Poll Question 155 – Does your partner play video games?

17th January 2010

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

This is a great question that came from Jasper and those who visit the forum will know that his partner also plays video games and has even started to comment on the site.

I fear he is one of the lucky ones, the chances are that a lot of men will at least give gaming a try, even if they don’t like it, whereas women seem to be less inclined to try and that’s a shame because it’s cool to share some activities with your partner.

Please don’t misunderstand me and I am equal gaming opportunities guy, “share the fun” I say, but let’s be honest most women aren’t that interested in gaming. of course, lots of visitors have partners that are not female, bt I haven’t split the poll into those kinds of options.

It’s a topic I’ve touched on before but I don’t know how many gaming couples visit the site, let alone play games together or against each other.

Closest my partner comes is Tetris, in fact, is is not interested in PP at all, and only uses the PC to check emails and visit the Ikea website, plus a few other sites (weather, TV shows etc).

So, if you have a partner that is interested in gaming, then congratulations, that is unless they whoop you at DM!

What do you think?

The Poll

38 Comments

  1. That will be me and Scraps then!
    I wonder how many others there are.
    This works well for us.
    She’s better at puzzles and I need help occasionally, I’m better at Combat and tactics especially I often need to go into her den before she’s throws her computer clean out of the window.
    We started with the original Prince of Persia but then bought a new computer with Doom pre-loaded and never looked back. We’ve traversed through all the SP FPS versions of Doom + the addons, Quake, Unreal and HL.
    Then HL2 came along at roughly the same time as she got her own computer; hurrah for that, you cannot imagine how frustrating it is taking turns.
    We are both HL2 fanatics but she doesn’t bother with the smaller maps because she finds them disappointing.
    I expect she’ll post here but she hasn’t switched on today yet.
    The other main interest we share is getting our bums up mountains.
    Why? We like to conquer.

    1. You are a fortunate man indeed sir.

    2. Getting our bums up mountains

      That wouldn’t be Strider Mountain by any chance???

      1. Oh yes indeedy. She did in normal as well. Darned proud of her.
        For real mountains, I think she like getting into the gear more than the climbing. Bit kinky I reckon.

  2. demoneyeoffire

    BY the poll there seems to be a lot of lonely people out there.

    1. Totally know what you mean.

      I know that being single is nothing to be ashamed of, and it’s certainly better to be single than be in a relationship purely out of not wanting to be single, but I still felt kinda bad looking at how huge that bar was.

      1. I think it’s probably due to the age of the visitors rather than any personal issues.

        1. Da Fat Cat

          I’m a 14 year old boy dammit

          1. No excuse, young man!!

  3. Senator33

    My wife is totally disinterested in any FPS games, but loves card and board games.

    My brother and son love the HL series, Stalker, and Borderlands.

    From informal polling I have seen and done, I think women in general are not as inclined to FPS as men are; following the thread that women in general are far less into “escapism” than men.

  4. Talon

    My wife has absolutely no interest in video games whatsoever.

  5. wayfare

    I’m afraid that I’m in the majority, it looks like you could start a service here Phillip! just trying to help you with the revenue..

    1. wayfare

      dating service*

  6. My wife loves to play Left 4 Dead 2.

    Before L4D2, she hadn’t played any games on anything. No console, no PC games, not even a Game Boy or cell phone. So she first didn’t know how to manage both a keyboard and a mouse. She was saved many a time by hunters, smokers, and chargers before she got the hang of running around, much less shooting things. Soon after starting, she began to defend her allies and talk to them through the screen. Now she has slowly worked her way through easy, normal, and even advanced.

    Left 4 Dead 2 is a great way to introduce a total complete “noob” to video games. If you can convince your partner to sit down in front of the PC, then you have already won half the battle. Left 4 Dead 2’s supporting characters will encourage the noob player and direct them in the ways – and winding paths – of the game. In addition, the helpful pop-ups will educate the player to the standard movements and strategies (“MOUSE2 – Push them back!!”) My wife now loves to play L4D2.

    However, she doesn’t like to play Half-Life 2 or any of it’s better mods…mainly because of being alone, and without helpful pop-ups. I would have to coax her through even the simplest level, and she would become bored by a lack of zombie onslaughts. Even in “…we don’t go to Ravenholm”.

    1. Joe

      That’s really awesome. I’m going to try that.

  7. I was just discussing this topic at work today and telling the two guys who do claim to game with their partners how lucky they were. Even though they were also quick to point out the glaring differences in personal tastes. Apparently how they play what they’ll play are dramatically different from what we (men) consider to be the norm and often frustrating.

    What I consider to be a key factor in why our wives or girlfriends don’t game with us is that they become bored. I believe that women simply aren’t as interested in this medium of entertainment and bore very quickly of it, ( even when they’re doing their best to humor us ) and thankfully, aren’t shy about expressing it.

    I would love to share the fun of gaming with my wife, but….I also know that there are many things she things are exciting that she would like to share with me too. Unfortunately most cause my eyes to glaze over in no time at all. She’s such a chick ! 🙂

    It’s the nature of things. We have plenty of common interests, but she’s never going to game and I’ll never sit through ” The Golden Globes ” or ” The Oscars “.

  8. hughmankind

    My ladyfriend absolutely loves games, mostly RPGs, MMOG and adventures, but she loves to play stuff like L4D, Serious Sam, Trine – everything we can play co-op, really. Like Dead Space Extraction or New Super Mario Bros. on Wii, or the latest Matt Hazard on PSN. And yes, she even plays Half-Life mods (mainly because I have developed three myself so far).

