Watching Your Partner Play Games

Henrir and I recently moved in together. The past two months have been an interesting experience. Sure, every couple that moves in together has to deal with co-mingling their stuff and deciding what stays and what goes. With us, it's deciding whose console to use and dealing with multiples of games. The only duplicate console we have is the Wii. He brought his Playstation 3 and we don't have a XBox 360 (....yet). We decided to use his Wii while mine sits in it's Zelda bag.

The main issue we've had so far has been deciding who gets to use the consoles and when. When we moved in we bought three video games; Rock Band 2 that we could both play, Mirror's Edge for Henrir because it was on sale, and Final Fantasy X for me because I wanted to try an RPG with a turn based combat system. It was easy to say "Hey, let's play Rock Band together," but hard to decide who got to play their individual game first.

Try as hard as you want, it is really hard for two people to play their individual game on the same tv. You will always want to play at the same time as your partner. One solution to this problem is to learn how to be a good video game watcher. When Henrir played Mirror's Edge I would sit on the couch with him and watch the game and give constructive help when necessary. Although I have to admit that it was a hard game for me to watch because I do not do well with first person and fast moving games. It's one of the very few things that give me motion sickness.

Since I started playing Final Fantasy X Henrir has watched my entire progress. He enjoys watching me play it so much I'm not allowed to play when he's at work so he can see what happens, even though he's beat the game before. I'll ask his opinion on how to fight some bosses and we discuss strategy and the usefulness of spells. I even let him do the sphere grid for some characters. Although I'm playing the game by myself it's been nice to have him next to me and being able to talk about what's going on with him. This makes playing a game less isolating and more enjoyable for me.

It's important to remember that when watching someone play a game, you should be respectful of their choices in how to play. Their style may be different from yours, but that doesn't mean that it's the worst approach in the world. Plus, you might learn new tricks you never thought could exist. It's also good to know when to give advice or suggestions. It's not good to do this when they appear to be doing just fine and are happy with their current progress. It's not good to say "You should do blank.. not blank,"but saying something like "Did you know that if you do blank, blank will occur?" Or if you've played the game before and want to give them a hint say something like, "When I played this game I found blank to be difficult, but I learned that if you do blank it's easier."

It can be fun to watch someone else play a game or have someone watch you play. It's all about being interested in the game and wanting to share your enthusiasm with your partner. Remember to always be nice to each other and have a good time.

How 2 WoW 2gether

To begin with, I agree with everything Phi said in the first post. And if you read it, you picked up that we both play World of Warcraft, so here I'm going to explain how you can most successfully play World of Warcraft together.

First of all, World of Warcraft is a great social game that features lots of things for you and your loved one to do together.

Tip number 1: Have at least one character that you only play with the other person.

This assures not only that you will always have a character you can play with each other, you won't ever have to help the other person level so that you can play together, and neither will feel left behind. My first character to reach level 70 (and level 80) was my Shaman, who I leveled with Phi exclusively. We never leveled without the other, and didn't even join a guild. I have so many fond memories tied to that character, and he's still my main. We've since joined a guild with lots of great people, including other couples who play together.

Tip number 2: It's ok to have characters who you only play by yourself.

Once you start to play a character with your s/o, it's difficult to break off again. They can feel left behind or even betrayed by this. But you might want to play some time when they can't play, so you need a character who you can play by yourself, and only by yourself.

Tip number 3: Don't compete.

Granted, this tip was one the Phi gave in her post, but I'll elaborate. There are MANY ways that you can compete in World of Warcraft, and not all of them are immediately obvious.

Don't fulfill the same role. If you both fulfill the same role, then the two of you are immediately comparable. You can't compare Tanks to DPS, Healers to DPS, or Tanks to Healers. If there is a way to compare the two of you, then the conclusion will come up that one of you is 'better' than the other, and this will make the other person feel inadequate. This will happen even though the nature of the game's imbalance, bad luck with loot drops, available buffs, etc, may be the source of the difference. Furthermore, if you fulfill different roles, you will see that you are able to achieve great things that wouldn't have been possible if you had the same role.

Don't wear the same gear. It's really annoying when it seems like the other person gets all of the gear drops, and you don't get any. It's even more annoying when it's gear that you can use. Just don't do it, don't wear the same stuff.

Don't play the same class, just don't even consider it. It's a bad idea for both of the reasons above.

Tip Number 4: Agree

Maybe once you reach the level cap, you're okay if you don't do things together. Maybe you don't care at all. Maybe some things you don't mind but big things, like raids, are important to do together. Whatever your arrangement is, you have to agree, and stick to it.

All these things will make playing together much more enjoyable.  Let's see what Phi will have to add to this.

Play Together, Stay Together

Video games are a fun way to pass an hour or two (or three or five), but what about your significant other? What are they supposed to do when you're off saving a virtual world? Easy, play with you. This can be a difficult task if your partner does not understand the joy of completing virtual tasks.

Here are a few tips to get your significant other to play a game or two with you.

1. Cater the game to their interests. Say your fella likes sports, but would never be caught playing Little Big Planet with you. Get a copy of one of the many sports games out there. Sure, you may not be interested in picking football plays, but I'm sure he'll appreciate your attempt. Plus, this could make him more open to trying one of your games.

2. Do not make the game about competition. If there is one thing I hate more is a game that forces me to compete with my man. I always lose and it can get very discouraging to keep playing. Try playing a game with co-op such as Pixel Junk Monsters instead of Legend of Zelda Four Sword Adventures. Seriously, that game pissed me off. I will throw you off the cliff for your rupees.

3. Play with other couples or friends. By getting more people involved, your significant other is more likely to play with you rather than be the odd one out. Sure, this may sound devious, but it could open their eyes to playing more games. So bust out that Wii that's been gathering dust, call up two people and play some tennis in Wii Sports.

4. Play online. This may seem like a bad idea when you consider all those stories about people who abandon their normal lives to live virtually or run away with their MMO friends. But! It can be a good idea when you set up rules and boundaries. Henrir and I play World of Warcraft all the time together. The only way I've been able to play the game is because I've had someone who can play with me. We try not to play (or at least progress level wise and content wise) without each other. That way we can spend time together while having fun. This has worked really well when we spend long chunks of time apart. It helped to know that we could still do stuff together even if we couldn't see each other. Another bonus to playing online is that you can meet other couples with similar interests. It's always good to have couple friends that you can hang out with in-game and sometimes out.

5. Don't nag! This is probably the most important thing to remember. If you keep pushing for your guy or gal to play games with you it could be a deal breaker. No one likes being told what to do. I know Henrir would hate it if I pressured him to go yarn shopping all the time. I'd hate it if he pushed me to play Mega Man 9 all the time. Casually suggest that it would be fun or that you would appreciate it if they would play with you. Better yet, tell them you'll go do whatever they wanted to do tomorrow or that night, if they play with you. You never know, you might both find joy in each other's hobbies.

Now go boot up your system and spend some quality time together!