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How Gaming Ruins Relationships (And Why It Should Stop)

How Gaming Ruins Relationships (And Why It Should Stop)

When I was in college, my friends and I used to use the phrase “alcohol abuse” to describe any waste of fine adult beverages. If you didn’t finish all of your beer, you’d almost certainly find someone shouting “alcohol abuse!” to your face, which would prompt a subsequent chugging of the hoppy liquid. I want to transfer this concept of alcohol abuse to gaming. Because even worse than wasting a perfectly good glass of expensive hop water, is abusing video games and their systems. The gaming abuse must stop today! Hear my cries my friends, and join in the revolution!

Just what am I blathering on about? Well, gaming abuse happens more than we’d probably like to think it does. Parents direct their children to smash their consoles or snap their video game discs in half to “teach them a lesson.” Significant others of all kinds destroy their “loved” ones’ systems and/or games. Sometimes they sell them off without a single word of warning. Other times they hold them hostage. Why must the poor video games become a scapegoat for our very human problems? They’ve done nothing but try to entertain us. They’ve tried to bring us up when we’re down, or allow us escape from mounting bad luck. Video games and the systems that play them would never hurt a single flea. And they certainly wouldn’t threaten their loved ones with violence or property destruction.

There’s something to be said about the unhealthy nature of individuals who think destroying things is a way to solve problems. They’ve got some issues to work out, no matter what objects become victim to their wrath. But can we at least take some steps to make sure it’s not gaming abuse? If they must, go snap some pencils in half, annihilate a punching bag, or toss beanbags like a major league pitcher into that cornhole.

Allow me to speak directly to the significant others who think holding games and systems hostage works as a means of compromise: It doesn’t. Depending on how much your loved one enjoys their video game collection, they will say whatever you want them to in order to get it back. I can promise you with almost 100% certainty that they will renege on whatever it is that they said as soon as they have their beloved Game Gear back in their hands. No one truly cares about compromising when they’re being threatened. It’s like going into a foreign policy meeting with child-punishing plans in place, “You can’t have our trade unless you put down the yardstick Sweden!”

How Gaming Ruins Relationships (And Why It Should Stop)

Speaking of child-punishing. To all the parents who think having their child destroy something they love will “set them straight:” you’re wrong. I guarantee you that child will wait until they’re able and then pursue their gaming hobby even more than they did before. It’s like how my dad didn’t allow me to watch R-rated movies when I was a kid. I’ll give you one guess as to what I did the day I turned 17. Yup, I went down to the rental store and nabbed as many god awful and random R-rated films as I could. Shoot ‘Em Up wasn’t too bad though! If you force your kid to destroy their game collection, it will blossom with a wild fury when they get older.

Same goes to significant others. It’s not an act of love when your boyfriend or girlfriend gives away their video games because you gave them the ultimatum. It’s a strong-armed tactic that left them feeling like they didn’t have any other choice. And if you so much as put a scratch on a single Xbox One, then you are quite possibly beyond saving. The video game abuse needs to stop. Don’t hurt consoles, or handhelds, or PCs, or games. They just want to bring joy to the world, and your destruction is soul-crushing. Do you want crushed souls on your conscious? I didn’t think so. Mutilating your significant others’ favorite hobby will just leave you even more alone than you already feel.

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