I'm not sure it's anti-gaming. It seemed like it was about finding something they could do together that they enjoyed.

Actually.. I thought it was a pretty good article. While she pointed out she disliked his gaming, she still had the ability to point out her flaws as well. This to me was not an anti-gaming article, actually quite the opposite. When she opened her eyes, she saw that even she could enjoy time playing games with her husband.

Maybe the "Mysoginst" noise canceling headphones and the couples' lack of anything in common coupled with the letters rubbed me the wrong way, but I saw it as sad.

She hates his hobby and his free time. Eventually turns when they find a game that is mutual. Just feels depressing to me.

Well, it is confirmed that RockBand is for chicks, anyone want a slightly used copy?

My takeaway was that they live in an apartment where the walls are so thin the neighbors will bang on the wall for her trying to get her husband's attention.

Surely he's not wearing the headphones to keep from annoying the neighbors while still being able to enjoy his game! Clearly they exist to drawn out the poor tortured suffering delicate flower that he married and now neglects for virtual hookers and blow.

Probably closest thing to the truth. As typical for that site, the article is written completely one-sided where she not only makes herself out to be some kind of martyr but in the brief few paragraphs I read managed to air her grievances with every religion, political affiliation, and organization she has some kind of beef with. Simply put, I got the impression that she's one of those people who thinks the world would just be so much better if people would listen to her.

According to some responses here maybe that changes, but I'll be dipped if I'm going to go back and finish that piece. That would dignify with some kind of legitimacy and her hamfistedness and utter lack of professionalism at the beginning made it look bad even as an opinion piece.

Seriously, dude, read to the end. The whole point of the headphone thing is that in the last paragraph, she herself dons the dreaded symbolic earpieces. It's not a rhetorical work that presents a well-formed argument, it's a cute story about her feelings.

I click on another page, where a forum of concerned women instruct me to regain Ben's attention by walking around the house dressed in skimpy outfits and waggling my hips provocatively. One enterprising poster, aptly named Cyberhottie69, even suggests draping one's naked breasts somewhere impossible to miss -- like the coffee table, or on his head, like a doughy, undulating hat.

The angle Ben is sitting at makes this impossible, but I sit beside him on the couch, unzip my hoodie to reveal the lacy top of my bra, and press my breasts firmly against his bicep.

See, this is what gets me. She didn't even bother to make her breasts into a doughy, undulating hat. Follow the instructions, noob.

Fool, you have a potent multi-instrument aphrodisiac in your hands!

It's the gadget equivalent of walking around the park with a yorkie at your heels and a cute infant on your shoulder.

On the article:
The framing story (about the post-college rock tour) doesn't do her any favors. She doesn't substantiate the argument she had with the lead, nor does she explain why it is her presence was disliked (presumably because she shooed off all the skanky groupies, but who knows). Since that leads into her yelling at the top of her lungs in a two-bedroom apartment, she ends up coming up as short tempered. [That could be personal bias, though. I hate it when people yell indoors in a home]

The headphones bit is ridiculous.
I will say, however, that it becomes a symbol of their relationship problems. He may well use them to make sure the neighbors don't beat down the wall, but for her it's something meant to block her out, to encapsulate him in a cocoon of his own personal activity. In the end she's not rejecting them because she hates her man, but because she hates that it separates them.

Yeah, this doesn't work so much for me. I mean, "yay boobies!" and all, but your libido gets excited, sexy sexyness goes down, and all the while you've got the paused game going on in the back of your head. Which, of course, leads to "you're not going to cuddle? WHAT THE FRAK?!"

All kidding aside, the issue with this tactic is that it's trading one (potentially) mindless activity for a (potentially) instinctual, animalistic one. Instead of sitting down and saying something like "Hey, I know you're engrossed in killing the She-Devils of the SS, but could you put the game down for a little bit and have some together time now? I'm feeling a little neglected. Lets go have lunch in the park and I'll let you game your ass off in the evening, ok?" -- you know, actually communicating -- she instead pulls the "distract with sex, profit" card.

It's a little insulting.

Laughter and shame. I've pulled the same thing: "I'm fighting an intergalactic war for humanity's survival!"

Also a pretty funny line. "We could have had days of passionate sex, or long conversations, or quiet evenings staring into a crackling fire.... but lets bang on plastic instruments instead!". Heart was in the right place though, as he was trying to find a point of commonality between them.

And so she falls.

My own girlfriend has had similar reactions. In a way, she's right. Why game when you can just lay on the couch and watch TV together? Choosing to engage in gaming while your partner is around can easily come off as a signal that you don't enjoy their company, that digital actors are more exciting than she is. But you can also turn that into any number of arguments. "Oh you spend more time tuning that car than you do talking to me". "Why is it more exciting to watch guys kick a ball than spending time with me" and so on and so forth.

I'm not sure I can say that they had a terrible marriage, or that the gaming was causing them undue friction.

It'd work for me. Boobhats = good things.

Hello? She's a woman!

I approve this message.....

My wife does this sexy tatic too me sometimes.. I think once I did not drop everything and "talk" to her in the next room. I think it was our OO vs GWJ match.

Holy crap, some of you people really need to take your feelings and work them out in the P&C portion of this forum. The headphones bit was a light-hearted joke, you must have one hell of a chip on your shoulder to take it as anything other than that.

I dispute noise cancellation powers of the headphones entirely. I say it was selective hearing and he was blaming the dog. An act he will moste certainly pay for when she puts them on and finds out.

After reading the article, the only conclusion I can come up with is that both parties fail.

Seriously, prancing around the house naked to get attention? And you're wondering why that didn't work? Really? Yeah, I'm sure that plan would've been highly successful had you married a freakin Neanderthal.

"Oh boobies! Crom love boobies! We mate now!"

Check out her web site for a pic: http://www.rachelshukert.com/. She's definitely bangable.

Crom agree.

This topic is win.