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Online Gaming for Couples?
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?"
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.
I've been beta testing an MMOG called There for several months and it is a much more sociable experience than almost any other MMOG out there. All the "leveling up" is performed by talking, organizing events, and riding vehicles. No killing, no NPCs. Really it's just glorified IRC but with one fewer degree of separation because you and your friends have a lifelike customizeable avatar. Sexist stereotyping is beneath us all so I'll just say that the game has paintball guns, a variety of wheeled, flying, and riding vehicles, and lots and lots of shopping and outfits for whomever might enjoy such activities.
Get some boom/headset mics for you and your SO and fire up one of the free voice engines, like TeamSpeak or Roger Wilco 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, Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy and Need for Speed: Underground 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 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 that works pretty darn well
(Win32 only, sorry -- but if this is a problem, use the
Java client 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 (this is the original German site).]
Good luck!!