I just bought my mother her first PC game

[Deific]

lol she's 53 years old and whilst I've always tried to get her to take an interest in some form of gaming - don't ask why, I don't have an answer - she's always outright refused screaming "I can't! I don't like it!" and then runs away to watch Strictly/I'm a celebellend etc. lol.

However 2 days ago I found out that she plays this browser game on facebook where you build a zoo and gift people animals, and it's basically just a watered down version of theme park world, but with a zoo. She's super addicted to it, checks it every couple hours to buy new animals, raise ticket prices, place kiosks etc. and after some evasive questioning found out that she really liked this system of gaming and thought when I played theme park world on playstation 10 years ago that it was a pretty cool game. She also said she'd play more games like it if there were any. (little does she know)

So, I just bought her Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 + expansion for christmas

Oh to see her face when she opens it

 

[Deific]

My mum (mid 50's) has racked up something like 200 hours on Plants vs Zombies, she is up to something silly like 300 flags on endless survival.
When she first started I got "stupid game" and "why waste my time with this rubbish" but now she plays quite often, at least only once a day to water her zen garden.

Hope your mum does like the gift (although I'd say its quite a step up from what I've heard about the FB mini game)... just as long as she has her own system to play it on, unlike mine who borrowed my laptop 6 months ago for a few hours.

lol I hear ya, it started as "cos I'm bored", "to pass the time", and now it's "gona go check my zoo and buy another reptile!" lol

But she'll be getting this system in january when I'll be splashing 800 on a new one for myself.

 

[Deific]

Going by this surely Zoo Tycoon would have been a better option?

Well I did look at zoo tycoon 2 before anything else, however quickly came to the decision that it is a naff game. I've played the first 2 incarnation of RCT though, so knew the third game was likely decent and it also recieved plenty of positive reviews. That coupled with the fact that RCT3+expansion is much cheaper than ZT2 was a no brainer.