Despite “progressive” outlets claiming that women constitute about half of gamers, the reality is that those numbers only work out if you pretend that highly simplistic mobile phone games are video games. If you, on the other hand, consider only games that run on dedicated hardware, be it the PC or a game console, the numbers look a lot different. They show that men vastly outnumber women. The typical owner of a PlayStation or Xbox has a penis and enough testosterone to want to compete in something, anything, be it against himself in a single-player game, or against a horde of teenagers with too much time on their hands in an online multiplayer game.
Video games used to be somewhat of a luxury toy back in the days of the Super Nintendo. Those systems were intended for kids. A few decades later, gaming has grown up, and now kids and adults play. One could make the argument that this is yet another instance of perennial adolescence or the disappearance of adulthood, similar to how kids, teens, and adults listen to the same popular music. Be that as it may, as a consequence of the widespread adoption of gaming as a hobby, the “neckbeard” stereotype no longer holds. You’ll find gamers in all strata of society. Heck, even a real-life superhero like Elon Musk plays video games.
There is something else a lot of men (still) do: have a girlfriend or wife. Based on my personal experience, and also on what I hear from friends or clients, it seems that your typical spoiled Western princess of a woman is not at all happy if you spend time playing video games. There are plenty of reasons why. First, if you sink five or six hours a day into the flavor-of-the-month online shooter or online “battle arena” game, and you don’t pull in six figures as a pro player, your significant other may have a point. However, if gaming is a mere diversion, she does not. Second, when she sees you playing a game, she realizes that you are perfectly content on your own. You are also fully focussed. This makes her feel superfluous. Consequently, if she is of the usual entitled disposition, she will nag and bitch because you have a hobby you find interesting, while she does not. What is more, she also notices, or at the very least subconsciously feels, that she is not the center of your world, which she should not be anyway, but that is not what our little Disney princesses learn when they get brought up by single moms or in a household with a blue-pilled cuck of a father.
The issue is not video games per se. However, video games are a particular bone of contention for the mere reason that they are ubiquitous. I am not the most avid of gamers out there, but it’s a hobby I dip in and out of. If there’s a big game coming out which I want to play, like The Witcher III a few years ago, I may even buy a console for it, and sell it right after finishing the game. When I’m not playing games in my spare time, I do something else, obviously. However, from some of the more toxic relationships I have had, I can tell you that it does not matter what you do. For instance, my ex-wife did not like when I spent a few months reading up on a particular issue in economics, including historical treatises. Of course, again, the issue is not economics, it’s that she felt that she is not the center of the world.
Of course, the irony is that your typical woman has no issue at all with spending hours a day on utterly useless activities like randomly watching videos on YouTube, browsing Facebook in order to get green with envy due to the largely fake successes of her friends, posting pictures on Instagram for attention, or buying useless crap. Yet, if you engage in a hobby that takes a consistent effort, be it video games or learning a new skill, it’s a complete no-no.
The bottom line of all of this is that if your precious girlfriend gets upset because you, heaven forbid, spend an hour or two wiping the floor with your opponents online, you should tell her to pack her stuff and get out. It is a bright red flag that she does not tolerate that you have any hobbies on your own. If it wasn’t video games, she would be upset about anything else. Of course, your alternative is to become a simp who sits next to her while she idles away hours staring into her phone. Needless to say, you’d have to politely look away when a message from Chad comes in. It’s your choice.
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“real-life superhero like Elon Musk”
I very much hope you yourself don’t consider him a real-life superhero. Tesla is something you get because of a a decade of ZIRP, not because of a blunt smoking genius.
“You are also fully focussed”
Well that’s about the case with any hobby that a man truly loves – be it playing games or reloading ammo. You made that point very well in your post, which I much enjoyed.
That’s of course an exaggeration. I think Elon Musk is a bit of a bullshitter, er, showman. Still, I think his high level of entrepreneurship is something you can be in awe of. This does not mean that he did not get lucky, because he certainly did during the dotcom years.
