Written by: Levanza, Sarte, & Castillo
Visuals by: Jayvee Fulgencio
ECQ Season 3 is now waving while another semester of online classes is just around the corner. True enough, building connections with others seems to be a hindrance during this setting, but getting to know your blockmates isn’t that hard as it sounds with a few ice breaker games and activities.
Here are some fun and interactive things to do with your friends and classmates to keep you safe and sane at home through Discord.
Discord is the Revolution
Discord was released back in 2015 for gamers, but this social media platform gained popularity during the initial phases of the pandemic—as its users were raised by 47% since February 2020, according to CNN Business.
What makes Discord stand out with other voice call apps such as Zoom and Google Meet are its features. It is an ored messaging, voice and video call aganizpp—all in one. It also supports a multiple screen sharing option. It’s way easier to form connections with people who have common interests within the application as well, as it allows people to be part of servers or communities. These “servers” are a combination of text channels and voice channels, all organized into categories. Lastly, what makes it more unique is the ability of server moderators to add and utilize Discord bots on their servers. To top it all off, it offers low data cost usage so bandwidth wouldn’t really be a major issue for you and for your friends.
Do you want to know the comparison of other video conferencing apps to Discord? Read more here.
Perfect for Group Studies
Since Discord allows multiple server creation, it can be very useful for bonding with friends! So why not create the opportunity to use discord to study with them as well? We all may have different study habits but this does not change the fact that having study buddies helps in holding each other accountable for staying focused. Having company can encourage people a lot, especially when there’s content that doesn’t add up, you can always ask the other for help.
There are loads of different Discord bots that you can add to your servers to help with studying. These bots can range from server rewards for people who clock in during their study sessions, gaining levels by doing different study techniques and even calendars and scheduling bots to help organize your day and keep track of deadlines for your academics. Bots like Productovo, Studybot and even Classcord, are all useful bots to help manage your study time when inside Discord.
Stream music together
After a tiring studying session with your friends at Discord, you can also try to relax by listening to music with your friends on a voice channel. Stream your tropa anthems, suggest new songs, and marvel at the thought of “Kailan kaya tayo magkikita-kita?” as you sing your hearts out with your friends. Here are some music bots you can try at Discord: Groovy, Octave, Hydra, Chip, and MEE6. Just make sure to know how to control them using chat keywords depending on the bot you choose.
Hosting movie nights
Now that cinemas are closed due to the pandemic, surely many of you miss the vibe of watching movies with your loved ones at a popcorn-smelling theater. Invite your friends and assign someone to be the designated streamer, turn on your cams, and watch the most thrilling movies and see your friends’ reactions in real time!
Start a Book Club
For avid readers, starting a book club in Discord can be one way to meet other enthusiastic readers from around the world and be encouraged to read even more. Since Discord also supports file sharing, it would be easier for like-minded readers to share their favorite reads within the group. Finding people who read a lot was always a daunting task, so this is one of the easiest ways to find bookworm friends!
Play games
As previously mentioned, multiple screen sharing is available in Discord. This allows not only browsers and screens to be shared, but also games to people inside of the server you are included in. With that, there are a lot of cool games that you can play with your friends while you are all in one channel for faster communications. Discord has servers in multiple countries which lessens the lag between parties compared to communications built into games. A huge list of games can be streamed and below are just some of the games we think you might enjoy whilst spending time with your friends on mic.
Among Us
Stuck in a spaceship with 9 other people, two random roles can be assigned to you: Becoming an innocent player whose job is to survive and finish the tasks in the lobby or find out who the impostor is. The impostor’s job is to assassinate and hide amongst the innocent players until there are 2 or less innocent players left in the lobby. The free to play game is available for PC and it is also available for Android and iOS. No charges, just install and play! So why not try it out with your friends and see who amongst you is the real impostor.
Skribbl
Assemble your friends and get ready to show off your dazzling illustrative prowess as you fight your way to the first rank through sheer determination, or just by writing the word down on the board. This game was designed for friends to hang out and get some laughs and giggles while admiring the art that each person can offer to the table. One game can hold 8 players and you have plenty of freedom to express yourselves as there is a plethora of art utilities to choose from and different colors that can be used easily. The free to play game can be played in any browser, but can also be played on mobile devices. Stream it online or just play for fun, share the experience and bond with friends to your heart’s content.
Compete with your friends by trying the ‘Multiplayer’ mode or dominate the leaderboards by playing ‘Solo’ in TETR.IO. It has user-friendly configuration and its setting is easily tweakable to match your PC or laptop performance. It comprises various game modes in both solo and multiplayer modes. Experience its sleek and nostalgic gameplay as you play the modern take of the classic game we all loved growing up.
Gartic Phone
Similar to Skribbl, prepare your drawing skills with this one. People think of quirky sentences, then other players try to draw the sentence. They get a weird sentence in return and they try to describe what they see in the most realistic way possible. At the end of every round, the players get to see the hilarious drawings and responses each of them did. The game is way better on call with friends.
Covidopoly
Covidopoly has no limit to how many friends can join in. The game is pretty much like Monopoly Deal, but instead of the usual Monopoly properties, it uses Covid as its theme. Dealing with masks instead of money, the goal is to get 3 colored properties to a full set whilst also keeping other player’s mask count low so they go bankrupt.
All Bad Cards
In the likeliness of Cards Against Humanity, All Bad Cards is a party game for people who are into dark humor. Players are presented with a fill-in-the-blanks phrase or sentence, and others are required to pick the most suitable and funniest card for that given phrase. The first player to reach 12 points wins the game.
There are a lot of missed opportunities taken away by the pandemic. For sure, we all miss going out with our friends. As the virus continues to spread and evolve into various variants, it is highly encouraged to stay at home and do our part in keeping the virus contained. Online learning will stay for a while and as we wait for the time when we are all mask-free, let us utilize alternative means of connecting with people. Because as cliche as it sounds, if there’s a will, there's a way.
Discord literally means “disagreement with people” and has a negative connotation. Ironic it is, who would have thought that through Discord, we can gain connections, socialize and even bond with people given the large distances between us all?
Send this to your newfound blockmates, friends, and loved ones so you can Discord with them!
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