Like many others, I have been struggling to move my entire life home. While I am immensely grateful that no one I know has gotten sick, I have a rent-free roof over my head, delicious food on the table, and love from my family, I cannot help but miss my college life. I miss staying up late with my roommates, pretending to study with friends, and going down the slide at Aquarium. Things were also feeling like they were just starting to pick up for me: I had received a Chair position in an organization that I really care about and I had been accepted into a spirit group of lovely women. Every now and then, I feel as though quarantine has stolen the memories I could have been making with these new friends and a fraction of the limited time I have in what are called “the best years of your life.” However, we live in the great age of technology and I am so extremely thankful for Facetime and Zoom that let me still keep up with people. I have been video calling with my friends a lot - not only for sanity - but also just to check in and play games. Today I wanted to share some of the fun stuff we have been playing so that your friend group also stays entertained during this time! Everything is linked as well :)
#1 CodeNames (and bonus! A Brown version)
If you don’t know about this game yet, you are in for a treat. The basic way to play is this: you split your group into a red and blue team and have a “codemaster” for each team. There are words that correspond to each color and the codemasters’ job is to get their teams to guess the corresponding words on the cards by giving a one-worded clue. There are also white words which are neutral and one that is just black which results in ultimate death. This game is easy to play over zoom with a big group because you can easily talk to your team and everyone can see the gameboard on their own screen. I always have a fun time because guessing the words that could correspond is hilarious and seeing how everyone’s mind thinks is very interesting.
Recently, my friend’s relative made a “Subtle Curry” Codenames which I would totally recommend to play with your South Asian family or bollywood-obsessed friends. It has a mix of Bollywood film names, actors and actresses, Indian food and common hindi words.
This is a game I discovered last year during finals and it is so stupid but fun. The objective of the game is to get from one random Wikipedia article to another in as few clicks as possible. For example, I have played one that asked us to get from Alopecia Aereata to Birth Control. The server randomly selects articles for you, and you can create a private room for your group (2-8 players). I know this game sounds nerdy but I promise it gets really fun and competitive after a couple of rounds.
Think pictionary, but online. If you have ever played Scribble.io, this is like the Iphone 11 version of it - faster, cleaner, and better graphics. The objective is the same of picking a word from the options given, drawing it, and letting your friends guess in the chat box what it could be. You can create a private room on the website for a max of 20 players and 3 rounds. Also you do not have to create a new room every time, another game will automatically start. If you can be on call during this game I would totally recommend it because roasting people’s drawings and watching them struggle is even more fun than guessing.
Hit rewind to your middle school computer class days and race your friends on typing speed. The website gives you random paragraphs to type out under a minute and it does not fail to show you how bad you spell in a stressful timed situation.
Okay really throw it back to the old days with this gem. At the beginning of quarantine I dropped a lot of time making pizzas on Pizzatron 3000 and decking out my igloo and puffle. I even went on a secret agent mission race with friends (that I miserably failed). Someone at my school made a special server for UT students so it was really funny to go on crackhead hours and see someone you know on the dance floor jammin out as a penguin. I highly recommend making a new account - or logging into your old one if you remember that [kudos] - and reliving the dojo days.
If you are looking for more games to play with friends or family, checkout this comprehensive list I found on Facebook: Lockdown Gaming List. And these digital escape rooms: Spy Apprentice, Harry Potter, Bank Heist.
Stay safe and keep holding on to the hope of better days :)
Deuces,
D