COVID-19 at the Gaming Table V: Free Games from Asmodee, Osprey, 2Tomatoes, and More

Q: How has the current COVID-19 pandemic affected Looney Labs?

A: We are all okay so far. Everyone has figured out how to work from home, and none of us are sick of anything except being quarantined. I myself still go to the office every day, but only because it's so close to where we live and no one else is there. But all the game stores are closed and all the conventions and gaming events have been canceled, so we aren't making any sales except online or from stores that offer delivery or curbside pickup. Those things will keep going until they run out of product, but since our distributors and warehouses are also closed, we can't restock any of our vendors. So, things are bad, and the longer it goes on like this, the harder it will be.

On the other hand, we're hearing a lot about how people who are cooped up together are turning to games like ours to pass the time, and hopefully that will lead to an increase in our sales later on, when things have returned to whatever the new normal ends up being. In the meantime, we are doing our best to keep everyone safe, and good luck to us all in these difficult times.

The card game Dominion, specifically its online version, is the most addictive time-waster I've ever encountered.

Before I started writing this article, I procrastinated for a bit by visiting Dominion.games, the game's website. After I wrote the intro I went back and played a little more. Last week, I played an online Dominion game with my wife and two good friends; when one friend spent a bit too much time on his turn, I went back to Dominion.games, intent on procrastinating by playing a bit, before realizing I already was in the middle of a game. I am so used to killing time using Dominion that I tried to kill time during a Dominion game by starting another Dominion game.

That is how habit-forming online Dominion is, and why it's become such a deeply essential part of my work-from-home life during the coronavirus pandemic. Actually, I say "my work-from-home life," but that's misleading, as it implies that I didn't play Dominion on my work laptop while working in Vox.com's DC office. Obviously, I did. I played so often and so flagrantly that my editor, after noticing it a bunch of times, was inspired to buy his own physical copy of the game. I still got my work done; I'm not a total mess. But there was a lot of Dominion in between stories.

We still don't know how many people COVID-19 will end up affecting, but right now we know the best thing most people can do is "flatten the curve" by staying indoors and limiting social contact, therefore buying health officials more time to address the crisis. For some lucky Americans, that means Zoom meetings and Slack chats. For others, it means unemployment and a far scarier future. For everyone, it means staying home. And one way to make that a little more fun, is, well, by playing board games.