The Game of Love

The answer is: show her GOATSE!!!

Its the perfect barometer of any relationship...if she (or he) can't handle goatse than that person isn't for you...it means that she (or he) is too uptight and is all prudish about games for all the wrong reasons. If your significant other doesn't have a problem with goatse (or better yet thinks its great, or as one girl I AIM'd using the number on her pic on facethejury told me "highly erotic" (and I'm certain she wasn't lying...I mean people on facethejury never lie about their age/gender/size/sexual-preferences/etc or post a picture not of themselves...so they wouldn't lie about goatse)).

What i always said to my girlfriend when she'd rag on me for playing too many video games: Find a hobby besides ME. Look, i have this hobby here. What hobbies do you have? I suggest you go out and find something that you find rewarding and enjoy yourself.

Gizmodo has the scoop. It's much ado about nothing:
http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gaming/the-truth-behind-girls-against-video-games-139612.php

"The Girls against Gamers group that is featured on MTV started with a small Facebook group with less than ten members. October rolls around and MTV decides to make a trip to K-State to hunt for the perfect story to fit in their Game0RZ week that happened last week and suddenly the group decides to explode to upwards of 70 attention-grubbing members who just want to be on TV. Since the mid-October taping, this group has once again died to nothing."

Men Against Shopping

Who's with me!?

Seriously though, the solution is to have your girlfriend join you. She can blow you while you play or something.

You know the saying "ignorance is bliss" well this is a case of "ignorance is ignorance". It's simply a case of not understanding what's so fun about it and therefore thinking it's stupid and/or childish. Just because you can't relate to it doesn't mean the activity is stupid or unimportant.

The one girl says "I think the biggest issue I have is how much money he spends on it."

Why does this matter? Are you guys married? Do you really have any say in how he chooses to spend his money? I don't see how this affects her other than him not having that money to pad the "girlfriend jewelry fund" -- why else would it matter to her? What should he be doing with that money instead? Taking her out? Buying her things?

I remember not understanding what all the fuss was about Diablo 2 and why guys would play it for hours and hours, day in and day out. So I tried it and ended up getting hooked. Good times! And even if I didn't end up liking it, at least I'd be able to say that I tried it and it just wasn't for me. At least that would have been an effort on my part. I don't pretend to call myself a gamer, but I will say that a good amount of my free time is spent in the sweet embrace of World of Warcraft. I also purchased WoW for my bf for Christmas last year so he could know the same joy that I do.

I've said it before, but I think gaming together is a more interactive way of "hanging out" with eachother than simply vegging in front of the TV. You laugh and joke around with eachother and you're saving the world at the same time! What could be better!?! I'm not saying that the "solution" to this problem is to turn into a "gamer girlfriend," but I think a compromise could be worked out where you spend time with eachother doing stuff he thinks is fun, and in turn he spends time with you doing stuff you think is fun. Also, it's very important to understand that everyone needs "alone time" in a relationship. Girls need to accept this and not act like their whole world is ending because he wants a few hours by himself. And guys need to make an effort to do "fun couple stuff" -- it's all about compromise. People, this is straight out of Relationships 101.

As for the guy who was gaming all the time -- hurting his relationship with his girlfriend and skipping his classes so he could play video games -- I would definitely say that he didn't have his priorities straight. I wouldn't blame that on gaming, just a lack of maturity. Heck, there are plenty of people who skip classes to get drunk and/or high. It's college. Some people slack off in college, some people apply themselves. What's important is the ability to manage priorities -- clearly he did not have that ability. Hopefully that will change as he gets older.

My wife enjoys video games. Thank god.

"I went over and stole the game controllers and hid them around the house, and I hid them separately so if they found one they still couldn't play."

So the women in the article think gaming is immature and they do that? Please.


They don't come across as being very understanding or tolerant. It sounds like a couple of the guys have addiction issues, but there's a difference between finding a happy medium (setting certain days a week for gaming, for example) and wanting someone to completely stop a hobby. If the boyfriend told me to stop Counter-Strike I'd say no. Period. Or comma, "hell no," then period. First, who he is to say what I can do in my free time; second, no one ever quits CS.

It sounds like a group where chicks get together and just rolly their eyes at how their guys "make a little guy on TV fight with other little guys on TV," trying to scheme up ways to completely stop the game playing. Way to be understanding, girls.

My girlfriend hated gaming when we first got together. She had a previous boyfriend who would literally play games for hours while ignoring her so she assumed everyone was like this.

Once I managed to drill it into her head it's a regular passtime and like anything - harmless in moderation - she eventually warmed up to it.

Then I bought her a Gamecube and showed her WoW... Now she games almost as much as I do.

It's like cocaine: Everyone hates it until they try it.

