Games to play over video conference?

[TR]

What’s the game where you draw something and people have to guess?

[keh2oblue]

Mar 18, 2020 20:36:45 GMT -5 TR said:

What’s the game where you draw something and people have to guess?

Pictionary?

I’m totally following this post for ideas for our team as well. It’s my boss’ idea 🙄

[keh2oblue]

Mar 18, 2020 20:40:24 GMT -5 Catlawdy said:

Mar 18, 2020 20:38:52 GMT -5 keh2oblue said:

Pictionary?

I’m totally following this post for ideas for our team as well. It’s my boss’ idea 🙄

Yes, that's one of the ones I"d like to try to find an app for people to do it remotely.  There's something called Drawful where you can use your phones, but I think you are usually all in one room for that.

I actually like Drawful, but I think you’re right, you have to be in the same room. Maybe not, though, as long as you can video chat?

[TR]

Mar 18, 2020 20:38:52 GMT -5 keh2oblue said:

Mar 18, 2020 20:36:45 GMT -5 TR said:

What’s the game where you draw something and people have to guess?

Pictionary?

I’m totally following this post for ideas for our team as well. It’s my boss’ idea 🙄

Yeah, but I feel like there’s a more generic name. Like charades, but...not.

[liverandonions]

Kahoot

[latte]

Mar 18, 2020 22:31:26 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

Kahoot

This is what I was going to suggest! We used to do it in meetings every Friday as a “Fun Friday” activity.

[kooshball]

Bingo is what is making the rounds at my work

[VillainV]

This sounds like my worst nightmare.

[jinkies]

I have a regular game night with a group of friends, and we are talking about games we could potentially do over video conference so that we can still have the interaction.

I think that Scattergories would be pretty easy to do over video. You would need to share a screen that lists the categories, then tell everyone the letter to use.

[heliocentric]

Mar 19, 2020 2:15:40 GMT -5 kooshball said:

Bingo is what is making the rounds at my work

I'm planning a happy hour bingo for tomorrow afternoon. I'm still working out the details so if you can any resources to shared, that'd be great. I was planning to email bingo cards & use an online random number generator. Not sure if I'm missing anything, though.

[georgeglass]

[lemoncupcake]

Mar 19, 2020 3:37:45 GMT -5 VillainV said:

This sounds like my worst nightmare.

Seriously. I’m trying to work something close to 40 hours a week in addition to keeping a 2 and 4 year old alive/somewhat entertained and a house in order while H still has to go to his office. If someone took up valuable time of my day with a fucking Webex game I would throw my computer against the wall.

[picaflora]

What about that online mafia game people were playing on here years ago? You could set up a private link to let in only those you wanted. If I remember right the games were pretty short too. I don't remember what site was used, but nicbreeful might.

For those that aren't familiar, you have a team (or person) that's considered the bad guys, and everyone else is a townsperson.  The mafia can choose to kill one person each "night", and the townspeople try to guess who is mafia during the day.  Certain townspeople have special abilities as well.  Like the "inspector" can choose one person to inspect each night, and find out if someone is a townsperson or mafia.  But - anybody can lie to not get knocked off, so things can get a little intense sometimes.  

[Deleted]

I get wanting people to still be social, but can't that be organic instead of forced? I figure people will still be checking in with the people they are close to in the office.

[Deleted]

I started an email thread with my team this morning asking them to share funny things their "co-workers" are doing and that's been entertaining without forcing video interaction. For example, I started it with "my co-workers ran in my office yesterday, threw themselves down on the couch and began to wrestle".

Sorry I'm just really struggling at the idea of forced video interaction. It would make me so uncomfortable.

[alleinesein]

Mar 19, 2020 7:18:49 GMT -5 jinkies said:

I have a regular game night with a group of friends, and we are talking about games we could potentially do over video conference so that we can still have the interaction.

I think that Scattergories would be pretty easy to do over video. You would need to share a screen that lists the categories, then tell everyone the letter to use.

Do you all play cards against humanity? There is an online version that you could all play

[Deleted]

We actually just played Kahoot in a teleconference and it was actually kind of fun. I think that the trick is to NOT make the questions work related.

[followyourarrow]

Mar 19, 2020 11:06:16 GMT -5 @princessbubbleyum said:

I get wanting people to still be social, but can't that be organic instead of forced? I figure people will still be checking in with the people they are close to in the office.

This is where I am.  Everyday from 10-10:30 I open a skype chat (voice only) and my team can join in if they want.  We talk work stuff, we talk about Covid19, we talk about what restaurants are open for take out and how we want to support them.   It's pretty casual, but it lets them check in if they want to, leave whenever.  It seems to be working well and most of my team has joined it.  

[revolution]

Please don't force a game. No.

I work remotely full time. My boss checks in with me daily. Sometimes IM. Sometimes a call later in the day if we haven't talked yet.

