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Game to play with my girlfriend
rusttree
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I would like to see if I can solicit some advice for a video game that I could play with my girlfriend. Let me see how well I can describe the type of game I think would work.
I'm fairly tech-savvy and have always been drawn to RPGs and similar. Games with deep content and large amounts of patience. Since college, I've mostly been out of the loop and haven't really played a game for about a decade. My girlfriend is not very tech-savvy and is mostly unaware of the gaming world. I was surprised, recently, when we downloaded a simple pseudo-RPG game on the Wii and she got hooked. I can't remember the name of it - some cutesy game where you build defenses in a tower.
I realize, now, that I think she would love certain types of games, she's just never been exposed to what's out there. And I want to see if I can find one we can play together that we will both tolerate. Here's what I think would work:
1. Multiplayer so we can play together, but I'm worried that it'll be over after we run into the first racist, misogynistic 12 year old. So those massive games like WoW are probably a non-starter.
2. Non-cutesy. That shit gets old fast.
3. An RPG/adventure style game where you build something up over a long time. That "something" would probably be a character (as opposed to a nation, like Civilization). I think she'd really enjoy the customization aspects of choosing outfits/weapons/etc.
4. A game with depth. I think she'd really get drawn in to a great story line and deep characters.
5. Preferably a PC-based game.
Any thoughts? Advice is greatly appreciated!
I'm fairly tech-savvy and have always been drawn to RPGs and similar. Games with deep content and large amounts of patience. Since college, I've mostly been out of the loop and haven't really played a game for about a decade. My girlfriend is not very tech-savvy and is mostly unaware of the gaming world. I was surprised, recently, when we downloaded a simple pseudo-RPG game on the Wii and she got hooked. I can't remember the name of it - some cutesy game where you build defenses in a tower.
I realize, now, that I think she would love certain types of games, she's just never been exposed to what's out there. And I want to see if I can find one we can play together that we will both tolerate. Here's what I think would work:
1. Multiplayer so we can play together, but I'm worried that it'll be over after we run into the first racist, misogynistic 12 year old. So those massive games like WoW are probably a non-starter.
2. Non-cutesy. That shit gets old fast.
3. An RPG/adventure style game where you build something up over a long time. That "something" would probably be a character (as opposed to a nation, like Civilization). I think she'd really enjoy the customization aspects of choosing outfits/weapons/etc.
4. A game with depth. I think she'd really get drawn in to a great story line and deep characters.
5. Preferably a PC-based game.
Any thoughts? Advice is greatly appreciated!
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CoX would have been PERFECT for this.
Old Republic wasn't too bad on my original RP server, but I haven't logged on there since the mergers and it went F2P.
Realistically, any F2P is gonna have a higher amount of GIFTed people then a sub game.
You could have her play (or you together play) the Telltale Walking Dead game. That nails points 2, 3 and 4 for you.
Okay, maybe not...
I'm gonna second The Walking Dead just because its amazing and I played one episode with my partner and two others with my roommates. You could also play separate games and ask each other what choices you both made!! =3 (so fun)
On her own, kongregate.com might be a great option just to explore different styles of gameplay. I cannot possibly recommend Bloons 5 (a tower defense, aka BTD5) enough. There is also a game called Elements, which is very M:TG-like if she's into that sort of thing.
Starcraft and Starcraft 2 are pretty great for story and have multiplayer modes, but I pretty much suck at everything RTS so the "infant" difficulty level is tough for me.
She might enjoy Torchlight and Torchlight II. I love both of these. The second game does have a multiplayer mode.
If you're set on no MMOs though I would probably suggest games that aren't necessarily multiplayer but have a lot of "watercooler" potential. Something like Skyrim is good because you can tell stories about finding things you never experienced, and they're also great for exploring together at the same time. Games like the aforementioned Walking Dead can also be great because two people having to quickly talk about a decision amongst themselves can make moments so much more tense and panicky!
Of course for all I know the stuff that'll wind up being what she's into is lighthearted irreverent portable stuff like Sword and Sworcery but who knows! That's half the fun of introducing a hobby to a friend, is figuring out what (if any) aspects of it they actually really like.
One thing I would caution is to make sure you try to spot what she would like, and not what you would like her to like. For example she might be a lot more attracted to the management of that tower game you're describing, rather than the RPG aspects. (Also out of curiosity is the game you're thinking of My Life as a Darklord?)
Very insightful. It occurred to me as I was writing my post that someone might think that I was just projecting my own video game desires onto her. I think, though, that I am accurately predicting her video game potential in the absence of empirical evidence. We've been together for over four years... hopefully that time has imparted some insight onto me.
After reading people's responses above, I'm reconsidering my dismissal of MMOs. If it's easy enough to filter out the scum then my main concern is alleviated. Thank you for your thoughts so far!
By the way, what is CoX?
Does your girlfriend like superhero games? There's an MMO I used to play quite a few years ago called City of Heroes; it's sort-of like WoW, but without the item hunting and (for the most part) without the ragers, racists, etc). It's been a long time, but I played it for years without actually running into a single dickhead (I might've just been incredibly lucky).
