Video Game Questions to Ask
Twenty questions for talking about games with someone whose taste you do not know yet, from easy openers to the ones that get an actual argument going. Useful on a stream, in a podcast, or in a lobby between matches.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What are you playing right now, and are you actually enjoying it?
Why ask it
The second half is what makes this worth asking, since plenty of people are two hundred hours into something out of habit. An honest not really opens a better conversation than any favorites question.
What's the first game you remember playing, and whose console was it on?
Why ask it
Naming the owner of the console usually brings in a sibling, a cousin, or a friend's basement, so you get a person as well as a title. It also tells you which era they came up in without asking their age.
What have you put the most hours into, and would you defend that if someone laughed?
Why ask it
The most played game is rarely the one people name as their favorite, and the gap between the two is the interesting part. Watch whether they are embarrassed by it, because that usually means it filled a specific stretch of their life.
What's a game you bounced off at first and then loved later?
Why ask it
Gets at what made it click: a friend, a patch, a change in mood, or finally learning the systems. If they cannot think of one, they are probably a player who drops anything that is not immediately fun, which is worth knowing before you recommend anything.
What do you recommend to people who don't really play games?
Why ask it
Forces them to think about someone else's taste rather than list their own, which is a much better read on how well they understand what they like. The answer also tells you whether they see games as a hobby to share or to keep to themselves.
What's a game everyone loves that you could never get into?
Why ask it
This gets people talking honestly, since almost everyone is quietly holding out on one beloved title. Ask how far they got, because bouncing off in an hour is a different conversation from disliking it after thirty.
Do you finish games, or do you have a graveyard of runs abandoned near the end?
Why ask it
Splits players into two camps that rarely understand each other, and the reasons are specific: difficulty spikes, a lost save, or not wanting it to end. Non finishers often turn out to care more about systems than about story.
What's the hardest thing you've beaten, and how many attempts did it take?
Why ask it
Asking for the attempt count keeps this from being a brag and turns it into a story about persistence. If the number is precise, they were counting, which tells you how much it mattered.
What's your comfort game, the one you reinstall when you're stressed or ill?
Why ask it
Comfort picks are almost never the games people list as the best, and they are far more revealing: usually low stakes, familiar, and tied to a particular period. Expect an old strategy game, a farming game, or something they have played since childhood.
What's the funniest thing that's ever happened to you in a multiplayer match?
Why ask it
Reliably produces a story rather than an opinion, which is what you want when the conversation has stalled. The best answers involve a stranger doing something inexplicable, so ask whether they ever found out why.
Which game's music do you listen to outside of the game?
Why ask it
Separates people who noticed the soundtrack from people who play with their own music on, and both answers lead somewhere. If they play with the audio replaced, ask what they listen to instead.
Has a game ever actually got to you emotionally, and are you willing to say which one?
Why ask it
Giving explicit permission to decline makes people more likely to answer, not less. Notice whether the moment they name is a story beat or something they did themselves, since those are two very different kinds of player.
What's one mechanic you wish more games would copy?
Why ask it
Shifts the talk from titles to design and gives players who dislike ranking things something concrete to say. Answers about saving, fast travel or menus are often really about how much free time the person has.
What's the worst money you've ever spent on a game or on something inside one?
Why ask it
Everyone has a regret here, and it is usually more specific and funnier than any favorite purchase. It also reveals how they feel about the way games are sold now, which some people have strong opinions about.
Do you play to relax, to compete, or to finish things, and has that changed over the years?
Why ask it
The change is the useful part: most people played differently at fifteen than they do now, and the reason is usually time, friends moving on, or losing patience with grinding. Skip this one if the conversation is going fast, because it needs a moment of thought.
What's a game you loved as a kid that you now suspect was not very good?
Why ask it
Nostalgia and judgment pulling in opposite directions makes for an entertaining answer. Ask if they have replayed it, since people who refuse to are usually protecting the memory on purpose.
Which game do you wish you could play again for the first time?
Why ask it
The choice is usually driven by a specific surprise, twist or first hour they cannot recover. If they name something they have already replayed several times, ask what they were chasing on the replays.
Have you ever quit a game because of the people playing it rather than the game itself?
Why ask it
Common and rarely discussed, and the answers cover harassment, teammates, or a community that got too serious. Follow their lead on how much detail they want to give and do not press for names.
What game do you keep meaning to start and never do, and what's actually stopping you?
Why ask it
The stated reason is usually time, and the real one is often the size of the commitment or a fear of not liking it. Backlog answers are where people are most honest about how their relationship with games has changed.
If a studio remade something you love, what would they have to leave completely alone?
Why ask it
Asking what must not change gets a sharper answer than asking what they would improve. Whatever they protect, whether it is the controls, the music or the awkwardness, is the thing they actually valued.
Talking About Games Without Comparing Backlogs
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to Keep It Going
Ask About the Hours, Not the Titles
Trading game names ends in polite nodding when your libraries do not overlap. Ask when they played it, who they played it with, and what was going on in their life, and the conversation works even if you have never touched the game.
Don't Audition Their Taste
The moment your follow up sounds like a test of whether they played the good ones, people start managing their answers. Treat mobile puzzle games and eighty hour role playing games as equally valid entries.
Have Your Own Answer Ready
These questions are more fun as trades than as interviews, especially the ones about regretted purchases and comfort games. Go first on anything mildly embarrassing.
Follow the Argument
If they name a beloved game they hated, stay there. Disagreement is the most enjoyable part of talking about games, as long as you are arguing about the game and not about their judgment.
Which to Use Where
- Meeting someone new: 1, 2 and 5 need no shared history and give you something to build on.
- In voice chat between matches: 10, 13 and 18 fit the short gaps and do not need anyone to concentrate.
- Interviewing a developer or streamer: 13, 17 and 20 get answers about craft rather than preference.
- With a partner or family member who does not play: 5 and 15 explain what you get out of it without turning into a lecture.
- With someone who plays far more than you: 7, 14 and 19 keep the ground level, since neither of you is being tested on titles.
- With a group: 6 and 16 start the best arguments and everybody has an answer.
Common Pitfalls
Skip the Platform Argument
Which console is best has been settled to nobody's satisfaction many times. Asking what someone plays on is fine as logistics and dead as a topic.
Don't Use Hours as a Scoreboard
Playtime measures free time more than dedication. A parent with two hundred hours across five years is not less of a player than a teenager with two hundred in a month.
Don't Turn One Answer into Ten Recommendations
The urge to list five games they should try arrives fast and lands badly. Give one, explain why it connects to what they just said, and stop.
Don't Push the Emotional One
The question about a game getting to someone is easy to decline and easy to ruin. If they laugh it off, move on and do not revisit it.
Ready Made Sequences
First Conversation
- 1Open with: "What are you playing right now, and are you actually enjoying it?"
- 2Then: "What's the first game you remember playing, and whose console was it on?"
- 3Follow with: "What's your comfort game, the one you reinstall when you're stressed or ill?"
- 4Close on: "What do you recommend to people who don't really play games?"
The Argument Starter
- 1Start with: "What's a game everyone loves that you could never get into?"
- 2Push on: "What's a game you loved as a kid that you now suspect was not very good?"
- 3Widen it with: "What's one mechanic you wish more games would copy?"
- 4End with: "If a studio remade something you love, what would they have to leave completely alone?"