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Ask Slashdot: Good Ideas For Creative Gaming With Girlfriend?
First time accepted submitter TimBur1e6 writes "Suppose you had just moved 1000 miles away from your significant other, but you wanted to continue to create shared life experiences. You could text, or talk by voice, or even video chat. And those would all be good things to do. However, there's a difference between telling someone about your day, and actually spending time together. What are some fun and constructive ways of spending time together on the net? In particular, what are good things to do with a significant other who is less into combat, and more into collaboration, exploration, creativity, and storytelling?"
You've fucked up.
Why would you even do that?
Minecraft? Portal 2 Team Mode? Draw Something?
Fufme http://www.easylife.org/fufme/
I mean, that's what you expected to hear, right?
Minecraft, but in 2D. This actually makes it better, in my opinion. It's easier to build things. Also, it looks nicer.
My wife doesn't really play very many games, but the one game she really likes to play even more than me is minecraft. I usually end up having to kill everything that comes around, but she likes building stuff and exploring. It's pretty much dead simple to set up a server as long as you can figure out port forwarding.
Anyone can do it. Snuggles not included
Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.
/. has gone downhill in the last dozen years...
really sad...
Suda51
Sigger than your average
Start or join an opensource project and work on it together.
Nothing like some real achievements, which actually help people who use the software for real. Some game achievements don't quite compare.
Yes, I am talking about a private server, a Blizzlike server; only few left. They have many bugs, but the community is much nicer than on retail. I met many couples who play together and even few with their children. Cataclysm and MoP were v disappointing. The community on retail sucks to say the least.
just my 2 cents
Minecraft. Build a house together.
Errrr .... Is this /.
Really? No ones taken the low hanging fruit of, "Lots of people say they like to role play with their signifigant others," or "My brother says him and his wife do role playing, but he just looks at me funny when I ask what rule set they're using," yet?
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
Technically it is "fighting", but not really, more a strategy game, intense communication and collaboration is involved. Really addicting game and you keep logging in multiple times a day, if you wake up in the middle of the night you check your game. And your girlfriend would probably like building the villages.
Portal 2 is wonderful for this.
Is it temporary 1000 miles from home or permanently? That makes a difference.
I would just write real letters in an envelope. she (in my case, in yours: you are very unspecific about the gender of your significant other, that information would help also not?), has to unpack it and probably will read it with care.
My penny...
Surprised this game hasn't been suggested yet.
from your significant other
doesnt sound very significant to me, if you can just up and leave
Well... "less for combat" was also claimed by my girlfriend until I more or less forced her into the first 20min of play in Resident Evil 5 campaign co-op. The the game play mechanics and storytelling kicked in and I had my girlfriend hooked. RE5 is now pretty old, so getting it somewhere cheap shouldn't be an issue for you to experiment on it.
PS: This actually started a willingness in my girlfriend to explore other games as well, now having RE6 and Dead Space 3 on our to-do list.
Virtual sex with role playing thrown in?
"... collaboration, exploration, creativity, and storytelling?"
Suggest a 3-way?
Back when my wife and I were first dating and were apart (we met on Prodigy, and had a long distance relationship) we spent a lot of time on the phone and IMing, many times while listening to our favorite music together or watching TV shows. I suggest skipping gaming and using Skype- while making dinner, watching TV, etc. This is a lot closer approximation to togetherness than playing a game.
Check out MUCKs/MUSHes, etc. Collaborative, real time storytelling and roleplay.
Always-on webcam and mic.
Some may scoff at this, but this is exactly the sort of thing SL for.
Look around in there, you'll probably find something to your liking.
preferably one that likes video games. done and done.
Since most of the suggestions above me weren't actually serious, I'll add play Neverwinter. It's free to play and the people are easy going and not psycho competitive and mean like LoL or Starcraft 2. The game itself is pretty fun and some content is pretty tongue in cheek. It's really easy to hop on and just do whatever together like a raid of dungeon or pvp and there's plenty of comical pvp groups like all 5 wizards who lose horribly or something. So yeah, definitely fun, free, modern, and it's really easy to give each other free stuff in game as a present :-)
A collaborative way to laugh!
http://www.isketch.net/
My lady likes to shoot people in the head (borderlands2!), but some games that might be more interesting to yours could be the collaborative/building style games.
Look into the x360 Kelfling (kingdom of, world of, etc) games, and branch out from there.
Just trying out new games is a great part of the experience. Have a budget, and any game that looks like it might be interesting, buy it. probably still cheaper than a movie, and some games (esp on steam) have two or four packs (for double dates - heh) for a little cheaper.
I also suggest making a specific 'game night' that you always play together. Feel free to add other nights to the mix as desired, but be sure there is a specific night set aside that no other plans are allowed to interrupt.
While not strickly a game many people find it a great way to interact with others far away., I met my partner there. She lived across the country for the first year of our relationship. Sounds strange but many of the things that can be done in real life can be done in Second Life. There are live DJ's and live musicians if you like to go dancing. There are video stores where you can purchase a video for viewing and watch it stream together from the comfort of your virtual home. There are some theaters. There is a ton to do in SL. From G rated on up. Its what you make it and its a great way to date while far away from your loved one.
http://www.second-life.com/
--- Always remember. 99.36% of all statistics are inaccurate.
