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When The Other Woman Is An Xbox
MTV's Game News service has a report on a an anti-gaming college club started by a group of disgruntled gamer SOs. From the article: "Jaci and Jake, who both attend Kansas State University, are a modern couple dealing with a modern issue. One of them is a gamer; the other is not. Theirs is not an unusual plight. For decades gamers and non-gamers in love have struggled to find harmony. At Kansas State the frustration is rampant. Like most college campuses, it is a place where the release of Halo 2 last year was the best of times and the worst of times. And while there is such a thing as couples in which both people are into games -- and while there are sometimes boyfriends who are the non-gamers -- the most frequent complaint involves game-crazy guys leaving their girlfriends out in the Xbox-free cold."
Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe it is just the apeal of Nintendo, but I have converted many 'Non-Gamer' Girlfriends into gamer girlfriends simply by playing games with them that they would find enjoyable. Everyone can have fun playing Mario Tennis, Mario Kart or Mario Party because they're approachable, fair and easy to pick up; the design of the Gamecube controller is easy for everyone to pick up without studying, Press the Big Green button, Press the little red button, press the right trigger button (most of these games don't use the extra buttons for any core functionality).
To get a person who isn't into games to play Halo 2 you'd first have to give a lecture on how the controller works, after that you'd have to spend a year teaching them about how to strafe kill an opponent (and what not) just so that they wouldn't die all the time.
I can't wait for the revolution controller so I can have conversations like:
"What do I do?"
"When you see a fly just wack it, it's not that hard"
"What do you mean wack it?"
"You take your controller and wack it! it's just not that hard"
"You mean like this" - She gestures with the controller
"Exactly!"
"cool"
If it wasn't the xbox, it'd be work.
It seems that in the mind of many a women, you should be able to remain successful, productive, bring in an impressive income, receive promotions, buy a nice house, car, vacations, raise children and all the other things that women you may hook up with, date, or even marry would want out of a guy and would want to be able to brag to their family and friends about . . . while not actually focusing yourself on your work.
You should make time for the other person, certainly, but chicks need to understand that you only got where you are through hard work and that all the things of yours which she enjoys came at a price. Both monitarily and in personal sacrifices of various kinds.
If you can't respect the fact that, as a man, work and career and achievment are a very large part of my existance and want me to sabotage that to spend even more time with you at, say, the risk of you hooking up with some unemployed loser or the pool boy who don't have the responsibilities and can give you the time while I give you the money and house and nice cars and fancy dinners, then you might as well step-off from the get-go.
So how does the XBOX (or cars or any other hobby) fit into this? Because when you work hard, you need to relax, too. You need time alone to decompress and enjoy yourself and being suffocated by another human being every free second you have is not always the most relaxing thing. Likewise, your mate needs to understand that fact in addition to the "I have a career" fact.
If she can't, it's time to start looking for a better breed of women and start thinking with your head when you choose the next one.