Getting a new game and introducing it to your friends can be both exciting and exhausting. In 2024 there are more ways than ever to get distracted, and the demands of everyday life have never felt higher. We all want to introduce our friends and family to the things we love, but making a good first impression can make or break whether or not a game turns into a staple or falls flat as a one-time thing. Today, we’re going to run through a few ways you can turn the odds in your favor. These certainly aren’t universal truths, and there’s no surefire way to guarantee a hit, but sometimes, you gotta stack the deck in your favor.
Game Styles & Theming
Everyone judges a book by its cover, even when we don’t intend to. You do, your friends do, we do. It’s easy to fall into the trap of buying a game based on the theme or genre and wanting to play it, but make sure you give a new game thoughtful consideration, lest you end up like some of us with more games than shelf space. If you want to buy a game for yourself, absolutely do so, but if you want to get buy-in from your friends, you’ll want to take an extra minute and think about how much your Stardew Valley & CottageCore friends are going to get out of a sci-fi wargame like BattleTech. This also extends to game complexity, if your family has never graduated past Monopoly, maybe War of the Ring isn’t a great place to start, even if you all do a Lord of the Rings Extended Edition marathon every year. With enough trust and determination, no game is impenetrable, but doing a little demographics research, or even, you know, communicating with your friends before you buy can save everyone from a bad time.
Be (Somewhat) Familiar With The Game
While you probably won’t fully understand the rules of a game before you sit down with someone else to play it, getting the main points under your belt will only improve your day-one pitch. Read the manual front-to-back, make sure you have the main phases of the game down, and if you’re feeling extra (or if you learn better that way), look for some video tutorials so you have an idea of the game's flow. Folks like Becca Scott and Watch It Played can be good places to start. That said, if it’s a lighter game or something where you already have buy-in, it can also be a fun experience to crack open a fresh game with the group and learn something together. If you have a game you know well, but your friends don’t, that can be a more accessible place to start before jumping into something new to everyone.
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The Pitch
This might go without saying, but unless you have a long history of well-reviewed speeches, your friends probably don’t want to sit around the table listening to you read the manual cover to cover. Some games will have a quick reference for the game on the back cover, which is a great place to cover the game's structure and will make your life easy. If not, summarizing the main points and saving the details for a couple of practice rounds (and you should do at least one practice round) tends to get things started quickly. Of course, keep the manual around for easy access to the details, and don’t be afraid to let your friends look through it for clarification on rules during gameplay. As a rule, the first time you play a game, or at least the first few rounds, will be full of people asking questions that will both disrupt the flow of the game and potentially put themselves at a disadvantage. Being a good sport about both things will keep your friends wanting to come back for more.
Basking in the Aftergame
Hopefully, by this point, you’ve finished your first group experience of your new game with minimal confusion and maximum enthusiasm. This is an excellent time to take advantage of your friends’ brain chemistry and ask, “Wanna give it another shot next week?” If all has gone well and the game has proven to be a good fit, odds are you’ll have an easy time herding your friends back for another go-around. Remember that sometimes, even with extensive prep and receptive friends, a game won’t click. Even games where everyone has a great time may not edge out a staple crowd-pleaser of a game. That’s okay, it happens. Give it some time, and you can always try again!