World of Warcraft or similar could be a good alternative. At least that is how I remember the experience of leveling a couple characters together with good real-life friends (though not my significant other), before I eventually grew bored of the world of Azeroth and the repetitive nature of quests and game mechanics. WoW strikes a reasonably good balance between playing a game together with a shared purpose and creating collaborative experience, while at the same time having plenty of 'downtime' (traveling and quests that don't require much thinking) for chatting and being social.
This depends to some degree on your age and how long you have been together, but unless you've been married or similarly commited for a significant length of time, or you expect them to join you in a definite period of time, it's not worth trying to hold together. There are other fish in the sea.
I get the impression, given the time of year, that you may have just gone to college, in which case, generally speaking, it's already over. The only real question is how long it takes you two to realize it.
Teledildonics. No link. Google it yourself, you lazies.
Leave skype on all evening... Watch movies "together" and talk to each other while watching. Make the same dinners "together." Storytelling? Open up a google doc and write your own story collaboratively. If you both like games, then play whatever you like together using teamspeak. My girl and I have played Ultima Online, Everyquest, starwars and Diablo when we were working across the country. What's important is that you communicate and spend "time" together. But something important that no one will mention is this: Trust each other and give each other time alone. Good luck.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
If you are worried now chances are it will never work out anyway. You need to have a solid relationship to live so far apart. If you are not married and there are no children in the way it's time to be realistic and just cut your losses.
I know it has the name wars in the title, but there's a ton of aspects of the game that involve exploring, a big part is lore, and they have hidden tons of jumping puzzles that reward you. You can level in a multitude of ways, but combat is a big aspect. If its any game that turns chicks onto mmo's its gw2, by far a larger base of female players / total population than I have seen compared to the likes of WoW, Aion, Warhammer etc
No subscription fee, just one a time purchase of $50, which is ridiculously cheap for the amount of hours you'll end up putting into it.
If this were last year, I'd have recommended City of Heroes for you. Creativity and flexibility out the ying-yang.
Unfortunately, those mental defectives at NCSoft put the kibosh on that.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I've done this with my partner in times we've lived thousands of miles apart (the joys of academia!) Fortunately she's more amenable to playing somewhat violent games, but ones that work well are:
Civilization series. Turn based strategy, build an empire - I find it more fun if you play it like a war-craze lunatic, but you can build a nice little cultural/scientific utopia too. Bonus part: You can gang up on the computer players, form alliances etc.
Trine series: OK, somewhat combat, but it's quite beautiful, multiplayer works like a dream and it's very cooperative, and fun to explore the fairytale world.
Portal 2 - again a co-op dream, not particularly violent, all about puzzle solving and coordination.
If you can talk her into the us-vs-them violent games, ones I've found work particularly well are Left4Dead (1+2) and Orcs Must Die 2. However, both get somewhat hectic and are quite violent so might not really be what you're looking for.
What about World of Warcraft? There are lots of casual things to do besides raids or other hardcore gamer battles that involve killing things (but don't roll a toon on a pvp realm!). Of course, there's that $15/month bite. Each! Just a thought.
Collaboration: Create an online dating profile. Have your old girlfriend write a recommendation on why you're worth dating.
Exploration: Ask her to rate potential new girlfriends.
Creativity: Date new girlfriend.
Storytelling: Tell the old one about the new one.
Combat: You did say she's not into combat, right? But, just in case, hide your batleth.
This depends to some degree on your age and how long you have been together, but unless you've been married or similarly commited for a significant length of time, or you expect them to join you in a definite period of time, it's not worth trying to hold together. There are other fish in the sea.
I get the impression, given the time of year, that you may have just gone to college, in which case, generally speaking, it's already over. The only real question is how long it takes you two to realize it.
Dating advice from slashdot. Really?
Long Distance Relationships work. I was in one for over a year, and am now happily married. They are hard, but the poster isn't asking for our advice on the relationship.
All I can say is that my wife and I played lots of online games together, from Battleship to Gin. We kept it varied, and played mostly casual games, though we did rock the Diablo II for a while.
The best person to talk to about this, really, is your girlfriend.
Best of luck.
I know it's been out a long time, but FFXI can be a very enjoyable environment for two (or more) people to hang out together when they're miles apart. It's got a lot of places to explore and goals to achieve that have nothing to do with battle. (i.e. Crafting, Fishing, Exploration Quests, etc.). Just a suggestion. :)
Duh.
You never know. A few years back, I moved to Minneapolis for a couple of years while my now-fiancee stayed in Denver. We kept things going with lots and lots of phone calls and e-mails and the occasional visit until I came back. Obviously that worked out okay.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
my gf and i would game naked on each of our laptops and well you can imagine how it went from there..
When my girlfriend and I lived several hundred miles apart, we played Left 4 Dead a LOT together in campaign mode. We are now happily married and looking forward to L4D3 :)
These are sure to impress, plenty of stories can come from just these!
Crusader Kings II
Dark Souls
Diablo 3
Dwarf Fortress, share the saves!
