The perils of Dating when you're a Magic the Gathering World Champoin

CptStern

CptStern

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My Brief OkCupid Affair With a World Champion Magic: The Gathering Player

We met for a drink later that week. Jon was thin and tall, dressed in a hedge fund uniform with pale skin and pierced ears. We started talking about normal stuff—family, work, college. I told him my brother was a gamer. And then he casually mentioned that he played Magic: The Gathering when he was younger.

"Actually," he paused. "I'm the world champion."

I laughed. Oh that's a funny joke! I thought. This guy is funny! But the earnest look on his face told me he wasn't kidding.

At dinner I got straight down to it. Did he still play? "Yes." Strike one. How often? "I'm preparing for a tournament this weekend." Strike two. Who did he hang out with? "I've met all my best friends through Magic." Strike three. I smiled and nodded and listened. Eventually I even felt a little bit bad that I didn't know shit about the game. Here was a guy who had dedicated a good chunk of his life to mastering Magic, on a date with a girl who can barely play Solitaire. This is what happens, I thought, when you leave things out of your online profile. I was lured on a date thinking I'd met a normal finance guy, only to realize he was a champion dweeb in hedge funder's clothing.
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stupid bitch

http://gizmodo.com/5833787/my-brief-okcupid-affair-with-a-world-champion-magic-the-gathering-player

also she's not very attractive:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54164925@N06/
 
Yeah hedge fund finance guys are typically such a catch otherwise.
 
Was she previously raped by a wizard or something?
 
Wow that's pretty lame and stuck-up. Dude seems like a nice guy.
 
You guys can't see why being the world champion in MtG might be a little off-putting? Imagine going on a blind date with someone and finding out that that person has an interest in something you know nothing about and don't really care about in the least (lets say playing darts or something).

Then you find out that she is the darts world champion. This means that she spends a very good portion of her time playing and perfecting darts. She has a huge interest in darts. All of her friends are darts players and they all play darts together. Now imagine going out with this person and not being able to connect about this think that's really important to her. Imagine meeting her friends and then they all chat about darts and you are left in the corner with nothing to add to the conversation.

Now of course you might find you love darts if you gave it a try or you might continue on in the relationship ignoring the whole darts thing and everything could work out great, but it's hardly being a bastard if you think you want to call it off because you can't connect with her on that part of her life (that's clearly a big part of her life considering she's world champion.

But I should be used to this by now. The internet allows anonymity that affords one to be as judgemental as they like and I've seen it many times on this forum.
 
I'm sure he still got some. She left that part out of the article. But this fool took her to a Jeffrey Dahmer one man show. He's got no game. He should stick to what he knows and spend his time bangin those convention cosplay girls
 
She wasn't that rude to him at all. A bit tasteless to hang out her picture like that, Stern.
 
The Monkey said:
She wasn't that rude to him at all. A bit tasteless to hang out her picture like that, Stern.
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Asking Stern to exercise good taste is like asking the Sun to kindly stop being so damn hot.
 
The Monkey said:
She wasn't that rude to him at all. A bit tasteless to hang out her picture like that, Stern.
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It seems a bit rude to write a public article about it, naming the guy and everything.
It's fine to break up with someone if none of your interests overlap, but you don't really need to write about it on Gizmodo. She also mentioned that he just "casually" brought it up, and then it sounds like she freaked and started harping on it. So it's not really his fault to leave it off his profile if he doesn't normally talk about it that much.
 
Fine and dandy to say "Oh, we got mismatched. Interests didn't align, blah blah. No harm done". Nothing wrong with pointing out that these dating sites obviously aren't going to give you the full picture of your date and that you always risk incompatibility. I believe that was the message she was trying to convey, or at least double-back to once the pitchforks came out.

