My wife and I were both surprised that she enjoyed WoW as much as she did. I expected that my mixed feelings for the game would persist (and they did), but her enjoyment of the game makes more sense when I consider how much we enjoy playing Soma Bringer, a Nintendo DS action RPG title in the vein of Secret of Mana, together.
Now my love/hate relationship with WoW grows even more complicated. I want to play a computer game with my wife and it was fun to play WoW together, but I still have my hangups with MMOs (i.e. monthly fee, no real endpoint, lower ratio of time to fun ratio than in first-person shooters, little to nothing you can do with smaller segments of time, etc.).
So now I come to the point of this thread: I'm looking for suggestions from the community for games my wife and I can play and enjoy together.
The first page of this thread is likely going to include a lot of replies where I say that she's not interested in that title or she doesn't like that style of game. To prevent some of those posts, I'm going to outline some popular genres and titles she doesn't care for:
First-person shooters. Unfortunate, I know. She's still willing to give Team Fortress 2 a shot, but she's starting from scratch when it comes to learning how to play a FPS game and she, like me, isn't fond of learning curves (and understandably so; who has the time for learning curves in games these days?).
Subscription-based MMOs. This is more my list item than hers. Let's face it: If we're going to pick a MMO to spend 15 bucks a month on, it's going to be WoW. Despite all my nitpicks about the game's design, it still has the most immediately accessible gameplay, the most expansive and beautiful world, and it's significantly more popular than any other MMO.
Even when I went back for 30 days, I was spread across 4 guilds on 4 realms. I would never lack for guilds to join. Finding players with lower level characters to quest with while my wife and I are leveling? That's an entirely different story. (Seriously, every WoW player must have like 3 level 80s. There's not even any point in trying to find a group under level 70 unless you can find guildmates with low-level alts.)
Real-time strategy. Also unfortunate. I had hoped my love of StarCraft would be contagious. I am sad to say that it was not. And if she doesn't like StarCraft--which she owns a copy of--I have little hope for any other RTS title.
Madballs in... Babo:Invasion. Oh well. At least it was only $2 during the Steam holiday sales.
Now to help give you all an idea of what we're looking for (because, frankly, we're trying to figure that out ourselves), here are a few games we've played together and enjoyed:
Soma Bringer. One of the few and arguably the best action RPG game released for the Nintendo DS, Soma Bringer was never published in the US and made playable only through a translation patch--which I still argue is a huge mistake on Nintendo's part. Nevertheless, this game is about as obscure as you get. Imagine crossing Secret of Mana with the good parts of Diablo II (read: not the carpal tunnel syndrome) and you can understand why I was eager to try it out--and why I thought my wife would hate it. Much to my surprise, she not only didn't hate it, but she really liked it. This only proved that it's pretty much impossible to predict my wife's tastes in games.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. Another surprise hit. I had rented the game back when I had 3 free rentals a month from Hollywood Video, asked her to try it out with me, and expected her to hate it. We cleared a level or two, turned off the Wii, and, much to my surprise, she expressed an interest in playing it with me again the next day. Eventually, we ended up buying the game and still play it on occasion.
Side note: So for all the haters saying there aren't any decent M-rated games on the Wii or there aren't any decent third-party games on the Wii or there aren't any decent on-rails shooters for the Wii: You are wrong. Madworld and House of the Dead Overkill tanked for a reason. Umbrella Chronicles, on the other hand, has sold over a million copies.
Mario Kart 64. Not Mario Kart Wii. Anyone who has played both Mario Kart titles should understand why.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. I don't know if this one ranks because of gameplay so much as nostalgia, but we did play it together and had fun.
All other attempts at finding another brawler my wife likes, with the exception of Streets of Rage 2 (which, for me, remains the greatest brawler ever), have been unsuccessful. I mean, after SoR2, where do you go? That's like starting at the pinnacle. But I digress.
And I think that's a massive enough wall of text for one post. Even for me.
EDIT: And if you have a suggestion along the lines of Neverwinter Nights or a similar game, please share. I was thinking NWN might be a good fit, but I'm not sure about the particulars or what alternatives are available.
