Online Gaming for Couples? 452
psuedo_samurai asks: "My longtime girlfriend recently had to move to complete her studies at a University, which is nowhere near where I live. Talking on the phone is quickly becoming old, as I'm a typical guy and hate being on the phone longer than 3 minutes, but I try. So I was thinking - I like games, she likes to talk, why not combine the two? So are there any online games suggested for couples using a headset? I can't see Counter-Strike or Rainbow Six working, but I was thinking maybe DDR Ultramix on Xbox Live? How about PC titles with headset support? Any suggestions?"
well... (Score:4, Funny)
Counterstrike is probably the way to go (Score:5, Funny)
If that's not love...then...um...it's something unlike love.
Re:Counterstrike is probably the way to go (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm kind of a button masher, but he's slowly but surely teaching me the intricacies of Soul Calibur II for Xbox. I've never been good at fighting games of that style, but hey, if you know one you can learn 'em all, and for s
More seriously.... (Score:5, Interesting)
My girlfriend lives a bit under 2 hours from me. We see each other on weekends and sometimes during the week, but not as often as we'd like.
I was always getting in trouble by misinterpreting things said on IM, so I got us two webcams for Christmas. The visual interaction beats anything you'll get in an online game.
Now, if I can just figure out how to best conform to Valentine's day....
Re:Good video chat software? (Score:3, Informative)
You need to run a gateway, H-232 IIRC. This runs on your firewall (assuming linux, this is /.) and acts as the port listener. Regular port numbers not the infuriatingly random IM ones, so you could host behind a NAT.
You both connect to it, most apps talk this protocol. Except MSN Messenger, hmmm typical. Allows IM & voice between you, and anyone else using it. I think this is essentially what the chat websites do, with
Nothing like... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nothing like... (Score:5, Insightful)
I would recommend an Xbox, with Xbox live.
3 Excellent games that women really do like, and are Live capable:- Top Spin tennis. Excellent game. Women like it too!
- Links 2004 golf. Cool thing is, you don't have to play at the same skill level. Lag is not an issue and it can be fairly easy- yet still challenging.
- The grand-daddy of all chick games- Tetris. Comes with new Xboxes. Good game, and chicks love it.
All three of them will let you play, and are good games. Yet all of them are women friendly, but guys like them too. My wife plays all of them, even without me.Remember that girls are individuals too... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Remember that girls are individuals too... (Score:4, Interesting)
Normally, I would agree with you- saying that girls would like 'golf and tennis' sounds pretty bad. Your friends might want to whack me over the head for suggesting that they play these games, but they may change their minds once they see them in action. Plus, just seeing the blood dripping from my face might satisfy their primal urge to kill.
But- more than being good 'chick' games, I've found that Links 2004 and Top Spin are UNIVERSAL games. I've probably had 30 different people (even numbers of each gender) come over to my housing playing games in the last year.
The 2 universal favorites by far are Links and Top Spin. The women especially liked Top Spin- and as I mentioned before, Tetris. I have yet to meet a woman who looks at Halo, and says "I want to play too".
It does sound stupid though- "get your girlfriend to play sports games" - but these just aren't sports games. The appeal is much greater than that. (at least from my experience when trying to get these girls/women to play games)
Re:Nothing like... (Score:5, Funny)
They ran a company together so they had to live with each other 24h round the clock. They used to quarrel like crazy and were on the verge of a divorce. Then everything went quiet and I did not understand what happend until I visited their office during lunch break and found them playing doom death match, no monsters. The happiness continued for around 2 years (switching from doom to quake at one point).
Recently due to economic conditions the company had to be wound down and they found jobs in different places. As a result they could no longer find time for the daily relaxing "blow your partners head off" session. Quarrles returned and it all ended in a divorce.
So, it all depends. And IMO it is much better to vent all the anger in cyberspace instead of having a shouting match in the kitchen.
Re:How about sims? (Score:4, Funny)
>> women!!
Correction:
Go with the classics. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Go with the classics. (Score:2)
Re:Go with the classics. (Score:2)
Hmmmm (Score:2, Interesting)
Duke Nukem 3D (Score:4, Funny)
Why? (Score:3, Funny)
How come this guy has a girlfriend and I don't?
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
How come this guy has a girlfriend and I don't?
Don't worry; with thinking like that, he won't have a girlfriend for too much longer.
~jeff
Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)
I wouldn't call this a success story, especially since you both lived in the same house.
