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7 Tips for Dating A Gamer!

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As I was googling around for a picture and wording of the old "Editor's/Gamer's Tip" comment box from hint guides, apparently I pulled a google search that led to the result "7 Tips for Dating A Gamer" which I could not resist clicking on.

 

http://love.allwomenstalk.com/tips-for-dating-a-gamer

 

That's not All Women's Talk, by the way. It's All Women Stalk. I considered posting this in the Feminism thread, but because it's a little bit lighter and not exactly on topic I didn't want to detract from the more important conversation going on. This is a weird article. It has some generic "how to handle your SO's hobby that isn't yours" stuff, it has some gaming misconceptions (your man is going to need a LOT of time to game, so give him space), even though it offers up the "ask about games you might be interested in" avenue it's written basically from the perspective that the only kind of game is an FPS, and Tip 1 and Tip 5 are basically the same bad advice. This article comes complete with the hysteria-driven 'gaming is an addiction/games always come before you' first comment. I think the best tip is #7, and that's just general advice that men (or at least me) think practical gifts are romantic.

 

I think the comments are probably the most redeeming part, because most of the women either enjoy gaming or are included in the gaming experience their SO's have.

 

For the most part, it's a clickbait article and it could have been on any topic (cars, books, movies, sports) but it's interesting that gaming is still this weird and mysterious thing that people have to "deal" with even though there are hundreds of millions of dedicated gaming platforms in the US and everyone who has a smart phone has games. If someone you know asked you for advice on their new SO who plays games, what would you actually tell them, as opposed to "Give them hours of space they need it that's how gamers are"?

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I'm not going to click because you're right that it's transparent clickbait, but I'm glad the commentors bring some perspective the article needs.  The same thing happened with that "I dated a Magic the Gathering player" article that caused me to block all Gawker sites—the backlash showed attitudes like the author's were not at all prevalent.

 

Anyway, here's my Tip Number 1: Any time your significant other begins playing a new game, ask: "Isn't that a baby game...?"

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From tip #5: Let Him Concentrate

He doesn't need to hear about your day at work or about the old friend that you ran into while he is playing.

Holy shit man.  :spiraldy:

 

I'm kinda surprised one of the tips isn't something like "Bake him some cookies while he's gaming" or "Bring him a beer" or some other horrible crap.

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feign in interest in his hobby. for example, ask if the object of the game he's playing is to navigate through a maze

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Anyway, here's my Tip Number 1: Any time your significant other begins playing a new game, ask: "Isn't that a baby game...?"

#2: remind your husband that Obama could definitely kill more zombies than him.

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The first rule of dating "gamers" is don't date anyone that calls themselves a gamer.

 

I don't self identify as a capital-G Gamer, but if someone asked if I played games I would say "Yes, I'm a gamer." I must have missed the discussion and decisions made where calling someone "gamer" is terrible. It's a description, not a lifestyle.

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…that's making fake geek girls mad as hell.

 

FAKE GEEK GIRLS HATE HER FOR REVEALING THIS SECRET. CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT WHY.

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This one weird trick for dating a gamer

 

Click here to learn this gamer dating secret discovered by an Old Midwestern grandmother. EA hates it!

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I don't self identify as a capital-G Gamer, but if someone asked if I played games I would say "Yes, I'm a gamer." I must have missed the discussion and decisions made where calling someone "gamer" is terrible. It's a description, not a lifestyle.

Cool experiment: go to every twitter conversation about gross/entitled video game drama and check the bio of the loudest cretins. The word "gamer" will appear, by itself, as a one-word sentence. This is the gamer. These people base their entire identity on the least interesting aspect of their personality. These people claim that EA is somehow worse than Monsanto, BP or Nestle. These people claim that reasonable attire for female leads is having an opinion gone mad. These people claim that any game that tries to convey narrative through the abstract is pretentious. Those that trade perspective for the hyper familiar in some sort of misguided attempt at 'expertise'.  These are absolutely capital-G gamers.

 

Do not date them.

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I don't self identify as a capital-G Gamer, but if someone asked if I played games I would say "Yes, I'm a gamer." I must have missed the discussion and decisions made where calling someone "gamer" is terrible. It's a description, not a lifestyle.

Oh god what have you done. The Idle Thumbs forum community has a weird irrational hatred for the word.

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Oh god what have you done. The Idle Thumbs forum community has a weird noble irrational hatred for the vile word.

I've helpfully corrected a couple of accidental errors you made there.

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I see where you're mistaken. "Weird" and "noble" are not synonyms, and "vile" has a negative connotation. It's okay. It was correct the first time, but I appreciate the attempt!

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Oh god what have you done. The Idle Thumbs forum community has a weird irrational hatred for the word.

 

I think it's silly, but I keep attempting to put discussion into a thread that was meant to be silly. I'm gonna sit back and let the web ad/gamer dating take their course, because that was mostly what I was hoping would happen when I posted this.

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Tip #7: When requesting something from your significant other, always start with the words "would you kindly".

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