With great love for a video game journalist comes great responsibility

I was all set to make fun of this story in GameDaily titled "Love in the time of Game Journalism" since, really, who cares about the love lives of game journalists except maybe other game journalists?

But upon reading it I'm man enough to admit that it's kind of interesting to consider how weird it is to be dating or married to someone who plays an obsessive amount of video games for a living, but probably also loves games and would be nerding out to a significant extent regardless. How much can you complain and how much can you be supportive?

Only part of my career is game journalist, and it's for a non-enthusiast publication at that, but even still I'm more than tired of the jokes about how I "have to play this game because I have a deadline, baby." On the other hand, I understand the awkwardness my profession can cause for my wife. Mainly because when we have company over and they see four game consoles, two of which are the same (my own 360 and a debug), dozens of games, a rock band kid and guitar hero guitar, etc., they understandably assume I'm the normal kind of person who would have all that crap, which is an obsessive gamer. Then if we explain that I get most of it for free and that I play for pay, that sets off the same round of annoying jokes.

In other words, I don't think dating is particularly hard if you have a modicum of social skills and can overcome the stereotype of someone who plays video games for a living (though let's be honest stereotypes exist for a reason and many game journalists in my experience fit this one). But explaining your career to strangers is an annoying extra burden that the significant other has to shoulder.

(Photo is the ultimate gift to buy that special game journalist you're trying to woo.)

Comments

[Ben Fritz]

I doubt it, unless you're a teenager. I'm 30 and most of our friends are 25-35 and are generally cool with games. They just find the amount, specifically the multiple consoles, a bit shocking

[Kyle Orland]

Glad you liked the piece. Most of the company we have over thinks the multiple systems and games stacked about are pretty cool. Maybe it's a generational thing?