Honestly I wonder if it's not more likely in that direction rather than the opposite.
Or maybe it's about the same.
Back as a kid I wanted boardgames and I wanted to play boardgames. But there was little chance for both.
I've played quite a bit of video games but on PC WC II, C&C, Quake in school and later only Warcraft III and the World of Warcraft beta so not much.
I've bought lots of games but don't really play them.
With board games instead I regard them as inferior because they play slowly, are more limited in scale and variation, require more book keeping, of course people need to get the rules and such.
But still I've played more of it. Which I guess is because of the social factor.
Now I must say that if I had the chance to play video games together with someone chances are I'd pick that. And yeah, for single player of course I'd pick an electronic one there too.
So maybe video games wins, except kinda all boardgames are social events and very many video games are single player experiences and that doesn't interest me as much because they don't give me what I crave more I guess. .. so. That was a shitty answer =P
As for action games I have no solid recommendation. I bought an Infinity Operation: Icestorm starter. It's a very limited set (in options) but such a game or something like Warhammer 40k or so I guess cover the action bases for many.
Real-time will have similar problems too. Like. Escape! would be real-time, and Space Alert would be real time. And maybe those could be something?
Feel free to check Summoner Wars, Duel of Ages II, Battlelore and such for "dudes on a map fighting each other."
Check Chaos in the old World for something a little different (or Twilight Imperium III on bigger scale.)
Euro games there has already been some suggestions for. I guess for someone who have an interest in Civ and such maybe Caverna or something such is a better start.
A small game such as Coup or possibly Bang! The bullet or something such I could recommend for more or less anyone.
Coup isn't all that strategic but it has the lying / hidden identity part I like in all boardgames (Battlestar Galactica have a traitor mechanic and have a decent game around it.)
In coup you'll have 0-2 identities which are also your 2 lifes to start with. At your turn you can take the action of any of your identities, or actions available to everyone, OR any action you want if you act like you have that identity. Someone can question that though and if they are right then too bad for you. However if they are wrong too bad for them so people don't really want to question things too much... But will they really allow you to get away with anything?
Bang do the same, also very simple and with a few roles where you claim to be this and that but also show it with your actions. It's longer though and have a few other things thrown in / which happen too.
IMHO Coup is a much cleaner game and I'd recommend it higher because of that.
Quantum is pretty cool too. It's a "space struggle" kind of game. But very simplified. But still somewhat satisfying. Check it out :) .. All on boardgamegeek :) (aliquis there.)