Our weekly staff meetings we have a "chat a while". If you want you can take about whatever is going on in your life. Kids. Let's. Husband's. Vacations. Weather. Anything. I like that quick chat. Sometimes they are 5 min total for all of us. Sometimes we get yapping on non-work stuff for 30min.

Please don't force a telecommute game on people.

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2020 13:33:25 GMT -5 Catlawdy said:

Mar 19, 2020 11:06:16 GMT -5 @princessbubbleyum said:

I get wanting people to still be social, but can't that be organic instead of forced? I figure people will still be checking in with the people they are close to in the office.

I'm not going to remote into their laptops and take them over.  

I didn't say you are but if you are in a position of leadership, they could interpret it as mandatory even if the invitation says it's not. Just let them be adults and decide who they want to interact with and when.  

[revolution]

Also, my lunch time is precious. I have 1 hour to get shit together at the house and when my kids are home from school, they get undivided attention. When a higher up person has a remote lunch, even when it is stated as optional, it will end up being not optional. And people feeling like the "have to" attend or they may miss out on something. I would be super annoyed at a lunch time video conference to play a game or chat.

[arielroux]

So, on Tuesday (St. Patrick's Day), my boss set up a WebEx for everyone to get on during the last 30 min of the work day so we could chat, have a drink, and do a toast together. It was actually a good time - We talked about what we were all drinking, some people showed their ridiculous makeshift WFH set ups, and we all really enjoyed it (but we're also a really close team that loves to socialize and drink together, so this was right up our alley). We ended up being on the call for an hour instead of the schedule 30 min because we were all talking and enjoying it so much.

Next week we're doing a WebEx lunch meeting and the person who has the worst lunch prepared wins a prize. They're dumb little things, and I know these things won't work for everyone, but we like each other, no one has the challenge of school-aged kids at home, and it works for us.

[heliocentric]

We've been doing daily check in video calls. People join if they want to & talk about whatever (not work). We're all peers so there's no pressure. Everyone joined today's call and almost everyone stayed for an hour (much longer than planned) so I'm assuming it's a welcome distraction.

We are doing tomorrow's call at the end of the day and playing Bingo. Again, it's totally optional and no one cares if people skip it.

Of course people can check in with each other anytime, but I don't necessarily want to be bothered with random chats when I'm working and I assume others don't, either. If someone joins at the scheduled time I know they are available and want to socialize. My team has worked together for years and is very friendly, so maybe that makes a difference.

[wildrice]

I think every team culture is different. This would be weird and not welcome in my team's culture, but if the OP's is different, why not do what you can to continue the connection. Frankly I wish my team's culture was more open to fun and socialization. It's been sort of eye opening this week to see how little I've actually missed being in the office because I don't really have close relationships with anyone there.

As long as this is truly optional, I think it's nice to offer!

[af1212]

My moms club had a virtual moms night out last night and some of the moms stayed on later to play “evil apples” apparently it’s like cards against humanity. I went to bed ha but it sounded fun.

[jinkies]

Mar 19, 2020 11:19:33 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

Mar 19, 2020 7:18:49 GMT -5 jinkies said:

I have a regular game night with a group of friends, and we are talking about games we could potentially do over video conference so that we can still have the interaction.

I think that Scattergories would be pretty easy to do over video. You would need to share a screen that lists the categories, then tell everyone the letter to use.

Do you all play cards against humanity? There is an online version that you could all play

Do you have the link? I remember a group here used to play it together, but I cant find the old posts.

My neighbor group wants to do an online get together, and they all definitely would play.

[alleinesein]

Mar 19, 2020 17:59:30 GMT -5 jinkies said:

Mar 19, 2020 11:19:33 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

Do you all play cards against humanity? There is an online version that you could all play

Do you have the link? I remember a group here used to play it together, but I cant find the old posts.

My neighbor group wants to do an online get together, and they all definitely would play.

pyx-1.pretendyoure.xyz/zy/game.jsp

[krystee]

I think the game idea would be a great optional opportunity, and especially embraced by those who are alone. My coworker lives alone and started crying and asked if I’d like to join her for a virtual game sometime. My heart broke.

[nicbreeful]

Mar 19, 2020 9:01:01 GMT -5 picaflora said:

What about that online mafia game people were playing on here years ago? You could set up a private link to let in only those you wanted. If I remember right the games were pretty short too. I don't remember what site was used, but nicbreeful might.

For those that aren't familiar, you have a team (or person) that's considered the bad guys, and everyone else is a townsperson.  The mafia can choose to kill one person each "night", and the townspeople try to guess who is mafia during the day.  Certain townspeople have special abilities as well.  Like the "inspector" can choose one person to inspect each night, and find out if someone is a townsperson or mafia.  But - anybody can lie to not get knocked off, so things can get a little intense sometimes.  

I completely forgot about that! That was fun.

I don't remember the site for Mafia but you might like Pummel Party or Jackbox Party Pack Catlawdy.