Virtual Hangout Ideas
By: Sophia Pei ‘22
With a raging pandemic and remote classes, it’s easy to get Zoom fatigue. Here are some fun remote hangout ideas whether you’re looking for a game night with friends or are hosting a social for a club.
Among Us
4-10 players
This multiplayer video game has been rapidly gaining popularity. Imagine a mafia-esque game but interactive! While it is possible to play Among Us on your desktop it’s best played as a phone app. Simply download the app, grab 4 friends and let the backstabbing begin!
There are two “teams”: you can be a crewmate in which you primary purpose is to run around, complete various tasks, stay alive and successfully identify and persecute the “imposter”; as an imposter your goal is to sabotage the crewmates, divide and conquer and kill the isolated crewmates, and avoid blame and hideaway in the vent system.
This game is addictive, fun, and every time I play I find more nuances that make it more enjoyable. While there is a chat feature built into the game, it’s definitely much more fun playing over a call. However if you do this, be sure to either mute yourself when it isn’t discussion time because otherwise it can definitely give away your role!
One Night Werewolf
3-21 players
This is werewolf or mafia but on overdrive. With over 20 roles this game is for those looking for less downtime and more deceit, fun, and backstabbing. Rather than the traditional version of werewolf or mafia that goes on for multiple rounds, this game is one event (hence ONE night werewolf).
The teams are the werewolves, villagers, and tanner. The winning team is the one that correctly executes a player of the opposite team (unless you’re the tanner in which case you win when you are executed). Almost all the roles have a unique role and objective (unless you’re a villager in which case, sorry, you just need to survive). However to add an extra layer of confusion and complication, there are certain roles, eg. witch, town drunk, troublemaker, that can switch your allegiance so you may not actually end up being the role you started with. This is a fun game with a typical round lasting between 10 to 15 minutes but can easily be played for hours!
Pro tip: Check out all the other fun games found at netgames.io like Secret Hitler and Codenames!
Drawphone
3+ players
This is essentially a hybrid of pictionary and telephone. For those who haven’t played this game, it’s like the classic game telephone (transmitting a message from one person to another with the last person revealing what the message has warped to) but with every other “message” being a drawing.
Basically you enter a word or phrase you want drawn, the next person will draw it, the person after will try to interpret that drawing back into a word and phrase and so on. Be creative! Get silly! No artistic ability is needed, in fact, the more subjective it is, the more fun it becomes!
Scener
2-10
This is a service that lets you watch shows and movies from Netflix, HBO, Disney plus, Funimation and more in real time with your friends by syncing up the videos!
The recent update has reduced the lag and glitchiness as well as audio feedback. Now you can virtually watch anything you want while videocalling your friends. This is by far my favorite watch-together service.
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