I don’t play much video games anymore. I don’t really like the new video games enough to buy a new console. And i feel that most video games are unfinished products. Not only do you have to buy a DLC for your game to complete it. You even have to buy a DLC for the DLC. Or pay to download some stuff that should have been in the base game to begin with. Then there’s the new SJW trend in video games. Greed and politics are screwing up video games. So i only play some old strategy games from time to time these days. Funny enough i spend even less time with women. As i had more time to think about stuff. Women should be happy men are distracted with video games. They really don’t want men to have time to sit and think about how badly they are being screwed these days.
When i would spend lots of time doing martial arts, it was a problem for women. When i would spend time studying, it was a problem for women. When i would spend time taking flying lessons, it was a problem for women. When i would spend time working more hours, it was a problem for women. When i would spend time playing video games, it was a problem for women.
Bitches, bitch!
Just tell them they can suck it while you’re playing your game. But first to get you a drink and make you a sandwich. That’s what i did with my ex. And surprisingly she did.
I haven’t played anything in years. But I caught the start of this trend… when games starting becoming all about DLC and getting released as an unfinished product.
However, that’s not necessarily a super-bad thing, if you just utilize a 12-18 month delay in your game-playing…
What do I mean by this?
– Well just wait 12-18 months until they release the “ultimate” or “gold” version or whatever its called. It’s that version of the game that costs half the price, comes with all DLCs bundled in, and all the bugs are ironed out, and its like 200% more optimized.
So you get like 500% the value for your buck… oh and also, you will spend much less on hardware (assuming PC gamer here). You can just get hardware that would have been cutting edge 2 years ago (also cheaper).
So you always have an amazing experience, much cheaper. It’s just a mental thing anyway. You know you’re not playing the latest games out in the world… but those players are just paying a tax on impatience anyway. Basically paying to be beta testers for you. That’s one way to look at it.
^^ This! Alek nails it quite nicely.
To add insult to injury, some may re-release the same game as a “remaster” intending to charge full price again for new features that dedicated fans had hacked long ago but without actually finishing the unfinished parts of the game (yes Dark Souls, I am looking at YOU!!)
The only point I see in buying the game at full price right after it comes out is the multiplayer component: co-op and pvp will be easier while the game is new and popular, there will be more players online (and more rookies).
That being said, most good games still have a significant fan base even years later.
Yup, I know several men who have ended up giving up the hobbies they love for the sake of appeasing their girlfriend or wife. (worse,some have even sacrificed better job/career opportunities,but I believe you’ve already discussed this at some point in the past)
Its a damn good thing I swallowed the red-pill. A relationship is supposed to fucking improve the quality of your life,not the other way around. Far too many men fail to make this realization.
@AlekNovy
Yup,this is my approach as well. I also like to test my games by pirating them first in order to see if they are worth my time and money,but a lot of people have a problem with this approach.
I mostly play much older games however,so I don’t really spend a lot of money on the hobby. Emulators FTW!
Just to clarify, I haven’t actually tried this strategy. It’s just what my logic tells me makes sense.
I have zero disposable income, so I can’t try it out, haven’t spent a cent on anything like this in years. So no games for me… both due to financial and time limitations.
It’s just that from what I see… blockbusters seem to be released as a beta version. And every next patch seems to greatly improve the game. Sometimes the 1,5 version (after 78 patches) performs like twice as good and looks and plays better. So you’d get twice the performance from the same hardware.
Then consider that by that time they have an “ultimate” version out that also includes all the DLCs… it just makes sense. It’s better to get the ultimate version of a game that “came out” 2 years ago, then a game that launched this month. In essence the game launches today is really beta… Whereas the “ultimate” version of the “2 year old game” is actually the actual real game as it should be.
You are right. For instance, today you can buy the “Game of the Year Edition” of The Witcher III with all patches and DLCs, including two very meaty story add-ons for less than half the price you had to pay when it came, and back then the performance was not all great on game consoles, with frequent dips below 30 fps. Subsequent patches fixed that.
Yah, it’s just a mental thing. If you can reframe it, it can work out real well.
Like, when the new witcher is “launched”, you can view as them launching a beta version… and you can look at all those people buying full price as “suckers”.
I’m gonna just wait for these suckers to beta test the crap outta this game for me until it’s super-polished and just right for me… and I get it half the price they’re paying… Half-price for like 5x the value.
Just a mental reframe.