If you ask some people this question, they state that gaming can definitely hurt a couple’s relationship. It’s often difficult enough to maintain closeness and successfully participate in the normal give and take that a strong relationship requires. But when one person is highly involved with online gaming, it can often cause additional issues and misunderstandings related to lack of attention, affection and even issues with fulfilling other responsibilities around the couple’s home. Let’s face it – some games are a huge time suck and that means that other things often take a back seat to the game in question.
Let’s take a look at five games that are very popular right now:
1. Farmville
Perhaps the worse of the contenders here, Farmville is pure evil. While Facebook is the major culprit responsible for getting tons of people to play games when they wouldn’t normally be interested in ‘games’ nothing speaks for the phenomena like Farmville which has risen to become both the golden child and the red headed step child of facebook gaming. Most users know it as the source of constant status updates from their annoying Farmville playing friends. Currently 10% of Facebook users actively play it. Its terribly addicting qualities mean that figure could rise. Zynga’s crop-tending Facebook game has also featured lots of notoriety, and has penetrated popular culture.
2. World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is the most famous destroyer of relationships, though not the first. The first proper Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (MMORPG) was Ultima Online. Though far more primitive than WoW, it still caused its share of breakups, broken marriages and misunderstandings. WoW’s addictive qualities have long meant that partners have a hard time getting their WoW playing other half away from it. It has also spawned many many references in popular culture. Everyone is aware of some relationship or other that was at one point effected by WoW.
3. The Sims
The much broader appeal of the Sims places it just below Wow in the relationship destroying stakes. But still, no game should rightfully be so addictive. The game puts you in control of the life of virtual people, and you control every aspect of their lives, but must make them happy. Every Sims game that has come along, and every expansion pack, has added yet another brick in the wall that separates the Sims player from non-players. In those cases where both partners in a household play there’s less of a problem, but in those situations where only one does the stage is set for numerous misunderstandings about the nature of their staying up late at night huddled over the computer as they control the hapless sim’s life.
4. Civilization series
Though not an online game like the others, civilization is a long running series that has spawned some of the most immersive games ever created. The sprawling massive campaigns that are possible through civilization guarantee addiction, and therefore friction in relationships. The game starts in the ancient times and allows the player to take their tiny tribe up through the ages, building up technology and an empire until finally they are in a position to win the game either by conquering everyone or by meeting victory conditions such as building a spaceship that takes the player to Alpha Centauri, or by negotiating diplomatic peace. Let’s hope you manage to negotiate peace with your better half too.
5. Dating Sim
Not a game but a whole genre, the dating sim is the source of all the crazy news that pops up in the media every now and then. A mainly Japanese phenomena, it rose to prominence with the news story that a Japanese man had married his virtual girlfriend. She was in a Nintendo DS portable gaming device and brought to the ceremony on a fluffy cushion. Later the story would re-emerge when it turned out a hotel had created a honeymoon package especially for those who had virtual wives. Some consider the game to be problematic as it encourages these young Japanese men to give up looking for a real girlfriend.
So there we have it. If you don’t have a girlfriend, and want one, you would do well to play less and go out more. If you have a girlfriend and you want to keep your relationship, happy and intact – these are five games you may wish to avoid.
