Very interested to see how the votes go. Mine was in a Counter-Strike 1.5 clan in the dorms before we met. We would still rock Smash or Kart from time to time after she mysteriously decided I was worth marrying, but these days she’s too busy either being a responsible mom to our kids or story-watchin’ when she’s off the clock.
I would say my partner grew up with siblings who games so has some knowledge via osmosis, doesn’t identify as a gamer but does enjoy playing very particular games now.
My partner (M) kind of fits in between the childhood only option and very casual. He’s mostly interested in playing stuff from his childhood when he feels like playing something but that’s maybe a couple of times a year (usually Alex Kidd gets a spin this time of year). However he’s very into MTG so gets why it’s a hobby for me.
My partner is very much not into games (apart from the odd Mario Kart round every couple of years) and is more into handcraft-related things, mainly knitting. She went through a Final Fantasy-phase at some point in her teens, to the extent that she actually cosplayed a character at some sort of convention.
I have spent 5 years trying to figure out which character she chose to portray because she’s now very embarrassed by this fact and even more so of the pictures that allegedly exist of the event. She did however find her old Yoshitaka Amano artbook when going through old stuff at her mum’s house which I insisted should be in our bookshelf instead so that was a neat little bonus!
When either of us were playing Echoes of Wisdom with the other in the living room we changed to the default outfit and used dinky summons so as not to spoil anything.
Never discussed it beforehand. Just something we both chose.
Just missing an option for a simple “No, not at all”.
I’ve never been in a relationship with anyone who enjoys games. But they also never cared that I did either, or felt the urge to join me in any way. Which has always been fine by me.
My partner isn’t really into games, however I have been gently trying to introduce her to what they have to offer. We sometimes play games together, especially more narrative or puzzle-driven games. The supermassive games are quite good for this, or some point-and-click adventures.
When it comes to solo play, the main barrier for entry is the ubiquitous dual-analog control scheme. I don’t even know when it became second nature to me, but for my partner it is completely alien and a constant source of frustration in any game with camera controls. I have since observed the way my thumbs move when playing these games, there is a practised ease to the way both thumbs work in unison to produce smooth movement. Conversely an inexperienced player can only really focus on one stick at a time. It can only come from many hours of practice and must be incredibly daunting for new players. I can’t think of any compelling method to ease into this, perhaps a game with an automated camera system that allows you to override it?
She has completed a handful of games on her own with my encouragement/assistance, I suggested Firewatch as a game with the hated control scheme but an engaging plotline and very little pressure. I also had a feeling she would enjoy Disco Elysium, so I got her set up with my Steam Deck playing that. I loaned it to her and heard very little from her for 2-3 days while she blasted through the whole thing. Definitely a winner!
my partner had an alienware computer before we dated and used it for fallout 4 mostly before we got together and got a nintendo switch for animal crossing and played the wheels of stardew valley on that thing but mostly plays like NERTS online with our friends or webfishing or whats hot for the week that isnt a dumb shooter(except they like edf)
the most played game on my steam account for 2024 was Stardew Valley by them playing on my steamdeck because they didnt want to log in for whatever reason
that said theyve been going HARD on infinity nikki alongside me and we have been keeping each other consistent on our dailies and events together
but they insist they dont like gaming much and im a bigger gamer even tho i waste more time searching for strange games
My wife didn’t play games before me except for just like general cultural osmosis (had a game boy color as a kid for Pokémon, for instance) but she’s the first significant other I’ve had who will earnestly engage when I want to play something with her or show her something
All of that has opened a tiny little door into a world where she’s found stuff she likes: she loves watching GDQ with me, she plays Kirby games on the 3DS we got for her and we play stuff together sometimes—like she just loved Duck Detective
But on the whole, if I were to disappear from the earth, video games would disappear from her life too
my gf is a hyperfocus type gamer. she got most of the way through elden ring but that was the last “big and/or real” game that really hooked her. we controller-swap horror games and mystery games sometimes. big fan of the golden idols. she currently plays inscryption basically every day on the infinite just-for-fun mode. i asked her why that over balatro and it is just the vibe and tactility of inscryption works for her.
I can relate as dual stick controls came in during the time in my teenage years where I didn’t game for years. I started getting back into games when I had no experience with dual stick controls but they had been ubiquitous for a few years at least. I found them insanely frustrating at first but they eventually became second nature.
I’d recommend sticking to things that can be played with a game pad and utilise two sticks, but are turn-based/not time sensitive. That way she can slowly get used to the controls without the pressure or stress of failure because she’s not quick enough with them. Turn based RPGs helped a lot for me (might be a bit clunky now but I adored Dragon Age Origins). Since she has enjoyed Disco can I suggest Pentiment? Alternatively, for something more puzzle based but interesting you could go with something like Inscryption which has some low stakes 3d movement in sections, or Into the Breach which is just plain good.
(Edit: fixed up some atrocious wording in that first paragraph, yikes)
It’s sort of a mix of “somewhere in the middle” and “used to, but not anymore” in the case of my best friend (who I spend enough time with that most people would probably think we were partners). She still dabbles (we hang out on FFXIV regularly and occasionally dip into Guilty Gear Strive together) but doesn’t find much that she enjoys in the modern landscape
I think very early in our relationship before she knew how many games I played my partner told me she doesn’t like video games. Much more recently she was watching me play MUSHA and was like “I don’t understand how you find this engaging”. I think she sort of approves of the kids playing games, certainly prefers them playing minecraft over watching youtubers play minecraft. She had a pretty serious Plants Vs Zombies phase like a decade ago and now does the wordle and some of the other NYT puzzles.
I voted TV games however she is a PC player only. First time she ever used a dualshock was with me. She is a far, far better Civ 6 and Stellaris player than I am (and I’m pretty ok at those games!).
She’s also big into her gacha dailies and indies so I also voted hardcore cozy/mobile. Probably indirectly introduced this forum to webfishing and knew what UFO 50 was before I got it. Thinks I’m insane for playing anything made before the year 2015 though (also makes fun of me for watching old movies and listening to 80s music). People are interesting.
My current partner had games growing up. She has a lot of nostalgia for SNES titles. Her all time favorite is Donkey Kong Country. When we met, she still had two SNES games from her childhood: Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III. I had an SNES with a small collection I had cobbled together in adulthood (mainly Mario, NHL 94, and Earthbound). We played them together in the first months of our relationship.
These days, her console gaming is mainly restricted to the occasional Kong and whatever our kid ropes her into (usually a variety of Mario Kart). Otherwise, she does a lot of mobile games. Her specialty is tower defense, like the Bloons TD series. She also plays Pokemon Go with her youth group.
She likes that I play games. In her eyes, my four genres are probably “go kill stuff with friends” (I’m getting on the computer for multiplayer), story-based games (RPGs as well as things like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Until Dawn, the latter of which she enjoys watching), strategy (she knows I can nerd out on anything with a map and builder tools), and “for the gameplay” (racing, the occasional sport, shmups, ye old arcade game, that kind of thing).
Not really a perfect descriptor for my partner in here but she’s somewhere between no and plays through favorites sometimes.
She has a switch lite that is basically never touched, but she played like Mario Galaxy on it unprompted sometimes, Animal crossing, and her brother got her Stray for Christmas, which we’ll see if she likes.