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anjo banjo
09-06-2007, 04:32 PM
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1084/1337950993_bf305ae463.jpg?v=0

Relationships always have their ups and downs. The most regular arguments spoken of in a relationship are as follows:

*Finances
*House work
*Lack of intimacy
*Commitment issues
*Clashing opinions
*Small habits that annoy the poop out of you

All those who have been in a relationship must've encountered one or more of the problems mentioned above.

As a gamer married to a gamer, I can add another issue to that list. Gaming arguments!

I've always known that I would end up marrying a man that is into the wondrous world of gaming. Now what I didn't predict are the arguments that come up involving and triggered by gaming. It doesn't just affect me. Sometimes a person that is not even interested in videogames that has a partner that spends a lot of time gaming, which also tends to bring up unpleasantness to the glorious bliss of love.

In this editorial, I will not only use my relationship as an example, I will analyze people around me that are in a relationship with a gamer.

One of the biggest issues I've encountered is the competitiveness. Both my spouse and I are very competitive people. If he jumps 5 feet, I am going to get spingshoes just to jump 5.1 feet. Being competitive has always been my biggest issue that has leaded to blown up arguments that one of us cheated, or had server advantage. Simply put, you make up any old excuse so you won't have to admit that your spouse beat you at your own game. It can sometimes be strength but in this case, it’s annoying. Videogames are, in our case, the biggest argument catalyst. Everything from gaming politics to " HAHA, I PAAAWNED YOU!"

None the less, we are working on that. One solution we've established is that we simply don't play the same game, hence neither of us will see our competitive nature showing its ugly mug. So far it worked great and if anyone has this problem. I suggest you try it, and if you have an alternative solution, let me know.

On another gamer related relationship issue is "my spouse won't stop playing games and is neglecting me!" This gamer is often found playing videogames a lot and constantly tells every available girl online "I wish my spouse played videogames...". Of course, girls being sympathetic in nature go "AWWWWW". Well here is where the situation gets ugly. If now this person is committed in a relationship, there are better ways to go about then spend all time gaming and telling people you randomly meet that your spouse is not understanding of your gaming habits. Talk to your spouse, make up some sort of arrangement. In a relationship, even if you are a hardcore gamer, you have to have room for compromise. It is not always about you and your videogames. They are a pastime and to some, a passion. You have a spouse that obviously loves you enough to try to deal with your gaming habit. So if you just compromise a little bit, it will bring somewhat of a balance in your relationship where you can game and spend time with your special someone. Also for goodness sake, no more self-pity party, it isn't always great that a spouse games with you, it gets annoying and expensive, trust me.

If you feel that your spouse would love what the world of gaming has to offer, get that person involved. In most relationships when a person has a problem with his significant others gaming habit, it’s only because that person feels isolated and neglected. Also it ends up that person feeling distaste for gaming just because of those simple reasons. The gaming world offers so many varieties of games, racing, MMORPG, puzzle, fighting, adventure etc...with so much variety in designs, there is always a game that your spouse might actually like! All that is needed is some encouragement to make your special someone to feel welcome into your world. Praise that persons achievements and appreciate each other for your differences.

Ever since I and my significant other made the decision to try to keep away from each other’s games, we each have a DS, we sit on the couch playing our games in that way we feel as if we are doing something together. Open communication can do miracles.

A very big problem that I have noticed is jealousy. As the online world grows, more people get burned by those whom they thought they knew. There are examples and examples of online relationships that crashed and burned. I know many examples, the strangest one is a man, claiming to be single, yet he has a wife and a child.
He spends his days playing videogames and flirting up ladies playing online. That man has obviously made his decision, gaming over spouse.
We all play games because we love it! We love the places it takes us to.
It is also an escape from reality.
But if you try to run away from the chains of reality too much, you will end up hurting the one you are committed to.

Basically, videogames are great, they bring us other worlds. A game is still a game, but love is the ultimate adventure! It can give you more variety of emotions than any virtual world can provide.

If you have an interesting relationship story involving gaming, let me know.
If you feel that I missed a key part, I'd like to know that too.

miss_irie
09-06-2007, 05:04 PM
Great article Anjo, I think Vision would be the one feeling sad, because majority of the time I am the one beating him. And I rubb it all over his face, so when he beats me he makes sure to remind me about it. All for fun, though...

Btw, I loved the image! :)

anjo banjo
09-06-2007, 05:07 PM
I can relate Ana. Before me and my hubby realized what triggered us to become "mad at eachother". We had arguments because of all the face rubbing we exposed eachother to. Nowerdays, we play different games, and if we play the same game, we make sure we make fun of eachother all in good fun :D

Tapio
09-06-2007, 05:19 PM
I would not date a girl who hates games and gaming.
But i never met one who hated :)

joebeta
09-06-2007, 05:33 PM
Great job like always, Anjo:-)

Paustinj
09-06-2007, 05:50 PM
Great article, I have yet to see single girl who plays video games down here. :errf:

DaveNotti
09-06-2007, 06:04 PM
. . . . .

