Finding that special someone who gets involved in your favourite hobby is magical, not to sound too gushy. Your games collection isn’t shunned, if anything it is admired and worshiped. Your gamer rants are understood and agreed on. And any tedious co-op games become enjoyable and even fun!
The dating scene can be such a frightening place for anyone at any age. Finding a common ground and then hoping they like you can cause so much stress. Some people use books, TV shows, movies or music to get started when dating someone new. When I started dating, I happily mentioned I loved playing video games. Games always start good conversations and even fun debates. And it would make such a great impression on the guy, but sadly not their family.
“So… do you play Halo?”
One mum actually said to me “Please tell me you’re pretending to like these games and you’re putting up with them to make my son happy!” I was shocked and annoyed. Why can’t I like computer games? This was said to me ten years ago and it still lingers because she was a massive feminist. She should have been supporting me and telling me to stick it to anyone who says I shouldn’t like games. Where does it say I can’t be a woman AND a gamer? Last time I checked, it doesn’t. But in that case I actually was pretending because it was early Counter Strike! So yeah, my bad there.
At one point I dated PC gamers. I’m more of a console person and know nothing about computers, I am not “tech savy”. PC gaming seemed to be an exclusive club that I felt I could never join. So I felt like there was nothing we could talk about game wise. They ranted on about how Half Life 3 should have been made by now and what else to build in Minecraft. All I could contribute was how to get extra Simoleons and how to kill my Sims…
The worst relationship with a gamer I had was with a lad who was obsessed with Star Wars and shooters. Probably sounds like Heaven to some ladies, but not me. When Secret of Monkey Island was released on Xbox I was overjoyed. My childhood was back and I couldn’t be happier. That was until he saw it. He viewed it as “a waste of time, money and pixels on some crap that a 4 year old invented. Rubbish graphics, dumb story and annoying characters.” And the best one; “You don’t even shoot anything! Whats the f**king point in it?!”
Yes, that was actually said. I saw red, I wanted to smash his Master Chief helmet and snap his stupid lightsaber in two. Instead I ignored him and carried on playing. But inside I was sobbing, he had managed to hurt something I held dear. Thankfully, we broke up!
Avoid this type of guy.
If anyone is unfortunate enough to know me on social media and in real life, you’ll know I have finally found my Player 2! It has taken some time, but I finally nabbed myself a fantastic fella and also a co-op partner. We both write, play the same games, enjoy the same films and he doesn’t drink my beer! Yes, this truly is meant to be! The perks of dating a gamer are amazing. Disks aren’t scratched, figures aren’t broken, you’re not judged by your gamerscore and it’s fun to see what consoles and games they have themselves.
Plus co-op can happen now without trying to organise games with friends or play on teams of strangers. Borderlands 2 is our main co-op game and made last Christmas without him bearable as we played online together into the wee hours of the morning. We even managed to get through the horrors of Alien Colonial Marines! If our relationship survived that, it can survive anything. At the moment we are currently trying to sort out our DS consoles so we can Pokemon battle! Love; its a funny thing.
Yeah, yeah. Its from Tumblr.
The story of how we got together is odd. He worked on a rival writing team to mine and we got chatting on Facebook and became good friends. Sadly, he started dating someone on his team and yes, it hurt. I realised I had feelings for this guy. I forgot about him and continued writing and bobbing along in my life. Then something random happened; he broke up with her. Awful as it sounds, I was so happy. This person and I weren’t on the best of terms. But I still believed nothing would happen with me and him because of the distance.
We quickly became friends again and agreed to meet up at Eurogamer later in the year. And that is when we knew we liked each other and wanted to become a couple. It worked, it actually worked. Seven months on and we now live together. It’s amazing. We did start off as an odd gaming Romeo and Juliet; people we knew didn’t want us to be together and tried to sabotage it, but if anything its made us stronger.
I know so many gaming couples and also quite a few where one person is a gamer and their partner isn’t. But their significant other doesn’t mind that they spend time in front of the TV shouting at a pixelated character! One female friend said she preferred her husband staying at home playing video games instead of going to the pub because their children would sit and watch their dad game for hours. It was like a bonding session. Bringing someone new into the gaming realm isn’t always an easy task, but with time and patience you can see it slowly happening. Some couples go as far as to get their World of Warcraft characters married on their servers! This is how much impact gaming can have in relationships. It’s incredible.
They also instill healthy competition with your partner. Going head to head in games such as Street Fighter or getting a little bit further in Tomb Raider then them just makes your relationship more fun. Just don’t steal each others kills or teabag each other. And if you actually start fighting against each other as Guile and Chun Li, then I suggest you walk away from each other! This is healthy competition after all.
So I guess what I’m saying is this; don’t accept Game Over just yet. We all have a player two out there waiting to start a game with us. It may take a while and you may have to get through a couple of noobs and trolls to find them, but when you do you’ll unlock the best achievement ever!
Well hello beautiful!
Tags: Alien Colonial Marines, Borderlands 2, Counter Strike, Half Life 3, halo, Minecraft, Pokemon, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game, Secret of Money Island, Star Wars, The Simpsons, the sims, World of Warcraft, xbox
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