Europa Universalis IV
Jagged Alliance 2
Magicka
Saints Row (any of them)
My wife and I were apart for almost a year. Skype + Minecraft on a server was awesome and helped us stay connected. I highly recommend it.
Nobodies Prefect
Tidbits for Techs Technology Blog
But perhaps not the 'enhanced edition', haven't tried it yet but heard it doesn't work on some laptops. Or, Neverwinter online.
As they surely will be watching/hearing (at least since 5 years ago they enjoy a lot intercepting and sharing hot phone sex calls), you can try to enjoy having spectators and have fun with them.
maybe sexting, treat her like a camwhore is a good option,ask her to wear schoolgirl clothes and masturbate until she squirts, send her a buttplug so she can use in her day job, ask her to take dirty pics in public places, and maybe buy some remote control vibrator so you can put it in action while she is in a meeting.
those tips will improve collaboration, exploration, creativity, and storytelling.
At least that's what we called in in high school.
I've never played it, but read enough about it to think it might be a good way to spend time on-line interacting with a physically distant significant other.
Suppose you had just moved 1000 miles away from your significant other, but you wanted to continue to create shared life experiences.
I'm sorry. I don't understand this sentence. Is this 'significant other' something that happens when I leave the basement? Can I get my mom to get one for me while she's out?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Leather.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
This isn't going to work. You're living in a fantasy world. Long distance relationships are difficult (and not even really that fun). If you want it to succeed in the long term, you've got to make an effort. Talking about what games you're going to play together online is what children do and your relationship is therefore doomed.
See, the mere fact that you're moving 1000 miles away from her speaks VOLUMES to her (and to me) about what you really think of her. Video games? What the fuck are you thinking?
If you are serious about maintaining this relationship, don't spend your time playing video games with her. Spend that time at a second job and use the money to visit her and (this is also important) fly her out to see you. This will not only show her you are *serious* about your relationship, but that you're a good provider.
She's looking for a committed man. What you're showing her right now is an uncommitted child. I'm not saying that's what you ARE, I'm saying that's what you are SAYING you are. If that's not what you are, start saying something else. Actions > Words.
citys in motion 2 is better then simcity 5
You are a couple of standard deviations away from what normally happens.
Things end or people stray.
I've seen it work once but they were married for years and had three kids and there was a definite plan to bring everyone back together in a matter of months.
Long distance relationships very rarely work long term.
Unless married, it's best to break it off and if you're back in the same area, pick it up again if you both feel the same after the time apart.
Teledildonics.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Role play or Action or puzzle-solving, this game has many directions it can take, only $9.99 at gog.com and still has a strong community after 10 years. playnwn.com has details so does neverwinternights.info and social.bioware.com
See you online!
Other than MMOs, I don't have much of an idea, because the last thing I want is a significant other that spends all their time playing videogames or surfing the net so that when I'm not busy doing those things, they are and we never spend time together. (Which is why I picked someone who spends their time as a semi-professional fashion-designer, instead).
That said, maybe a little Sexy-Wii time is in order? :P
http://www.mojowijo.com/
I really gotta know if they sell enough of those to be profitable.
The game Sleep Is Death (Geisterfahrer) sounds exactly like what you're describing: "a storytelling game for two players by Jason Rohrer"
http://sleepisdeath.net/
However, you do need to be very creative to play this effectively.
"Long Distance Relationships work."
bwhahaha. You just don't know she cheated on you.
A great number of soldiers, researchers, and other travelerse likely much more committed to their relationships than you would beg to differ.
Seriously, LDR can work. Hell, imagine this if you can:
My mother and father were separated for a full 2 years when he went back to his home country (on the far side of the ocean) to finish his research. This was back in the time when the internet was a dream and you had to portion out a bit of your income to make sure you had money for international phone calls.
Some time later, they were married.
Later still, I was born.
But hey, anecdotal evidence isn't really evidence, is it?
Girlfriend? Yeah right. We need proofs of that.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Pick a book you'll both enjoy, and take turns reading aloud to each other.
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
share the knowledge you and your far removed girlfriend have discovered together ... in bed ... with others : )
afterall you might fall behind and your skills might "rust".
Start by developing an idea, tone, and theme for a story that you can collaborate on and write. There's a lot of fun details to flesh out to make the world feel alive (especially if the story isn't just set in modern times) like establishing kingdoms or galactic alliances and whatnot. If you one you likes to draw or doodle, you can get some fun map-making in. You can setup short term goals like "this week, we should each try and write up a character profile for someone in the world" and then share the ideas you've come up with when you're together online again.
I know it's not a straight-up game in the way you were asking, but it could easily become one that's shared between just the two of you. Most rewarding is the actual progress you make on something that will last longer than the next WoW patch cycle. And who knows, maybe you guys end up releasing the next big book series as a result, or pioneer a new pen-and-paper RPG setting. As long as you did it together, you've created unique memories with each other, despite the distance.
It is very simple. People get lonely, so they do things not to be lonely. Whatever fits...
http://ingress.com
It's basically a geocaching king-of-the-hill augmented reality mmo with a crazy back story. Join the same faction (viva la Resistance!) and see if you can't link your cities together. ;)
Ok, buddy. Hold up.
