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.

maybe something like Minecraft or terraria? I'd recommend starting with the classics, no shooter games or stuff like that.

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!

Can I go completely 180 and suggest programming as a hobby? If you want a hobby where you're in a computer. Then try learning to program little things. If you work on a computer then it'll make things easier for you in the future, it'll keep your brain sharp and teaches you problem solving.

Try out open-source games too, not just the big corporate games. Space Station 14, OpenTTD, Endless Sky, Naev, plenty of choices. Saw someone here rant about how the "videogames industry has become very rotten" and decided I'd point you to a non-rotten part of it.

If you want to try an FPS, the original Half-Life is amazing (if visually dated), and was designed to ease the player into the experience as opposed to something like Doom or Dusk that throws you into the action without any tutorials. I'm biased though, Half-Life is my favorite FPS of all time lol.

It goes on sale for around $2 regularly, which is a nice bonus. I second the Portal and Stardew recommendations of others too.

There are lots of different kinds of games out there. If you're new to games and like puzzles, here are a few I can recommend.

Portal is humorous and has fun puzzles, pretty easy to get into. Viewfinder is another similar type of game, also The Stanley Parable

Baba Is You is a creative puzzle game.

Planet of Lana, and Limbo, and Somerville are neat puzzle/platformer games.

Torchlight us a good example of an action RPG genre, Children of Morta is another.

FTL is a neat roguelike game.

Faeria is a card deck building game.

Turn based tactics games can be pretty fun, and are easy to get into. Triangle Strategy is a good one to try.

I also find narrative driven games really fun. For example, The Wolf Among Us is really excellent. Afterparty is pretty entertaining.

All of these should be fairly easy to get into if you're just starting gaming.

Very much so. As people have mentioned there’s a lot of good advice here. A Nintendo Switch might be worth checking out as a starting point. It’s handheld and can also connect to your TV to play on a larger screen.

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.

Depends on what you want to achieve.

Video games are an easy way of losing yourself in a hobby for an afternoon. Can become addictive and you may lose the entire weekend.

Do you want games that focus on the social aspect and make friends? The story? Quick reactions and precise timing? Building something? Compete? Challenge yourself and improve (at ultimately a pointless task in a video game)? Simulate something accurately?

Before you start, as a gamer what do you non gamers do to spend your free time on anyway?

I will say, as a 30 year old man I had the urge to start playing games because they just looked so good these days. I played a little here and there growing up, but all of my friends were gamers and I just wasn’t interested. When I got interested, I found a lot of fun and joy in it.

I’m still not your typical gamer. I find a few games I really love and I keep playing them over and over—great campaigns with great story telling and great characters and great graphics are so much of it. Since I started playing video games in like 2020, I’ve basically played four games, but two of them I’ve played a bunch of times (red dead redemption II and Cyberpunk).

Now I’m looking at Stalker 2 and I think that might be my next game I want to play to death. Gotta wait to hear how people feel about it though.

If you like phone puzzle games, have you tried Monument Valley?

Yes. It's a scalable hobby, and can run from virtually no cost to why-are-you-burning-money. But you can do a lot in gaming with little monetary investment.

There are lots of budget indie games that are lots of fun, and if you find out you like gaming and want to try more fancy titles, you can always upgrade hardware.

Minimal entry: your current pc. Install steam, and buy/try what you like, returning it if it's too slow/doesn't work.

Light entry: get familiar with your pc's ram size, hd/ssd size, cpu speed/type, and graphics card. Use that to ensure your pc can handle the game by looking at the game's minimum requirements.

Medium-heavy entry: Upgrade things.

• ssd if you don't have one. The difference between that and spinning disks is night and day. If you wished things loaded faster, get this.
• 8 gb graphics card in the $150 range, amd or nvidia-based. Get this if you want a smoother experience / if you can notice individual frames happening. You don't need the most expensive tech to play most games that are out there.
• Genuine XBox or PS4/5 controller. These standard controllers are generally pretty solid and durable. $60ish
• new cpu ($$$, and may not even be an option): most games won't be processor-bound. But some are cpu-heavy. Get this if you really want to upgrade overall, or have a particular title in mind that needs it. Or..
• Low-mid range gaming computer ($900 ($600-$1500)): wait until you want to do a pc upgrade, and get a low-end gaming computer. I recommend Lenovo LOQ or Legion. Lenovo in general has provided laptops that don't fall apart on me, and that's not something I can say about most computer manufacturers. That said, keep them long enough and you'll have to replace the keyboard - but that's every laptop out there that I've run across.
• or: go crazy and buy everything all the time at the moment it his the market because it is a game or has "game" written on, near, or associated with it (not recommended)

I would only recommend short games. Ive been gaming my whole life and basically quit recently, because I was playing grindy games that were so exhausting mentally.

