AT Girlfriends/Wives/Whatever

I got into gaming just as I started dating my now-wife. She had played (and loved) Carcassonne before we ever met, so she kind of ended up discovering the hobby through my own pursuit.

Anymore, she'll play most things at least grudgingly, although she's no big fan of economic/efficiency games (think Agricola, Puerto Rico, etc.). Her favorites are certainly family German fare, like Carcassonne, Zooloretto, etc.

She is rarely averse to playing BSG however (she loved the show), so that's good news.

My wife isn't huge into games, but she loves Arkham Horror and really wants to try TotAN (she semi-watched the rest of our group play while babysitting the beast-child). She's not much into conflict, especially bluffing and backstabbing and all that stuff that most of us love. She especially hates Cosmic Encounter, ever since I asked her to negotiate then put down an attack.

My wife rarely plays games but when she does it's games like Vegas Showdown, Carcassonne or Kismet.

My buddy's wife plays it all.

My girlfriend is a major anime fan, so I feel that she has good potential to become an AT gamer. But she has been very busy with work, school, more work and even volunteer work. So I haven't pushed gaming on her in the slightest.

She does find my games visually interesting, and on a couple of occasions has had me open up boxes to show her the games. For some odd reason, she got really interested in The Hills Rise Wild and played two games with me in a two-week time span. And when I bought a used copy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer she told me that she wants to try that sometime. I've got my eye on a Polish Euro with a strong anime theme, Saigo no Kane, but nobody is selling it on this side of the pond yet.

One of my close friends has a wife who grew up playing lots of D&D. She was initially only moderately interested in boardgames until I put the lost classic Slasher Flick: the Revenge of the Boogeyman on the table. Suddenly, she was totally into boardgames. That particular game has its flaws (and charms), but it was the theme that really grabbed her imagination. Unfortunately, she has become completely obsessed with BSG, so that is just about the only game she will play anymore. My copy is so worn out now that a couple of the green skill cards are marked. I need those sleeves.

I am slowly working my wife up to more advanced games, but she's a fickle one. She'll always jump in for a game of Vegas Showdown, Ticket to Ride, or Carcasonne, and she loves Settlers of Catan. One one hand, she loves Warhammer Quest, but she doesn't care for either Runebound or Descent (she likes working together more than heroes vs. Overlord). I've gotten her to play WoW miniatures with me and she wants to play again, but Star Wars Minis is too complicated for her. I'm really hoping I can get her to join my BSG group so we don't always have to play 3-player games.

My partner is rarely interested in games, and is almost never interested in learning rules to new games. I noticed that she doesn't like games with manoeuvre and spatial positioning (her most loathed game is Through the Dessert), but prefers games in which she buys and sells stuff to collect stuff (Jambo, Bohnanza, Saint Petesburg). She is more interested in learning games if we invite friends over to play something. She likes BSG and die Kutschfart zur Teufelsburg I think because of the people watching and deduction aspects. When we invite people over, the gender balance is usually 50/50.

billyz wrote:

BradH wrote:

Then today, she actively talked me into buying the new edition of Space Hulk.

I think I just about shit myself right there.

Next, she'll ask him to shoot smack into his eye.

His response? "Left or right?"

One in a million, man, one in a million.

It's not that I haven't met women that enjoy playing games. Bang, Agricola, Puerto Rico, Settlers have all done very well witha all of my female aquaintaces, familly members, and friends.

It's when you crack out a game about, oh, I don't know, building a galactic civilization, in space, with a species that only exists in a trekkies mind, that remind them of all those losers they used to laugh at in high school, that things tend to go pear shaped.

My wife grew up playing a number of mainstream games, because that's all they had access to at the time. She likes to play games a lot and is ususally willing to play anything that doesn't take too long to learn the rules. Her favorite game, bar none, is the Ungame and she thinks Arkham Horror is too scary, but she likes Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. We haven't had much time to play longer games since we had our first daughter just before I found BGG, so we'll have to see how it plays out in the future.

Similar to MrZir my Wife prefers the games with lighter rules, but I am quite fortunate that she leans towards Ameritrash quite naturally.

My Wife enjoys playing Heroscape, Ca$h'n Gun$, Family Business, The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game, Last Night on Earth, Texas Hold'em and seems quite interested in Space Hulk (I told her that the gameplay was on a par with Heroscape). She is lukewarm toward Fury of Dracula (hasn't played Drac yet), didn't really get the point of Prophecy (hasn't really played any games with character progression) and hated Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan (found them boring).

My gaming interest was dormant when my Wife and I met and didn't reawaken until after we married. I was just plain lucky that despite having never played anything other than your stock standard family games, my Wife didn't reject the hobby games outright. Her sister on the other hand thinks I'm a real geek for being into gaming.

I've met few girlfriends who reject all games out of hand and some quite happy to play, even one to paint minis!

Once had an incredible row with a girlfriend after I stitched her up in Junta. I should have taken that lesson to heart and dump her right there...

Brad, I'm laughing because just today my wife talked me into getting Space Hulk as our next game purchase. Her reasoning: "Because we can get MEQ anytime!". You and me Brad, we are apparently lucky guys.

The Queen of Cats likes games that aren't about being mean to each other. But also hates auctions and blind selection games.

So she's a Tales and Prophecy girl. But she was also a D&Der and occasional AH gamer back in the day. She's played Civ a few times but isn't a big fan. Will play History of the World, and Middle Earth Quest. Adores Black Vienna.

Plays more video games. Especially Rock Band. Requested an Ion Drumrocker as an anniversary present.

My wife isn't a gamer at all. She's played a few things against me once in a blue moon, but for the most part it's my hobby. I don't really want or need her to be a gamer, though. There isn't some rule that says we both have to enjoy and participate in each other's hobbies...there's plenty of other stuff we like doing together.

When a game does happen, she wipes the floor with me in Mr Jack, and loves to play Sorry! while watching TV or multitasking. She'll play LOTR: The Confrontation sometimes, I generally do better in that one.

I'm going to expose myself as a giant sexist pig here. My wife doesn't like gaming and I don't care because that is an activity for me and my male friends. We wouldn't want women there when we game because the sessions are huge testosterone parties, dick parties... call them what you will.

Now occasionally my wife will ask to play Yinsh (she likes abstracts o.k.) and if couples come over we might play ingenious or TTR, but otherwise, forget it. I don't need to play games with my wife, so I don't really care.

But we jam alot. My wife plays accordian/paino and a bit of guitar and I quite often lay down tracks for her to sing on. While she sings and records her tracks... I'm in the kitchen working out balance issues in my homemade Tide of Iron scenario's.