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How to play board games online with your friends, Hacker News

How to play board games online with your friends, Hacker News
    

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been craving a good (in-person) board game night with your friends. To scratch my itch, I’ve moved all my board game sessions online. I’ve been playing with a few different groups through a variety of websites and apps. Here’s a roundup of which board game platforms are the best and how to get started.

This guide is for anyone who wants to play board games online with your friends but aren’t sure where to start.

But first, video chat

Live video chat will make your online board game night run much more smoothly. Seeing your friends ’faces when you take the lead is priceless but also important to keep the social aspect of board games in play.

In my experience, Zoom is the most consistent service and works on almost any device. One person in your group will need a paid subscription if you want to host an event longer than minutes.

I will usually split my screen with a small, tiled video chat window on one side and the board game on the other. This lets me see everyone and the game at the same time. I do this by going fullscreen in my game then dragging the Zoom window on top of the fullscreen window.

You can also use “Enter Minimal View” in Zoom to have a single, hovering video on top of your desktop. Enable that from the Menu bar item “Meeting” then click “Enter Minimal View.”

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If you can’t or don’t want to use Zoom you can use Google Hangouts.

Online board game websites and apps

Here are my favorite websites and apps to play board games online. I ranked them based on a few different criteria important to me.

  1. Ease of use
  2. Immersion
  3. Game library
  4. Cost
  • Board Game Arena

    Board Game Arena is my top pick for playing board games online. It enforces the rules of each game automatically, runs directly in the browser, and there are a few games available for free.

    The site is really well done, if a tad clunky to use. I was able to create an account, open a room, and invite three friends in less than 20 minutes. All four of us picked up the controls very quickly as almost everything is done via drag-and-drop movements. This is definitely the easiest way to get up and running quickly.

    If you’re looking for more, upgrading to a paid account for $ 4 / month unlocks all 610698 games. Only one person in your group needs to have a paid account to play the premium games. You also get a few bonuses, like being able to choose your color and game statistics for upgrading.

    Here’s a sample of their Carcassonne on Board Game Arena most popular games :

  • What do you think?

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