The only game you're going to enjoy is called "unpleasant few months splitting up with my girlfriend despite good internet access because moving 1000 miles away from her means the relationship is over".
You will learn a great deal in the process, mostly concerning the fact that the most important part of a relationship is lots of time spent together sharing real life experiences and, yes, good 'ol fashoined sex.
Sorry dude, but time will teach you that this just wasn't going to end well, no matter how much in denial you were when you made the decision to make this move : I've made the same mistake myself in the past when bandwidth and communiction possibilities were less advanced than they are now but the bottom line is you put a career opportunity first and this is the price you will almost certainly have to pay.
You could collude at online poker.
Just play the Cadillac of MMO's. You can make characters on a PvE realm so she doesn't have to worry about fighting so much, and it's HUGE. So much character customization, some pretty neat mounts, tons of mini games, super cute pets, it really is a beautiful world. Also, it's the only game I can think of where women are actually welcome. I don't play it anymore, but my wife is running around in Goldshire as I type this.
as the general market for the gamers is well understood and girlfriends are not.
jsut athnoer menagiensls ltitle psrhae for you to dcoede. Why do we wtsae our tmie dnoig tihs?
Portal 2's multiplayer will let you solve fun puzzles together with cute little pan sexual robot avatars. It's also a closed multiplayer environment where it's just you two.
If they're happily together now, the relationship worked.
In particular, what are good things to do with a significant other who is less into combat, and more into collaboration, exploration, creativity, and storytelling?"
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A PERSON LIKE THAT? YOU DUMP THEM! BLOOD FOR THE BLO okay there are some pretty good games out there that focus on problem solving and exploration, nobody plays this anymore but if it's just you and your girl then I recommend Myst Online, it's kind of old but still pretty for an MMO, and it's all about solving rather abstract and unique puzzles. Oh and it's free.
Lot of other good games got mentioned, but I feel Myst Online deserves some love here, it's a pretty good fit for the kind of gameplay you're looking for.
what are good things to do with a significant other who is less into combat, and more into collaboration, exploration, creativity, and storytelling?
There are several muds that fit that bill nicely. Text based. No explosions. Solve puzzles. Act out a character. Contribute to a story.
Use Skype/FaceTime/Phone+SMS photos/whatever to go to real world places together: museums, parks, hiking, etc.
I took my girlfriend to quite a number of places vial cell-phone+SMS photos when we were dating-at-a-distance... Now she's my wife!
I've been playing around with http://roll20.net/ which is a tool for online gaming (I'm not affiliated in any way). Whilst it is aimed primarily at run web based rpg games, the framework allows you to create maps - including hex based ones. It has the ability to work with video chat, a built in dice rolling system and ways to communicate in secret between players. It also has a deck of cards mechanism which can be tailored to other card decks. So with a little effort, you can build a library of boardgames, card games or RPGs which will give some variety. You can also invite in others to play if you take the fancy. Basic membership is free but they also have a subscriber model with additionaal features
Glad to see at least one other man reads Slashdot. ;)
My fiancee is currently in her second year of law school, and we faced this dilemma last year. She is tech savvy-enough, but she is not an engineer nor does she enjoy most video games, which eliminates developing something together or playing on the computer.
Between my work and her school, we are both very busy people and neither one of us likes to pay for cable, so any TV show that we watch comes from our shared Netflix account or Hulu (free). So, we set up [rough] times to co-watch TV shows that we both have an interest in together on Netflix/Hulu while video chatting simultaneously.
In doing so, we both get the same experience at roughly the same time. Hulu in particular can be less predictable due to showing different length commercials for different regions, thus sometimes requiring a little bit of pausing on one side versus the other, or at least the person in front being good about not giving away things (it also kind of became its own game: hoping that my show would be the front runner, but I was generally in the bigger advertising bubble apparently). This has given us a very similar feeling to being in the same room watching a show together, minus being able to cozy up to one-another, and it most importantly gives a simultaneously shared experience that we can then discuss.
Perhaps most conveniently, you can do it while doing something else. Because she is busy doing homework, she can pay as much or as little attention to the show with no ill effects. This is different from most games where a lack of focus could lead to bad experiences, thus avoiding small annoyances.
As others have said, it's important to physically see the other person too. We made the effort to ensure that it happened at least once each month. Given two very hectic schedules, this can be very difficult, but it helps to get rid of a lot of pent up frustration that serves as the basis for bad blood in long distance relationships (I am not referring to sexual frustration here, but that does go away too).
The biggest thing that I have noticed about our long distance relationship is that we get into cycles that go away once we met up each time. The more time we spend apart, the more generic our conversations would become and therefore the more annoying. I have found that in-person contact leads to shared experiences that we both get to draw on in conversations to make them more unique than the standard "how was your day" conversations.
the only thing that will make the relationship continue to work are 1. communication 2. getting his ass on a plane or train and going to see her as often as possible
otherwise, she will find someone else
RE: What's childish about being able to maintain a relationship without constant sex?
The only way you could understand that, is if you were ever in a relationship with good, constant sex.
