My wife is a tricky case. She loves online roleplaying games, Balder's Gate, NW Nights, and stuff like that. She reads fantasy novels, and loves many of them. When I tell her a synopsis of what is going on in various campaigns she thinks it sounds like fun, and is interested.
But she is very skeptical about D&D itself. She tried one game with a group just starting up, and we didn't know anyone. She loved the DM and all the players, but she was always so nervous that she was doing something wrong, and that the group would get angry she couldn't enjoy herself. She also didn't like how long combats took to resolve. She kept comparing them to the computer games.
She tried another game with my friends and brother. She did enjoy that one and has agreed to play with that group. Mostly that is because she knows everyone and isn't stressed about if she is good enough or will make them angry.
I've tried and everyone else has mentioned over and over that we all understand she is a beginner, but the stress is too high for her.
I managed to get her to agree to try a campaign where I'm the DM and she and a party of NPC's are the players. But I'm nervous about it, because normally I am a player and not a DM. I don't want to put further barriers up between her and gaming, by being slow and/or a bad DM.
She has agreed to play with my brother and friends again if my brother gets his world ready for a Fantasy Grounds online group.
It would be easier if she knew she wouldn't like D&D and wasn't interested. But because she's on the fence about it, and likes the genre, I can't help but think she would enjoy gaming. I know it brings me a lot of joy, and because I think she would like it I really want her to keep trying.