How To Teach Video Games To A Non-Gamer

man I'm gonna miss matpat doing these videos, sad to see there's only 8 theories left. Thank you matpat for everything.

He just taught us how to teach our kids how to play games. HE DID THIS BECAUSE WE ARE GROWING UP AND THE FANBASE THAT STARTED WITH HIM IN 2011 ARE ADULTS NOW. This is like really deep and some may not realize this and how important it is. Amazing that he did this as one of his final theories.

“All right son, we’re at step 9, I’m going to teach you wave dashing in melee”

I never truly understood how complicated pressing two buttons at once could be until I was teaching a friend how to play a platformer and they were letting go of run before pressing jump

2:32 seeing the old intro after all these years & the logo finally having a color for each channel really hit us hard.

He taught us to live video games, and now he’s gonna give us the tools to tell a new generation. What a legend. We’ll miss you.

Something to consider: When I was a kid, RC cars and helicopters were much more popular. Crashing wasnt humiliating, it was fun. I got to quickly take on multiple joysticks and immediately see its impact in the real world.

Level 1: dark souls

Everyone remembers the game telling us to press R3, leaving us frantically searching the controller for a button you didn't even know existed

I started on Wii, and let me tell you. Playing LEGO Star Wars at 5-6 years old was a mind-blowing experience. I honestly think the LEGO Games (at least the older classic ones) are pretty much the perfect way to introduce gaming to young kids. Challenging but still fair puzzles, relatively easy controls, plenty of enemies, and even though you can die, you don’t have to return to a checkpoint when you do. You just lose a bit of money and respawn right where you just died. Add in the goofy sense of humor and fun, no-dialogue cutscenes, and you have a perfect “Baby’s First Videogame.”

I just think there is one important aspect of this whole topic that it might be missed and it is that the game itself the topic, characters, story, artstyle etc it has to have that one thing that also draws this person into a game. If you dont get that interest it could be hard to just play a game for its teaching-mechanic capabilities.

Honestly, I always knew gaming was hard to get into, but after your video and how specific and step-by-step your instructions are, it sounds like teaching someone how to drive more than actually playing games. I guess I took that huge learning curve for granted.

I can’t believe so many of us figured this stuff out on our own when we first started gaming but never thought about how difficult these simple things were when we ourselves initially started. Really shows how much our focus was on the game itself, than the controls. I feel the game itself is the most important thing.

The perfect game I found to introduce my Mum to gaming was Little Big Planet which I feel gets overlooked a lot. It has all the tools to teach just about everything Matt went over, and with the level creation you can create a level to teach exactly what you need as well as customize the difficulty. You even have the stepping stone of going from 2D to not quite 3D with 3 rows of depth.

3:04 Can we just appreciate Ollie’s Thwomp costume? 😁

“That’s the thing about friends, isn’t it? The more you know them, the more it hurts to see them go.” Thank you, for everything Matpat. Everything.

As a child my father introduced me to plants vs zombies when I was 3 or 4. The games easy mechanics and simple adaptability allowed me to have fun while still having a challenge. The cartoony art style adds a sense of humor and fun on top of it. This I feel is a perfect game for kids.

The old intro dude. Man that hit home. Can’t thank you enough for all that you’ve done through this and the other theory channels mattpat

A game I HIGHLY recommend introducing to a new gamer is Cat Quest 1 and 2! Its humour and story is very kid friendly, it's 2D, and you can play as a simple hack and slash melee player or a mage casting spells - adding complexity and inputs. It's the first game I introduced my girlfriend who's never gamed before and at first she found it hard, but now she's beaten Tears of the Kingdom by herself. The best part is Cat Quest 2 is co op too!

I freaking started crying when that old intro came on!! It's so moving to see it in a new video after so long. Thank you so much for having been such a huge part of me growing up all these years