PSO (Score:4, Informative)
Whether they prefer typing (GCN) or voice (XB) communication is pretty much the only difference in the versions.
not exactly voice based (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly no, (Score:4, Insightful)
How about writing letters, sending nice postcards, and an occasional phone call. Or even if you must go the technological route a communal blog?
Try a MMORPG and VOIP for shared experiences (Score:2)
A side benefit: She was a casual gamer at most when we met (I used to rib her for playing solitaire). But now look at her! [offlinetshirts.com] My only
Re:Frankly no, (Score:4, Insightful)
Some online games are good enough to get to know new people. I've made a few good friends through Ultima Online, and there are couples that ended up getting married after meeting in-game and playing together for a while. So I don't see why it wouldn't work for couples who are already together, but (temporarily) living apart.
Chances are, you are right. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not easy to maintain a relationship like that. It took me years to get the woman I married interested in email. Moving to a different state was tough. All she would do is mail, even though she was a draftsman and her dad maintained a computer with email on it and gave her an account with her ISP. It was very frustrating to read week old letters when we had much faster mailing set up. I put up with it and simply snail mailed her back or phoned if anything was urgent. She did not like that her dad could read her mail and considered my email nagging a drag and a put off. Don't go there with games.
If she was interested in a particular game, that could be a common interest and great. Of course, if that were the case, he would be asking her not Slashdot.
My wife now likes email and IM. She's root on her own machine in her own house and that works for her. We keep up a lively conversation when I go to work. One day, I'm going to find a game that we might like to play together.
Careful... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude, you are SOOOO wrong. (Score:5, Informative)
Unless she likes games too, this doesn't stand a chance in hell of working out well for you. You are trying to use logic -- guy logic -- to deal with women. The sooner you learn how futile this is, the better it is for you.
Re:Dude, you are SOOOO wrong. (Score:5, Funny)
Its like saying "She likes sex. I like her hot looking cousin. Why not combine the two?"
Re:Dude, you are SOOOO wrong. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Dude, you are SOOOO wrong. (Score:3, Funny)
Its like saying "She likes sex. I like her hot looking cousin. Why not combine the two?"
Great suggestion! I'd try that with my wife ... except her cousin is a GUY.
So maybe not a good idea. :-)
Re:Dude, you are SOOOO wrong. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Dude, you are SOOOO wrong. (Score:2)
Oh my, I didn't read my comment that way. Wonder if there's a way to delete a comment...
Re:Dude, you are SOOOO wrong. (Score:2)
Some amateur sociology. (Score:3, Interesting)
Simple really.
Some guys find it boring to be straight white anglo males. Lets face it, you might be sitting on the apex of the social advantage pyramid, but culturally you're group is the probably the dullest ethnicity the species has ever produced. People at the bottom of the social respect pile have to work harder. Culturally speaking
Re:Dude, you are SOOOO wrong. (Score:3, Informative)
If my boyfriend lived far away and he wanted to play and talk it would be a nice enough compromise, as long as he really TALKED.
Just because we have ovaries doesn't mean we go EW ICKY GAMES OH POOP.
Ask her first. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a typical guy and hate being on the phone longer than 3 minutes, but I try. So I was thinking - I like games, she likes to talk, why not combine the two?
Not knowing the full situation I have to ask: Have you asked her if she'd like to be in an online game for longer than 3 minutes? If she's like many (most?) women she would want to have your full attention during a conversation (the 4 other
It sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too; make sure this is what she wants before you send her all sorts of geek gear. She may just twist your intentions into thinking you're pushing her away.
Talking to you or spending time? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, when you are in a relationship long enough, you tend to have less conversations, and it's more time just spent being around the other person. Doing things together, or sometimes just being in the same place but doing your own things.
If you have a long distance relationship, it's easy to stay in communication these days. The trick is creating that sense of physical proximity, that the other person is somehow there. This may be possible, to a degree, through a gaming environment.
Girl POV (Score:5, Insightful)
In addition to other modes of communication, playing a game together would really help create that shared experience, but do not think that you can REPLACE the phone conversations. I would suggest that if she is not a gamer, you should find a long list of different types of games to suggest. There are sites for board games to be played online too if she's not keen on FPS or RPG styles.
Re:Ask her first. (Score:2)
Civilization... (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Being that it was via email, we could do it "asynchronously" as needed.
2) While we were chatting online (which we both prefer to the phone), we could still play, and it was easy enough to do since it was still email based.
3) It was a fun game!
4) We could "show off" to each other based on our Civilisation building skills. (Hers were always better.)
