Haha, this reminds me of the time the first Dungeon Keeper came out and my non-gaming friend showed up while I was playing it. He stared blankly at the computer screen for 30 seconds, and said, "you must be crazy to play that". And when I look at the game from a non-gamer's point of view, of course it looks crazy: low-resolution graphics, rectangles that can be made to glow or not, weird critters running aimlessly around, odd objects spinning, silly sounds coming from the speaker, and an occasional slap. Difficult to make sense of what you're looking at.

One more analogy: I have friends who are very keen on online poker, betting on horses and/or slot machines. I would get irritated if they tried to make me like those activities, which I don't. I have played poker with the friends, been once on a horse track betting with my friend who does it all the time etc. But I still failed to get interested in them, and I can't say I feel any more highly about those gambling activities after trying them out. Same when I visited twice a casino with my friends, I didn't have any problems just stopping playing as soon as I had lost my initial money reserved for the activity (like 10 euros or so).

It is a bit odd though I am not interested in gambling, because sometimes I've felt the reasons to be attracted to them is a bit similar as being attracted to computer/video games. The excitement etc. But that's fine, my gambling friends seem to have monetary problems quite often. One friend keeps showing photos how he won a couple hundred euros from some slot machine, but never shows when he lost twice that.

I'd say about all you can do really is show it to them sometime when they are visiting with you. Tell them maybe you'd like them just to see it and just hang out and talk while you show them some questing, combat, etc. It might get them interested or it might not. Also, they might not express any interest that day but they might a few days later. It would be worth mention especially, how it could be a fun thing to be online slaying monsters together in this world while hanging out together.

When my girls were much younger and the MMO Asheron's Call was new, they saw me playing it and laughed at old dad playing such a silly game on the computer. They thought it was foolish and quite funny that I'd be doing that. Within days, they became curious and wanted to fool with it themselves so I let them. To make a long story short, this cost me two new PCs (for them) and resulted in our first home network being setup so everyone could play. It was the only way I could get any time on my own computer! They had great fun with it that summer, often playing together but lost interest again when school started up and that was that. They've never played an MMO since and neither of them, now out of college plays computer or console games at all. But they did have some fun with them as kids.

All you can do is offer someone a little exposure to see if they become interested. I don't think it is good to put too much effort into persuading someone to do an activity you want to but which they really don't. You might get someone to do something that way but their heart won't be in it and it won't last.

I do hope you have some luck showing it off and maybe they will like to try it. I can understand how it would be a lot of fun to play with a good friend.

Or you can just not have any friends. That's always worked for me. And I have a feeling that the rest of the world is better off that way too. :P

Convincing someone to do something that they don't want to do is a bad thing. This often happens with religion where some jokers trying to convince you to become part of a religion, especiailly jehova's are good at it. And it also happens in the teen period. Who doesn't remember that you have to smoke weed or try pills to be part of the group. And if you don't you're not cool. Often people don't like it to be convinced to a religion or to try things as drugs. Videogames are no exception in this. If your friend doesn't like games, then deal with that and respect his choice. How would you find it if he tries to convince you to become member of scientology or some other creepy group.
The only thing you can do is to suggest it, but if he really isn't open for it then leave it be. A person has to be open for it and if they don't then forcing is a very bad idea.

There is nothing to say in favor of getting someone hooked on MMORPGs...

Misery loves company?

;-)

True story. When Carmageddon first came out I thought it would be a great game to get my buddy into gaming. It was. It was too great. Son of a bitch went crazy and destroyed my brand new joy stick getting carried away playing it.

Live and let live is fine, but the more involved a person is in your life, the more you influence each other. On more than a single occasion I have tried something I wouldn't have otherwise (or something I just disliked) because a person I knew I can trust got me into it. It does require you to be at least a bit open tho, that's true.

People are different. What you like is not necessarily what he'll like. The things you find most fun in an activity could be the things he finds most boring and just because you at least like to try something before deciding if you like it or not, does not mean everyone thinks the same way. Some people simply go with their gut instincts and won't even bother to try new things.

Frame your friend in this way: Imagine a gaming genre you don't like. Casual? Platformer? Strategy? Whatever. You'll likely have tried it before making up your mind, but also, you may not have liked some of the elements before going in. There's always that 'something' that simply pulls you in or pushes you away regarding activities. That 'something' that tells you 'I'll like this' even before you try it. Your friend is simply listening to his inner 'I won't like this' voice, even if it's a genre he may enjoy in books or movies.

There are plenty of things not to like in PC gaming. Guild Wars in particular seems complicated for a bona fide newbie who isn't even that interested in gaming. I know for one that just looking at the myriad of icons you get on the screen from a normal MMO like WoW is enough to push me into an 'I won't like this' state, because sometimes i'm not in the mood of learning what all that stuff does just to play the game.

If he likes action or stuff like that, I'd recommend going for a shooter. They're simple to grasp, quite visual and have genres of their own that might tickle his fancy (horror, fast action, survival, with a story or not) but the game itself has to work its magic on him. If he doesn't get this 'what are you playing?' vibe, this need to stick around watching you play and thinking it might be fun to try it himself, then this might be a lost cause.

A tip that might work? Talking about fun stuff you've had happen in a game. I play Starcraft 2 with a friend and seldomly with my brother, but the times I've sat around telling my bro how we pulled a comeback with a nuke that took out most of the other guy's unit or how we pulled some nifty trick we didn't know if it was going to work, is enough to tickle his fancy and get him to seat for a game with us.

By the way, thinking what they're doing is unhealthy? Well, maybe they're thinking the same of sitting in front of a screen all day, not taking any sun and burning your eyes. People are simply different.

Other than casual puzzle games, Carmaggedon was the only PC game my ex-wife ever played. She absolutely loved the mayhem and the carnage. Now I wonder if she was not imagining that I was all those people she was happily running over and killing. Oh, well. We all need an outlet sometime. I am glad she didn't run me over for real. That was good of her.

With a big ol' mallet.

My mom plays Carmageddon for real every time she gets in a car! *rimshot*

I don't know guys, you all sound like it is a lost cause. I am just trying to manipulate him(yes, I'm evil) to get into games, without losing a friendship. Of course if I keep nagging him all about it all the time he will just tell me to frack off, as any other normal person would. I am just trying to come up with a bunch of arguments and throw at him all at once, and see what happens, but I am not very good at convincing.

For example when I was a kid, we had 2 computers in the house. I wanted to play with someone on the LAN because internet was kinda slow back then. So I had a sister and I knew she was crazy about the markers and pens which had perfume in them(they smelled nice and had colors with "sparkles"). So I ended up buying a few of those with my lunch money and bribed her to play Need for Speed games with me. One day I came home and saw her playing Serious Sam and quite well actually. It was surreal - my sister playing Serious Sam! Anyway, we started playing Unreal Tournament against each other, fun times. At some point she even picked up Doom 3 and played C&C Generals with me in coop against AI. She is 21 now and as far I know she plays casually racing games on her PS3 from time to time, and beats me(in Need for Speed series, we liked the recent Most Wanted reboot) most of the times when I come and visit her.