Do your girlfriends/wives game?

[Gadfly2317]

This assumes of course you are straight, have a girlfriend, or are not yourself a female VGR member.

My fiance doesn't really game; she did get heavily addicted to Animal Crossing, but anyone can play that. She plays Monkey Target, and she'll probably play Mario Kart and Pikmin II (co-op mode) with me.

But the weird thing is, she actually likes to watch me play certain games rather than play them herself. Most games she finds annoying, the sounds, the explosions or something. She hated Metal Gear Solid, Smugglers Run, Time Splitters II, etc. Didn't want to be around when I was playing them. She found Resident Evil to be mostly dull.

But she fell in love with Pikmin. Always wanted me to play it, mostly to see the pretty world and listen to the relaxing music. And oddly enough, she's totally into watching me play Final Fantasy tactics on the GBA Player. So you'd think she was just into "cutesy" games; but get this though, the game she was most obsessed with of all was Eternal Darkness. I was really stoked when I got this game, so I had her watch me play the first chapter. She was hooked. She literally made me promise not to play unless she was there, the story and experience was THAT good that she didn't want to miss ANY of it. No spoiler, but there was one part about gave us both a heart attack. Anyway, she was pretty helpful on puzzles and navigation ("no, go down that hall"), and even though ED is a one player game, it was pretty cool that it was so interesting to watch that it made it kind of like a two player experience for us.

So anyway, you guys got any cool video game experiences with your girlfriends? Do they play? Are there favorite games different than your favorite games? Do they nag that you play too much? Just curious.

[E.T.]

<div class=\"smallfont\"> she was most obsessed with of all was Eternal Darkness. I was really stoked when I got this game, so I had her watch me play the first chapter. She was hooked. She literally made me promise not to play unless she was there, the story and experience was THAT good that she didn't want to miss ANY of it. No spoiler, but there was one part about gave us both a heart attack. Anyway, she was pretty helpful on puzzles and navigation ("no, go down that hall"), and even though ED is a one player game, it was pretty cool that it was so interesting to watch that it made it kind of like a two player experience for us.
</div>

I think this part of the quote has got to be familiar w/many gamers.
A few [many] years back, I brought home N64 packaged w/Super Mario.
The experience w/ woman was as you described "..dont play w/o me, no matter what...", always there as my navigator/advisor. It was great fun!
We played late into the night w/Pod Racer, often to the point of me sweating like a pig & here near nausea & passing out, lol.

Come to think of it, gaming could be a way of saving a relationship.....gag, :o what was I thinking?? LOL!

[Fragmastar]

My girlfriend isn't much of a game freak. She doesn't have a PS2, nor xbox, nor GC. She doesn't have a single game system.

But sometimes, when she's bored, she plays games on her cell phone.

[Renzatic Gear]

From my experiences there are only 2 games that are universally played among women: Tetris and Windows Solitaire. Beyond that, well, I'm sure that there are alot of women gamers out there...I just haven't met any, unfortunately.

[Twelve]

<div class=\"smallfont\"> And oddly enough, she's totally into watching me play Final Fantasy tactics on the GBA Player.</div>

Really? My girl HATES to watch that game, for some reason.

When I first met Nicole, she was totally anti-gaming. However, after coercing her to play Final Fantasy 9 and Kingdom Hearts, she is now on the DARK SIDE...gwahahahaa....

Heck, she beat Golden Sun all by herself, even went to Gamefaqs so that she can have the "perfect game".

I'm currently playing FF8 with her.

12

[joquito]

She loves playing Fusion Frenzy on Xbox and Virtua tennis on DC. She's a platformer over all (Pacman World, Mario, etc). She watched me play through both Shenmue games in their entirety. She digs the story. Lately we have been playing the Metal slug games in Co-op via a neo geo emulator. My wife hates Halo with a passion though. I use to think she was perfect before that.

[Twelve]

<div class=\"smallfont\"> My wife hates Halo with a passion though. I use to think she was perfect before that.

Actually, that's a true sign of her wisdom.

Girls are able to look at videogames hype-free, you see. (heehee)

12

[T.Tashi]

<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\">

Actually, that's a true sign of her wisdom.

Girls are able to look at videogames hype-free, you see. (heehee)

12</div>

LOL! Good point. Oddly enough, my gf likes fighters and racing games. Go figure. She'll play about anything I play though.

[T.Tashi]

<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\"></div>

Really? My girl HATES to watch that game, for some reason.

When I first met Nicole, she was totally anti-gaming. However, after coercing her to play Final Fantasy 9 and Kingdom Hearts, she is now on the DARK SIDE...gwahahahaa....

Heck, she beat Golden Sun all by herself, even went to Gamefaqs so that she can have the "perfect game".

I'm currently playing FF8 with her.

12</div>

Kingdom Hearts is the crack cocaine for newbie gamers. Who can resist Disney and the best characters from a Square game? I mean you get to push Winnie the Pooh on a swing for God's sake! It's like running through your entire childhood.

[Twelve]

I've never met a single girl who wasn't amazed with Kingdom Hearts. Heck, I know a girl who bought a PS2 JUST for that one game, and I had to show her what a PS2 LOOKED like.

