I recently experienced the problem mentioned here, with myself being one of the enthusiasts pushing other party members around. It wasn't intentional, it's just that the structure of the game lends itself to giving each other lots of advice.
I'm interested in Arkham Horror, but want to know whether people have experienced the same problem with it. If you have experienced the problem, how? If not, and you think it's related to game mechanics, how so?
I've successfully played Arkham Horror several times with non-gamers (and myself being the kind who tends to push others around). My tips:
Think of yourself as the GM. You'll be the one who keeps the game moving, and your primary job is making sure everyone is having fun. As much as possible, give your character the supporting jobs and let them play the game.
Simplify the game for them by focusing on the concepts, not the rules. My super-simple explanation of the game to get someone started:
We win the game by sealing gates. You need 5 clue tokens to seal a gate, but sealing a gate is dangerous so make sure you're ready. You'll need 4+ stamina/sanity, and a weapon or two. You can get weapons in a bunch of ways, but the easiest way is to go get some cash.
Yes, this is a gross over-simplification, but it gives them a roadmap for their character and a sense of progression, instead of random wandering around.
Let them play selfishly, even if it's not an optimal strategy. Nothing ruins a new player's fun like having to give up a Tommy Gun because someone else could use it more effectively. Each turn, they should have something to do to try and make their character more awesome: get an item, get a monster or gate trophy so they can trade it in, etc.
Give options, not orders: "You could go to the Newspaper and try to get some money, or you could go kill this monster, or go over here and help someone else" etc. If they make what seems like a bad choice, oh well, the game can still be fun even if you lose.
Don't be afraid to bend the rules in the first game. An early monster or rumor draw can really make a game impossible. I'll often quietly redraw in those cases if I'm playing with inexperienced players to give them a chance.
Overall, Arkham has been a great cooperative game for everyone I've played it with.
That's just the nature of the beast, from what I have seen.
I was frankly shocked that Arkham Horror got so many votes in that question -- there's no way in this lifetime or the next that my wife, any of her friends, or any of my friends' wives would play that game more than once, partly for the reason you've listed.
I have found that Arkham Horror plays the best when everyone knows the game equally well, or very close to equal. It's hard to measure, but everyone at a minimum should understand all the core rules, and there's probably going to be one or two people who have memorized the contents of each deck, and have read up on strategies for certain characters to help with decision-making.
For new players, I would do two things:
The first time I ever played, we played a six player game where only one of the guys had played with any regularity, so he acted as the GM for the session (managing the state of the game, reading the cards, moving monsters, enforcing rules, etc.). However, the rules weren't thoroughly explained beforehand, so we just stumbled around the first four or five turns trying to figure out what to do.
I would have loved to have been given advice instead of stupidly stumbling through a portal with no way of closing it after returning. The whole "what the heck are we even trying to do here?" feeling from just stumbling around left a bad impression on me about the game for a long time afterwards.
We ended up sending out a PDF copy of the rules to everyone to read as "homework" so we could be better prepared next time we played.