EDIT #2: Man, I wish Torchlight had multiplayer.
Now my love/hate relationship with WoW grows even more complicated. I want to play a computer game with my wife and it was fun to play WoW together, but I still have my hangups with MMOs (i.e. monthly fee, no real endpoint, lower ratio of time to fun ratio than in first-person shooters, little to nothing you can do with smaller segments of time, etc.).
So now I come to the point of this thread: I'm looking for suggestions from the community for games my wife and I can play and enjoy together.
The first page of this thread is likely going to include a lot of replies where I say that she's not interested in that title or she doesn't like that style of game. To prevent some of those posts, I'm going to outline some popular genres and titles she doesn't care for:
First-person shooters. Unfortunate, I know. She's still willing to give Team Fortress 2 a shot, but she's starting from scratch when it comes to learning how to play a FPS game and she, like me, isn't fond of learning curves (and understandably so; who has the time for learning curves in games these days?).
Subscription-based MMOs. This is more my list item than hers. Let's face it: If we're going to pick a MMO to spend 15 bucks a month on, it's going to be WoW. Despite all my nitpicks about the game's design, it still has the most immediately accessible gameplay, the most expansive and beautiful world, and it's significantly more popular than any other MMO.
Even when I went back for 30 days, I was spread across 4 guilds on 4 realms. I would never lack for guilds to join. Finding players with lower level characters to quest with while my wife and I are leveling? That's an entirely different story. (Seriously, every WoW player must have like 3 level 80s. There's not even any point in trying to find a group under level 70 unless you can find guildmates with low-level alts.)
Real-time strategy. Also unfortunate. I had hoped my love of StarCraft would be contagious. I am sad to say that it was not. And if she doesn't like StarCraft--which she owns a copy of--I have little hope for any other RTS title.
Madballs in... Babo:Invasion. Oh well. At least it was only $2 during the Steam holiday sales.
Now to help give you all an idea of what we're looking for (because, frankly, we're trying to figure that out ourselves), here are a few games we've played together and enjoyed:
Soma Bringer. One of the few and arguably the best action RPG game released for the Nintendo DS, Soma Bringer was never published in the US and made playable only through a translation patch--which I still argue is a huge mistake on Nintendo's part. Nevertheless, this game is about as obscure as you get. Imagine crossing Secret of Mana with the good parts of Diablo II (read: not the carpal tunnel syndrome) and you can understand why I was eager to try it out--and why I thought my wife would hate it. Much to my surprise, she not only didn't hate it, but she really liked it. This only proved that it's pretty much impossible to predict my wife's tastes in games.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. Another surprise hit. I had rented the game back when I had 3 free rentals a month from Hollywood Video, asked her to try it out with me, and expected her to hate it. We cleared a level or two, turned off the Wii, and, much to my surprise, she expressed an interest in playing it with me again the next day. Eventually, we ended up buying the game and still play it on occasion.
Side note: So for all the haters saying there aren't any decent M-rated games on the Wii or there aren't any decent third-party games on the Wii or there aren't any decent on-rails shooters for the Wii: You are wrong. Madworld and House of the Dead Overkill tanked for a reason. Umbrella Chronicles, on the other hand, has sold over a million copies.
Mario Kart 64. Not Mario Kart Wii. Anyone who has played both Mario Kart titles should understand why.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. I don't know if this one ranks because of gameplay so much as nostalgia, but we did play it together and had fun.
All other attempts at finding another brawler my wife likes, with the exception of Streets of Rage 2 (which, for me, remains the greatest brawler ever), have been unsuccessful. I mean, after SoR2, where do you go? That's like starting at the pinnacle. But I digress.
And I think that's a massive enough wall of text for one post. Even for me.
EDIT: And if you have a suggestion along the lines of Neverwinter Nights or a similar game, please share. I was thinking NWN might be a good fit, but I'm not sure about the particulars or what alternatives are available.
EDIT #2: Man, I wish Torchlight had multiplayer.
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