Times like these make us really think about and miss the times that we could be sitting in the same room as our friends, playing games and having a good time in person. In a time of isolation and separation, this has become increasingly difficult. Be that you don’t feel comfortable being with them because you want to stay safe and keep them safe, or you all live far away from each other. I want to tell you not to give up hope! There are so many ways to keep that same feeling, but playing with each other remotely.

There are games that I have been playing with my friends since this whole thing started to give us that same amount of friend time and social interaction. A couple of the games I’m going to talk about are games that we played in person, but found ways to convert them to be played remotely.

I want to start by sharing my personal favorite board game of all time. This game is called Avalon. It is a game of good vs. evil in Arthurian mythos at its core. You each get a specific role that you are tasked to play, roles such as Merlin, Mordrid, Morgana, and Percival. These roles have specific powers to help your team succeed in as many quests as possible. The catch is, no one knows who each other is and what allegiance they have. This is a game normally played with a board around a table, but my friends and I have found an online alternative. Avalon is a free online version of this incredible board game. The rules are all laid out for you and it is very easy to learn. This is a great game for people who enjoy deception and deduction.

A similar game to Avalon is a game called Spyfall. In this game, you are given a location and a job that you do in this location, but there is a spy trying to figure out where you are. The goal of the game for non-spies is to run out the clock before the spy can figure out where you are. You do this by going around and asking questions about the location or what each player’s specific job is. You have to be careful about what you say though because the spy can pick up on these clues and narrow down where you are located. This game is free to play and can be found at Spyfall and can be played over discord, zoom, slack, or any other online chat room.

Moving onto the game that took the world by storm in 2020. That game is Among Us. This very simple game of doing tasks and running around a ship as little blob people has become a household name seemingly overnight. The object of the game is to, as crewmates, finish your tasks and avoid being killed. You have to watch out though because there is an alien imposter among the group. With a premise that is very reminiscent of John Carpenter's beautiful sci-fi thriller The Thing from 1982, which is a topic for another day, it is very difficult to trust anyone! As dead bodies start to pop up around the map, you are tasked with essentially interrogating each of the other players to find out who is going around killing everyone before it's too late. As of writing this, the developers just released their first big update adding a new map and a new user interface! Among Us is free to play on IOS and Android, or it is $4.99 on Steam. I recommend playing this over discord or another form of chat room because it makes the meetings flow a lot smoother.

The last game I’m going to talk about is a game called The Jackbox Party Pack 1-7. These games are a bundle of different games packed into one. With 7 different releases of this game, there is a huge list of games to play such as Fibbage, where you are given a question and the object is to put a lie of an answer and try and get the rest of the group to guess your lie. Or there is Trivia Murder Party, where you are locked in a hotel and the only way to escape is to answer questions correctly or you die. The list goes on and on. It is such a fun party game for you and your friends to play. How my group plays is, I host the game and share my screen with them on zoom and everyone just has to join in on jackbox.tv. The game is $25 on steam, so this is the most expensive game on this list, but only one person needs to own it for you all to play. Plus you are able to just purchase individual games if you prefer that way. 

Don’t let this time of separation stop you from hanging out with your friends and having a good old-fashioned game night! There are so many ways to have that same feeling until we can all safely get back together in person! Stay safe and keep gaming!