But the article made his Magic hobby seem like an affliction; as if she was just repulsed by the idea that this guy was a nerd. Out of all the other ****-ups that could and may have happened on their dates, it was his interest in a card game that she singled out and mocked the most heavily. Her piece is a cautionary tale only secondarily, otherwise it was mostly "Oh my gawd, why wasn't I warned of his geekiness?". Fair enough if she felt she couldn't get past that. There are women I would probably pass on depending on their favorite pastimes (lol not rly im desperate), possibly for my own shallow reasons. But I keep that to myself, and she decided to blather her prejudice to a target audience of... uhh... nerds and geeks. Y'know, people who might have played a game of Magic or run a D&D table at some point in their lives. I know running a dungeon or some shit isn't everybody's cup of tea, but the article's tone seems dated from a time when geekiness was frowned upon, and it's just not so much the case any more. I've seen happily married couples where one of the spouses runs similar games on a weekly basis, and they would seem like the most normal, down-to-earth people you've ever met if you didn't know the hubby likes to roleplay a tiefling warlock. That's not a widespread case, but geeks are pretty much "in" by now and the transition is only going to get smoother.

If nothing else, the article is just boneheaded and the reaction is unsurprising. The issue isn't that she broke it off with him because of incompatible interests. It's that she then took the time to snark about it on a freakin' tech blog and imply that people like him are just omg so weird. It's like if I decided to go on a date with any one of you fine gents and then write up a bit about what a freak you are for participating in a gaming forum, calling you out by name and photo. Then I post it on the first page of the forum's web site.

btw hit me with pm for a date asl
 
ríomhaire said:
Then you find out that she is the darts world champion. This means that she spends a very good portion of her time playing and perfecting darts. She has a huge interest in darts. All of her friends are darts players and they all play darts together. Now imagine going out with this person and not being able to connect about this think that's really important to her. Imagine meeting her friends and then they all chat about darts and you are left in the corner with nothing to add to the conversation.
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But this is called 'being an arsehole on a date' and is unconnected in essence to darts or any other passtime.
 
Earlier this month, I came home drunk and made an OKCupid profile. What the hell, I thought. I'm busy, I'm single, and everybody's doing it.
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don't worry guys, she isn't a pathetic loser like everyone else on OKCupid, she was just drunk!

I gave him my name. "Google away," I said.
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wow, she's so famous on the internet that Google found her!

I later found out that Jon infiltrated his way into OKCupid dates with at least two other people I sort of know, including one of my co-workers.
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please note: playing Magic is the same as RAPE. dont let this man INFILTRATE your VAGINAS.


i would judge some girl for answering "Legally Blonde" as her favorite movie on a date. but as Absinthe pointed out, i wouldn't go on Jezebel and post about how retarded she is, how other guys should watch out for her, and imply that she had a terrible freakish affliction. I also wouldn't feel somehow cheated that she didn't list it on her OKCupid profile. that's just f*cking retarded.

on top of the whole thing, she has an obnoxious sense of writing and is clearly an arrogant bitch. and yeah i play magic why do you ask? :)

edit:
ríomhaire said:
But I should be used to this by now. The internet allows anonymity that affords one to be as judgemental as they like and I've seen it many times on this forum.
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seriously? can you really not see why this would irritate members of a gaming forum? also you seem to think that someone's favorite past time (or job?) solely defines their personality and all of their interests. how many people have you dated with all of the same exact interests? that sounds boring.
 
Women can be petty shallow bitches. This one is. Men can be too.

Good god woman, what the **** is your problem? People are going to have interests that don't fit into your own interests. That's what makes people INTERESTING... they have hobbies, they have wide varying interests, and even if you don't care for their interests it shouldn't spell the end of a potential relationship. You could give the dude a chance.

So retarded.
 
Shallow and petty? Yes, but who isn't at times? But is she an enormous bitch for publicly mocking him because he has a hobby he's engrossed in? Hell yeah. As has been said, the issue isn't that she had no interest in him, its that she is mocking him on a very well known and visited website.
 
Krynn72 said:
Shallow and petty? Yes, but who isn't at times? But is she an enormous bitch for publicly mocking him because he has a hobby he's engrossed in? Hell yeah. As has been said, the issue isn't that she had no interest in him, its that she is mocking him on a very well known and visited website.
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Everybody can be shallow and petty. I can be incredibly shallow and petty. Most don't make an article demonstrating that however.
 
