I think the public view on video games has evolved a lot.

While some have a point that you can spend too much time playing video games at a cost to other aspects of your life (the extreme being gamers starving to death playing games), functional gamers are not marginalized the way they used to I find.

Part of it is just a greater familiarity with the medium that is a computer: back when I was growing up, computer users were a minority and there was a lot of bias against computers (as if they somehow corrupted our nature and diverted us away from the pure old-fashioned way of doing things), but nowadays, almost everyone use a computer, to look stuff up on the internet if nothing else.

That being said, hobbies are hobbies so live and let live.

Some people are just not into gaming or otherwise are very casual gamers (people that mostly stick to games like Freecell or Minesweeper like my parents).

That's fine. Different people have different hobbies.

At my old job, the women there looked down on games for YEARS. They knew I was a gamer and actually had several "discussions" with me where I basically explained the fun of reward versus the skill and challenge but they basically said "but it's boring, it's for kids, etc.". It was not a fun experience ... .

And then they all had kids that became old enough to want a Nintendo DS or a Playstation and suddenly, these women who were always slamming games, were playing games themselves! It started under the guise of playing with their kids and then they got their own Nintendo DS and they played even when the kids weren't home.

The bottomline is: social stigma and false expectations and ideas. People may very well love the very thing they're slamming and gaming has always been the perfect example of this.

I'm sorry, aivadroid, but even if you do get your friend to play GW2 with you, he'll most likely get into it thinking how stupid it is, and all he's going to do is to look for faults in the game. I don't really believe that GW2 is a good start for a person like that, really - make a bet with him or something and try to get him to play something simple and addictive on playstation, Xbox, or just PC hotseat, drink bear, punch each other a few times, just keep it to social interactions he knows. After you rid him of preconception of games being boring as fuck, he might enjoy GW2. Buut I don't really believe you'll be able to even finish the first step, let alone second - if all your friends are like that, he'll most likely be too afraid of public humiliation of 'playing videogames'.

edit: Yes, drink bears. I mean, you're from Sweden, that's what you do, right?

I dont think GW would be an ideal introduction to gaming for anybody tbh. Pick an easy to pick up and play game on a console, eg Enslaved, its very easy platforming and combat, with a good story and great acting, something along those lines may get him "hooked"....sorry couldn't resist that one :P

Almost none of my friends like -or have the slightest interest in- videogames, and it's something I understand. It's a trait that fits the rest of their personality, their universes, and, ultimately, how they are themselves and why I like them. So, I don't feel like pushing them into videogaming. That would make them less them. I don't really require to share that activity. I understand why their other activities may be more appealling, or why they would find that one unappealing, and I'm happy to tap in other fields for our conversations or moments together...

So : not even trying, here. Would be somehow disappointed if it succeeded. And am not sure I'd be doing them a favour.

I just picked GW2 because MMO games are usually easier to pick up for beginners, I have heard from many WoW players that they didn't play any other non-casual games before it. Also I am currently playing GW2 so I would be willing to babysit him.

I am not trying to make him play games to "show the light" and make him a hardcore gamer. I just want a companion(online friends are the different thing) to play together, and as for the casual games... I would rather play alone than sit through the Farmville or Tetris session.

It's not really your willingness that's in question here, after you tell him about the third stat which influences other stats, he'll just say "God damnit, this it terrible, I'll need to get drunk and fuck at least 5 chicks at the same time to forget this shit!"

If I get the chance, I'll drink a few bears. :D

If they don't like videogames they don't like videogames. Deal with it. At best you can play a sports or fighting game together since that's the most accessible thing for those not into it.

It's like that time I went to a rugby match with a friend who was into it. It was disgusting and incredibly boring. And chilly. And the seats were uncomfortable. And the guy in front of me reeked of alcohol. And I have no idea who won or why.

That's how dissonant it would feel to them.

I think that if you want to introduce him PC gaming maybe a chain of events will help. For instance, Bejeweled, Peggle or Plants vs. Zombies. Now before you say "casual gaming, ugh!) I feel getting him to sit in front of the monitor is the first obstacle. Next, if he likes fantasy settings try Puzzle Quest/Kingdoms whatever. Then try a more complex RPG like GW2.

Otherwise I might suggest a pen and paper game, gamebook (Fighting Fantasy, choose your own adventure etc...) or board game. Once his imagination becomes active then hit em with a visual and auditory enhancement like GW2.

Good Luck.

I can't wrap my mind around how people can think that games, the products a multi-billion dollar industry catering catering from young and old alike, can be boring. I mean, it's even called "electronic entertainment" and "games", so it must be designed to be fun. Anyway, most people are just prejudiced against games by the anti-violence in games lobby and older people who lived in an era without computers. Older games may have been a nerd affair, but today they're designed to appeal to everyone (much to true gamers' chagrin!).

My ex girlfriend also thought games were boring and for kids. I showed her L.A. Noire, Grim Fandango and The Witcher 2, and she admitted there was some substance to them, but that she still didn't want to play them. My friend, on the other hand, got his girlfriend hooked on King's Bounty: The Legend and later Oblivion.

Hmm, find some new friends?

And given the other activities you listed that they engage in, no, it doesn't sound like someone like that would have the slightest interest in games. Really, don't waste your time and energy on people who just don't get it.

You can find like-minded individuals just by playing the game; my steady "game friends" in GW1 are people I don't even know in real life.

Don't. Just don't.

While the article about some teacher telling students to play Fallout 1 as homework and then give feedback about it warms my heart (especially since many of the students grew to love it after all, even if they were non-gamers), or how a middle-aged friend of a friend decided to try out Baldur's Gate 2 he got for free from some fair and finished the game, loving every minute of it: trying to tell people to try out something about which they have negative feelings probably won't work. A bit like telling someone to try drugs or alcohol, or watch pr0n movies.

I've got some non-gamers to try games, but usually the initial interest came from them. It is a bigger hurdle to try out a game than watching a movie or reading a book, because games you need to learn to play. You don't need to learn to read a book (hopefully!) or watch a movie, you can do it passively.

It must feel about the same when I visit my friends or relatives and someone tries to get me to play some Kinect or Wii party game together with them, or some generic console sports or arcade racing game. Ok I try them, but I just can't get over the dislike. I've even played Singstar on PS2 together with friends, but it was overall quite meh. Or yesterday I was in my brother's son's 10 year old birthday party, and I played Wii Sports Resort with the kid. I didn't get much excitement from it, I did it just to please him.

I presume many non-gamers feel the same when you lure them to try some PC game which they don't even comprehend at first, e.g. the controls, the mechanism of the game etc. Oh yeah, I recall when I let my ex try Starcraft (as I had been praising it to her), she just couldn't understand what she was supposed to control in the game, and what the whole game even meant. "Where am I on the screen?".

However, now it occurred to me though that sometimes it may be enough they are watching you play, as long as you explain some things. That's what my gf many times does (she definitely liked to watch me play e.g. Far Cry), but games with grinding or doing some other repetitive stuff, or waiting (Dungeon Keeper! The ultimate waiting game!) doesn't work that well. Those games look even more boring than they are to play. :)

You may tell them that you'll kill them in their sleep if they don't play some games. :P