For Love Of The Game: Gaming For Couples

Tom, an avid gamer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, recalls when he brought home Potion Explosion hoping to play it with his wife Melissa.

- Jon Den Houter

“When I asked her if she’d like to play, she said that would be ‘fine.’ What she meant, I knew, is that she would play it with me for me, not because she expected to enjoy it. But what I really want is to play a game with her we’ll both enjoy.”

“I love spending quality time with my husband,” Melissa adds, “so I often will play games with him when he asks me. But I definitely don’t enjoy board games as much as he does.”

This is a perennial problem with many couples: one person in the relationship wants to play board games more (sometimes a lot more) than the other person. Do you wish you could play board games more often with your significant other? Here are some tips and casual games you will both enjoy.

Cooperative Games

Some of the best games for couples are cooperative games (sometimes called co-ops for short). In cooperative games players work together to beat the game, either winning or losing as a team, so the emphasis shifts from beating your opponent to working together. Co-ops are especially good for couples who don’t enjoy competing against each other.

Spencer and Lara Williams, co-hosts of the Married with Board Games podcast highly recommends that couples play cooperative games. “When I used to play against Spencer in non-co-op games,” the competitive Lara admits, “I would get in a bit of a foul mood when I lost.” She has since learned to enjoy playing her husband head-to-head, even if she loses. But she mostly enjoys playing co-ops with him.