5) I played it on Linux, and she played on Windows, and there were no problems!
All in all, it was a good experience, and allowed us to game together while far apart.
Hrmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
The question is does *she* like games. I'm not going to try to give relationship advice here, but you'd probably be better off asking *her* what game she'd like to play (if any) rather than asking Slashdot.
Teamspeak or Roger Wilco (Score:2, Informative)
The only problem is the games she'll enjoy probably won't have voice comm right out of the box. But if you used Teamspeak or Roger Wilco you'd have your voice channel open no matter what games your playing! I'd reccommend Gunbound [gunbound.net] as my gf spends more time playing it than I do!! It's essentially a free, online only, Worms/Scorched Earth clone but when you win a match you get gold which can be spent on new gear for your avatar! Wait till she sees some of the dresses she can buy! Anywho
hmmmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Star wars galaxies (Score:3, Informative)
It's the most interaction between people I have seen in an online game before.
Although you have to pay the monthly gaming fee which I think is in the range of $15/month.
Are you sure that.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Well.. (Score:2, Insightful)
I guess it depends on which game you are playing, but still. Odds are you'll be too busy focusing on the events of the game to be typing in sentence after sentence.
Whenever I decide to play Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory with friends, unless the whole server is full of friends I really don't do much talking to my friend. Once in a while there's the occasional haha killed you again or damn you suck but generally spea
Re:Well.. (Score:2)
unless the whole server is full of friends I really don't do much talking to my friend
If only I took that advice. My housemate and I started playing Planetside, joined with a squad of 5 or 6 others. Then proceded to spend the next 2 hours mocking them on the voice channel. After two hours of cruelly mocking their playing ability we hear a cough, and realise they had all been listening the whole time. Not good.
Planetside is a great game for playing with friends though and there is enough downtime fo
Teamspeak (Score:2)
No need for a game (Score:5, Funny)
Team speak can be used for any game, but you can use it just by yourself to have voice chats over your own running server/client. Quality is great and it's free.
Oh and you have a girlfriend who's into GAMES?! You're not fooling anyone, bub!
Voice Chat (Score:2, Funny)
The game doesn't necessarily need headset support or anything like that. So long as you have a third party proggie to handle the mess.
- shazow
DDR Ultramix (Score:2, Funny)
*does* work for some couples...
Try an MMORPG (Score:3, Informative)
Forget it (Score:5, Funny)
You: "Ok, get ready, the troll king is going to pop up any moment. Blast him with your fire bolt!"
Her: "I worry that we don't communicate enough"
You: "Huh? I don't think...look! There's the troll king! Attack!"
Nice try, but from my experience, she'll probably want you to focus on the conversation, not on getting a high score.
Re:Forget it (Score:5, Funny)
You: Ohmigod you n00b! WHY CAN'T YOU FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS?
Her: Is that all I am to you? Someone to boss around?
You: Hey, you're the one that lost us the game!
Her: Is that all I am to you? A game?
You: No...
Her: I hate you! It's over between us!
Re:Forget it (Score:2)
Re:Forget it (Score:3, Funny)
Her: "I sometimes wonder whether we were really meant for each other"
Announcer: "The enemy has your flag!"
You: "Somebody get our flag back!"
Her: "I worry that we don't communicate enough"
You: "Oh I'm sorry, so what did you want to say?"
[meet each other on a bridge]
Her: "I'm pregnant."
Announcer: "Headshot!"
The Sims! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The Sims! (Score:3, Funny)
Yep, a good time will be had by all.
Wrong place (Score:2, Funny)
I don't think you'll find much help about girlfriends from the usual slashdot crowd...
MMoRPGs (Score:2)
Instead of IANAL... (Score:4, Funny)
I Am Not Currently A BoyFriend
(Any humor is pointed at myself as well, as IANCABF either)
- Neil Wehneman
Re:Instead of IANAL... (Score:2, Funny)
In the end, this is
The question is irrelevant . . . (Score:5, Funny)
There is nothing more we can do for him,
girl gaming (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe try a social MMOG (Score:4, Informative)
Buy a hooker..... (Score:2)
Hmm, maybe we should spend more time apart... (Score:3, Funny)
My GF loves to play Mario Party on my gamecube, but that's about the extent of her interest in gaming. She'll watch me play a little half-life or UT now and then, but usually once I get into it the torrent of swear words puts her off.
I can just imagine getting fragged and accusing her of being a wallhack fag and having that be the end of the relationship...
Yahoo Games (Score:4, Insightful)
If your gf isn't the dork you are, it might be the only thing that works.