Yes, it's a tautology. Sorry, but life does not correspond to a logical system, that is your first error (and is why so many aspies don't succeed at life.)
Many people never have such a relationship. I didn't for a long time and bought all the religious, repressive, controlling propaganda about sex.
Then I got in a real, good, loving relationships with good constant sex. Blows everything else out of the water. Simply incomparable. It's what we are built for.
Yes, maybe 1% of people are asexual. The rest of us respond to the genes evolution provided, of course mediated by environment. Change your environment to a relationship with good, constant sex and you will answer your own question.
Short of that there is no way to explain it to you. It is experience, not logic. Although you can observe the evidence if you have couples whom you can trust to be honest with you about their relationship, including the sexual part.
Sorry if you can't find such a relationship (protip - girls that are less than an 8 can be FANTASTIC in bed, and out. Chubby girls in particular are a criminally underutilized resource.)
Your story is an exception to the rule.
It especially works if both people are so desperate to be with someone that they'll tolerate any inconvenience and they are also so afraid of being alone and afraid that nobody else will ever want them that they better make this 1,500 mile long distance relationship with the girl/boy they met last month work out.
This is also the logic high school students (especially boys) use in their relationship. "I'll never get another girl to like me, so I'll be a loyal puppy dog, no matter what happens! And we wuuuv each other so much things will never be bad!"
Sometimes shit works out, sure . . . sometimes people can jump off a tall building and the wind catches them just right and drops them safely on the top of another nearby building. But usually, they leave a vicious dent in the ground.
The statistics show that only about half of long distances work even if you include married couples trying to have a long distance marriage (which is much more likely to work) and include "long" to mean "a couple hours drive." You take out those factors and the statistics are very bad. The submitter doesn't have either one of those factors in his favor.
Yes, it can work, but it involves both parties working very hard to make it work (or alternatively lots of codependency).
Games I liked, definitely portal 2, minecraft, borderlands. Some cool collaborative things I'd second doing a project, perhaps both learning python/JavaScript something fun. If your girl is into the art or writing side see if she wants to make up characters or draw scenes and Share them with you. Also if you want to get her more into gaming I loved bioshock, morrowind, skyrim and braid (and shadow of collosus if she had a Ps2.) Theres tons of beautiful art/story games that she is bound to love. Bastion is awesome too.
Try Second Life...it is a multi-user virtual environment with all the trappings of social media. However, it is an environment created by the users. You can do *anything* there, and I do mean anything, up to and including virtual sex if that is your bent. Extremely rich, immersive and even addictive (of course), virtual marriages have occurred there that led to real life marriages...and divorces.
Co-author a book or screenplay together in Google Docs.
From someone who has shared a similar experience:
http://www.co-optimus.com/
You will want to filter out the FPS titles, but there are dozens of good, modern recommendations there. And that doesn't even include older games.
Girlfriend? What's that?
Just a friend.
I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Jason Rohrer's "Sleep Is Death". It's literally a story-telling game. One person uses the game's tools to create a scene for the other player. This player then sends the creator some kind of interaction (they say something, or touch something, or move somewhere, kind of like those old-school adventure games). The creator then has a short period of time (I think it's like 2 minutes or something) to respond to that interaction. Very unique.
http://sleepisdeath.net/
Preferably a real life carbon based life form version.
is that a word? now it is.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
You both go into a same name restaurant, sit at a similar table. Using a laptop, both of you have the face of your long distance relationship on each of your laptops, have them sit opposite as a date would and talk to each other as if you were in the same room.
Late in the ps2 era my wife had to head to the States for several months and I was in Berlin, Germany. When we were together we used to play many exploration games like Silent Hill.
Well, with a pc, skype, vlc and a video in card, I split the ps2 video/audio, played one stream direct to my monitor and shipped the other to her.
It worked great for what it was and we went through several games in that time.
I wrote an Ubuntu howto to their forums way back when if you are interested. It was a great way to have pseudo-couch-geek time.
Find a good MUD (arctic comes to mind), kill some rats, role-play some, then get your characters married. It'll be so much like it's 1993, you might even drop some letters in the post....
I owe my happy marriage and two great kids to my willingness to sit down with some paper and a stamp. Sure, you can barf text into an email message or find any one of the other millions of ways to interact online, but I don't think any of those can compete with how ink focuses attention and reduces banality.
If the only thing you do with your girlfriend is play hide the salami then you obviously have no idea what a real relationship is.
Do elucidate us with your relationship experience.
Oh, wait! Your opinion doesn't matter, had sex.
Left 4 Dead is a great co-op game which guys and gals play.
TF2, with you being a heavy and her being a healer behind you. Romantic and kind of sexual.
Send your avatars in StreetView and visit romantic places hand in hand
Paris - Quartier Latin: http://hybridearth.net/w
more info: http://blog.hybridearth.net/
Minecraft.
Portal 2.
Better: a question for you: what do you guys like to play? Why are you asking us about games to play, when you should know what you like and what she likes - since you're both obviously gamers, right? Right? So, do you both actually play games? If so, find something that's online, that you both enjoy, and play it. There's lots of free games, free-to-try games, and games you might only have to shell out a couple bucks each to get (Humble Bundle, anyone?). But, if one of you isn't a gamer, then this is pointless. I don't know - my wife and I are pretty upfront about our gaming likes and dislikes, so I wouldn't really need to ask anyone else what we should play together. Maybe you two should talk about what kind of games you'd like to play, and then find some.
