I've been revisiting anno 2205, infamously the ugly duckling of the Anno series of RTS games. I don't mind so much the fact that it's different, lacks customisation and random map generation - I'm bothered because the game is so slow to progress through on challenge settings, and it feels like a game designed just to artificially waste your time; in other anno games, you can always pull tricks to dig yourself out of economic crisis - selling off assets and surplus goods, completing quests for other parties, or taking loans. 2205 is very very confined in terms of what you can do to financially recover in the early game and forces you into a lot of military events.
Among Us.
My friends kept suggesting it for game nights, but the social demands are just not compatible with actually hanging out with your friends.
When everyone's out and about, doing their tasks and getting murdered, we're all discouraged from actually talking with one another, for fear of revealing a dead body or whatever. Whenever there's a meeting going on, sure, we're "free" to talk again, but there's not enough time to talk about anything but the game. When you're dead, and thus finally relieved from the pressures of completing tasks or getting kills... there's still no chit-chat allowed, because ghosts "can't" talk.
It's worse whenever random players are involved; having to coordinate between voice chat with friends, and text chat with randoms, or worse, when the randoms are in a voice chat of their own, coordinating to be assholes.
The moment that finally made me say "I don't enjoy this game", was a round with two random players in it: one of them spent the whole round watching security cameras, and the other was blocking the one doorway into the room, both players working with each other and refusing to do their tasks. No way for the lone impostor that round to kill them both. When we started calling them out on this, they flat-out said "we're going to keep doing this just to spite you". Timer ran out with unfinished tasks. Crewmates lost.
Social deduction games have never appealed to me and Among Us is possibly my least favorite iteration of any of them. I doubt people would even be talking about it if it didn't hit big as a streamer game.
I generally don't mind them, it's just Among Us's style that irks me. I actually kinda like them in board game form; Battlestar Galactica's board game, arguably having the same core premise and a similar setting, is actually one of my all-time favorites. Sticking with video games, Push the Button from the Jackbox series is alright as well.
Maybe the format works better when players aren't forced to scatter and stay quiet.
Sounds like your friend group should play Eve online
Hey, we're talking about past time activity, not getting an extra job.
Though it does actually fit in the theme. Can't remember exactly how many hours i have in it, played it few years and keep getting back to it from time to time.
Bur for the love of god, it's pretty much secondary job, it's not really solo friendly game either. It's almost mandatory to join a corporation or group activities and generally in low sec to make any considerable amount of isk, but that comes with it's own set of obligations and of course the absolute constant threat of PVP.
Of course it's possible to stay in high sec and play solo, but that becomes rather insane grind fest or never even leave the station, but you better start loving EXEL.
Oh among is so soooo lacklustre, I feel really bad for people who can't see that...
I agree with all your points. It's also grim playing a game where you can just get killed - thus having to spectate - at the start of every match, again, and again, and again.