Online, two-person games for a long distance marriage?

January 4, 2012 5:42 PM

Can you help me find online, two-player games that aren't chess or checkers where you can pick your partner? Googling for online games, two-player games, specific game names turns up many results but none seem to meet the requirements above (and many game sites are just super-sketchy to start with).

My husband and I have been long distance for the past three months and we have an other 6 months to go. It's not easy nor fun. I want something we can play together as a way of spending time together even when we're apart. There are plenty of checkers and chess sites but we need alternatives.

When we're together, we play Dominoes, Parcheesi, racing games on the Wii (I have the Wii, he doesn't), Scrabble... I (sigh) *may possibly* take Risk a little too seriously but strategy games are fine to suggest - at this point, we'll take anything. The key thing is we want to play games with each other and preferably no one else.

Pay sites are OK. Phone apps probably won't work for us but if you can suggest something that would work for someone with a Xoom tablet and someone with a LG Enlighten, feel free.

posted by adorap0621 to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (27 answers total)

Why is Backgammon nowhere in that list of games?
posted by absalom at 5:43 PM on January 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also, Carcassonne is a wonderful Eurogame that works very well as a two player game. There are version for iDevices and PC.
posted by absalom at 5:44 PM on January 4, 2012

I like yourturnmyturn. It has several good 2-player games, is free up to a certain number of turns per day, and not too expensive after that, and you challenge specific people to play.

BrashTech is my handle there, too, so if you reconsider not playing with anyone else... :)
posted by BrashTech at 5:46 PM on January 4, 2012

Words with friends! You can play at any pace, it's free, and you can only play each other. I do iPhone/iPad, and play a friend who uses his iPod touch. I'm pretty sure there are web and Facebook versions.
posted by manicure12 at 5:48 PM on January 4, 2012

Quadradius
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:49 PM on January 4, 2012

Do you both have a FB page for communicating? Words with Friends on Facebook (it's Scrabble) is a good two-player game and I am guessing there are other FB games to consider.
posted by eleslie at 5:50 PM on January 4, 2012

Vassal: Open source online board game engine with over 1,000 modules.

If you don't care for any of those, I think the online implementation of Mr. Jack is quite good.
posted by Winnemac at 5:53 PM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

I play Scrabble with my partner and only my partner by using the server at ISC.ro. It won't work on a phone, but it's a java client you can run on your laptop or computer [mac or PC]. You both run the client on your computer and you can log in and find each other and play. Other people can invite you to play but you can refuse them and honestly I don't get a lot of people asking me. The computer keeps score and unlike Words with Friends, it's actual Scrabble, if that sort of thing concerns you. It's also real-time not turn based and there's a little chat window. I'm in an LDR with my partner and this is our unwind at the end of the day thing we do.
posted by jessamyn at 5:55 PM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Dominion is a well regarded card game. It might be hard to get into if you're not used to the physical version but might be worth giving a try. The link is to a functional, free, bare bones online version which lets you choose your opponent.
posted by cali59 at 5:56 PM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Seconding Dominion, on isotropic. It's great!
posted by Perplexity at 6:09 PM on January 4, 2012

Try Yahoo Games.
posted by empatterson at 6:09 PM on January 4, 2012

Boardgame Geek usually lists if a game is playable online. Maybe go through the top games there and see if anything interests you. They've even got downloadable rules for a lot of them (and often the rules are available on the game publisher's website). You can also find game playing how-tos on YouTube.

Give Dominion a try, like cali59 and Perplexity have mentioned.
posted by backwards guitar at 6:19 PM on January 4, 2012

Online Multiplayer Games for LDR Couples
posted by plokent at 6:33 PM on January 4, 2012

pogo.com has free games (card games and others). You can password protect tables so that only you and your husband can access them.
posted by TheCavorter at 6:40 PM on January 4, 2012

Seconding yourturnmyturn.com and adding itsyourturn.com
posted by soelo at 6:51 PM on January 4, 2012

Reversi/Othello? - It's called different things in different places. Looks like this site has a pick your opponent function, if you are both registered.
posted by carter at 6:53 PM on January 4, 2012

You might try www.yucuta.de or www.brettwspielwelt.de

Oh, and there's also boardgamearena.com
posted by shesbookish at 8:48 PM on January 4, 2012

Response by poster: Holy cow.. Thank you all. I'll mark the bests after we've messed around on the different sites. I truly appreciate the input.

I love backgammon, I have no idea how I blanked on it. Yourturnmyturn looks great, we'll definitely try Dominion and we'll work down just about everything on the link from plokent. I tend to avoid any sort of apps/games/"stuff" with facebook but Words with Friends is so popular we may have to try it (or use the link jessamyn provided for Scrabble). And when I'm done beating him at word games, he can whup me at Reversi (seriously, I'll have no chance against him. He has a black-belt in Reversi.)
posted by adorap0621 at 9:19 PM on January 4, 2012

http://games.asobrain.com/ has off-brand but well-made versions of games like Carcasonne and Settlers. I can't check now but I'm nearly positive you can challenge specific people.
posted by kprincehouse at 9:26 PM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Tantrix is great in two player
posted by paulash at 10:54 PM on January 4, 2012

Yacata is a game engine site with a lot of really good boardgames. For two players I recommend Balloon Cup. You can play against strangers if you want, but there's no reason why you can't just choose to only play each other. My husband spends a lot of time on this site, it's free, it's totally legit (has permission from the game manufacturers so uses official art etc), and we've played games together on the site. I imagine boardgamegeek will have listings for all the games if you want more info about any of them.
posted by shelleycat at 12:24 AM on January 5, 2012

Unfortunately, asobrain, mentioned above, isn't open to need registrations.

Here is a good video tutorial for Dominion.
posted by backwards guitar at 3:56 AM on January 5, 2012

If you like drawing games like Pictionary you might like iSketch. They let you set up private rooms. And there's a chat window while you play.
posted by CathyG at 10:52 AM on January 5, 2012

Definitely Words with Friends.
posted by desjardins at 1:10 PM on January 5, 2012

Do you talk to each other online when you are playing together?
posted by dgeiser13 at 3:51 PM on January 5, 2012

Regardless you can use Steam and either in-game voice chat or the steam group chat to talk constantly. Alternatively, you could use a private Vent or TeamSpeak room. If you play games on the PC and have Steam...

Alien Swarm
Bloody Good Time
Clones
Hoard
Left 4 Dead 2
Magicka
Magnets
Portal 2 Co-Op
Puzzle Pirates
Risk Factions
The Ship
Sin 1 Multiplayer
Terraria
Trine 2

Many of these games have demos.
posted by dgeiser13 at 4:04 PM on January 5, 2012

Yahoo games is good for cards.
posted by beandip at 5:17 PM on January 8, 2012