spouse
Latest
Breakfast Topic: Do you play WoW together with your significant other?
The good news: Success! You've managed to recruit your significant other into World of Warcraft! The bad news: He thinks your raiding guild is boring and he's off to dive back into retro content and enter transmog contests with a guild you consider suspiciously silly. From the sound of your comments earlier this week, many of you who've successfully recruited friends or family members into Azeroth are feeling lonely once again. It seems that many of the new recruits simply move on, move up, move over ... Less moving, more partnering, please! Today's Breakfast Topic is designed for those of you whose significant others also play World of Warcraft. You play the same game -– but do you play together in the same content? Do you play as a team or in the same guild or raid? %Poll-84669%
Peace in the home: Sharing an iPad with your spouse
I'm sure many of you find yourselves in the sometimes-uncomfortable position of alpha geek in your households. It's a lonely perch, with responsibility for every gadget and gizmo under the familial roof; more frustrating, your spouse and children don't share your perfectly rational enthusiasm for all things iGlorious, and can't understand your willingness to spend a Saturday morning on line with strangers at the mall. You might even be faced with some completely unfair public criticisms of your parenting skills or attention span. It's a tough spot. Believe me, I know how it is. Imagine my glee, therefore, when my wife (no Luddite, but no raving technophile either) expressed her eagerness for an iPad. She's entering her final year of graduate studies, and with so much classwork reading available as PDF files, the iPad is a natural choice for her use; besides, she has grown deeply dissatisfied with the Kindle's lack of backlight and challenging PDF handling. With bilateral consensus on the purchase -- and if you think that's an easy sell on a $500-plus expenditure, think again -- we opted to get a 32GB unit and forgo the 3G version that I had told myself I was waiting for. It's delightful, it's wonderful... and it's raised an entirely new set of issues. Taking the iPad from its core single-user metaphor and sharing it between two people, even two people who love each other and collaboratively tackle the much larger challenges of raising children together, is a tall order. I've been building a list of adjustments and adaptations, in the hope that we can help other couples find their way. Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/allyrose18/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
Drama Mamas: Wife aggro
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com. Wife aggro (GF aggro, SO aggro -- whatever you call it at your place) isn't about WoW. Let's get that misconception out of the way right now. Wife aggro is about balancing a relationship with a hobby that tantalizingly dangles one person physically in front of yet emotionally light years beyond the reach of the other partner. Wife aggro is about attention – who's giving it where, who's not getting enough. Wife aggro is about what happens when couples lose their grip on how to separate "me" time from "us" time, on how "being at home" is different than "being available." Wife aggro is about what happens when the wires of "my" time, "your" time and "our" time become crossed and start arcing angry, white-hot sparks. And left unchecked, wife aggro is about demands that cast one partner as the shrill arbiter of what the other partner is "allowed" to do and be. Dear Mamas: I started WoW this year after many years of patient waiting until all the planets and resources aligned for me, and I was completely rewarded. During those times I was able to play 3-4 hours (at least) almost daily, having no personal issues because of the game (I'd still go to work, the gym, dancing classes, read, watch TV, out with friends, and last but not least, my girlfriend), and started getting invited to my Horde guild's raids. But then I got married. In spite of having talked about it with my fiancé before the big step and agreeing I'd still play it casually, the first weeks were hell ... Every time I'd even try to look at my computer, she would invent something for us or me to do, and my gaming "time" was pushed back and back. Finally the bubble popped and we had a huge argument, and the best I could get from her was one WoW day a week.
Gamer Interrupted: How to turn your wife into a gamer
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Gamer Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with MMOs.I aim to please. So, by popular demand, this week's column is about getting your wife or live-in girlfriend to enjoy playing MMOs with you. This advice will only apply to women who are non-gamers. Turning your WoW-playing wife into an EVE Online player requires a completely different strategy. And getting guys to play video games has historically been an easier task. Also, this is directed toward those who are sharing the same living space and expenses because you may not want to be spending a grand or more on outfitting the girl who turns out to be the one before you meet Ms. Right.
Wii Warm Up: Spousal abuse
Reader zizzy wrote in to let us know about a supposed spousal scrabble over Wii that's leading to divorce. Apparently, the wife was so completely fed up with all the time her husband was spending with his Wii that she threw it in a lake. That's what we call tough love.On a serious note, gaming can at times be a strain on a couple's relationship, and it's not necessarily linked to gender roles. It helps if both parties play games, or at least understand the attraction, and no one ignores their partner in favor of pixels (at least, not much). But it's not always that easy. Despite the fact that more adults play games now than anyone else, there are still just as many adults who don't understand the hobby and consider it childish or a waste of time.We'd love to hear from our readers about dealing with gaming in the context of a relationship. Has your hobby led to any issues in a relationship, or are you lucky enough to have someone who understands? If you're still looking for that special someone, would you prefer to date another gamer, or is it a hobby you prefer not to share?
Shocker: Americans spend more time with PC than spouse
While one may argue that a computer doesn't talk back, disagree, or rub one the wrong way as we're sure just about everyone's spouse / SO definitely can, you must have somehow avoided the BSOD, kernel error, 404, clicking HDD, invalid drivers, and the host of other "cyber stresses" that can elicit all sorts of rage and frustration. A recent survey conducted by Kelton Research discovered that a majority of Americans (52-percent) said their "most recent experience with a computer problem provoked emotions such as anger, sadness or alienation," yet a whopping 65-percent of these same folks spend more time with their beloved computer than their own spouse. Adding even more fuel to the computer addict fire, 84-percent of responders stated that they were "more dependent on their home computer now than they were just three years ago." Interestingly enough, rather than founding some sort of rehab facility to coax folks away from the keyboard and back into reality, SupportSoft is looking to provide loving, caring advice to help folks suffering from "cyber stress" solve their PC troubles without tearing down the house. Essentially, the service actually encourages folks glued to their computer to stay that way, as the new startup looks to provide answers to the issues that could eventually run even the most loyal computer user back to their oft forgotten spouse, but the company does insinuate that by solving PC quandaries, folks will have more time to spend when the ones they love. Nevertheless, we can't say these figures are entirely shocking, especially when you consider that folks would take an iPod over booze and nearly anything trendy for an SO.[Via TGDaily]
