The Ways Video Games Helped You Find Love

The Ways Video Games Helped You Find Love

Last week, we asked you for your best video game dating stories. How have video games helped you find love? How have they torn you asunder?

I got way more stories than I could hope to collect in one place; you can read through the comments on the original post to find more. All of your stories were fun to read. Some made me sad, but most made me feel much better about life, love, and humanity. I’ve collected some of the best ones here, editing them for length, grammar, and clarity.

First up, we have reader Hazen W., who only needed one reference to let a woman win his heart:

On our first date, my (now) girlfriend and I took a stroll in the park after getting some milkshakes. I decided to cut through the grass and she stopped me and told me to “be careful in the tall grass.”

Needless to say, it’s been more than two years and we are happy.

Reader RiffWizard found that people often leave and then return:

So when I was a freshmen in high school I had an awesome spice Game Boy Advance that I had imported. I had an afterburner installed, which gave it a really cool backlight.

This girl that I was totally crushing on saw it and thought it was cool, then when she saw I was playing Pokémon, we started talking about the card game. Eventually it came out that she had Pokémon cards but didn’t know how to play. I told her I would teach her, which I did. We dated for a few weeks and after christmas break it was over. ;_;

Fast forward about 7 years. We fell back into each others’ lives. The two of us were still huge Pokémon fans with similar interests. With much more confidence, we started dating. That was 6 years ago, and we’ve been married for over 4 years now.

Thank you Pokémon!

Speaking of Pokémon, LittleDelicious shares a story of an unlikely defeat:

As a gay video game fan, it’s hard for me to find people in my area with similar interests so I’ve always dated guys who don’t game. Since about 2012 (after many failed relationships), I maintained that my soul mate would be the one who can beat me at video games.

One day I was browsing tumblr and came upon a cutie posting about Pokémon, so I challenged him to a battle. He basically walled my entire team with a Florges. A FLORGES.

So I knew this kid, who lived across the country, was the one for me. Many months and a couple of cross-county visits later, we now live together and have been happy for a little over a year.

Reader Arlo has an important public service announcement:

We were playing Wii Sports, going back and forth on the bowling mini-game (she’d win, then I’d win, then her again, etc.). I have back issues, so after a while I’d have to sit after each turn. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal but on this day it proved to be a huge mistake.

My wife always refused to wear the Wiimote wrist strap. I would remind her every time because I really didn’t feel like replacing busted Wiimotes, but she would just laugh it off.

“What do you think is gonna happen?” She’d ask. “You really think it’s just gonna fly out of my hand?”

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the smartest idea to sit directly behind her when she took her turn. Call it coincidence, call it bad luck — whatever it was, I was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong (right?) time. As she took her stance, throwing back her arm for the throw, the Wiimote flew right out of her hand — and straight into my face. Right between the eyes.

She wears the wrist strap now.

After joining a new group, reader QueenKrissu had a nice time going fishing in World of Warcraft:

So the raid is over, and we’re all chilling out in [the chat program] Ventrilo, and I’m finally starting to feel comfortable around these people. I mention that I’m really not happy with my DPS, and that I’d like to get better but just didn’t know how.

Well, Mr Raid Leader happens to have been playing the game for like, 10 years, and he offers to teach me. So we fly off, he helps me learn my class, and we have a good time. I thought he was really goofy and funny, and wanted to be friends with him, so I added him to my friends list.

After that, I decided to do some fishing. And it just so happened that whenever I was sitting there, he’d turn up and start fishing with me. We started talking every single day for hours and hours at a time. We started hanging out in Ventrilo when no one else was there. We even went on “dates” in-game, where he would take me to cool places I’ve never been before or offer to run me through old raids. It was a lot of fun, and I started to fall for him hard.

On Valentines Day, we were hanging out before I had to go to work. We’d spent all night playing the game, and I really didn’t want to leave. Just before I had to go, he drops the bomb on me. “I’m in love with you.”

Of course I turned super red and said the stupidest thing ever. “I maybe sorta love you too.” I still cringe when I think about it now. Needless to say, we started dating.

And that’s how I met my Husband. <3

Reader TenorSounds has a story that many Animal Crossing fans may find familiar:

My boyfriend is…video game adjacent, would be the best term? He’s aware, and likes some games, but he’s not nearly as “into” them as I am.

I don’t know if we have any exciting stories per se, but I have kind of a sweet one. We were both playing Animal Crossing, and I invited him over to my town. We’re playing around a bit, and then I decide to do try some gardening. I say something to the effect of, “If the damn shop doesn’t have an axe today, I’m going to lose it.” And of course, they did not. I really wanted to start clearing some trees to plant a flower garden in a specific spot, and for several days in a row the game wouldn’t let me.

So, we play for a little bit more and he leaves my town. I’m about to close out the game when I notice a present on the floor in front of the Mayor’s office. I open it up and…it’s an axe! I almost cried. I was sad that I didn’t get to say thank you before he left…

But then I felt silly, because we live together. So I went into the living room and gave him a big hug! I said I was glad that he had an extra axe, and that he should have told me when I was going on about it.

He said that he didn’t have an extra axe; he had given me his.

