Stay Social by Playing Virtual Games with Friends

by Chaya Milchtein

In this time of social distancing online games have become more popular than ever. As a person who never had much of an interest in the pastime, I find the need to keep my brain busy pushing me towards finding new hobbies. Many people have been playing virtual games with friends for years, so I asked them to share their favorites with me.

Fibbage

Fibbage is a game that’s as funny as the people you’re playing with — so pretty dang funny! If you’re playing with close friends, you can include inside jokes, but you can also play with people you barely know and find common ground through fun facts and laughs. And either way, you’ll get to practice your lying skills to try to convince people your answer to a question about a fact is the real one. Seriously one of the funniest games I’ve ever played!… What better way to connect to people than by laughing hysterically? — Shayna

Second Life

I’m currently playing a lot of Second Life to connect with friends but also other people looking to meet others in a virtual world. Available for free on Windows, Mac and Linux Second Life has been around since 2003 and despite its age is still a leader in the virtual world space and rarely shows its age. For me the wealth of virtual locations, customisation and community size makes Second Life the perfect option to meet up with current friends and allows us to find a suitable hang out spot regardless of their tastes in style while also doubling as an opportunity to meet others based on similar interests. Finding these people is never difficult with the range of clubs, resorts and cities on top of live music and roleplaying locations such as fantasy, vampires and pirates. — Samuel

Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing (even older ones like New Leaf) are great! Because you can visit friends in their virtual town, with parks, npc, shops, museums, and other things to engage with. I play hide and seek a lot with my friends and today I’m planning a scavenger hunt on my island. Because each person’s town is unique, visiting someone’s town can be immensely exciting. (Nintendo Switch) — Sam

(*You can see how much more inclusive Animal Crossing is now on Emil’s Matthew’s Place post!*)

Words with Friends

As soon as I realized I’d have to socially distance and isolate myself (I’m immunocompromised), I re-downloaded Words With Friends on my Android (it’s also available on iOS). I used to be an avid player years ago, but deleted the game as I transitioned to graduate school in 2017. Now graduated and teaching, I’m still not a very social person — Zoom hangouts don’t appeal to me — but playing a word game with my Twitter buddies takes my mind off of things and provides much needed moments of levity (like when I discovered “clit” is not a valid word in the WWF lexicon). — Brooke

League of Legends

I play LoL on my Windows gaming laptop. This game defined my high school years — many of my dearest memories from that period of my life are connected to it. All of us who play now (around 15 people in total) share a mutual Discord channel where we talk while we play, typically in the evenings. The best thing is that there is almost always someone online to talk to throughout the day — it makes me feel less alone while I work from home. — Snezhina

Triviador

Triviador is a mix of strategy game and trivia game, with a dashboard similar to the one of Risk. You can play it alone, with participants around the world, or you can play it with your friends by making a “friendly game.” Sadly, only three people can play it simultaneously, but what I did with my friends was to organize a tournament where more of us can participate. While playing it, we organize a group call via WhatsApp, so we’re having an experience similar to one if we were here in the same room. — Luka

About the Author:

Chaya Milchtein is the driving force behind Mechanic Shop Femme. As an automotive educator, speaker and writer, she’s made it her life’s mission to educate women and LGBT people about their cars. Her website also highlights her work on her other passion: empowering women to live their best lives in the bodies they have, through fashion and modeling. Chaya’s work has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Go Magazine, and others. She lives with her fiancée and tortoise in Wisconsin. Follow her on twitter @mechanicfemme.