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Husband and Wife Computer Games?
An Anonymous Coward asks: "I have a home network, and my wife and I each have our own computers (plus a few extra). My wife has a fear of computers, and uses hers as little as possible. In an attempt to get my wife in front of her computer more, I am looking for games we can play together. My question is, what networkable games out there appeal to the female gender? Quake-like games are definelty out. Too bad Sims isn't multi-player..." I've gotta echo the sentiment about the Sims not being multi-player, however lately I've noticed a few husband and wife couples out there on a few MMORPGs. Are any of you couples out there playing games together? If so, which ones?
My wife and I tend to play [together]:
- Anarchy Online (and formerly Everquest). She's really into AO now and plays even when I'm not around. Worth noting is that we 'hooked up' as a result of playing a MUD... geeks in love, indeed.
- Age of Empires/Kings. The only RTS that I've seen women play, with perhaps the exception of Starcraft.
The key here is that she likes to play cooperatively. We have never found a competitive game that we both liked. I'm seriously into FPS's and she won't touch them. Again, exception to the rule: Team Fortress Classic. She plays with me as a 2 person fireteam, we support each other well.
I must state for the record that my wife is a CS major, so we both come from a long history of single player games. She plays a significant amount more than I do!
- Zoldax
Although the poster says "no Quake" my girlfriend & I play Quake II together often. The fact that it will run (just) on a P133 is a bonus, because they are cheap to get hold of just to use as a Q2 machine ;-)
One thing I would suggest is to upgrade to v3.20 and then download one of the "co-operative" patches. In this way you play together against the baddies, rather than just killing each other.
Matt
Maybe your wife would enjoy strategy games like WarCraft. Playing networked WarCraft II was one of the first things my wife and I did together when we started dating. She likes to game, is good with computers already, but it certainly isn't a major hobby. Still after a few years together we still play WarCraft II every once in a while. (And if FreeCraft supports network gaming -- not sure -- you can even play under Linux!)
Just for some insight, what she likes about WarCraft II is two things:
First, that the graphics are kind of cute. Not tulips and roses cute, but cartoon cute.
And then, the fact that it's a real-time strategy. Just the right combination of real-time action and strategic planning.
You could also play on the same machine, but that's not nearly as geeky.
While they are rather simple games, games.yahoo.com have a wide selection of card games, board games, and some other games. They even have pool which is fun to play occasionally.
The downfall is that all the data has to go back to Yahoo's server even if you are playing on the same LAN. Not a big deal if you have broadband but if you are on dialup it is less than desired.
thisis a very nice linux boardgame. It's not real-time and has a very simple user interface. It's networked and can be played with 2-4 players.
IRL this is one of my favorite games and me and my friends now play it over internet from time to time.
I hope you like it,
Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity
I'd give one of the WORMS games a try. It's fun, has cartoonish graphics, and isn't too hard to get a handle on how to play. Besides, it's a very creative little game. You can probably download a demo version if you'd like.
Or, Worms World Party will allow the LAN games you're looking for.