"I was also wondering if I really wanted to stay in the Game"

I am reading the Krauser book A Deplorable Cad, and about midway he drops,

As winter approached I'd run out of steam for game. London was boring me, and my mojo was depleted. I was also wondering if I really wanted to stay in the Game. The happiest times in the year had been hanging out with Docile and then going on holiday to Barcelona with her and Gita. I'd also felt strangely at peace when sitting in cafes with Zaria just chatting and watching her read.

This book is the second or third out of four, and it's only halfway done, so the reader knows that Krauser does not run out of steam for game. But I identify with his feeling because it's another way of stating my feelings in "Ramblings about a change in perspective towards game and life." Granted that I'm older than he was at the time described in the book and also that I have never been remotely as obsessed with game as he and his colleagues were or are. But there can be a kind of hollow void, I think, from relentlessly picking up strangers, many of whom are in turn using your tool to deal with some kind of void or psychological problem in their own lives.

"Many of whom," not all of whom, mind. Lots of psychologically healthy girls like casual and not-so-casual sex as well.

The right woman would have to be close enough to me in age. Realistically a man as old as I am cannot build a long-term life with any woman younger than her late 20s. It is always funny when you worry about using a girl for sex only to discover she is. . . using you for sex!

I should not be thinking too long-term right now. The date with the bike girl went very simply and very well. Before the date I did (or attempted) four warmup sets and got harsh blowouts from all of them. A strange run, but then bike girl herself liked me from the get go. She is more shy and introspective than she first seemed, when I think the riding had raised her spirits and also mine. But so far everything seems to be going well. She is also too young to make long long-term work. But I am enjoying the moment and am not going to complain when the right girl at the right time falls into the lap.

I will write more about A Deplorable Cad when I finish, but I judge that I am either less psychologically damaged than most of the game-obsessives or I am more delusional about psychological damage. Only the self-deluded believe they are beyond self-delusion. I still think I'm closer to normal than many of the characters in the book or who write game books of their own.

What happens to guys regarding kids? It is still fascinating to see the people who have gone all the way. They make different tradeoffs than me.

Krauser emphasizes how real game forces a man to confront his own psychological demons, and I agree totally. Self-understanding is so hard and lacking it will often destroy even a man who works hard.