I think the key is to get chicks to get into games more. there seems to be a stigma against girls playing videogames, like its too masculine or somthing. though, over time that will (hopefully) diminish as games are becoming less of a thing that "nerds and geeks play" and more of a mainstream, socially acceptable part of youth culture. its almost as if this current generation is the last one to have that stigma attached to it, because the up-and-coming next generation has grown up with videogames as being somthing that is normal and somthing that everyone enjoys, not just a niche group of people that usually have some kind of negative connotation attached to them. And as such, since it will be more socially acceptable in general for people to play games, that would create an environment more conducive for more girls to start playing and enjoying games, and as such video games as whole will continue to grow to become just as "normal" as watching TV or listening to music; creating a cycle that propagates itself from generation to generation until gaming begins to lose its gender-disparity alltogether.

So, the more girls start playing games (and not just niche games), the less of a "guy thing" it becomes, and then even more girls will begin to play games. as such, more girls will grow up playing games, and this will be less and less of a problem over time.

if you are not married to me, you should not be in a support group for video games

See this is why pre-nups are important. I made my wife sign one stating that she would play no less than 2 hours of UT 1 a week with me, and that she finish one SP game on her own per month. She knows if she doesn't finish, say, HL2 or Total Overdose by month's end, I will sue her in court.

In return, all I have to do is all the housework - dishes, laundry, kitty litter detail, etc. Not a bad deal I say. But the point is we solved this dilemma on our own and without the "support " offered by this group. If you caannot work this out yourselves, you are not a true "couple".

Groups like this are not needed. 80% of men are capable of regulating their own behavior and do not need these anti-gaming groups to do it for them.

I think it's funny how everyone's response is "need to get girls interested in games" instead of "we should cut back on games"

they don't need a support group, they need a new boyfriend

seriously, if you're so unhappy in a relationship that you find the need to join a support group about it, you should probably not be in that relationship anymore.

I attend Kansas State University, and I haven't heard of this group. How strange.

If this is a problem in your life, the problem isn't the games. The problem is either:

a) you're a douchebag
b) you have a boring and/or annoying girlfriend

I play games all the time, and sometimes with my girlfriend. She doesn't like it when I play games like BF2 or CS, but then again she watches decorating/fashion shows on TLC and HGTV (shudder to that one), which I have to endure from time to time. Generally I think we even it out, and if I'm playing or she's watching too much we're both pretty vocal about it heheh :)

If you have a girlfriend you obviously aren't hardcore enough.

Women be shoppin!!

They have support groups for every thing.

The ladyfolk are usually more social creatures than we, you know that. Having a game that is fun, easy to pick up, and gives everyone a chance makes for a better fun factor for the womens in my experience. Social games like Mario Party and Mario Kart fill this role well!!

Seriously, all you need is a GC, Mario Party 6, Mario Kart and a few beers. Unch

My girlfriend gets more anoyed about my wireless ibook shacking than gaming. This will change however when i get my DS :D

I've been accused of being addicted to video games by my girlfriend. The interesting part is I only have time to play games a few hours a week, much less time than the average person watches TV, and I watch less than an hour of TV a week. On top of that, she is a teacher, so she's of the mindset that video games corrupt our youth and make them violent.

I believe she may have thought I was addicted because I would start playing a game at 11:00PM and go until 2:00AM and be tired the next day. Since this was the only time I had to play a game all week, I decided to sacrifice sleep for an enjoyable frag session or two to relieve some stress. I suppose that can be seen as a common trait of addiction.

I work in the game industry, and after explaining that gaming was not just a hobby but a crucial part of my career, she's let up a bit, but she still gets annoyed when I'm playing a game while she's in the room. I have a feeling that if I were doing something like reading a book instead she wouldn't have a problem with it.

It seems that women just view games as a worthless and idiotic activity and classify them under the same category as pro-wrestling and monster truck rallies. I think it's a simple matter of fearing what they don't understand combined with readily consuming biased uninformed media coverage of video games.

This is one of those things that always comes down to communication.

It doesn't matter whether or not the guy is playing video games, drinking at the bar, watching sports, etc. The only reason it is getting attention is that Video Games are catching heat for all kinds of things.

Ladies, if you are having troubles with the guy and its around video games, then talk about it. If you can't work it out, dump him.

Guys, if you are having troubles with the lady and its around video games, then talk about it. If you can't work it out, dump her.

The wife and I worked this out between us over 10 years ago, and continue to talk about things. I game every day and attend and host LAN parties.

You don't need a support group. You need to talk to the person. (Unless the support group is telling you to talk to the person.)

I agree that communication is key. I game my partner games, somtimes we play the same games, somtimes our tastes differ. Somtimes you need your partners atention, if you do tell them. If they care about you and your level of attention need is healthy then they will set the game aside and focus on you. If they don't then you may want to find somone who will. Of course if you need nore atention that what is resonable they may leave you... the balance is of course up to the individual couple to find.

They don't need support groups. They need World of WarCraft.

Anyone who ignores their girlfriend to play videogames is just asking to be dumped. Get married, and then ignore your wife to play videogames like I do. Its not a divorce-able offense.

By the way-- woo hoo, Kansas State!!! Go Cats!!! (my alma mater)