When Video Games Meet Romance

I've been in a few serious relationships in my time, both with girls who got their game on, and girls who never picked up a controller in their life.

Although it is great fun, I'm actually ambivalent about sharing my hobby with a significant other. I have a hard enough time getting my chores done and living a balanced lifestyle when I'm dating a girl who doesn't game, after all. If you think addiction by yourself is bad, imagine having your partner always enabling you to forgo social commitments, chores, work, even hygiene. Obviously, this can lend itself to trouble.

Then again, a close friend has always enjoyed playing MMORPGs and lately has been playing WoW in particular. His wife didn't really understand how he could enjoy the game so much. She was always interrupting him during combat, asking him to do chores in the middle of an instance run, etc. He specifically contrasted this experience to a period of time when I dated a girl who played WoW with me, and constantly lamented how awesome it would be if he could just get his wife into a game with him.

He had a persuasive argument, I must admit; first of all, it would lend understanding of the flow of the game, and theoretically make her more patient with allowing him to finish an instance or not expect his full attention until after a tricky fight was won. Secondly, given the all-consuming nature of MMO culture, it would be a very powerful bond to share between them.

By playing together, enjoying virtual adventures in which they relied on each other to overcome obstacles, he supposed it could actually strengthen their marriage outside of the game. I'm of a mind to agree with his assessment, since I've found that shared hobbies do indeed help build bonds in a relationship.

Well, turns out that after a long and arduous campaign of building her interest in WoW, she finally agreed to give it a go. He hooked her up with a free trial and within a week they needed to upgrade her to a full account; mission accomplished.

I'm truly happy for my friend's success. That said, I'm still not quite sure what I'd prefer out of my next relationship. Bonding over video games is certainly fun, but after spending the past two years being utterly consumed by my job and having countless plans fall through where I was desperate to do something, anything, other than veg out over the weekend... I think I might be ready to enjoy a different shared hobby. Mountain biking, perhaps?

Does anyone have an opinion on the matter? I would love to hear some funny stories resulting from the combination of a passion for gaming and one's love life!