Oh, more:
Gunbound
Any variation of Catan
Call of Duty
Final Fantasy Online (LOL)
Any "old-school" emulator with networking support
Team Fortress 2
Lots of online poker services for free (Triple Jack is fun)
There are probably a few more - I mean, we are talking about games to play online, right? Yeah, probably one or two that I missed.
Do you guys play table top RPGs? Numenera is a system that just came out and is all about that kind of things; in fact you earn experience by discovering things and not through combat. I play with several friends scattered around teh country through Roll20 and it's been pretty fun.
I had a similar situation, except it was just with friends, rather than a significant other. We knew we liked gaming, but gaming together only gets you so far, just as talking only gets you so far. You need to have a shared experience that isn't as distracting as multiplayer gaming can be.
For us, what we did was start recording Let's Play videos and uploading them to YouTube. Basically, set up some video streaming (e.g. we use TeamViewer, but Twitch.tv works for others), chat on Skype, have one of you play a single-player game, and then record everything that happens. You can talk about the game or anything else. For me, it perfectly captures the same feeling I used to have when playing a single-player game with a friend, either as the player or the viewer. We just shoot the breeze, comment on the game, look up stuff related to it, and generally just have a fun time. It facilitates conversation and ensures that you don't have awkward silences, since the game is constantly happening.
For you, uploading the videos to YouTube doesn't make much sense, since we now have 1000 subscribers with really trying, and that sort of thing is the last thing you need when having conversations with your significant other. Even so, the idea may be applicable. Don't constrain yourself to multiplayer games. Single player can work great too.
The statistics show that only about half of long distances work
The statistics show that half of all marriages (allegedly) end in divorce too. So that's about right.
Don't quote me on this.
It offers a wide array of different types of games; from card games to puzzles. You can focus on the socializing or build up your character's skills and become part of a crew. It appeals to the casual gamers more than the hard core crowd.
Puzzle Pirates
I only speak for myself, but sporadic (eg. weekly) and short (10 minutes?) phone calls and occasional exchange of short messages in Whatsapp was sufficient for us.
Needless to say there was lots of trust and understanding, and perhaps the fact that we threw away the (IMHO) childish notion that lovers need to feel the constant presence of each other. (blasphemy for some, I know...)
This goes directly against the other end of the advice spectrum of holding intimacy and sex above all else in a relationship. They're probably also right, in which case you got to ask yourself what your relationship is based on.
There's nothing wrong per se in having a relationship based primarily on sex, on the feeling of intimacy, on promises of exclusivity, promises of staying together, whatever. In which case they're absolutely right -- if those assumptions break once you're 1000 miles away, it's over.
But it really depends on the couple. If playing games together helps, good for you.
Don't quote me on this.
Strip LISP
That's what your relationship is right now. If you think it'll hold together with that amount of distance between you, think again. It'll start out with talking nightly. Then nightly will become weekly. Then you'll be lucky if you hear much from her at all because she'll be busy attempting to have an actual social life which will likely include other guys.
If she likes music, maybe write songs together and put them on bandcamp.
I assume you're asking this question because there's nothing online that she really likes. I've dated girls like this. Dull in her interests, but good kisser. Someone earlier mentioned Travian, and I also think the FunOrb games are good (especially Arcanists).
In all honesty, you should just talk on Skype or w/e and plan your next meetup. I assume that you can afford meeting up at least few times a year. Talk once a week, maybe play a game or two during the week, and be planning your next fun adventure. You 2 don't have to meet up at each other's place; you can meet at some other exotic place.
The G
I think World of Warcraft is probably the most couple friendly online game. You can group together and level, run instances, figure out gear, fight other people. I played with my wife for a while, and I ran into a lot of couples in WoW who played together. It lets you be brave, and protective and helpful and accomplish goals together. There's stories and fantastical places which make it interesting to just about anyone.
set softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 expandtab nocp worlddomination
SL was hot a few years ago but then it became not hot when nobody with money could figure out how to make money with it. Lots of press. Nothing happened.
So now they're all gone and it's mostly guys who want to RP as women, which is fine if you are into that. But for this person, he can throw money at SL and build a dream house and put in furniture and baby beds and kitchen appliances and flying cars and scare the ever living crap out of his girlfriend by showing her the future of domestic bliss that awaits, if they ever solve this distance problem and get hitched.
Except the house will probably be "mom's basement with the old fold-out couch" and the flying car will be a 1995 Ford Taurus with a bad muffler and windows that don't work.
But other than that, SL is just like reality.
Right now, I am into playing Scarlet Blade where everybody's a girl and you kill monsters for no actual purpose. This is a lot like real life, where you work and do stuff for no actual purpose. Except I'm not a girl so I am not sure if the real ones kill monsters. Nonetheless your girlfriend would hate it so play something else.
I recommend buying some webcams. You'll figure out the game.
Sig for hire.