Well...I know when me and Sage gamed, it was fun. I'll admit whole heartedly that she is to this day better then me at the shotgun in Gears. She could out-shotgun me any day and I'm glad we were able to get her to that point, We being our at the time clan: I Kaged I Animals consisting of Kage, Sage, Myself and Ripper. I remember the day when we were teaching her and she just couldn't grasp the aspect of shot gunning...heh, now she's such a huge force to be reckoned with that I smile everytime I think of her going into peoples rooms because I know she will clean house! On the other hand...Sniping is me, in which I learned from Kage so I know when Drea's coming after me that I just gotta play the range game. Plus Drea absolutly hates being chainsawed! lol

But the only time I saw me and Drea "arguing" over games was when we our differences on "Glitching" came into conversation. Drea felt as though glitching ruined the game which it did, I'm in no way disputing that...my argument was more so on when the glitches were performed. For instance, Drea hated the chain saw glitch (1st generation) because she felt that it was cheap and one day I was in a room with some of her friends and It was down to me and Drea against this one guy on the other team. Now were chasing this guy down and I finally corner him, I "Neo" all of his shots and walk up to him and perforate his ass. Afterwards they started to complain saying "Hey that sucks you glitched" and what not, And Drea agreed. My argument was, "It's the last guy..." Especially if the person was down...now in that instant he wasn't....-..ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. heh, my bad -_-

Anywho...when me and drea gamed we never really clashed. We both had our own set of games for certain titles that we had alot of friends in...like Lost Planet, Ghost Recon 2, Perfect Dark, so on and so forth. This way we could still play together and play with our friends...But for the most part we were good and never really had any true disputes.

In terms of history wise, we never argued on game topics because both of us pretty much enjoy the same thing. We both like Dreamcast, we both liked Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64. Only thing was originally, she was a Playstation head until she was enlightened on the green. We both like the Nintendo, Sega Genesis...like, we both are collectors.

So I can't even say we clashed when it came to games, we're pretty level headed when it comes to games.

Rock On Drea, Keep shotgunning those noobs! lol, learn chainsaw though! lol

dancinns
09-06-2007, 09:15 PM
I tend to load my gaming PC with a new game so that I can play something on the 360 at the same time. We both get our gaming in without leaving each other feeling neglected. I also keep searching for 360 games that we can play together but my wife grew up on PC games and I grew up on console games so she has a tough time adapting to the controller...*sigh* :)

anjo banjo
09-06-2007, 11:55 PM
haha, well if it isnt that then it would be something else :D

You guys are really giving out good information!
Thanks for your participation in posting your gaming relationship experience:D

peterocc
09-07-2007, 08:51 AM
Really great article anjo. I'm lucky enough to have a gf (Shout out to PMS Harlequin) that loves gaming too.

When we first met, I told her straight up "Im a gamer and I play long hours". She told she liked video games too. Now, I had heard this before from other girls I talked to and didnt take her response too seriously. But lo and behold, after a few sessions in front of the 360, I was smitten. I had found a gamer girl!

So I did what every other gamer gets his girlfriend for Xmas. Shiny new 360! Now she's in PMS & ECA, does clan matches, is attending WCG as a GamerchiX representative... I've created a monster!!! J/K..

I appreciate the fact that she understands my love of gaming and that we can sit down to a nice glass of wine and frag our opponent together.

PMS Harlequin
09-07-2007, 10:21 AM
I <3 THM Peterocc!

Anjo, the cartoon looks like a snapshot of me and Pete! Like he said, we are fortunate to enjoy gaming together and are absolutely competitive as well as extremely supportive of each other. We play the same games and our clans even compete against each other. Fortunately I get along with his clan mates and vice versa. That's the point of gaming isn't it? HAVE FUN!

MAD2MAxXx
12-29-2007, 02:48 AM
Great article, I've actually was introduced to my girlfreind at MLG Dallas 2006 and honestly this has been the strongest relationship i've ever had.

Prayer350z
02-03-2008, 08:35 AM
Great article, I loved that pic on top lol. I had a few friends that had wives get mad at them on game just like that. 'sorry i t-bagged u' lmao

tyrone hawk
04-03-2009, 03:11 PM
Great article, anjo, and the illustration is marvelous indeed. If you can, please give me some notes on helping my wife (which is a "fifth degree", if you understand me). She only loves UNO and Puzzle Quest, and I haven't been able to get here in other games.

consequenzes
04-05-2009, 08:42 AM
I must admit that when I met my wife her only time playing video games was the original Sonic the Hedgehog...and in addition she never made if off the first stage.

She's always supported my habit but at the same time she took away from it. I didn't have the time I wanted and it's only now that I'm being vocal about getting back into it fully. Now that I am playing more and getting back to enjoying my addiction/hobby/I'd love it to be a profession, she's starting to pick up the controller now and then and play COD and Halo etc. She's becoming quite good as I teach her a little something day by day and it's really brought us closer in our relationship.

TheProdigy200
04-16-2009, 07:03 PM
Any girl who enjoys playing video games is definetly a turn on for me. :)

MagicOPromotion
05-30-2009, 05:53 PM
pretty self explanatory really.
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rnJust thought it would be interesting to find out where everybody got their gaming names from....
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rnMe, well, surnames Webb, hence, to friends Im know as Webbie. this just carried through to my gaming.
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rnWhat about you?
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rnRegardsrn
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=== XRumer 5.0 Palladium (http://www.botmasternet.com) RULEZ! ===

D.Flouh
10-04-2009, 10:36 PM
, Most of the members did not want to draw a pick-up truck. If you look at what contest should we do next, you will see that most people wanted to do something else. There is no prize for drawing the best truck, were not getting paid to do the research you mentoined, we are just doing this for fun so we will draw whatever we feel like drawing. The truck Harve is talking about is more of a tool, than something you would see on display at a car show, so it is hard to get exited about it, so it would be more fun to draw whatever truck we would want. If you think we should design what we were told to, we should design a racing car from the early sixties those are more fun to look at.