2. Be Patient With Your Explanation Of The Controls And Gameplay
Once I was playing Beatles: Rock Band with a few of my friends and we were about to do With A Little Help From My Friends. Now, I happen to be a massive Beatles fan and as such know the lyrics and music to almost all of their big hits- certainly With A Little Help From My Friends, but my friend wanted to sing it, so I acceded and decided to do harmony vocals instead. The song began and the familiar intro started before my friend missed his first line. Instead of laughing it off and sort of forgetting about it I turned to him with a sort of 'Well?!' gesture. There is no doubt that serious gamers get immersed in games and when they do they can get into a zone of sorts. So when that immersion is disturbed by a person who is not experiencing that same immersion asking about the controls, or making rookie mistakes, gamers often get a bit more vexed than is good for them. Yes, games often make an effort now to try and give helpful hints to players on the screen, but that's not actually going to make much difference if you remain silent just because your girlfriend is still learning how to shoot the red shell on Mario Kart (however, if you are in front of her at the time, this is a totally understandable tactic). Patience is the key.