and jumping, but now with a few more obstacles and there is no game that fits this Mantra better than our favorite Blue Blur Sonic the Hedgehog, specifically the Sonic Origins collection. You see, there are two brilliant things about Sonic that really make him stand out for In this part of our training, the first is that by pressing a button you are jumping and attacking at the same time becoming a spinning ball, unlike Mario who is always vulnerable and has to land on an enemy's head to defeat them by jumping.

Sonic is not only able to move, he also has the ability to kill everything he touches. Secondly, Sonic's ring system is a GameChanger. Rings are plentiful and as long as you can quickly pick up one more ring you are good to go, no more searching for life, no need for additional power-ups. As long as you prioritize getting that ring after getting hit, you're practically invincible. That said, obviously Sonic games tend to go fast and that makes them difficult, but that also gives new players a sense of momentum and progress, it's exciting to hit those springs and go. across those ramps and eventually your reaction speeds will overcome Sonic's biggest obstacle.

Honestly, they're Dr. Robotnik's bosses, but again the Sonic team has a solution in the form of one of my favorite game characters of all time. Tails is invincible, so as long as you take control of Sonic and simply avoid the boss while helping to recover the lost rings, you'll give your new player a chance to practice against a big bad with less frustration and beat a boss on their own. account, what feels like a huge achievement for your gaming journey immediately boosts confidence, which is honestly how Ali has been able to beat Sonics 2 and 3 almost single-handedly at this point, as an added bonus for the Origins collection , eliminate lives and continue allowing your new players to focus. in practice and improving instead of tedious progress loss level six joystick plus one button with multiple functions now this is the phase of the journey we are currently in and it is here where we face an important choice: do we add another button or do we?

We added multiple functions for our button based on studies conducted on people with limited mobility. Multi-use single button controls tend to produce better results, so we'll focus on that and move on to everyone's favorite racing game, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, now immediately this one should set off some alarm bells. One look at Mario Kart's control scheme and you realize that it's going to take more than one button, there's acceleration breaking drift steering and well, yes, the basic setup in Mario Kart forces you to do all of those things yourself Mario Kart 8 added accessibility settings that allow new players to enjoy the game with the auto-acceleration feature, allowing new players to focus solely on driving the car and throwing items considering different items do different things.

All of this helps develop that strategic aspect of using resources at the optimal time that appears in a lot of other games. One of the other things I love about Mario Kart is a game for this particular part of the player's journey is that you can very precisely dial in the difficulty both through track selection and by adjusting the CC level and rubber band of In-game AI, which adapts to your performance, ensures that any new player is never truly out of the race, getting a lap again, limiting your frustration and humiliation. and the last place ends at level seven, joystick plus two buttons, only one at a time, we are finally reaching the level of the original Nintendo Entertainment System from back in the 1980s, this is where we introduce the B button, yes, only It took us seven. steps over and over again because this is another big jump, we want to focus on games that only require the player to press each button one at a time, while you or I can handle holding down the B button to run while using the other half . of our thumb to press the A button.

A new player won't have that skill, but instead needs a slower-paced game with plenty of built-in time to focus on where the buttons are and how to switch between them. There are two excellent routes here, option one, the most top-down Legend of Zelda games. These games allow you to see the enemies around you and choose whether to engage or not, allowing players to advance at their own pace, plus in many of these your sword is permanently assigned to a button while the another rotates based on the item you have equipped. The original Zelda is obviously the simplest and has the advantage of not requiring much reading skill to complete, but it is also one of the most challenging. entries from my perspective, A Link to the Past is a personal favorite where they refined the top-down formula to perfection, but didn't start adding as many bells and whistles like in later games, and even if you can't complete the entire mission. just taking the time to wander around, cutting down the bushes, destroying some pots, it's quite rewarding, speaking of pots, the other route to take here is overcooked, if you somehow haven't seen this game before, it's a cooperative cooking game in which you and up to three friends are chefs in a restaurant and need to cook together to prepare the ingredients, cook the food and serve the hungry customers.

