Many of us are now separated from friends and family members. I'm sure many gamers will already have kit and experience of playing on-line games, or multi-person games, but the rest of us perhaps haven't. We may also not now have the option of buying new communications equipment to make it easier.
Some are resorting to tools like Skype and Zoom in order to play games.
So far we have managed to play Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble. The game rules may have to be altered a bit - or at least relaxed. For example, in Scrabble some players may get to know what tiles other players have - but overall the game will still work - if people play reasonably fairly.
We have so far used Skype - and we did try using an iPad and an iPhone to see the board for Trivial Pursuit. In the end we seem to have adopted an approach using my laptop - a MacBook Pro, placed on the table next to the board and angled downwards. For board games like that it seems to work. Before starting the game, the laptop screen is placed more vertically, so we can see each other, but as the game starts seeing the board is maybe more important, so the screen is angled downwards. Voice communication processds as normal. The reason that this approach is better than using iPods or iPhones for these games is that it doesn't require anyone to hold those other devices, or for improvised stands to be made. Once the location of the board is known and the appropriate angle for the laptop camera to see the board, there is minimal intervention needed. Otherwise one gets a sort of "up a bit, left a bit, I can't see that ..." sort of conversation.
With only one two way audio/video channel this works well enough for some games, though some pose additional problems. We are still trying to figure out Cluedo, which requires unseen cards to be distributed to remote players. One possible solution, though I've not tried it, is to place those cards face down on a scanner, and allow it to be viewed remotely. I don't know if that's possible with our equipment. Another might be to put the secret cards face down on a table ("the" table?) - then put a cloth over them and turn them over under the cloth. Then at the sending end the players look away, while the cloth is removed for a few seconds so that the remote player can see the secret cards. Finally the cloth is put back over, and the cards gathered up. Cluedo is more difficult, because in play there should be also be private player to player communications, though that could be done by typing. Obviously some of the approaches require people to trust each other to look away if secret information is being passed over. Those who want to cheat will of course do so.
This might get easier if more individualised video channels are opened up - so far we are just using one. For other people multiple channels might be needed, as there may be several players in different locations. At the moment we are just working with two locations and one bi-directional channel.
Some might say that our approach is wrong - and we should be using multi-player online games - but this way does introduce some personalisation which seems to help socially.
What games are other people playing, and how well do they work for you? Do you feel less isolated when playing a game with a video link?
Some are resorting to tools like Skype and Zoom in order to play games.
So far we have managed to play Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble. The game rules may have to be altered a bit - or at least relaxed. For example, in Scrabble some players may get to know what tiles other players have - but overall the game will still work - if people play reasonably fairly.
We have so far used Skype - and we did try using an iPad and an iPhone to see the board for Trivial Pursuit. In the end we seem to have adopted an approach using my laptop - a MacBook Pro, placed on the table next to the board and angled downwards. For board games like that it seems to work. Before starting the game, the laptop screen is placed more vertically, so we can see each other, but as the game starts seeing the board is maybe more important, so the screen is angled downwards. Voice communication processds as normal. The reason that this approach is better than using iPods or iPhones for these games is that it doesn't require anyone to hold those other devices, or for improvised stands to be made. Once the location of the board is known and the appropriate angle for the laptop camera to see the board, there is minimal intervention needed. Otherwise one gets a sort of "up a bit, left a bit, I can't see that ..." sort of conversation.
With only one two way audio/video channel this works well enough for some games, though some pose additional problems. We are still trying to figure out Cluedo, which requires unseen cards to be distributed to remote players. One possible solution, though I've not tried it, is to place those cards face down on a scanner, and allow it to be viewed remotely. I don't know if that's possible with our equipment. Another might be to put the secret cards face down on a table ("the" table?) - then put a cloth over them and turn them over under the cloth. Then at the sending end the players look away, while the cloth is removed for a few seconds so that the remote player can see the secret cards. Finally the cloth is put back over, and the cards gathered up. Cluedo is more difficult, because in play there should be also be private player to player communications, though that could be done by typing. Obviously some of the approaches require people to trust each other to look away if secret information is being passed over. Those who want to cheat will of course do so.
This might get easier if more individualised video channels are opened up - so far we are just using one. For other people multiple channels might be needed, as there may be several players in different locations. At the moment we are just working with two locations and one bi-directional channel.
Some might say that our approach is wrong - and we should be using multi-player online games - but this way does introduce some personalisation which seems to help socially.
What games are other people playing, and how well do they work for you? Do you feel less isolated when playing a game with a video link?
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