[cat_a_clysm]

I am a big fan of XKCD too, normally.



I think there is -some- truth in there. Curious to hear the forum's take on this. It seems to me like this cartoon is is meant to appeal to 1. guys with no game who therefore hate on game 2. angry feminist hag types who wish they would actually get approached so they could spew some venom like that.

[Kitsune]

This is as lame as those hijackings of the 'American Fat Woman' meme or whatever it is.

It's just masquearding because people don't like being told that they are animals that respond to certain biological signals.

The idea that you can say and do things that interrupt their conscious sexual selection makes them feel like less special, unique sparkle fairies.

[calex]

There is a lot of truth in this. I suspect that a lot of guys really live through game stuff, self improvement blogs and books, rather than actually going out and putting it to work. I know i did for a time, after i first discovered game.

[WesternCancer]

These are the same nerds who make "get in the kitchen" and "get me a sandwich" joke, who post statuses like "I only want sympathy in the form of you crawling into bed with me." and when they get rejected by girls because they spend all their time on reddit/4chan/league of legends/WoW they bitch about how girls suck. I know this because the kid I am describing posted this comic on my facebook, the kid is also the most pathetic kid ever. He is literally mentally equivalent to an obese girl. ]

@bronan. I agree, especially with the second part. Because of this the "neg" is HUGE in popular culture, you see it everywhere but its not always called a neg. I think I've seen it in how i met your mother, peoples facebook statuses, some other movie, news articles etc. Luckily for us we a) understand that the "neg" usedin the comic isnt a neg its just a suggestive insult, one guy I worked with said he went to a pickup workshop, the only thing they seemed to teach him was that a neg = insult. He went up to the hot girl that worked there while she was standing around and said "GET BACK TO WORK YOU FUCKING SLACKER" = being a dick.

[Bronan the Barbarian!]

There's two ways to look at this particular comic.

#1 - It's an attempt to shame anyone who's into game. I hear this shit constantly from friends, which is why I never attempt to pull anybody I know out of the Matrix. "Just be yourself! You don't need game to talk to girls!" Fuck 'em. Most guys don't get it. Let the mainstream continue kissing feminism's sloppy, used up cunt. I'm betting this is the author's intent. However, as Calex said, there is some truth to this. When I was in the first stages of discovering game, I was eager to try out a lot of pickup lines, negs, etc. until I figured out that game is more about engineering an attractive lifestyle, knowing the rules of attraction and knowing how to deal with common social scenarios than pickup lines. Leading to option 2:

#2 - The comic is making fun of guys who do it wrong. There are a LOT of people who read "The Game" and think they can come out swinging with a bunch of half-assed insults as "negs." The neg is a fine art and shouldn't be deployed by beginners. Unlikely, but possible.

Bottom line - XKCD sucks, and not just this particular comic. It's nerd humor and rarely (if ever) funny.

[calex]

^^
That's some strong ad hominem logical fallacy right there. The xkcd guy is as nerdy as they come, but that doesn't mean that the point he's making should be disregarded based on that alone.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

I like XKCD in general, although it's often so ambigous that it's hard to tell if it's making fun of or praising something. In this case, I think it definitely presents a wrongheaded view of the player community, by focusing on a few shitty things among a sea of great resources.

Plus no girls recognizes negs, but if she did I'd just agree and amplify. "Hey, your eyes glitter when you're angry!" or "You have a really good opinion of yourself."

[babelfish669]

lol... humor always comes from first hand experience.

[cat_a_clysm]

I just had an idea, we should make this a "test of your game" kind of thing. How would you guys respond if you were the dude in the comic and a girl said that to you?

(03-09-2012 11:33 AM)Bronan the Barbarian! Wrote:  

There's two ways to look at this particular comic.

#1 - It's an attempt to shame anyone who's into game.

Definitely.

Quote:

Bottom line - XKCD sucks, and not just this particular comic. It's nerd humor and rarely (if ever) funny.

Have to disagree there, but then maybe I'm a nerd.

[Basil Ransom]

I had a date with an 8-8.5 the other night, and she actually brought up negs. Of course, she thought they were stupid and didn't work. I asked her what she thought a neg was, and she said something similar in spirit to the diet-fruit plate one above. I was like, "nah, it's a little more subtle than that. It would be like, "Hey, that's a cute dress! Is it from Target?" Or, one I heard from a 6'2" blonde girl, the first thing her boyfriend ever said to her, "So when you cry, do you have really BIG tears?" She was laughing at both of these. It was apparent she was thinking, 'haha, I could see these working on me.' The neg requires finesse to pull off, and if you get it slightly wrong, it's ludicrous.

The bottom middle box has a grain of truth. Most of us are always looking out for what will 'take us to the next level.' I don't see that as a bad thing though.