Even great games like Terraria, Minecraft and dont starve leave me exhausted. Such huge time sinks. Ive moved onto hobbies that are much more satisfying.

https://g.co/kgs/9BWGKjZ This for a game called belatro. I hear it has the rules of poker but it’s a very replayable game that every time you play it is new and different.

There are many games that have great stories and have game modes that make it very easy or hard to die so you can just really enjoy the story.

Switch is the most user friendly PlayStation has some of the best single player story based game X box is mainly for online play These are all just very general statements

Try a little bit of everything.

Absolutely!!

There are video games that work like card games, you'd love Balatro or Magic the Gathering.

If you like puzzles, Tetris is the perfect start, its the greatest puzzle game of all time. Tetris Effect and Tetris 99 are good recent games for that.

If you want to graduate from Puzzles to something more gamey, I'd recommend any Mario or Zelda game, and to develop a game mind, Metroid and metroid-like games are excellent.

Many games work like movies too, so if you like movies those are nice.

If you like books, there is a genre of game called a visual novel, (most of those are from Japan though, but many have an English option for text)

If you like puzzle games, Tetris effect is the greatest puzzle game I have ever played. I love horror games but Tetris is still fun as fuck. Never to old to get into gaming. Good luck!

If you like puzzle games I suggest trying portal. Portal 1 is inexpensive on Steam and playable on any modern PC including on Linux. It's low pressure, has some humor, not very violent, and you can restart from anywhere you like.

There is a concern about accesability and hidden gamer slang.

First person 3d games can make you motion sick.

There you would need to learn to control a camera.

Red is health, Blue is mana, Yellow is for climbing.

There will be countless stuff that are build upon years of gaming culture.

Try to start with co-op so someone can guide you.

Make a post it note on the monitor with button mappings especially if you play on gamepad.

I started recently after a 15 year hiatus.

I chose steamworld dig 2. It's a fun game

Steam would be a great place to start. Tons of games, many of them free. If you're willing to buy some hardware, getting a Switch would be a good bet. Lots of excellent games, many of them are beginner-friendly.

What sort of experience are you interested in? Something challenging and competitive would have you looking at very different games than something relaxing. I’d probably recommend stardew valley for a first game as it’s widely regarded and cozy but not without challenges

If you see a game you think you'd enjoy, go for it.

Personally I find that I'm not super into video games as an adult just because I don't have the time, and I don't find them very fun in short bursts. And when I do have the time I always think to myself I'd be better off spending it on a "productive" hobby like programming. That's an entirely personal thing for me, but it may be something you want to consider, ie if you want to learn a hobby that's also considered a real world skill so to speak, and one that could give you products of your hobby you can actually use and enjoy (eg programming, crochet, cooking, woodworking, etc—so creative hobbies).

Also, feel free to pirate a game if you don't know if it's worth the investment, especially since you won't have a reference point of games you do enjoy. I have no ethical quandary with pirating any game, but if you do, you can just buy the game if you like it, and that way you won't waste money on a game you only get 5% of the way through before getting bored.

There are a lot bad games out there, and not everyone likes every type of game. So try highly rated games from various categories. Just be aware that video gaming consumes a lot of time that you could use for productivity in other areas of your life. I play video games pretty regularly, but I also turn it off when it seems excessive.

Yes it is worth it. The return on gameplay hours for the cost of a game can be incredibly high.

I recommend you start by downloading Steam on a laptop or PC and browse some games, or try some demos. Some games require mouse and keyboard, while others are better with a controller - my preference is a regular Xbox controller, it's plug and play.

Yes,

Get a Nintendo console. Nintendo Games are absolutely a gateway drug. They're high quality and generally very easy to get into.

Yes.

yes it is

Something I don't really like seeing when someone asks a question like this, is everyone just jerking someone around with their recommendations.

I would advise first to feel your tastes out, what do you feel like doing? What do you think is worth your time and even money to invest in? Whatever you feel gravitates you, go for it.

Sure! Are there any that interest you? There are many genres and types.