Ideally you're happy when your partner is happy. While it's not something I'd seek out, I don't really care if a chick likes to go to an anime convention or watch ditzy chick flicks, just as I shouldn't expect a potential mate to be wildly enamored with my David Lynch films or my preoccupation with making ROBOT MUSIC. But if taking her to a Legally Blonde flick gives her a good time, I'm willing to overlook that kind of thing, provided the person is worth it, naturally. People are multi-faceted and it's silly to dismiss somebody like this guy if he was, by all other indications in the article, otherwise okay. Maybe she made a poor decision on the piece's narrative framing.

And hey, if some of those things are just permanent roadblocks for you, that's cool. Even if you turn down a date for admittedly shallow reasons (as the author copped to), that's your business. Humans justify their behavior for shallow shit all the time and I probably have done more than my fair share. I only recommend you not blog about it and make an ass of yourself.
 
Agree with Absinthe.

Also, when is your debut ROBOT MUSIC lp coming out? Give it to me.
 
Sulkdodds said:
But this is called 'being an arsehole on a date' and is unconnected in essence to darts or any other passtime.
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I wouldn't consider the meeting of the friends to be a date, more of a ritual.


And yeah she shouldn't have posted his bloody actual name. She could have left it at him being some sort of Magic the Gathering bigshot/tournament winner without going into specifics and it was pretty lousy of her to do a sort of name and shame thing, but I don't think calling it off over this is unjustified.
 
When I can complete a proper LP's worth of material instead of fifty million neat little music boxes. :)
 
The more times you read it, the worse it gets. Not just posting his name but then to be like "Hey look at all these links -- his wikipedia page! his videos! look at these nerd forums! look at this card with him on it lololol" and then to have the nerve to (1) blame him for her own problem; (2) act like he's some kind of creep for getting other dates via an online dating website (ummm, what? that's what the website is made for); and (3) pass that off as a "cautionary tale" like she's doing the world a favor. Even as a cautionary tale, it's worthless crap. It doesn't take a genius to know that nobody posts every facet of their lives on their profile. The fact that the dude at her company wrote that she was "bragging" about it indicates that for some reason she feels the need to go around blabbing this to everyone? Why? Maybe she actually kinda liked the guy, then found out he played Magic, then couldn't deal with herself and was afraid someone would find out she dated him. So to get the headstart and make herself feel better, she goes around publicly demeaning him. Or she just thought the situation was hilarious, like "oh hey remember that time I accidentally dated that dork can you believe it haha what a story, I need to tell everyone."

in short, mean girl. really really low.
 
The preface was added after the article got its initial backlash. Expect it to be edited in the next few days to take away some of the personal attacks, links, bad grammar, and general bitchiness.

Are you a blogger "Yes." Strike one. What do you blog about "Technology and gadgets" Strike two. Who do you blog for? "Gizmodo." Strike three.
 
So I'm pretty short on sympathy for her given that she a) was pretty judgemental about the guy, b) posted about it on a popular blog, including his real name, and c) was stupid enough to whine about her surprise nerd date on a site for nerds (ostensibly), but regardless of all that:

CptStern said:
also she's not very attractive:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54164925@N06/
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You're an ass.
 
Pretty cute IMO TBH. When I find Stern's home porno his wife bttr be so hot my pants be soaked with jizz TBH
 
She looks meh to be honest. Not ugly, but not cute or attractive either.
 
I don't even understand what she's trying to say with that one. It's depressing that people like watching TV that's topical to their interests? I'm beginning to think that, with her high standards, her problems with dating probably don't start and end with okcupid.

Remus said:
She looks meh to be honest. Not ugly, but not cute or attractive either.
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Hey that's great let's all compare notes and casually rate her out of ten like they do in the sitcoms.

Is this how I make people think I'm cool on the internet.
 
Bad^Hat said:
Hey that's great let's all compare notes and casually rate her out of ten like they do in the sitcoms.
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She has no qualms in "rating" other people, so why should I.
 
by posting in a thread that is seen by a handful of people? technically it's the same but the degree of magnitude is not. she outed her date and publicly mocked him, she went so far as to include video and a wiki entry. she opened the judgement door and shouldnt be surprised when it comes back to bite her in the ass
 
CptStern said:
by posting in a thread that is seen by a handful of people?
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No. No. Do you ever read anything properly? I was saying that by publicly rating her appearance, you sink to the same level she is at by publicly criticizing her date.
 
did you understand anything I said? the order of magnitude is nowhere the same
 
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