Yeah, Nicole was teetering on the edge of gaming until she got to the Winnie the Pooh part. Actually, Piglet is what truly brought her down.

12

[meagher72]

My wife will somtimes play and somtimes watch.

She liked Dynasty Warrios 4 in co-op mode, Tiger Woods, Mortal Combat, Tekken Tag in pair-play, Fur Fighters on N64 and she was a true addict to Tetrisphere for the N64.

It is mostly hit and miss with her as to which games she will play. Guess that makes here picky... dunno.

She will not play them but enjoys watching me play FPS.....

She really enjoys when I get to the point where I am playing well enough that the game begins to resemble a movie more than a game and I am not cussing, screaming, and hitting reset every five minutes.

Plus, I think she gets turned on when I take out 8 enemy soldiers, juking diving, rolling, aiming, and killing without taking a hit myself. ;)

I only wish i could be that good more often... really have to be in the zone and into the game to pull moves like that off.

[trebor]

My fiancee' actually played a big part in the direction we went in a videogame console. Last holiday season, it was her idea to buy ourselves a Gamecube with some games - pretty cool huh? These days she is busy trying to finish her degree, but she does game occasionally.

A few months ago she bought Animal Crossing for us, which started our stint with that addictive little game - AC is probably her favorite game. She enjoys playing Soul Calibur 2 with me, and she's actually pretty good at it - not surprisingly since she was also pretty good at Tekken 2. Plus she's a stone-cold Super Monkey Ball 2 addict.

She's also psyched for Mario Kart to come out.

[Static_Fred]

<div class=\"smallfont\">I've never met a single girl who wasn't amazed with Kingdom Hearts. Heck, I know a girl who bought a PS2 JUST for that one game, and I had to show her what a PS2 LOOKED like.

Yeah, Nicole was teetering on the edge of gaming until she got to the Winnie the Pooh part. Actually, Piglet is what truly brought her down.

12</div>

I bought Kingdom Hearts for my g/f because she wanted it.... So, i forked out $50 for that game instead of buying something for myself, and you know what? She got bored of it in the first island level and never played any further!!! It's like throwing cash down the drain.

[Twelve]

<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\"></div>

I bought Kingdom Hearts for my g/f because she wanted it.... So, i forked out $50 for that game instead of buying something for myself, and you know what? She got bored of it in the first island level and never played any further!!! It's like throwing cash down the drain.</div>

Ummm...your girl is the exception that makes the rule.(smile)

12

[Aku]

<div class=\"smallfont\">From my experiences there are only 2 games that are universally played among women: Tetris and Windows Solitaire. Beyond that, well, I'm sure that there are alot of women gamers out there...I just haven't met any, unfortunately.</div>

What about The Sims? A lot of females play that one.

[meagher72]

What about The Sims? A lot of females play that one.

True... someone gave my wife the orginal Sims... now there are times I have to fight her for computer time!

I even went to bed the other night and she stayed up playing it. Talk about role-reversal!

Also, I just bought Time Crisis 3 and plan to write a review on it as soon as I put enough hours into the game, but it's hard because my wife plays it more than I do!

I hate to admit it, but atm she is better at it than I am. :(

She loves it.

Great game.

[no.1gamer]

Hey, good post idea Gadfly! My girlfriend only likes to play simple games. Her favorite is the Sonic Mega Collection (with all the 2D Genesis games). Our favorite to play together is Mario Party 4 (and hopefully Mario Kart: Double Dash!! tomorrow).

I showed her Animal Crossings and said that she would probably like it. Because after all (and most of your girlfriends and wives will agree) it's a good game for chicks. She looked at it and said, "So all you do is play house, this looks stupid." I think the female gender tends to be a more opinionated gamer. As with many other things it's totally impossible for us to know what they will like.

[Computer Reprobate]

My current girlfriend does play games, yeah :) She's liked them for a long time now, and is probably as fanatical about them as I am. Granted, I prefer the bloody ones, and she prefers Zelda, Mario, Sonic, Animal Crossing etc. But she does play games a lot.

She loves GTA :D

[Exotic200]

I've been married going on 4 years now and my wife hated my gaming when we first started getting serious. Over the years she's not only accepted my pasttime but has gotten nearly as bad as myself. We find ourselves arguing over game time several times a week. At first she would just watch me play certain games here and there as seems to be the common census here. Soon after she started playing the cheesy games most girls (no offense) often steer towards. Now it's a whole different story; we'll go toe-2-toe for hours on Soul Caliber 2 or Dead or Alive 3 (ofcourse she only uses the female fighters LoL). She plays Fusion Frenzy, Kung Fu Chaos, any racing title, and I just bought her Simpsons Hit & Run for her B-Day this week. But, by far my proudest moment in our marriage, is her recent graduation to FULL BLOWN ALL OUT HANDS DOWN HALO JUNKIE. Every time I turn around she's either playing or talking about playing Halo. I recently entered a local Halo Lan Tourney and came in 2nd out of 94 ppl. My wife placed 4th. If that ain't love I don't know what is.