Quote:

Bottom line - XKCD sucks, and not just this particular comic. It's nerd humor and rarely (if ever) funny.

Nerd humor makes me rage. I can't respect a guy who enjoys nerd humor. And they're frequently the biggest losers you'll ever meet.

[kerouac]

http://www.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments...up_artist/

Quote:

[–]palordrolap wrote:
A friend once unexpectedly sent me a copy of The Game, which was, all told, a nice gesture. He was probably tired of my griping about being a foreveralone and thought it would help; From what I gather he has no need of the techniques in the book.
Anyway, I had such a visceral reaction to the first couple of chapters that I couldn't bring myself to read the rest of it.
Still foreveralone, but at least feel like I still have a soul.

Still foreveralone.

Forever Alone. But feels like he has a soul.

[Basil Ransom]

(03-09-2012 12:31 PM)kerouac Wrote:  

Still foreveralone.

Forever Alone. But feels like he has a soul.

For these guys, feeling morally superior to these barbaric men is more important than busting a nut. If they weren't morally superior, "Who would I be then?" "I would cease to be myself."

[Samseau]

Want to read the most scathing critique's of pathetic nerds like the creator of XKCD you'll ever find?

Quote:

Beta males look to symbols of female power and assertiveness because:

a) they see themselves as half-woman and these fantasies empower them, and
b) a strong woman can protect them much as their mother did.

Quote:

Because beta males are especially insecure in their phantom manhood, they gravitate towards cartoonish expressions of power, but it is nearly always a passive, castrate form of male power that seeks to repel the vigorous, confident aggression of "evil" men. This sets up an obvious crisis of sexual identity, as the beta male's fears and jealousies all swirl around other men, and his own inclination is to the feminine due to his sense of comfort with passive, effeminate roles. (The forces of "good" in beta male fantasy never seem to actively engage the world, but rather only fight back against unprovoked attack.)

From My Posting Career.

What a pathetic cartoon. The girl giving the speech to the guy at the end is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the author who wishes he could lash out at all men who are successful with women.

For god sake, it's borderline projection. A mediocre cartoonist attempts to label anyone using pickup techiques as mediocre.

[Blunt]

(03-09-2012 12:37 PM)Samseau Wrote:  

Want to read the most scathing critique's of pathetic nerds like the creator of XKCD you'll ever find?

Quote:

Beta males look to symbols of female power and assertiveness because:

a) they see themselves as half-woman and these fantasies empower them, and
b) a strong woman can protect them much as their mother did.

Quote:

Because beta males are especially insecure in their phantom manhood, they gravitate towards cartoonish expressions of power, but it is nearly always a passive, castrate form of male power that seeks to repel the vigorous, confident aggression of "evil" men. This sets up an obvious crisis of sexual identity, as the beta male's fears and jealousies all swirl around other men, and his own inclination is to the feminine due to his sense of comfort with passive, effeminate roles. (The forces of "good" in beta male fantasy never seem to actively engage the world, but rather only fight back against unprovoked attack.)

From My Posting Career.

What a pathetic cartoon. The girl giving the speech to the guy at the end is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the author who wishes he could lash out at all men who are successful with women.

For god sake, it's borderline projection. A mediocre cartoonist attempts to label anyone using pickup techiques as mediocre.

Excellent deconstruction. Good find.

[cat_a_clysm]

(03-09-2012 12:37 PM)Samseau Wrote:  

Because beta males are especially insecure in their phantom manhood, they gravitate towards cartoonish expressions of power,

Wise

[Scott]

Well they're only about six years too late.

[Bronan the Barbarian!]

(03-09-2012 11:38 AM)calex Wrote:  

^^
That's some strong ad hominem logical fallacy right there. The xkcd guy is as nerdy as they come, but that doesn't mean that the point he's making should be disregarded based on that alone.

I said the comic isn't funny and is written by a nerd. Big difference between that and saying it sucks because it's written by a nerd. Even if the guy was a pussy-slaying bodybuilder with James Bond-level charm in real life, it wouldn't make his comic any better.

[calex]

(03-09-2012 02:27 PM)Bronan the Barbarian! Wrote:  

(03-09-2012 11:38 AM)calex Wrote:  

^^
That's some strong ad hominem logical fallacy right there. The xkcd guy is as nerdy as they come, but that doesn't mean that the point he's making should be disregarded based on that alone.

I said the comic isn't funny and is written by a nerd. Big difference between that and saying it sucks because it's written by a nerd. Even if the guy was a pussy-slaying bodybuilder with James Bond-level charm in real life, it wouldn't make his comic any better.

Wasn't replying to your post men, but to the one above. I don't find it funny either.