The game starts off easy enough, but as you progress the levels start to get more frenetic, but notably the controls are as simple as one button to slash and throw and another to pick up and drop things. The cooperative nature of the game also helps improve communication skills, and as a final bonus, if your new player is struggling with orders, you can always take on more tasks. Work on yourself so you can progress while everyone feels like they are helping, also just as an honorable mention, here we have Pokémon. You see, there is one important thing to consider when we start introducing children to games, especially role-playing games, and that is that reading, everyone will be different.

As far as your reading ability goes, if your new player is one of those kids who are saddled with "No Tomorrow" chapter books, then this may not be as big of a problem, but generally speaking, it's not It is not until the age of 7 or eight that children obtain a sufficiently high reading ability. reading level to reach basic literacy and when it comes to reading to learn new skills or obtain information, you know the kind of things you get in a role-playing game that typically doesn't develop until the age of at least nine if you're there Pokemon is a simple and perfect menu with cute characters and a basic button layout that makes it the ideal first level eight RPG joystick for players plus two buttons in pairs.

Now comes step eight, where we will add the need to press and hold multiple buttons at the same time. at the same time and guess what we're finally ready for folks Super Mario Brothers yes I'm just as surprised that Mario is as late in this journey as you are but as I mentioned above not only do the buttons do different things depending on what power up Mario alone You have to assemble several buttons at once to perform precise jumps that require advanced dexterity and spatial awareness that only follows all the other skills we have developed so far level 9 joystick and three or more buttons without camera control Loyal theorists were in In the final stretch we have made a button, we have made two buttons, obviously it is time to add a third and more, but the most important thing is that at this point we have to be attentive to the control of the camera, as you see, adding the second joystick to the mixing to control the camera is the last major control hurdle we're going to have to overcome and it seems incredible that the vast majority of games today, especially the big AAA first-person shooters and third-person action games, require While you can metaphorically walk and chew gum at the same time, having your thumbs controlling both the player and the camera simultaneously is one thing, but with every change you make with the camera on your right thumb, it significantly changes the way your character behaves. move with your left thumb. is essentially like controlling two different characters at the same time, in fact, Mario 64, the first truly successful 3D platformer, literally made the camera its own lacu character to help tie together the idea among gamers that these games were going to require new skills, there are many gamers who actually stopped playing newer games because they couldn't understand the new camera controls when I was in high school when this first came out, I remember seeing it on display in a store electronics and we're just totally overwhelmed, so before we add that second joystick, let's make a final game with more buttons in a 3D space where the camera works for us.

I recommend Super Mario 3D World, it has all the challenges of the 3D games that you see later but without overwhelming you with the camera controls level 10 two Joy sticks and so we reach the final step adding a second stick and this is where everything comes together multiple buttons that do all things at different times 3D environments with totally controllable cameras lose precision of the states and a place to learn without being on the difficulty level of Souls born. For this, I have two recommendations. The first is a game franchise that recently handed the camera over to the player and one that is near and dear to my heart.

Pokémon Sword and Shield, but especially Legends' Archus, are Pokémon's first foray into the world of 3D camera controls, and as a result, they've made it as accessible as possible for something that's a little more intensive, although we have Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario Odyssey. The hardest game ever. No, in fact, the platform is much more forgiving than previous titles like 64 and Galaxy, but you see, that's the point. Our goal here is not to go from zero to hero. Our goal is to give new players a taste of what makes gaming so fun without bogging them down with years of assumed knowledge that us experienced players simply know intuitively and then, with that solid baseline, everything from there the speed of the game increases, the complexity of the controls increases, it simply becomes more difficult. complexity of movement, platforms get smaller, so there you have it folks, your 10 step guide to introducing someone to the wonderful world of gaming, some quick final thoughts as we wrap things up, first and foremost, be patient , this is learning. and like any learning, it will take time, there will be progress forward, but there will also be steps backwards.

It's also worth noting that if one game doesn't work, try a different one if you're having trouble finding it. game recommendations to play Common sens media.org and familygaming Database.com have great tools that let you search for games on the consoles you own based on things like age gender and even complexity of controls, but inreality because of all the overthinking. and analysis we've done here today here's a little test you can use to tell if you're doing a good job teaching a new player how to play a video game if they're having fun if so, you're doing exactly what you need to do, but well that's just a theory, a game theory, thanks for watching.