Video Games and Love

It's strange. I have a whole lot to say on the topic of love, even though I've never had a girlfriend, never had sex, and have had so few friends in my life that I can count. my advice has helped a lot of people, and old people say the things I know are things most don't learn in their lives. why must I be cursed with this oximoronic existance? Oh well, I think I'll make friends eventually.

I just offered advice to someone who wondered how they could hate someone they loved. in it, I provided the perfect analogy of video games: why, you ask?

video games usually consist of multi levels, each being progressively harder. there are several strategies for winning, and many of these are comparable with love
for example, if you were to start the game on the last level, or on a game intended for experienced gamers, you would hate the game because it's too hard. in addition to not being familiar with the controls as you should have been by that point, you have no gaming experience and you are only humiliated by them game, going above and beyond a lack of entertainment and resulting in depression/anger/etc.

this applies to love in that if you give each other high expectations early on, you will hate each other for continually "losing," and develop other negative emotions like depression and anger.

in video games, one of the ways to have more fun during the majority of the game is to build up stats, inventory, etc during the beginning stages of the game, as much as possible. then you can exercise your newfound excessive brawn for the rest of the game, making for a very rewarding experience.

in love, it is the same. If you stay on "the first stage" of love (maintain low expectations) for a long period of time, when you do raise the expectations as a challenge to test the strength of the love, the results will undoubtably be A+, which also makes for a very rewarding experience.

To add another similarity,

a video game is usually most fun if you choose one that plays on your strengths. for example, get Chessmaster if you're good at logic, get MonkeyBall if you're good at judgement & intuition, get Halo if you have good reflexes and dexterity, or get the Sims if you're good at planning and problem-solving.

with love, it's the same way. it's not a good idea to fall in love with someone you're not actually interested in, because once the passion dies down you're screwed.