[SVK]

"Negging" is nothing but a PUA-speak for flirty teasing, which of course does work. I think the rebranded PUA term is too negative and thus mistaken for a blunt insult by the less experienced guys. Or outside observers for that matter.

[Kitsune]

(03-09-2012 12:04 PM)cat_a_clysm Wrote:  

I just had an idea, we should make this a "test of your game" kind of thing. How would you guys respond if you were the dude in the comic and a girl said that to you?

This is fun. I'd be smirking all the way through her diatribe.. she is a girl after all.

Truth be told I probably wouldn't let her finish, at the very least I'd be looking away from her after about three words. But lets just say she got through that essay for the sake of the 'test.'

I'd probably, if I couldn't think of anything else, just say 'gay' ala roissy. Or 'ooooo-k' in the way girls do when they're trying to irritate you. Or I'd just say nothing.

Of course, and the major problem with the comic, is that if the neg is delivered properly, she is never going to react in that way. She wants you to tease her.

Quote:

[–]palordrolap wrote:
A friend once unexpectedly sent me a copy of The Game, which was, all told, a nice gesture. He was probably tired of my griping about being a foreveralone and thought it would help; From what I gather he has no need of the techniques in the book.
Anyway, I had such a visceral reaction to the first couple of chapters that I couldn't bring myself to read the rest of it.
Still foreveralone, but at least feel like I still have a soul.

Guy should have read the rest of the book. I know it gets a lot of hate, but I honestly think Neil Strauss did the world a favour by writing the Game.

Case in point and related true story:

I once gave a foreveraloner my copy of The Game. This was back before VH1 and all that (Not that it penetrated where I'm from anyway.)

Not only did he go from 20 year old guy who'd never had a girlfriend or kiss or anything to having one in about 3 weeks flat, but he changed his style, dress and set some life goals which he's currently achieving.

I guess I was there to make sure he didn't do the fluffy-hat and 'Did you see the fight outside?' shit, but the fact of the matter is game can change peoples lives if those people are in the right hands. Now the guy is successful in pretty much everyway, and he'll offer a lot to the world. Before, he was literally convinced nothing was ever going to go right, and suicide was a serious option.

..And that is why I hate game-shaming.

[WesternCancer]

Some great theories going on in this thread. I really don't see all the hate for "The Game" I just read it as a fun/interesting story not an instructional guide.

[Vicious]

This is a webcomic. Why on earth are people upset!?

[Stitch]

Heh. Guys, as someone who has read XKCD for a while--this didn't have nearly as much to do with PUAs as it did with two recurring characters. "Black Hat Guy" is a recurring character who repeatedly pulls cruel antisocial pranks for amusement (http://xkcd.com/325/). The girl in the cartoon isn't meant to represent the average american woman, nor is her speech really meant to be some sort of antiPUA rant--she's a recurring character too, the only one to successfully get Black Hat back in any way (http://xkcd.com/377/)

So really this doesn't have as much to do with PUAs as it is a bit of an in-joke with XKCD readers that the "PUA wannabe" is setting himself up for disastrous failure from the start, a bit like the old Wile E. Coyote cartoons wherehe receives a package from ACME with the Tasmanian Devil inside and you know that as soon as he opens it disaster will spring forth.

/shrug. *I* laughed.

[Chad Daring]

(03-09-2012 11:33 AM)Bronan the Barbarian! Wrote:  

There's two ways to look at this particular comic.

#1 - It's an attempt to shame anyone who's into game. I hear this shit constantly from friends, which is why I never attempt to pull anybody I know out of the Matrix. "Just be yourself! You don't need game to talk to girls!" Fuck 'em. Most guys don't get it. Let the mainstream continue kissing feminism's sloppy, used up cunt. I'm betting this is the author's intent. However, as Calex said, there is some truth to this. When I was in the first stages of discovering game, I was eager to try out a lot of pickup lines, negs, etc. until I figured out that game is more about engineering an attractive lifestyle, knowing the rules of attraction and knowing how to deal with common social scenarios than pickup lines. Leading to option 2:

#2 - The comic is making fun of guys who do it wrong. There are a LOT of people who read "The Game" and think they can come out swinging with a bunch of half-assed insults as "negs." The neg is a fine art and shouldn't be deployed by beginners. Unlikely, but possible.

Bottom line - XKCD sucks, and not just this particular comic. It's nerd humor and rarely (if ever) funny.

I think this is what we're seeing here.

I've read XKCD for a while, and he shares the manospheres general attitude, if not our beliefs, entirely.

He's usually more clever than to just say "LAWL PUA IS TEH DUMB" Although he does still suffer from the pedestalization that most nerds do. I'd still buy him a beer.

[SVK]

I didn't find the OP xkcd that funny and/or I just didn't really get it.

This game-related xkcd was pretty good though: