Gaming and your Significant Other

[Psychic Warrior]

I met my wife through gaming and we gamed together for the last 8 years. We got married last June.

I really want to hear from those who voted "They don't know I game" in the poll. I can't imagine keeping something like that a secret from my wife.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My girl knows about my gaming but doesn't have any interest in it. She likes Froud, Spiderwick Chronicles, the Dark Crystal, and a host of other fantasy-related things, but has no interest in gaming. She even watched the old D&D cartoon when she was a kid. I'm honestly a little surprised that she never played D&D when she was younger.

I don't spend that much time trying to introduce her to gaming. I'll bring it up if we're just sitting around and bored, but that's about it.

 

[just__al]

My wife plays in the weekly game that I DM about 1/3rd of the time (we rotate between 3 different DM's)

She also plays in the once a month game that I DM (World's Largest Dungeon)

She does not play in the twice a month game I play on Wednesday nights but instead stays home to "chill". Chilling involves watching Lost and playing Katamari Damasi.

 

[Rika]

Well, I met my husband in a GURPS game.

We like to think we'll be gaming when we're 80. I can't imagine being involved with someone who doesn't game, it's just such a huge part of our lives.

 

[Nebulous]

I really want to hear from those who voted "They don't know I game" in the poll. I can't imagine keeping something like that a secret from my wife.

Yeah, me too. I wonder if they're the same people that hide the fact that they're serial killers.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I do not have time for people who seriously disapprove of my interests.

As for the other motivation-- any activity that takes time away from the SO in question-- I have very, very little tolerance for that. I rather recently ended a relationship because that had become an issue, and I am not going to change this policy in the future.

I also cannot imagine hiding a major portion of my life from someone I spend any amount of time with.

 

[sniffles]

I would personally see this as a.) a great way to help my male friend, and b.) a great way to make a new female friend. You could call her up and introduce yourself as a friend of her husband's, and would she maybe like to go catch a movie sometime. You'd benefit by having friends who weren't necessarily into gaming (I think it's good to have a variety of interests and friends with different interests), and she would probably get off his back if she had a friend to hang out with. As an added bonus, perhaps if she saw that you, a cool female that she respects, also like D&D, she'd get more interested in it and maybe learn to play. I'd at least make the effort, or you risk losing your male friend like others here have said they have.

I wish it would work like that, Hijinks. Those are some excellent suggestions. But we already know each other - we all work for the same employer. Unfortunately she and I have very little in common aside from her hubby (and I'm not sure if she respects me or thinks I'm weird for gaming with the guys). Luckily for our gaming group, my friend has told her in no uncertain terms that he is not going to give up gaming, though he will adjust his schedule to accomodate more couple time. She seems to be getting along with that. I suppose I was being a bit uncharitable to her in my original post. She's not as bad about it as she used to be, especially since they bought a house and now have games at their place.

 

[Alenda]

My wife has been gaming with me almost the entire time I have known her. I introduced her to the game and now she even DMs.

Yes I do! I first started gaming to spend time with Belen and learn about his interests. However, that quickly changed when I realized how much fun I was having. I fell in love with the whole concept of D&D and now I play for the love of the game and not for the love of the husband

 

[skinnydwarf]

<SNIP>
Without making value judgements about other's relationships, I would like to find out how that breaks down here: How are you and your SO visa' vi gaming?

I met my first girlfriend through a game, so obviously we played together and that worked pretty well.

My current girlfriend knows, and even tried once but the game as a whole went awful and she had a bad experience. She's sat in a couple of games since, and I've got her promise that she'll try again someday, but I'm waiting for the right moment. She 's in law school now, so it's not the right moment. She doesn't mind my gaming, she is just surprised sometimes we can play for so long.

 

[shadowbloodmoon]

I have seen the other side of the coin, though. One of my friends recently married and his wife doesn't really like his gaming. In fact she doesn't like anything he does that doesn't directly involve her. She has no friends of her own and wants him to be all her social activity. She's getting better, but I still think she'd prefer it if he just spent every waking moment with her and dumped all his friends.

Ouch. I was married to one of those once. Now however, many years later, I am happily married to a die hard gamer. She started CRPG's (specifically Might and Magic), which is how we met and I introduced her to table top. She's not much for the rules, but loves roleplaying and is also addicted to Dork Tower. She likes to point out that I remind her of Matt sometimes.... Anyway...