There's also The Sims, and it's bajillion expansion packs. I think there's some multiplayer options for the modern Sims games? I played one on the original Xbox with my brother that had local multiplayer.
You could play Torchlight II together and while it's a relatively simple game the various builds add tons of depth.
The Walking Dead game is technically single player but is incredibly good fun to play in a social setting. Even one person watching and commenting can be a huge boon to an already fun game.
I think I'll sit down with her tomorrow and watch a couple of Youtube gameplay videos of all the games you guys are suggesting. See if any of them jump out to her. This should be fun!
PSN Hypacia
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OH MY GOD WHAT ???
Holy crap. I just went to Paragon Studio's website. I can't believe that.
I guess they should've gone F2P?
What a downer. It's been years, but that game was fun times.
For Minecraft, I strongly recommend this series by Paulsoaresjr:
They did. They had an extensive shop. The game was making money. Many rants on the subject can be found in the MMO Extravaganza CoX thread. Anyway.
Have you considered board games, too?
In terms of gameplay, it's very Mass Effect/Dragon Age inspired, with conversation branches and such. It's not nearly as deep or involved as those games, and the combat can be pretty clunky at times, but it oozes style from the film and really hits some excellent high notes if you're playing together. There's the usual loot drops, inventory management, and some character customization. Some. It's regularly on sale at Green Man Gaming or on Steam for $5, so keep your eyes peeled as I think it hits all your requirements to some degree. If you guys enjoyed those films, this one is a no-brainer, I think.
Orcs Must Die 2 is great for co-op. No story, but fun gameplay.
And I also enjoyed Saints Row 3 with a buddy, but we were both males, and that game world is pretty over the top juvenile male inspired. Dildo baseball bats, for example. There's levels with sex machines. Women as purely sex objects and strippers galore. None of it is meant to be taken seriously, but if the OP wants to avoid misogynistic kids in WoW, I'm not sure this game would appeal to the lady counterpart.
Warframe: TheBaconDwarf
http://www.pathofexile.com/gallery/view/1
If you liked the Materia skill system from Final Fantasy 7 And like the idea of chaining gems together for spell effects.
http://www.pathofexile.com/skills
If you liked the skill grid system from Final Fantasy 10.
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree
If you have $10xper closed beta key.
You might be interested in: http://www.pathofexile.com/
As someone who played both Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2 I'm enjoying this game more right now. Granted I don't know how long I will keep playing it and it has a few weird interface limitations which need to be fixed at some point before long I still think it's worth recommending to someone who is looking for a better D2 clone that is really quite fun and better than D3 in every way that counts.
If you try and like the game, Steam is having a 50% off sale on LOTRO stuff until January 5th. The Triple Pack, all the expansions except for the last one as a bundle deal, for $20 is especially good. The reason I mention buying something is because giving turbine money just once, unlocks your account from free to play to premium, permanently, with some benefits due to them now feeling safe that you are not a skynet bot. Most noticeable benefit of being premium status is you can trade money with other players.
I was scrolling through this thread looking to see if someone else suggested this. It's a seriously good one, and I would totally second this.
There is a lot to do in the game, and the pace is pretty slow (later on leveling is quite long, I've found, but in a nice sort of way) so you can really enjoy the leveling aspect and just hanging out together. If you're both even somewhat interested in LOTR and its setting, then the game will push some really good buttons for you with visiting iconic locations and characters and whatnot, and I personally think they've done a fantastic job at creating middle earth (what they've made so far, that is) in a game.
I imagine the IP might get it kicked out right off the bat, but the Star Trek MMO can be a lot of fun. It's gone free to play so it's not going to cost anything to try out. You develop your captain and the bridge crew (and to a lesser extent the ship's crew in the recently added Duty Officer system). Lots of flexibility in the costume design department, though some races/outfits and ships do cost money.
Turn off the zone chat, maybe join the PA fleet and channel so you can talk to some actual humans and a good time can be had by all.
Path of Exile: snowcrash7
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Also falling into the accessible, but not very deep category is Castle Crashers. There are some very basic RPG elements in the game, but not so much that it's overwhelming (character leveling, EXP to distribute across four stats, weapon inventory, and pets come to mind). It's also a game that you can pick up and play for just a bit when you have some free time to spare. You'll want a controller for the both of you, though. One could consider it cutesy, but I would not call it cloyingly sweet. It's humorous, at the very least.
My friends really enjoyed Dungeon Defenders and one of their non-gamer wives sat in and played as well. I can't speak to it personally as I haven't played it. From what I understand, it's a tower defense-style game where there's also EXP and character persistence. Again, I don't think it's a very deep, story-driven game.
I made this mistake when trying to introduce my wife into my hobby, even as a passive watcher. At the time I was very much trying to get her into the immersive experience of narrative RPGs and adventure games that I enjoyed. She could barely sit through watching bits of Uncharted 2 and 3, despite the movie-like experience and incredible set pieces. Same went for Sleeping Dogs, but the violence there probably turned her off moreso than anything else. Any RPG was just too slow and trying to share in the nostalgia of classics fell flat. She didn't have that kind of patience and the older graphics weren't charming at all to her. Trying to feel out what she can appreciate is something I still haven't nailed down, though I saw her playing Angry Birds for an hour once... sigh...