I'd suggest Barry White and Al Green in order to get her in the mood to play games.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
How do you network two Real Dolls together?
... like find a job for her that she would love next to your place. Safest IMHO.
www.funnyadultgamesplay.com
I can't believe nobody mentioned "Twister" yet. You don't even need a computer!
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Animal Crossing New Leaf, if you both of a 3DS. You can visit each other's community over the internet, send each other gifts, mail, etc, etc. My wife and I play it together and we find ourselves having conversations about the game in the evening. She's way more into the game than I am, but I enjoy it enough.
http://sleepisdeath.net/
A totally open ended story telling game for two players. One of you is the player, and can do anything you want by moving around, talking, and doing actions. The other player makes it happen by creating objects, changing scenes, controlling other characters, and so on. You draw or download a scenario ahead of time, but if something unexpected happens you can draw new things (be quick!).
Once you've finished playing, you get a recording; also the objects and scenery used in the game are available to the player, so they can reuse them to tell their own story.
She writes the first page, you continue, she picks up where you leave off.
Sort of like that folded writing game some people do at parties to generate a page of weird party-induced fiction.
She probably fucked several dudes during that time apart. I'm not saying that to be cruel, but it's something that is a distinct probability. Good on you to be able to accept her as your fiancee after that.
You do know that most soldiers get cheated on while they are away, right? Some of them even return to find that their wives have left them for another man who could be around and care for them.
with my girlfriend name Aion. It's a fun way to do co-op through the quests since it's designed to be played with someone.
I know MMOs aren't sometimes the most creative game to co-op but sometimes a regular game works.
Get her into Ultima Online. Plenty of stuff to do there besides PVP or PVM. There are even acceptable free shards these days http://abcuo.com/home/
Minecraft with Xbox
I kept an LDR together with WoW back in the day. We only needed to do that for 3-4 months though.
Games that don't heavily focus on direct combat, but do have multiplayer:
Portal 2
Rock of Ages
Minecraft
check it out, for Android, iOS, etc..
Although my significant other simply will not engage in any online activities with me... or with anyone else, pretty much, I do have a good idea for other people.
Gary's Mod Theater Mode!
Yes, it's true, you are limited to watching stuff on Youtube, but there is a lot of good stuff on there. And it isn't as taxing as playing a real game type game.
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
Egyptian life simulation with some interesting extrapolations. It's a substantial online game world where collaboration and cooperation makes the game significantly more enjoyable. And there's no combat - it's all about being involved in creating things and working with others to complete huge projects. I don't play anymore, but my wife has been into it daily for 2+ years now.
The only one I can think of actually would require a joystick throw back to the 80s.
The rest of the post would require lots of censorship and therefor will be left up to your imagination.
Why do something with a GF on a video game, when you can do it for real!
Stan and Kyle > ....
Stan's Dad >Hey, boys, heres something really cool....watch
Stan and Kyle > Thats lame Dad!
Stan's Dad > But I am playing for real !?!
Stan and Kyle > Mom....can you get Dad out of here!
If your SO really likes collaborative storytelling, well, that's exactly what a good pen & paper RPG is. You can hold the game over Skype, or gchat, or anything that allows you to talk or text back and forth.
If you need maps & miniatures in realtime, I'm sure there are several different solutions to that problem as well.
If you've never played a pen&paper before, the learning curve can be rather steep, depending on which system you choose to play. And I caution you that having a 1-DM, 1-PC game can also be challenging. Expect to spend as much time doing prep for the game (as DM) as you actually spend playing the game as well.
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
I mean she is going to do it anyways when you are trying to see the TV to play a game so you might as well turn it into a game.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Battleship over the phone. I used to do this with a gf I had long time ago. It was nice. LOL
"Strip" - [game name here]
they just fixed things so you can work with real world measurements.
btw you may want to TP to one of the NCI (new citizens Inc) sims so you can be in a "safe" area when you first start out.
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
...Break Up! Because 1000-mile-away (further than the Southern Oracle no less) relationships are destined for doom.
The solider volunteers for military service but the spouse and children, called military brats, get drafted. The spouse may have some say in the situation but the brats don't.
My husband and I played a lot of turn-based strategy games.
Specifically, we played Heroes of Might and Magic II and III. (available on gog.com) There isn't much storytelling here, but there's collaboration and exploration. I liked turn-based strategy games for long distance because there was no time pressure so we could be chatting about anything during the game - game related or not.
We also spent a lot of time playing Diablo II. If you want to go modern here, you could play Diablo III or Torchlight II. They're quicker, IMHO, than your average MMO.
It's called strip poker. :-)
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS is a great long-distance relationship game. You can collect things to give her (flowers, furniture, clothes) and even create personalized clothing and furniture to give her. Go on little virtual dates, visit the club at night and do ridiculous little dances with each other, visit the island to fish together, collect bugs together, and play mini-games together. My SO and I have already decided that if we ever have to spend an extended period of time apart, Animal Crossing is our game to keep us together.
3Dsexgames.com or Chathouse3D to get some virtual mojo going
http://www.igda.org/sex/
Instead of watching the same file, a decent machine (and internet connection) these days can transcode video and stream out to your remote significant-other.