    We’ve been together for nine years, and there’s no end in sight. (:

  9. Single player here 🙂

  10. Joe

    I am single. But my past partners have not been big game fans bar a few males. Though a few girls have been known to play console games. Not Half Life games though. My sister is a big fan of WOW and other PC games. Not a big fan of Half Life 2. Women seem to like things such as The Sims. More constructive, social games. Which makes perfect sense.
    Stereotypical shoot-em-up guys of course.

    Today the gender barrier is far more blurred than it once was. Admittedly women play the less violent games but I’m seeing more and more girls that play FPS games. Its all to do with being introduced to games earlier on. As the culture grows more and more are getting exposed to the gaming culture sooner. I think that eventually there will be very little difference in terms of gender.

  11. Hemuuuli

    My gf plays games too. From retro stuff to newer games. She generally likes adventure and puzzle oriented games – mainly because fps games are too scary. Even Ravenholm was too much. We play both coop and vs. She is better with rts/rpg games like warcraft, dota and notn. I win in fps and fighting games more often. It is really good to have a gf who likes to play games together for a gamer/modder like me.

  12. SPY-maps

    i belong to the majority of 56% who doesn’t have a partner, so that answers the question.
    i am amazed that still 8% (untill now that is) does try hl2 mods.
    i don’t know this for sure, actualy I also never took any notice of this, but I asume that most (frequent) visitors of PP are male. and its commen knowlidge that most (fpshooter)gamers are male, it seems that most female who do game, like to play role games, (could be wrong though but that’s what I always thought and seem to read everywere).
    killing is not something that is liked by females, lol.

    leon

  13. Sortie

    I once had luck asking a girl over to play some Counter-Strike: Source. As I let her onto a public server, I realized – with horror – that this wasn’t such an idea after all.

    I did play a lot of Guitar Hero with her, though, so I voted Yes, but not HL2 mods.

  14. Nrmartins

    I belong to the group majority of not having a partner, at all. It’s because I prefer to be alone some of the time.

  15. AI

    Hmmm, with all the singles mabey we should a dating service!(haha)anyway, I belong to the baseball club “three strikes and yer out”! none of the last three had any intrest in computers,at all! But my son who’s 40 now(and 14yr old grandson)are currently playing “Fallout 3” on their 360! I don’t know if the OB will work on one of thoes??

  16. Oh yes. He plays everything. Good bad or indifferent.
    We also work together. I think the secret to success is that we also have other and very different interests This means me time and other people time.
    I off to Spain without him in Feb’. Looking forward to the break.

    1. You ladies always manage to say so much more with so much less. I envy that skill.

  17. Muzzow

    My husband plays a bit, from time to time, maybe around 2 % (from the amount of playtime and the games chosen) of what I’m playing. He’s fond of L4D and L4D2 and generally prefers “easy to beat” games while I value challenges, playing on a higher difficulty than he does. Usually, when I’m showing him a new game, the first thing he wants to know is, how difficult it is and if there are already cheats and trainers available. Well, I don’t like cheating and rarely do but he just want’s to have some fun without breaking in a sweat, simply enjoying the game without the need to try too hard. And with him playing so very seldom, I really don’t mind how he plays – at least he has some fun with it. XD

    1. Muzzow

      * I forgot: I’m one of the rare women among the gamers who thoroughly enjoys FPS and ‘slash them up’, like the UT-series, Sin, Doom 3, Fear 1 + 2, Quake 4, HL 1, 2 + Episodes, Condemned, Manhunt 1 + 2, X-Men Origins, X-Blade, etc., and I prefer games that are – aside from an interesting storyline – brutal, bloody, scary and really mean. I never had the patience or strategical sense for WOW or any other tactical games. Too boring. Give me an uncut US-version; with lots of action and guns and I’m in heaven.

      1. Thank you Muzzow, I was feeling a bit lonely

        1. Muzzow

          You’re very welcome.

  18. I think that my wife would prefer that I throw my games in the trash rather than playing with me when it comes to shooters. We do play Wii sports together but that’s about it so far. Maybe if there was a game involving shooting liberal politicians, she would like it.

    Kudos to all you guys who have wifes/girlfriends who like playing shooters.

  19. beaner3114

    Some of my past girlfriends have been in to gaming (some more than even myself) and I’ve also had the usual “Video Games are stupid” girlfriends. My current girlfriend (God Bless Her) isn’t big into violent games but enjoys puzzle games and mystery games. She also puts up with my other nerdyness vents (DnD, Warhammer 40k, and Dagorhir) I find while less girls than guys enjoy video games (mostly shooters) most girls don’t have a problem with them.

  20. Carico

    My husband and I are both big gammers and enjoy playing video games together. Even if we are just sitting in the same room. Its a bonding moment for us!

  21. trialanderr0r

    My wife used to (over a decade ago) love Doom & Doom 2, but would always play them in godmode – just to enjoy the effortless aggression of ploughing through hoards of imps with a chainsaw.

    Nowadays, however, she’s into Zuma II, Plants v. Zombies and a virtual pet on facebook… I’ve never been able to warm her to playing HL…

  22. Pingback: Episode #67 » Podcast17

  23. Gaming

    Yes, my partner also plays games with me. She even plays better and more than me..

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