GameCrush.... why?

Thanks to everyone's favorite gaming comic Penny Arcade, I found out about this thing called GameCrush.  And... I really don't know what to think.

This is from their press release:

On GameCrush, players can find their perfect PlayDate through browsing their profiles and chatting live with them. Players can then purchase a live one-on-one private gaming session, complete with two-way video and text chat.


It's essentially dating online rather than in person, where your date is playing a video game with each other.

... whatever happened to coffee?

I don't know, I probably shouldn't be so judgmental but I am because of the fact that I think dating should be DONE IN PERSON.  The internet is not an excuse for an actual social life.  I'm just always afraid that will happen.

Sure, I found The Boyfriend online, but we proceeded to see each other in the real world.  Is this the start where dating online exclusively becomes the norm?

Okay maybe I'm taking that too far, but if you watch the video link on this page, you'll see it's advertised to guys who need to look at pretty ladies while playing video games.

Is it wrong that I think this site... shouldn't be so popular?  What's so wrong with working toward having someone you find attractive find you?

Eh, maybe I'm complaining over nothing.

Find the Zoe to your Wash at Soulgeek

It's surprising that I'm doing two posts on one day, but I found this article about where I found The Boyfriend so I figured I would do a bit of a plug, which includes some story time.  If you don't want story you can fast forward to the last paragraph.

*Cue Crazy Fade into Past Transition*

Flashback to May of 2008.  Out of nowhere my now ex broke up with me (right after I got off work too, which kind of sucks when you're broken up to right outside your office and have to explain it to your boss later.)  I was devastated.  Worst week in a long time.  To top it off I had a final the next day and then a final the day after that, both in the morning.  I had no real time to recover.  After two days of wallowing in grief while studying, I thought about it.  I knew what I wanted in a man, key word being man and not "college guy who's finding himself",  I knew I wanted him to have similar interests since explaining RPGs to someone is difficult, and I knew that I wanted to go back home to Chicago in a year.  

And then I remembered Soulgeek.

There had been some ads for it on Something Positive, a webcomic that I adore, so I figured I would give it a try.  I found the site, signed up, and started looking for guys in the Chicagoland area.  Did a search for a while, and then slowly started messaging people.  I had the 10 bucks to pay each month so I did.  And then there was this one profile...

I won't go into what the Boyfriend's profile said, but looking back at it now I have no idea why I messaged him.  And I'm sure he says the same thing about my profile.  I just figured that I might as well send a message and started a conversation about the new D&D edition that came out. And then we played message tag for a while.  I think in an hour's time we sent each other about 5 messages.  And then it moved to AIM.

On AIM I think we had 5-7 hour conversations into the night almost every night for a week.  I found myself staying up until 5am talking to him about a multitude of topics.  We set up a date.  The date mostly consisted of us sitting in parks and talking about everything.  And his arms fit around me pretty well with some pretty awesome hugs.  Next date went even better... the rest is history.

*Cue Less Crazy Transition Back to the Present*

Why choose Soulgeek (that is, if you're looking)?  You'll find someone with similar interests if you're as nerdy as I think you are.  You choose them yourself instead of hoping some wonky computations hitch you with someone.  You don't have to pay to be a member, and to get the special features is only 10 bucks a month when many other dating sites are more expensive.  The site has only been around for a year and a half and already has some great success stories.  It's one of the more genuine sites I've seen too.  And you don't have to be a supermodel to find someone.  It's just a great idea if you're single, geeky, and not internet shy.  And who the hell is internet shy anymore?