Get a switch lite, yeah. I highly recommend playing star fox 64, Pokemon stadium, and the older legend of Zelda games. They are very good entry points into gaming and are all available via a Nintendo online membership.

Get a Switch Lite and go from there. If you already have a midrange PC with decent iGPU, download Steam and play an older but highly rated game.

Don’t spend too much before deciding if it is for you. Find the cheapest entry point.

I’m 31 and I only really started playing games around 4 years ago, apart from playing on bootleg NES consoles or C64 as a kid.

It is worth it if you have fun doing it, and you probably will!

If you don’t know where to start, you probably still haven’t figure out what genres you’d be into.

You might like Steam Deck, an affordable console-like handheld PC, because:

• It offers a wide variety of games from all generations, so if you want to experiment with different genres you can always find something for yourself - you can purchase a game on Steam store and if it’s not for you, just return it below 2h of gameplay
• Very user friendly, easy to navigate for non-techies, despite being PC, for the most part it just works, great entry for folks with no prior experience with PC gaming
• It’s a handheld! Take it with you anywhere easily, play in bed, on couch, toilet, whatever. If you’re used to playing on a phone, this might be appealing
• you can still dock it as a regular PC and have mouse+keyboard+external screen if you want to try gaming this way
• if you want to tinker to explore even further, you can emulate older consoles, play with 3rd party launchers, use it for other things than gaming, even replace the software completely - it is all possible

Other choices are perfectly valid like Nintendo Switch, Xbox or PS5, but they’re within their respective closed ecosystems. With Xbox and PS5 you’re also stuck with TV. Consoles have limited backwards compatibility, so for example Switch only supports games for Switch, PS5 supports games for PS5 and PS4, and it’s a bit better with Xbox iirc.

If you want Nintendo Switch (if games like Mario or Zelda are appealing to you), maybe wait a little bit as they’re cooking new generation for release soon-ish, and the current one is old and miserable in terms of performance.

App games are video games so if you think playing on your phone is worth it, then playing on a dedicated gaming device should be worth it too.

You can start by choosing a platform. You can stick to mobile (Switch, Steam Deck), go console (Xbox, PS5, Switch), or a gaming PC.

You are already a gamer!

I’m a 36 year old woman who grew up playing them with my dad. My sister is a year younger than me get than me. She grew out of it a bit but she still plays “cozy”, low to no pressure games. I like long role playing games with interesting stories.

If you want any recommendations or a new friend to play with, I’m here! I also know of several gaming groups for women.

I’d like to know more about what you’re interested to give better suggestions but here are a few that might pique your interest.

Balatro is a recently popular card game. You can play it on your phone or on a computer. It works sort of like poker, but you apply effects to the cards to multiply your score.

A Little To The Left is a puzzle game. You play the owner of a mischievous cat and your goal is to reorganize the messes that your cat made throughout the house, like sorting the mail, organizing a battery draw, displaying sea shells you collected etc

Unpacking is also a puzzle game. You literally unpack boxes in various rooms. Sometimes it’s hard to make everything fit. As you progress through each level, you learn about the main character’s life.

If you want something more traditional, Ori and the Blind Forest is absolutely beautiful. In that, you play as a small guardian spirit and you navigate through a forest solving puzzles, collecting items, and jumping between platforms (sorta like Mario).

What gaming is like for a non-gamer

This guy had his non-gaming wife try different games, very enlightening for your purposes

I’m a 30-something woman myself. I’ve been gaming longer than I’ve had a phone. Here’s my two cents:

You’re already into videogames. Fuck what the haters say about mobile gaming not being “”“true”“” gaming (whatever the heck that means), they’re just sour they can’t game whenever wherever without investing a ton of time. Then again, maybe I’m just mad because I’ve recently invested a ton of time into Youtube’s playables.

If you want to get into PC or console gaming, I recommend starting off with popular E rated games in the genres you already know you like. Generally these games are more complex than mobile games, but this type will usually introduce difficulty curves to gradually transition you into their mechanics and complexity and teach you to be a master without having to look up training online.

