Plague diary 2/07: 100 days of solitude

[liv]

I haven't really updated (about my life) for a month, have I? But we've just passed 100 days of official lockdown, 15 1/2 weeks since I've been mostly at home and mostly avoiding people.

I led a Friday night service, with a virtually-shared meal after. And I was extra-virtuous and also attended shul the following Saturday morning, because R' Kahn-Harris was preaching and that's worth two services on the same Shabbat.

I made up for my extra virtue by skipping a couple of Saturday morning services to play bridge; in Yiddish novels that's a sure sign that someone is a rake. But anyway, emperor has wrangled BridgeBase to make it possible to play duplicate, and we've been having a lot of fun.

We've also played a couple of sessions of distanced Gloomhaven with OSOs and Judith. The tech set-up is kind of annoying, but it's ever so fun with the bigger party. jack's character retired and he has started a new character, a bard who is extremely support-focused. And another online quiz with my sibs, where we did rather badly but had lots of fun.

We went on an actual trip to an actual place, dropping off some possessions that a friend has been storing in our house. The motorway had a fairly normal amount of traffic, the London suburb where we ended up had lots of people out and about and about half the shops open. We had this weird spy-style rendez-vous in cemetery, where we unloaded the car and then stepped back more than 2m so our friend could pick up her stuff. All masked, all a bit sad about the lack of hugs. And then we turned round and drove home again, avoiding stopping anywhere for refreshments.

That would have been the highlight of the month except that a couple of days later my partners' baby arrived!

I took part in a readthrough of a really weird but very fun Barrie play, Dear Brutus, organized by the_alchemist, and one of Wilde's slightly unfortunate attempt at a revenge tragedy, The Duchess of Padua, organized by wildeabandon. I had a great time with my roles even though I didn't love Wilde's script.

Other things: garden conversations with OSOs and kids, admiring the baby from afar. Calls with various people, particularly with rysmiel. I would like to make more plans with people in July, and I particularly owe logistics to simont and doseybat so please do prod me again.

Today it is not June any more, but one more excitement to report: I have bought myself a Nintendo Switch as a lockdown treat, with some hope of being able to play with the children. I would appreciate recs for Switch games; I'm particularly excited about fairly quick, possibly silly games that are fun on a multiplayer console. "Serious" games needing tens of hours of play and steep learning curves I will play on PC if at all. I'm not sure if I want Animal crossing or no; I don't like the pocket version that came out for Android, but it seems like the kind of thing I would like, especially if I can hang out with people I like in-game.

Comments

[syderia]

Re:Switch games, something like Overcooked (I think that's the name) might be within your parameters? It's a multi player game where you're in various kitchens trying to prep food for a restaurant, but it's set up in a very non-optimal way so players have to collaborate to put together the meal without walking on each other feet or setting things on fire (there are estinguishers, but it makes you lose precious time)

[silveradept]

Yes, that's the name. There are two of them now, and some of the later levels have some interesting conditions for the kitchen, including each half being on a truck that randomly is either connected or not connected. But there's a lot of fun involved in getting the orders together and delivered. (As well as someone occasionally having to wash dishes.)

[vatine]

Possibly MarioKart 8? Definitely works well for single-player and online multiplayer (with multiple modes, plain racing and various other game styles available).

Although I am not sure if it's possible to play "more than one on a single console".

[devi]

FWIW, I know a lot of people who didn't like Pocket Camp but love Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so that might not rule it out (I love it, though I didn't play Pocket Camp so I have nothing to contribute there).

I also love Minecraft for Switch, which is very relaxing if you play in Peaceful mode (no monsters and you don't get hungry) or Creative mode - you can basically treat it like an infinite box of Lego. And I found it easy to pick up, and I'm rubbish at games generally.

[obandsoller]

Yes, everything I'm hearing is that pocketcamp was a very different game systems-wise.

Having said that I think that if you dislike the aesthetic of pocket camp, then ACNH is unlikely to be for you.

[sorcyress]

Here to say this as well! My roommate has been a serious Animal Crossing fan since the GameCube version, and they have ranted about how Pocket Camp did a bunch of changes they don't like, and they appreciate that New Horizons has rolled a lot of those back.

I have very much enjoyed playing New Horizons, and especially some of the social aspects. The first time I had a bunch of random people come to my island, I found myself super excited because it meant I got to have casual small talk with people and compliment their clothes, and wow have I been missing that form of social!

(I will suggest getting the Nintendo switch app, which lets you do voice chat with people on the same island (who also have the app) and also lets you type comments using your phone instead of the directional pad on the switch)

[obandsoller]

Sebastian pointed me to this post (I don't check DW that much), and suggested a game we played together but he couldn't remember the name of.

He was thinking of Snipperclips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysJindVKx4s


I'll give your criteria a bit more thought and see if I can come up with my own suggestions. I haven't played Overcooked, but it is spoken of very well by lots of people.

[liv]

Thank you for the rec! It's just the sort of thing we were looking for, a really original mechanic and we're having fun working together to solve the puzzles.