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brkl

Disabled gaming -- recommendations please

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I'm looking for a game to play with my girlfriend's brother. The thing is, he operates his laptop using sight based controls. That's a huge limit to what kind of games he can play. We used to play chess online -- lichess.org has a play by email type of setup, which worked fine. However, I'd much prefer a game I can play without the taste of blood in my mouth. Chess is just too severe. I can't think of interesting games for us to play, so I'm hoping some of you know games that fit these very strict criteria:

 

* Asynchronous play

* Very simple mouse based UI -- even dragging can be very difficult

* Turn based with no time limit

* Very low demands on hardware

 

I'm hoping to find something that's a bit lighter than chess -- at least some randomness etc. Many thanks to anyone who can help me with this.

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Unity of Command might fit the bill. Similar to the old Panzer General games but even more streamlined. I know asynchronous play is available but I haven't personally used it. Might cause just as many bloody mouths, however.

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Would X Com Enemy Unknown fit the bill? It's turn based, no time limit, the UI is fairly "chunky" since it was also built to be played on consoles, and it is a great game. There is a multiplayer component to it, but I think you would need to copies/ 

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Can he input text with speech-to-text? I haven't played it in a while, but Storium might work. A game-master writes up scenarios and distributes cards that represents good outcomes and "weak" outcomes. The players play their cards to get more cards and write stories explaining what it was like when the card was used. It's slow paced and would probably require more players. I might be willing to join a game if this seems like a good fit and you just need more players to make it work.

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Thanks, guys.

 

The game will definitely have to be asynchronous. There's very little chance we'd be able to coordinate times when we are both playing. He can input text, but it's slow and I doubt it would be very exciting for him. Anything 3D will probably be too heavy. I think the sight controls interfere with the laptop somehow, but I've never used it. 

 

Neptune's Pride comes to mind, actually. 

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Neptune's Pride comes to mind, actually. 

I was thinking that myself, but diplomacy obviously requires a decent bit of typing.

Frozen Synapse and Frozen Cortex are asynchronous with simple UIs, but it's possible some of the mouse stuff will be too fiddly. At least in Synapse, I think you have to drag to change facing. That may not be the case in Cortex, though, if I remember rightly.

Hero Academy isn't bad, though strategically it's a pretty big step down from chess, heh.

There is actually a way to play Civilization V asynchronously! Look up Giant Multiplayer Robot.

I'm guessing devices other than the PC are out?

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Yeah, and honestly I'm not even sure how well the system copes with fullscreen games. I was looking up asynchronous games and Solium Infernum came up. I remember reading a ton of stuff on RPS about that game, so that could be a good one. I remember Cryptic Comet's games aren't fullscreen, so there's no danger of any technical hiccups. The Frozen games would definitely be too fiddly and Civ V tends to break multiplayer games after you've put hours into them.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I know I'm kind of shooting them all down, but if you knew how difficult these things can be... I'd rather try something I know will at least technically work.

 

FreeCiv has a HTML5 version with a Play By Email mode. That would work. I guess it can be a bit unfriendly if you've never played Civ before.

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I don't know how well asynchronous play works with Heroes of Might and Magics, it might? 3 might have, I dunno about the newer ones but it's all turn based with mouse controls.

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