If you want to branch out, start with genre-bending/-blending games. I’m personally a fan of puzzle-platformers, as those are my two favorite genres; while I’m not big on card games, they recently had an explosion in popularity, so there’s a blend of just about every genre you could want.

Stardew Valley.

Worth getting into? Absolutely. It can be very cheap, too.

Where to start? That’s the trick question. It will depend on whether you start with console or PC, the latter having a much more extensive catalogue of games, plus emulation of older systems.

My personal recommendation is getting a PC, it doesn’t even need to be a gamer one, anything that isn’t a piece of shit and was released in the past 4 or so years will do good for playing low end games and emulate anything up to N64 and possibly Dreamcast games (2003 and earlier). You can use a variety of console controllers on computer, so it’s fine. Whe searching for ROMs, be sure to have uBlock Origin installed on your web browser.

If you have any friends, talk to them, see what they’re playing or would recommend you to play. If you don’t, download steam and download demos of games that look somewhat interesting to you. Check GOG as well, it tends to have some older PC games as well, plus demos and whatnot.

Try out a variety of genres. It’s possible one game of a certain genre might not “click” with you, but another might.

Others have said it and I agree, Stardew Valley. Don’t even need to buy a console.

Depending on your tolerance for low resolution graphics there are a literal lifetimes worth of games from NES to PS1 that can be emulated at better quality features available than the originals.

Evoquest 1-2 would be wild for you, the gameplay is designed to replicate the evolution from 8 bit to modern mobile gaming platforms. You’ll get a chance to “catch up” on what games have been like with a coherent story tying it together.

If you want to get into multi-player stuff there are a lot of MMOs out there for mobile as well.

I would highly recommend Portal and Portal 2 as primers for basically all your 3D games. Not only did Yahzee give The Orange Box in general a glowing review, but they teach you basic gaming mechanics almost intuitively.

Steam for your PC will have a large library of free games you can try, and also paid games. If you like board or card games there is an application called table top simulator. This opens up access to traditional board games people have converted to PC–when you can’t find it as a standalone game. Also a suggestion for standalone games if you are into cards:

• Wingspan. It has a steep learning curve but hours of fun once you learn it.

• Dominion. If you like this genre of game it can be a lot of fun.

• Catan. if you have played Catan board game and enjoy it, you can also play online for free https://catanuniverse.com/en/game/

This is like asking if you should get into books or movies! The answer is absolutely! 💜 There are so so many games.

The genre “cozy game” is a pretty good place to start, I think. They focus more on the vibe than challenges.

Definitely stay away from games that use phrases like “souls like”. Those are games that are trying to be intentionally difficult for the sake of being difficult.

A lot of this depends on what sort of console or computer you have access to. A lot of indie games are not very taxing and you can probably play them on your computer easily even if it isn’t a gaming computer. Things like Stardew Valley and Spiritfarer come to mind.

Oh, there are so many kinds!

If you have a PC, why don’t you check out some free-to-play games on Stream? Or even a couple demos to see what you may like. I wouldn’t go straight into getting major equipment until you know a little more about what you like.

My grandma has been playing video games since before I was born. Her tastes have changed as she’s gotten older, but there’s absolutely something for everyone.

If you’re 100% a beginner, I may even go a step back to some flash games. Just to get used to moving around (if not using a controller) and some of the more common UI. There’s also a interesting series on YouTube called “gaming for non gamers” about a man and his wife who is trying out different genres. He goes over some things she misses just because she’s not used to it since some mechanics they just assume you know these days.

And be easy in yourself! A new hobby always has some rough points. There will be bad games, matches, complete wastes of time. But there will be some truly remarks gems in there. Good luck!

Loads of great experiences and tons of diversity. I’ve had lot of great experiences through video games and it’s never too late to start.

You could start with by looking through some video game threads and asking more specific question like “I’m new to video games, what are some games that you recommend that are not to hard to pick up” or something.

Recommend: Portal

I personally think you should give Portal a shot, it’s a 3D puzzle game that you can run on any computer and is one of the best games of all time, it’s also pretty funny on top of that.