Shoutout to the pause button trick that got my wife into playing split screen games with me
My wife never wanted to play video games with me on the couch because she felt too slow and would get frustrated. About 2 months ago I started hitting pause every single time she seemed stuck, just freezing it and letting her look around the screen with no pressure. Sounds dumb but it changed everything for us. Before that she would panic and hand me the controller after like 30 seconds of a hard part. Now we run through co-op campaigns together on Saturday nights and she is the one asking to play. The pause thing works because she can study the map or figure out the controls without enemies running at her. She beat a whole boss fight on her own 3 weeks ago and yelled so loud the neighbor's dog started barking. If your partner or a friend bails on couch co-op because it feels too fast, try just pausing it mid chaos and handing them the run of the screen for a minute. Curious if anyone else has little tricks like that to keep a casual player from getting discouraged and quitting.