What makes a good couples game?

Since my previous post, I have thought a lot about couples games. Not only have I thought about games that would be good to play with your significant other, or even just about games that would be good to play with other couples, but also about what makes a good couples game. That is, which qualities ought a game possess in order for you to know, before you go out and buy it, that you will be a good couples game.

Some of the things I thought of are these:
1. If at all possible, the game should avoid negative conflict and confrontation. I'm not talking about challenging the opposing team to sculpt a rhinoceros in Cranium, but more along the lines of war games or financial domination games, where in order for you to win, you've got to rob your spouse of every last dollar or territory.

2. The game shouldn't last more than 60-90 minutes. Since the point of couples games shouldn't just be friendly competition, but social interaction and relationship building, the game should not dominate all the allotted time. Plenty of time should be left-over to talk, eat, and hang-out after the competition subsides. If a game takes to long, you could ruin all chances of ever getting your couple friends to come over to play games again. Its always better to wish the game ended too soon, than took too long. Besides, if everyone is having a really great time playing, you could always play again. (Note: if the box says the game takes 60-90 minutes, it is not accounting for the time it takes to read the rules, teach it, or play your first time. You can expect any game to take about 25% longer if the majority of the players are first-timers. Pick a game that says it is 30-60 minutes unless everyone is already comfortable with the rules.)

3. The game should be optimized for the correct number of players. This one should be obvious, but in my opinion it is not a good idea to pick a game designed for less players and then combine couples onto teams so that everyone can play. In this case, I've found, that typically one partner ends up dominating the majority of the play, while the other sits by and watches. While the odd-partner-out might claim this is exactly what they want and that they don't really care to play anyways, the other partner (the one who is playing) could feel strained or uncomfortable that their significant other isn't playing, and at the very least, the type of interaction will be less united if any people have an unequal role in the experience. Unless the game is designed for teams (think pictionary), be careful to select a game whose box indicates the correct number of players.

In a later post perhaps I will add a few criterion for selecting a game, but hopefully this will help if you are ever searching for one and can't decide.