Recommend games for my long-distance relationship!

The Game Room
1

My lovely lady and I are a fun-loving couple who enjoy walks on the beach, baseball games, bowling, and trying new foods together. Unfortunately, because we’re in a long-distance relationship, we don’t get to experience those things together very often right now. We do post on the Dope a lot, but as it turns out, that’s not much of a couple’s activity.

During her most recent visit, we spent some time discussing things we could enjoy together online while we were chatting on the phone or through IM, which are the ways we keep in touch on a daily basis. We looked briefly at some computer games in a store we were in at the time, but nothing completely grabbed us. We’ve started experimenting with playing some games over at Pogo.com, but we’re thinking we haven’t really explored our options, and maybe some of the good folks here might have some ideas.

So, here’s the basic info about us (although she may correct me or add to my list):

  • We both enjoy board games.
  • We both enjoy card games.
  • She has enjoyed games such as City of Heroes. This type of game (or any type of online game that involves coordinating with others and using strategy) has never interested me. I would be willing to try something, but I don’t hold out much hope. I might be surprised.
  • I like playing baseball games and some other sports games, and some car-racing type games, but she thinks her hand-eye coordination might not be up to the task.
  • We’ve had decent success playing Rock Band together in person.
  • We both have machines and internet connections that can probably handle most games.
  • I have a PS3 and a Wii, but she does not have either. Although she would probably object, if it seemed really worthwhile, we could make either of those happen for her.

I’ve probably left out or screwed up some important information here, so please feel free to ask questions.

So what should we tackle? What suggestions do you have for us? Or are we just relegated to playing Cribbage online until we can live together? All thoughts are appreciated!

2

If you both enjoy baseball, but she doesn’t have the hand-eye coordination for an arcade-style baseball game, you might want to consider something like Strat-o-Matic Baseball. It’s a strategy game, rather than an arcade game, and a pretty detailed simulation…unfortunately, it’s not cheap (especially to set two of you up).

If you enjoy Settlers of Catan, you can play that online: http://www.playcatan.com/

3

I’ve actually played Settlers in person…a very fun game, although not as much with only two people, as I recall. I’ll have to see if she’d be interested!

I’m going to check out the baseball link shortly.

4

My late husband and I used to play Strat-o-Matic back in the day. I had forgotten all about it.

This is a bump to see if anyone else has any ideas. (I’m the uncoordinated girlfriend.)

5

One possibility in the MMORPG realm is A Tale in the Desert. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend it, as it’s not very aesthetically pleasing (owing to most of the structures in the game being built by players, and generally for pragmatic rather than aesthetic reasons), and you have to be willing to play for multiple hours at one sitting to actually get anything accomplished. But it involves a lot of cooperative tasks, some of which involve some coordination but not a whole hell of a lot; and the players are generally relatively mature. There is a fair amount of repetition involved; in any case you could give it the 24-hour (and I think that’s play time and not real time) trial and see if it’s anything you’re interested in.

6

Competitive phone sex!

7

Competing with each other or another couple? Oh, the possibilities!