Have you given her Plants Vs Zombies or Peggle yet? I say that seriously, everyone loves PvZ.
PSN Hypacia
Xbox HypaciaMinnow
Discord Hypacia#0391
There are some pretty compelling board games out there that play like an RPG as well, a la Arkham Horror, Claustrophobia, or A Touch of Evil.
WoW sounds ideal, or some other high end MMO, like ToR, both of which are very approachable for people not familiar with games
Also, the changes made to WoW over the past year makes sure that you can really blitz through the content and the game does a good job of staying (fairly) fresh for at least a few months
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Yep!
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
That said, I would highly recommend Torchlight II, as well as any single-player games with good stories (Mass Effect, etc.) that you could "watch" together. If you have GameCube controllers or Classic Controllers, though, you should totally pick up Secret of Mana on Virtual Console! I guess it's on iOS devices as well now. I dunno how she'd feel about the older graphics, but when I think "co-op RPG", SoM is absolutely the first game that comes to mind. I don't think anybody can be willing to play that game and not love it. Also, you only mentioned looking at RPGs, but maybe she would enjoy puzzle-solving? You can check out Trine (and Trine 2) for a co-op puzzle-platformer, or Portal 2 for general co-op puzzles (but the controls might be a bit offputting to somebody completely new to games, since they're FPS-style; I know I was confused the first time I played Portal since I'd never played an FPS on PC, even though I game a lot).
Here's a good site I like to link every time co-op comes up: Co-Optimus is a fantastic resource for looking up games to play with people. You're probably looking for couch co-op games mostly?
That's a very valid point. At the time (not long after our marriage) it was really more of a desire to share an experience with her rather than try to a desire for her to pick up the hobby. There are already number of things that we enjoy doing on our own, but we sometimes fumble over trying to decide on something that we'd both like to do together. She never really played video games growing up the way I had, so I was curious if she'd find something in it. We love the outdoors, but Wisconsin winters too often coop us up and that's been magnified with our child. Once he's in bed, we're basically stuck in the house. We'll play table games like Bananagrams, Rummikub, and Scrabble but anything like Munchkin or beyond is quite literally off the table.
Anyway, back on the topic where the OP mentioned that his girlfriend does show an inclination to play games... Sorry for the sidetrack.
Torchlight II would also work well, of course.
Regardless, it may be more about the atmosphere from what I'm getting. TSW has a great, usually mature population and Torchlight is great for some grindy-loot-grabbin' action.
If she likes puzzle games, I'd recommend Puzzle Pirates. It's kind of cutesy, but I had a blast playing it for like 3 years. It's kind of waning in popularity though. I think it's still around though. Anyway, it has world persistence, and character stuff and property owning and such.
SHe may also like Terraria if she likes building. Which can be played multiplayer as well.
WoW is really showing it's age. I resubbed for Pandas, and I loved it for a little while. My girlfriend just got started at the same time and made it to around 60 before giving up (she's an unabashed gamer). Mostly, WoW is just really old and still really grindy to get to level 90 (which sucks for those not invested at the onset).
TSW gets my vote for an MMO, and Torchlight II gets my vote for offline (or LAN/private party) game. Hell, there is (maybe) still a TL2 sale on Steam right now.
TSW is a great merging of the older Adventure games (The Longest Journey is my favorite game ever, because of the story and characters; Dreamfall also makes that favorite list) with MMO/action. It challenges you both to not look up answers and to use one's mind as a resource.
So it is the anti-grind. You just level while playing, and if you level up some weekend when she isnt playing, you get deleveled when questing in a lower level zone place so you don't make it un-fun for players at level. The random events make it more spontaneous and about exploring and doing than worrying about your level.
DunDef lets you co-op puzzle solve and build up characters, and has a ton of content available to keep you occupied.
GW2 takes away a lot of the friction that most MMOs see (griefing, finding groups), and lets you just wander around saving the day and killing bad things. It would be a good game for someone new to the genre.
This is a really good recommendation too. Along the same line, Fallout 3 is the first video game my wife played consistently since Pokemon Red in middle school solely from watching me play.
Remember that single player doesn't mean you can't play together.
I really don't find WoW very grindy as it is now, but then again I mix up what I'm doing a lot when I play it and it's admittedly been a while since I went through the experience with NO heirlooms/recruit-a-friend XP. If you use recruit-a-friend at the beginning it's usually insanely fast. And if you get ahead of her you can grant her levels. But naturally, unlike GW2 there's the monthly fee for TWO people if you find out she does like it. :P So GW2 is probably a better bet overall.
I second Star Trek online. The lore is seriously... odd, but the game itself is very fun even if the player isn't a Trekkie. Warning, not much for endgame right now...but everything else is top-notch.