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.
I gulped my beer and thought about Magic, that strategic collectible card game involving wizards and spells and other detailed geekery. A long-forgotten fad, like pogs or something.
She finds out that her date is not just a guy who enjoys collectible card games, but a champion Magic player, and then writes the publicly mocking blog post.
I might be biased here. I see men who play games as smarter and more creative than non-gamers, and I see smart and creative guys as better boyfriend material. I know not everyone sees it this way, but I don’t understand how playing a card game is somehow a shocking revelation that makes him undateable. I’m also not sure if the complaint here is that he plays Magic, or that he’s good at it.
Would she have felt the same way about dating a pro golfer? It’s probably just as expensive and time consuming. Maybe it’s just cooler to be bored by a guy’s handicap stats than his deck stats.
I don’t know where Ms. Berenzak usually meets men, but in my world, a smart, successful, good-looking (she doesn’t actually say this but I’m sure if he had anything to mock physically, she’d had done so), nerdy, hedge-fund guy is a winner.
Just like you’re obligated to mention you’re divorced or have a kid in your online profile, shouldn’t someone also be required to disclose any indisputably geeky world championship titles?
If her point is, as waves of apologist commenters have claimed, that dating profiles can be misleading through omission, I wonder if online daters should be obliged to disclose shallowness. Fortunately for any fellows who meet this girl, her shallowness is now easily Googleable.
Quotes via My Brief OkCupid Affair With a World Champion Magic: The Gathering Player by Alyssa Bereznak
Picture via Friday Night Rants, who claim they didn’t mean anything by using a girl with glasses and purple hair.
