Unlike in-game marriages, real-life marriages can be problematic when video games are involved.
Andrew Allen, a USC film student and a lifelong gamer, acts out these troubles in his latest episode of games versus marriage. Featured is Gears of War, which has undoubtedly ruined many people’s social and marriage lives. But Andrew (or, rather, the character he plays) manages to win this round.
Of course if this were me, I’d probably be on the couch with my fictional husband kicking his arse in the game. Or at the very least mocking his attempts. Because video games, that’s why.
I have some advice on making video games work in a marriage ... marry a gamer.
My wife is a gamer, she gets it, she doesn't get annoyed when I trash talk, she doesn't glaze over when I tell her about a particularly awesome match ... but best of all, she doesn't mind me spending money on games, I don't have to explain to her why it's imperative that I spend $200 on the tournament edition of Mortal Kombat
this is very true! although I am not married yet, my gf and I are both gamers and actually buy games and consoles for each other, understand each other's gaming habits and even play some rounds of Halo Reach's Firefight from time to time and it really brings us together which is great :)
Videogames are not important enough to factor into whether you should marry someone or not.
There, I said it.
I love videogames, but if you are considering videogames at all when trying to figure out if you should marry someone... don't marry anyone, please.
The same could be said about any hobby or sporting activity. I find that the more activities we can do together, the better .... she's not a gamer, but I'd love it if she was.
Videogames shouldn't be a major factor, but there is no reason why you wouldn't consider it a factor to some degree. You could have a successful marriage with or without videogames, but it could be lots more fun if you have another thing to share. Some of the most successful couples I know both love their video games.
For some reason when one person doesn't like them they often make it a huge issue which prevents the other person from enjoying them as much as they would like to. I've seen people break up where one person was constantly prevented from enjoying their past time because the other person just didn't understand the point of it.
Anyway I'm not sure if I really got my point across, but there are lots of factors to consider when committing to a marriage. There is no reason why a love of videogames can't be one of them.
The fact that my wife loves games too is one of the many things I love about her.
My brother actually worked this into his marriage vows. I can't remember the exact wording, but it was essentially a bit of tongue-in-cheek 'to tolerate his geekiness and games and other nerdy pursuits'. His wife rolled her eyes at him, but to this day she's happy to indulge him. (And to be fair, she had an equivalent on her side.) It seems to have worked out pretty well, since they were both up front about it.
I think it's pretty rotten when any person tries to stop another person pursuing a hobby they love - whether it's video games, golf, football, scrap-booking, guitar, collecting stamps, whatever. So long as they don't spend ALL of their time and money on it, live and let live. It seems totalitarian to try and control someone's time so completely. If playing video games really is such an issue to your marriage partner, then maybe it's a red flag that in their accusations of you being selfish, they're actually the ones being selfish. (Give up your hobby and take up my hobby, or else.)