Game Suggestions Please (Online, Co-op)

garroad_ran

My girlfriend will be leaving to study abroad for an entire year halfway around the world. We're pretty determined to tough it out, and I'm trying to think of ways to stay connected and do stuff together while she's away. I figured a game we can play together would be a great idea.

I'm going to introduce her to WoW, but I have no idea if she'd be into it at all. The only games I know for sure she enjoys are Harvest Moon, Pokemon, and Mario Party.

I think MMORPGs would be ideal, but the only one I really know of is WoW. Any other suggestions?

Jurg

How often are you going to be able to play together? What is the hour difference/your schedule like?

Essee

Well, WoW does now basically contain a bit of both Harvest Moon (basically only at 90, though) and Pokemon, if that makes you feel any more secure in the decision you seem to have made. :P

When it comes to online co-op for basically anybody, the two games I can think of to recommend are Portal 2 and Trine/Trine 2. Also, they aren't entirely MY thing, but the vast majority of people are into Minecraft and/or Terraria for the co-op world-building and exploration, so those are safe bets (Minecraft is probably more forgiving in difficulty level, though! Even as a long-time gamer, Terraria's difficulty gets out of hand pretty quickly...).

Also, what consoles does she have available? There are some fun games you guys can both play together on consoles as well as PC. For example, if she has a 3DS, I pretty much guarantee you if you introduce her to Animal Crossing: New Leaf, she will be hooked on it for a good while. You can play together in the same town, but you can also each collect stuff on your own and trade it with each other. Buuut that requires a 3DS. While New Leaf is pretty clearly the best AC game, there's also AC: City Folk on Wii, or AC: Wild World for the DS, but the DS requires lax wi-fi security in order to play online, so I don't know if that would be an option for you guys.

Quid

Starbound is a bit easier than Terraria, at least from the bit I've played.

For MMOs Guild Wars is a really good choice too. It's much more friendly to level up in and play with others regardless of their own level.

Heartlash

Start two characters together in Path of Exile and only play them with each other. It's a free game that's wildly fun (in the vein of Diablo) as a co-op experience.

Shivahn

Quid wrote: »

Starbound is a bit easier than Terraria, at least from the bit I've played.

For MMOs Guild Wars is a really good choice too. It's much more friendly to level up in and play with others regardless of their own level.

Even though it's totally not the same kind of game, Starbound actually scratches a bit of a Harvest Moon itch, in that you get to build a nice homey place and stay there. It's just that you have to leave it on the planet, so it's not really long term. But it is there.

Path of Exile and Starbound are things I've had a lot of fun playing with people lately. And the former is free, so definitely check it out.

Guild Wars is an excellent choice in the MMO vein, as Quid says.

garroad_ran

Thank you all so much. The next time we have a few free hours together I'll sit down with her and we'll go through some of these suggestions to see what she thinks. Neither of us has a 3DS, unfortunately... but Christmas is coming after all.

EDIT: Oh, as for how often we'd be able to play together, I don't know! Possibly once or twice a week? The time difference will probably be something like 12 hours.

Great Scott

Although I'd agree that WOW is a good option, you might want to look into Torchlight 2 as well. If latency is a problem, multiplayer Minecraft could be fun. I'm somewhat concerned that long-term intrest might be hard to maintain, though.

kaliyama

That sounds like a waste of a study abroad year, especially if she is playing on her weekends.

Jasconius

Terraria is garbage. My girlfriend has a very similar taste in games and we both found it to be a total waste of time.

If you can only go once or twice a week then WoW is probably a tall order as well.

I'd opt for minecraft.

Jurg

kaliyama wrote: »

That sounds like a waste of a study abroad year, especially if she is playing on her weekends.

I kind of have to agree with this. She should take the opportunity to get out and explore whatever country she's in, and having a weekend obligation like an MMO may cut into her ability to do that. You might want to think about something asynchronous, like a shared show that you can watch online together. That way you can watch at the same time (and have running commentary in a chat), or you can watch when it's convenient for either of you, and discuss the ongoing events later, making sure to stay at roughly the same spot.

I mean, how long do you plan on playing together? Like an hour or two? That might be doable. But like, 8 hours or something? Idk man. I guess it depends on her personality.

garroad_ran

kaliyama wrote: »

That sounds like a waste of a study abroad year, especially if she is playing on her weekends.

While I appreciate the advice, you are making a number of assumptions about our situation, none of which I'm inclined to type out. At any rate, the time commitment we're talking about here is less than the time we'll spend talking on the phone or texting back and forth.

As for TV shows, I'm sure we'll set up some skype dates to watch movies together, but watching TV is something neither of us does.

Madpoet

Coming soon is Everquest Landmark, which looks to be a somewhat more involved Minecraft. You could claim a spot for the two of you, explore together, or build things for each other when the other isn't around. Seems to be a good match for her skill/commitment level. Also, free.
But not quite out yet - beta soon.

flowerhoney

Maybe instead of playing an online co-op, you guys can just pick a game you're both interested in and play at the same time. That way you're still enjoying something together but the pool of games is massively opened up.

If you do that, you can also decide to play the game while not on skype with the other person.

I only say this because the two of you will have such a massive time difference. Having done a lot of LDR in two different situations, I personally feel that when I have a huge time gap and only a limited period of time to talk that I spend almost that entire call just talking about the day. When the time time difference is small and you're able to chat all the time then its easier to devote time to gaming or watching a movie together or whatever.

But that's just my personal experience.

Also, do you both have smartphones? You can also chose to play mobile co-op games!

Pinfeldorf

Play a game of Civilization V or something via E-mail. She can even play as the country she's living in! And if she's going to Korea, she'll be able to go to the moon in 1820!

kime

A couple hours a week is not going to cut in significantly to her time to explore, really.

Would you be interested in 2-player competitive games, or only the co-op ones? I can't think of any other co-ops that haven't been mentioned already...

kaliyama

garroad_ran wrote: »

kaliyama wrote: »

That sounds like a waste of a study abroad year, especially if she is playing on her weekends.

While I appreciate the advice, you are making a number of assumptions about our situation, none of which I'm inclined to type out. At any rate, the time commitment we're talking about here is less than the time we'll spend talking on the phone or texting back and forth.

As for TV shows, I'm sure we'll set up some skype dates to watch movies together, but watching TV is something neither of us does.

Is she going back to east asia or something? (see http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/182230/relationship-communication-issues#latest), in any event, assuming she is going back to live where you are or if you are going over there on JET or something, it's going to be a waste of time to spend a year in a place playing video games, period. It's just a lousy bargain when you consider the opportunity cost and it won't substitute for being in the same place and playing video games with someone who doesn't really like video games is not going to make her feel happy, it's going to be layering a chore (playing video games) on top of another chore (absenting herself from her surroundings in order to maintain the LDR with you).

If she's stayed noncommunicative you're going to be pulling your hair out regardless, though, and playing a game is no substitute for actually talking to each other. You're better off spending time skyping and doing something asynchronus games-wise.

hsu

If she's going to China, the great firewall just sucks.

When I visited China about 2 years ago, I had to VPN to my company in order to reach a lot of common websites, like Facebook and Gmail. Even stuff like Google maps and Google search failed to work correctly within the firewall. Hell, Google maps was completely unreliable even with my VPN.

And I wasn't out in the boonies either, this happened within Shanghai and Beijing. So basically, good luck playing any online game through the great firewall, because you'll need a ton of it.

kime

I don't think the firewall has anything to do with the (admittedly sucky) internet speeds in China. But it is a good point, that depending on where she's going, you guys may need something very low-bandwidth