Relationships are far from easy – I think we all know and fully understand that. They require sincere commitments from both parties, and they also demand compromises. While this intense video of a gamer’s girlfriend obliterating his $500 iPad illustrates just how hard compromising can be, I think the most important takeaway is that this is absolutely not solely a gamer problem. This affects everyone, and it affects all relationships, no matter your hobbies.
So now that you’ve watched the video, it’s probably safe to assume those two are no longer together, which is sad. But what I want to highlight is the girlfriend’s argument itself: she claimed all he ever did was play video games, and that it was “much more than just a hobby – it was his life.” Taken at face value, that sounds exactly like a gamer-specific problem, but ladies and gents, it’s NOT. What about all the sports fanatics who break up because their significant other would rather watch football or basketball all day instead of hanging out with their partner? Or what about the gal or guy who is uber-obsessed with his/her career, and getting that next promotion? Heck, you can swap out gaming for any other hobby or job and it all boils down to one simple thing: compromise, or in the case of the video, a failure to compromise.
I want to be clear that in no way should a relationship force you to completely walk away from your favorite hobbies and past times; if they do, then I would advise that that relationship probably isn’t for you. However, relationships are about each other first, and then your hobbies and personal time second. While that’s not an easy concept to grasp or better yet accept when one initially jumps into the dating world, it’s the flat out truth and quite frankly it’s one of the biggest keys to relationship success. The best relationships out there still allow each partner to pursue their hobbies, interests, and passions, but they also regularly find time to put each other, and their relationship first.
While the likely-former couple in the above video surely could have had other issues that led to this incident, this most definitely could have been avoided had they (or he) just invested more time in one another, and learned to compromise. I think I can speak for the entire LFGdating community when I say that gaming is our number one hobby, but if we’re serious in finding love and the ultimate relationship, we all have to learn to compromise. Or you had better know how to repair your favorite electronics.