I used to get my girlfriend (now wife) to login to my VPN and then we'd fire up a movie with voice-chat on a different channel.
Mortal Kombat 9 on PC. The tag battles can get pretty intense.
Nothing to see.
As a long-time gamer & someone who's been in this same position of having a significant other far away, I suggest my favorite gaming genre- MMOs. They're social by nature & allow for collaboration. In terms of exploration, story, etc. that depends on the game. I'd suggest more of a sandbox type game. I just picked up The Secret World over the weekend (cuz it's 50% off 'til the end of the month!) for only $15. It's a "Buy To Play" title which means while it's an MMO, there's no monthly subscription fee, just buy the client & it's free forever after. TSW is a modern-day MMO w/3 playable factions- Illuminati, Templars & Dragon- & as you can guess by their names the story/writing is amazing & involves deep ties to historical events. So if you're both into history, like conspiracy theories & politics it'd be a great game. Another GREAT story-based game is Star Wars: The Old Republic, it's "Free to Play" (F2P) which means you can download it & play it completely for free. Like TSW, SWTOR has great voice-over work & the choices you make matter & affect your storyline. It's set in the Star Wars universe but even if he/she isn't into SW, the story is amazing & all the different classes have very personal story lines that are extremely engaging. Aside from TSW & SWTOR, I'd suggest looking up any other F2P games as this new business model is king right now & there's literally TONS of games you & your significant other can play right now & engage w/each other. G'luck!
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. -Mahatma Ghandi
If she is into any sort of gaming, check out Roll20.net. It's mainly used for RPGs on a shared map over Google Hangouts, but there's support for card games as well and it's still growing; maybe it'll work for you.
My non-gamer girlfriend and I live together and really enjoyed playing Portal 2 on co-op. Once she got the hang of the FPS perspective and WASD movement, she really enjoyed the puzzle-solving aspect.
Ignore the haters. Relationships survived trans-oceanic voyages and years-long war in days before Skype. Yours can probably handle it if its worth it.
+1, Sad but true.
Wizard101 is the ticket for hanging out with your girl, Tim. Seriously, give it a try. I know lots of couples who share time together by playing this game. All of them are people whom I've met via the game.
It has a fanciful story line with entertaining quests, animated spells that are fun to watch, card strategy, crafting, gardening, pet hatching (pets have genomes, getting half of their traits from each parent), and various types of housing that can be furnished and a number of different themed worlds to explore.
I love this game, and I've made friends on it that I look forward to seeing/hanging with. Now if I could just get my family to give it a try... :)
Be sure to register with an adult age though. It's one of the requirements for turning on open chat. Believe me, being limited to filtered chat and menu chat will be a pain.
Wow. Cynical much?
If you have a hard time getting a date, I'm pretty sure its not your looks that's the problem.
Video strip poker! Just let me know your girlfriends e-address before starting!!!
My karma is bad. Don't get too close!!!
Well, it's rather obvious, isn't it?
-- 29A the number of the Beast
Battlefield 3
Yeah, things like Farmville aren't exactly thrilling, but you can collaborate to a degree and help each other build. Plus, you don't have to be online at the same time. I think some of the newer versions of Animal Crossing also have these sorts of features.
The Gospel according to lolcat
So if half of long distance relationships work and half of all (first) marriages end in divorce it follows that a long distance relationship has a 25% chance of working out? Statistics class was a long time ago.
Are you willing to wager your future on a 25% chance?
If not, I'd suggest grinding GL rep together.
First, I'm really sorry you've had to deal with all the dickish responses to your post. You know that doing the long-distance thing will be hard, so you're making plans for ways to stay bonded during that time. Kudos to you and all the best.
As far as games are concerned, one thing I haven't seen suggested much are (virtual) board and card games. Especially if you both have iPads (though there's also varying levels of support for Android, PC, etc versions, depending on the game), there are a ton of good co-op and vs 2-player games that can be played remotely. My girlfriend is actually way more into these than I am, but here are a few off the top of my head:
- Hive (I love this one. It's chess-like but novel, and free on iOS and Android (the physical set is also a great travel game))
- Forbidden Island (here's a video of Wil Wheaton playing it with John Scalzi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxG_ahmF1uM)
- Ticket to Ride (pretty sure this one's also available for PC/Mac)
- Ascension (iOS only, afaik)
- Dominion (also iOS only, I think)
- Magic (available on everything except Android, including consoles)
The nice thing about these games is, if you find one you like, you can hit up a site like boardgamegeek.com to find more like it.
Have fun!
It's a personal view, but I don't really interpret statistics to be applicable to any individual case, because there are always circumstances that would point one way or the other. I've just had a 9 month "long distance" relationship which worked out fine (I moved back), and while people say it usually doesn't work, I've never had a doubt, because I knew myself and I knew my SO, and we're not quite the average sort of person. So, I did wager this so called "25% chance", apparently it's closer to a supposedly 50% now.
But yeah I get your point. It might add up to 25% if you look at it that way. Still, 50% isn't too bad. Most people probably wished 50% of their relationships work out -- I mean, supposedly you just need to have ONE that works in your whole life, right?
Don't quote me on this.
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