Games to Incorporate into your Virtual Happy Hour festivities

• Posted on 3 April 2020
• By Eric B
• 0

Looking for some ways to incorporate a little game playing into those virtual happy hours? We've got some ideas!

We’ve been finding ways to stay “social” with our group of friends/family that under normal circumstances we’d be physically hanging out together with.  I’m sure most of us have, in some form or another, been a part of the “virtual happy hours” that people have shared and discussed. 

It’s great to see that physical distance isn’t preventing us from checking in and spending time with those close to us.  Sometimes it’s nice to have an activity or game to engage with during these virtual sessions and we’ve gotten a lot of questions from people over the past week or so about games that can be played over Zoom, so we thought we’d pull together a few suggestions. 

Each of these can be played as a “decentralized group”.  It is often easiest if each participant has access to the game locally, but there are some simple hacks that can be employed to make these workable if there is only one copy available to the group. 

Each of the following are in-stock and, we’re happy to deliver/ship! 

The Game of Wolf – For the golfers out there, you might be familiar with the popular betting game out on the course, where one golfer on each hole – called the Wolf – chooses to play the hole along or to partner up (and with whom).  The Game of Wolf takes that concept and wraps it into a trivia-based format.  I might be terrible at a particular category but if I know someone else is a ringer…I can have them join my team for that round!  The competitive/cooperation shifting is one of the most fun parts of this game. 

You Betcha – What do you get when you combine a fun trivia game with the betting elements of poker?  This!!  We like this combination as it has a tendency to help level the playing field a bit.  Many of our trivia gurus are less comfortable with bets and risk management, and many of our poker players aren’t always the strongest trivia players. 

Wavelength – A social guessing game in which two teams compete to read each other’s minds.  Teams take turns rotating a dial to where they think a hidden bullseye is located on a spectrum – one of the players on your team – the Psychic - knows exactly where the bullseye is and draws a card with a pair of binaries on it (for example…Hot – Cold). The Psychic provides a clue that is conceptually where the bullseye is located between those two binaries. The closer to the center of the bullseye the team guess, the more points they score!  

Just One – This was the Game of the Year recipient last year, and for good reason!  It’s a cooperative game where players are working together to provide the “guesser” a one-word clue to help them uncover the secret word.  The trick?  Before the clues are shown to the guesser, the clues are compared and every duplicate clue is erased and can’t be used.  So…you have to be creative and come up with a clue that’s good – but not obvious that others will also use. 

And one final recommendation for those Adults out there who might be looking for something a little more interesting than something like Cards Against Humanity….

Ridiculous Expositions – Two teams compete to discover the saucy expressions that lie beneath the surface phrases. The hilarity comes from watching friends sound out dirty phrases without even realizing it.  For example… “Your Mine Sin Thug Utter” – get it???   

(Your mind’s in the gutter)

These are a few of our favorites to help keep our virtual entertaining fresh – what other ideas do you have?