Why not Webcams? (Score:2)
You know your a GEEK... (Score:5, Funny)
Ancient Anguish (Score:2)
Try Sims Online, so she can dump your ass twice (Score:4, Insightful)
If you think my reaction is a poor one, wait until you hear hers.
Everquest (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"There" (Score:2)
you can hang out, listen to the same music (within the game), "see" each other (3d representation of your avatar), chat, play various games (like dune buggy races), etc.
Simple! (Score:4, Funny)
This one is simple!
Get her on the phone, ask her how her childhood affects your current relationship, put on a headset, fire up your favorite FPS and start blasting away!
You may finish several levels, if not the entire game!
The Obvious (Score:2)
Maybe its not such a hot idea... (Score:3, Funny)
FFXI (Score:2)
You sound like my boyfriend (Score:3, Interesting)
Someone mentioned that playing a mmorpg game as a long distance couple might be a detriment to communication. I strongly disagree. We played through several major mmorpgs and beta tests of other games together. During "down time" in a game we carried on "normal" conversation. During the exciting parts of the game we got caught up into solving problems together. We even developed mutual friends whom we visited in the real world.
As far as someone worrying that "girls" might not like to play games for hours at a time: I and many of my friends are evidence to the contrary.
Lastly, though I think the MMORPGs are best suited for couple gaming, don't discount the FPS games either. I enjoyed Action Quake and beta tested Planetside. I just think they aren't as good for a couple because they (I'm talking public server play, not clan gaming) tend to be all action all the time rather than a mix of action, socialization/political skill, and strategy.
Personal Experience (Score:2)
If you're just looking for an alternative to the phone (for whatever reason) there are plenty of things out there. You could write letters, send email, use a webcam, create a shared blog, use IRC or IM eachother... There's plenty of ways to communicate beyond using a phone.
When my wife and I were first ge
Maybe this doesn't work on straight girls, but. :) (Score:3, Insightful)
We both travel around a lot so we've had to keep in contact on the phone and over the Internet. Our best choice for a game is a friendly, community-based RPG. Something where you can walk around and talk and feel a bit more 'there' with each other (you have no idea how much the graphics and emotes do for things, dunno if anyone's watched
Obviously this requires that you have a good imagination, lots of time to waste, and you both like that sorta shit. But IMHO find something that is MODERATELY active (ahem, not quake) but not something that *only* focuses on talking. Cause that would be maddening eventually, even if you're in love beyond all imagination.
Other suggestions would be similarly 'beer & pretzel' games, maybe you both have an addiction to Civ or some cardgame or something. I'd really REALLY push for a virtual world, though, because it inspires the imagination and won't get old so fast.
Again, not sure if this would work with you, but I've done it successfully for quite a while now. Two or three times a week I'd just tell all my friends to go suck it and play with her that night. Course, straight chicks just suck, so it might not work, but at any rate TALK IT OUT WITH HER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING ASKING HERE! Tsk tsk tsk.
Webcam (Score:2)
Otherwise most women only like Yahoo Games or maybe the Sims.
Sex talk... (Score:2)
I haven't been in this situation but it's the first thing that popped to mind that might make your phone conversations a little more exciting (and thus last more than 3 minutes).
Personal Experience... (It doesn't work.) (Score:2)
So I logged into the game and sent her a private message. She finished what she was doing and came to where I was and we started "talking". Let's call me A and he
Game Suggestion (Score:2)
Its an online game, where you go around as pirates, its all puzzle based. Many girls I know enjoy puzzle based games I (male) also enjoy it.
http://www.puzzlepirates.com/
Gaming and conversation... (Score:4, Informative)
Get some boom/headset mics for you and your SO and fire up one of the free voice engines, like TeamSpeak [teamspeak.org] or Roger Wilco [gamespy.com] for voice chat (in or out of games). I've used TeamSpeak with excellent results while playing Unreal Tournament and other games, as well as just for conversing with distant family members on a semi-regular basis. (Free is good!)
For gaming, you have a chuckwagon full of choices. Unreal Tournament [unreal.com], Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy [lucasarts.com] and Need for Speed: Underground [eagames.com] top my recent list of multi-player games for raw fun and enjoyment with minimal commitment level (and I sense a commitment issue from the OP anyway!). Then of course, there's the obligatory mentions of The Sims, Everquest, Age of Mythology and Civilization III (find your own URLs for those), if you're into that kind of gaming (these require a higher commitment level).
