He Joined Shag A Gamer So You Don’t Have To

You may remember that earlier this year a site called ‘Shag A Gamer’ launched in the UK, a site that claimed to help gamers hook up for casual, erm… encounters. At the time I remember thinking the whole thing was a bit ridiculous, but this brilliant story — over at PC GamesN — pretty much tears the site to shred. Writer Steve Hogarty signed up for the site and documented his progress and it makes for an absolutely fascinating story.

You only have to scratch the surface of Shag a Gamer to reveal that the site is more than just a silly headline. In fact it’s a little cynical, absolutely misleading, downright greedy and, at worst, preys on the wallets of the woefully undersexed. I signed up to Shag a Gamer just over two weeks ago, exactly how Louis Theroux might, and in the space of a fortnight I’ve received no fewer than 330 private messages, all of them from girls with names like ‘Sweety’, ‘Babs’, ‘Lola’ and ‘Coco’ – names I’ve never heard of a real woman having before, despite knowing loads of my mum’s friends. Often, the subject headers from these women will repeat over and over again, as if generated by a sexy algorithm: “Show me the ropes?” is a common one, as well as the more relaxed sounding “I’m just taking it easy”. Yeah alright Casanovatron. Cool your jets, HAL-9000.

This story has everything — from sexy spambot encounters to tales of terrible, exploitative customer service. I found the whole thing fascinating, and thought you guys and girls may also want to check it out.

Exposed: the unsexy truth behind Shag a Gamer [PCGamerN]