I love him so much. ;_;

Pastafaria Joe’s story starts off romantic and then gets topical:

When my wife and I met, the first thing we did was spend loooooooong nights going through all of the Halo games together in split-screen. We were snuggled up in my parents converted guest-house garage — I had recently moved back from Florida and didn’t have a place of my own yet, and the garage in the guest house was converted into a theatre/living room with futon.

We’d play til the sun came up, and tore through every game in the seires other than Halo Wars. Now we’re married, and we were so excited about Halo 5. But they don’t have Split-Screen because “players want 60fps.”

SPLIT-SCREEN DOESN’T AFFECT SINGLEPLAYER, AND PEOPLE WHO WANT SPLIT-SCREEN JUST WANT TO PLAY WITH THEIR FRIENDS/LOVED ONES IN THE SAME ROOM. We don’t give a RAT’S ARSE about 60fps, we’re used to graphics not being as good in split-screen. Stupid 60fps generation ruining it for everyone.

*spits*

Reader Harry shares a story about his French girlfriend that… well, I’m not sure I believe it really happened. Still, it’s fun enough that I figured I’d share it.

See, she didn’t like video games one bit, and then…

Then this one night, she wakes up and starts muttering gibberish, asking to go outside, talking to people who weren’t there etc. This wasn’t the first time she’d sleep-walked, but it never usually lasted very long. I just lay there and ignored her which usually worked, but then she started getting very pressing, and started saying she wants to play a video game. Sonic, in particular: “Harry, je veux jouer à Sonic!” Quite surprised, I turned around and said, “Sure, why not?

Now by Sonic, I knew she meant Sonic All-Stars Racing, so I turned it on and passed her a controller. It looked like she could hardly hold it because she was completely dazed and confused. She couldn’t get past the menu screen. But we eventually started the race, and to my amazement, she did really well. Imagine my reaction when she then actually won!

It was like she knew the track by heart. She was throwing snowballs with ridiculous accuracy. I was just stumped. “What the hell is going on?” I asked myself.

That’s when I started thinking something was up. There’s no way this girl’s subconscious was better than me at Sonic All-Stars. I decided to try her on another race. Again she did amazingly well, until she slumps over in the middle of the second lap and dozes off! I couldn’t get her to wake up, so I just decided to turn off the PC and go to sleep.

I confronted her the next day, but she claimed she had no idea what I was talking about. To this day she maintains that she has no recollection of the event, and I haven’t seen her play a game since.

I want to believe that story is true, anyway.

Helena shares how one old-school game helped her now-husband get her attention:

Back in 2005 I was out with some friends. There was a guy there that my friend knew, and he asked me if I wanted to go back to his house to watch a movie. I wasn’t interested in that suggestion, but later in the evening the conversation moved onto games and I was excited to go back to his house when I found out he had old-school Gauntlet. He’s now my husband.

Our longest story comes from reader Dyram – The Emerald Blade. I’m including the whole thing because, hey, sometimes Kotaku helps bring people together! Which makes me very happy.

Take it away, Dyram:

So, I got into Borderlands late in the game. I had heard good things about the game, but never bought it. Anyway, Borderlands 2 was about to come out, and there was a Steam sale or something, GotY edition, yadda yadda, for the original Borderlands. I bought the game and fell in love with it. My friend Dan also had it for his PC, so we started playing together and it became a regular thing.

I was almost done with the DLC for Borderlands when Borderlands 2 came out. Dan and I both agreed to get the game and play through it co-op. During this time, I was spending a lot of time in the old Talk Amongst Yourselves forum here on Kotaku. I was a fairly regular commentor at the time, and so was MementoMorie. She had gotten the game to play with some friends, but they bailed on buying it, so I invited her to play with Dan and me.

The three of us hit it off immediately. The chemistry between us was awesome, especially when we got to Orechasm. Oh, the jokes that were had with that. I’m pretty sure we were all in tears at one point or another.

To stay in contact and get games set up, I exchanged phone numbers with Morie and we started texting. Nothing fancy, just how are you doing, etc. We graduated to gchat (because I couldn’t Skype at work) and we just became really close, really good friends.

I lived near Atlanta at the time, and there was a Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds concert going on. She had bought tickets and was going to go with me and a friend of ours. Unfortunately, her friend bailed, but she still came out to stay with me and we went to the concert together. She spent the night (because she had a 4 hour drive home) and the following day. It was a very emotional farewell. In fact, I was amazed at how much just seeing her for the first time affected me, considering the fact that we really didn’t consider each other to be more than just friends.

Now, almost two and a half years later, we’re engaged to be married this December and are going on our honeymoon to Japan. Gaming is a huge part of our relationship. Whether we’re slicing up monsters in Monster Hunter, waxing philosophic about Zelda, or questioning the calibre of our relationship when we play any Tales game or Mario Kart, we’re in it for the long-haul and I couldn’t be happier.

Oh, and Dan is the best man at our wedding.

Is your heart not warmed? My heart is so frickin warm right now.

I’ll let reader Rampor close us out with a story that gets right to the point:

I once got a handie while playing RE4. One of the most uncomfortable experiences I’ve had.

Thanks to everyone who shared or sent in stories! If you have any other tales you’d like to share, please do so below.

Illustration by Sam Woolley


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