If you two are more cerebral in your gaming, go hunt down a board game called Settlers of Catan [mayfairgames.com] and its offspring (Seafarers of Catan, et. al.) and play that with some friends next time you two are together. Once you get hooked on the board game -- and you will -- start playing it online. There's a nefarious, somewhat-underground (not after /. gets wind of it!) online client called
Sea3D [s3dconnector.net] that works pretty darn well
(Win32 only, sorry -- but if this is a problem, use the
Java client [northwestern.edu] instead), and is terribly enjoyable for raw strategy and board game
fun, although it can sometimes be difficult to get players to join hosted games
(there doesn't seem to be a LARGE community of Sea3D users yet). If you
host your own games and have people you know join in, this is a non-issue.
If you're side-stepping the guy-girl conversation thing, your best bet is probably one of the action games, like Unreal and its similar-engine spawn (anything based off the Quake2 or Quake3 engines). There's usually so much going on in a DeathMatch or Team DeathMatch, there isn't much time for deep chit-chat, but you can both probably come out feeling like you had a onversation.
[Note to Guys: this probably isn't going to lead to a long-term, deep relationship, mind you, but will suffice for temporary distance relationships. Chicks don't generally like games, and especially don't like the KINDS of games we guys like, so YMMV. Board games and strategy type stuff, though, are generally universally enjoyable, which is why I mentioned Catan [die-siedler.com] (this is the original German site).]
Good luck!!
A Tale In The Desert (not a headset game) (Score:2, Informative)
As others have said, there are tools such as TeakSpeak [teamspeak.org] and Roger Wilco [gamespy.com] that will deal with the voice chat side of things.
But what game to play? I'd suggest A Tale In The Desert [atitd.com]. It's nice because it has a very laid-back feel to it - there's no combat, and the emphasis is on long-term co-operation with your friends to further the development of your avatar (the web site, as well as the excellent [atitd.net] fansites [atitd.info] and wiki [centauri.org] explain all this much better than I can).
It runs on Windows and Linux, and doesn't have to
Tame Games (Score:2)
Why not Team Speak? (Score:2)
That seems to work for me when I travel. Leave the wife & kids at home, play DAOC or Star Wars Galaxies on the laptop and yak away with the kids & wife instead of them having to play something like Counterstrike or another violent game (the kids are 2 and >1, so no) yet still talk to me.
I combine them all the time. (Score:3, Funny)
Whenever my gf calls to talk, I load up counter strike and turn off the volume. It's a great combination that gets me through the whole conversation.
if you really want to keep her - MOVE (Score:3, Informative)
2. Stay away from the game idea, and drive your butt over to her often, before she gets bored.
3. Remember - females like for men to listen, understand, and laugh when appropriate. If you follow this principle, #2 can be rewarding
My wife plays Counterstrike ! (Score:3, Funny)
I started my wife on CS a few weeks ago by taking her to a LAN party. She is hooked ! She now plays at least four evenings a week and it is me who can't keep up with her and suggests that maybe there are better things to be done. Good thing that our nine months old daughter cries from time to time to remind her that she is hungry/dirty and makes sure that she does not play all the time...
CS is the only multiplayer game I successfuly got her interested in. She likes adventure games, I hate them; I love operational art but she does not want ot concentrate on learning military hardware and tactics. So a RTS is a good middle ground, and the short rounds make it much less frustrating for a beginner. She had never played a RTS before, and CS team play made her learn incredibly fast. The social side of LAN parties was a big win too, and no doubt that with a wife and our baby at the party we were an attraction.
But the best thing about playing CS is that whenever a conjugal argument gets too boring we can square it off weapons in hand and defuse the situation !What ever you do, DON'T ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:MMORPG (Score:4, Funny)
Re:MMORPG (Score:3, Insightful)
one tip, though: have characters that you only play when you and your girlfriend are *together*, so you stay at pretty much the same levels. you would
Re:Try a MMOG (Score:2)
So try EQ, DAOC, Starwars Galaxy, one that suits both of your personalities, and allows you some down time to chat.
Re:Ruled out counterstrike? (Score:2)
#1 Counterstrike
#2 Everquest
#3 Dark Age of Camelot
I can't tell you the number of women I know that felt intimidated by counterstrike and went to another game and then as they gained skills came back to cs again and again. My wife plays quite a bit and we often play on the same side/server cooperatively. It's a hell of a lot of fun.
Re:Dance Dance Revolution (Score:2)
Re:Here are a few I like.. (Score:2)
Second Life [secondlife.com] looks like an interesting possibility.