One of the most common phrases I’ve heard throughout this quarantine is the infamous, “I’m bored!”—so here are some ways to interact with your friends and have some fun, too. 

Junior Electrical Engineering student Michael Ippolito spends his free time on Discord doing exactly that. 

The junior said he typically plays games for about four to five hours a day at minimum.

“Mostly, it’s escapism,” he said. “When you can sit down and put your mind to a game and not worry about the world around you, it’s pretty nice—I don’t know, I just have fun with games, I’ve always had fun with games.”

Ippolito said that while he uses gaming to primarily keep in touch with his friends from high school, it’s also given him the opportunity to interact with other gamers throughout the world and make friends that way as well. 

“It’s also a pretty good way of socializing, especially across the world,” he said. “When you’re on the internet, you can talk to anyone, anywhere, as long as you have some sort of internet connection, so it’s pretty easy to do that.” 

While he and his friends do hang out on Discord, a platform that makes communicating easier and more accessible for other people, playing games together gives them the chance to collaborate on their shared interests. 

“They’re pretty entertaining, and they’re pretty easy to play with everyone,” he said. “If we have the same interests in games—everyone’s going to play games anyway so we might as well play games with each other.”  

1. Cards Against Humanity online

Cards Against Humanity, a well-known party-favorite, has been transformed to a browser-based game online, making it increasingly easier to play with your friends over Zoom while in quarantine. 

This popular game allows players to complete fill-in-the-blank statements with funny words or phrases from the cards in their deck or cards that they draw. The Card Czar then picks the card that they like the most, and whoever played that card wins a point.

You can find the online version here. The online platform allows you to create a public or private game room to share with your friends and gives you the chance to create a unique username so you know which of your friends played which cards. 

2. Town of Salem

Town of Salem is a fun game that can be played without downloading an additional or external client. This game, published by the indie game developer BlankMediaGames, challenges players to detect when other players are lying. 

“It’s a casual sit-down game like Mafia,” he said. “Games like that, I kind of get frustrated because I’m a liar, so when I’m talking with my friends or typing into the game, it’s hard for me to convince people, so I get frustrated pretty easily.”

3. Among Us

Similar to Town of Salem, Among Us is an online multiplayer game that can allow anywhere from 4-10 players to play at a time. The premise is that you are attempting to prepare your spaceship for departure, but there is one person that is selected to be an impostor whose main goal is to kill the other players without getting caught. 

“People get really invested in it and put all their effort trying to prove that someone’s not innocent, so it gets really entertaining,” he said. 

The Impostor can deploy sabotages and kill others, while acting innocent over voice chat as people try to guess who it is to vote them off. The outcome, Ippolito said, is pretty amusing.

“It always happens where eventually, we all get frustrated with each other more or less,” he said. “If you’re an outsider looking in, it’s kind of funny honestly, watching people get mad at each other over something so stupid.” 

This game is best played with friends over a group voice call on platforms like Discord or HouseParty.  You can download this game on Android, iOS and PC devices.

4. 8-Ball Pool

Whether it’s through Apple iOS iMessage’s extension, Game Pigeon, or on the website MiniClip, 8-Ball Pool is absolutely a fan favorite. 

This multiplayer game allows players to play in 1-on-1 matches with their friends or random opponents, participate in tournaments, and win coins to get better gear.

You can find Miniclip’s version of 8 Ball Pool here. 

5. Skribbl.io

Skribbl.io is a free online multiplayer drawing and guessing game. Similar to Among Us or Cards Against Humanity, you can make a private game room for you and your friends, or you could play with people from all around the world.

“It’s like pictionary, pretty much,” Ippolito said. “It makes it a lot easier to play with people that are not directly next to you. It’s fun to draw, and then guess, and then you get mad if there’s someone that’s bad at drawing.”

All in all, playing online friends with games are a great way to interact with one another while still having fun. It’s best to keep in touch with your loved ones, especially during a time like this.

“Everyday, you can get lost in your own thoughts and lost in your own ways if you’re alone too much so I feel like having a good amount of time with people around you, even if it’s not in person, is pretty nice to have,” Ippolito said. “Gaming helps between the awkward silences of real life conversation.”

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