Long Distance Gaming: Tabletop Simulator!

Long Distance Gaming: TableTop Simulator! 

So maybe it's just because I've been thinking about how crappy it's going to be when I move to graduate school and don't get to play boardgames with my girlfriend all the time, but I've recently been thinking about how to do long distance gaming.

Last week over spring break, Jess, Sam, Leah, and I skyped in our friend, Megan to play Betrayal at House on the Hill with us. It was okay, but we had to communicate the board to Megan by tilting the computer and pointing to certain areas and saying, "This is where you are; this is where the traitor is. You could go to the library if you wanted?" I feel like Megan probably just agreed with whatever we said so that the game went smoothly and probably didn't understand a good portion of what was going on.

So I was talking to one of my other friends, Joyce, about board games, and she introduced me to the idea of the tabletop simulator (which can be bought here for $15). Joyce and her long-distance boyfriend use the simulator to play games.

I haven't purchased the simulator yet, but I have played around with it on Joyce's computer. You can download different game packages to play with your friends as long as they also have the simulator. The physics of the simulator are very interesting.

For example, I player can flip the entire table and destroy the game set-up if they want to dramatically show how upset they are. The controls can be difficult to learn, but I think that the wonky physics are one of the best features for comedic affect.  

Overall, I would recommend this simulator to people who are really into board games/want to hang out with their friends long distance/like wonky physics weird computer stuff. I think it'll be a good way to communicate with my friends and a nice way to continue to play boardgames with my family and friends.