It’s every guy gamer’s dream to someday find a young woman who is as passionate about games as they are, fall madly in love, and live happily ever after. It’s a fantasy for most, but for some lucky guys like me, it’s a reality. While it is super awesome and rad to the max, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t some things you need to be aware of before you start 2-player mode until death do you part.

I’m certainly not complaining; far from it. I’ve dated girls who aren’t into games and girls who think games are just okay, and dating (or in my case marrying) a girl who is a legit gamer is definitely the way to go. The point of this article, my dear brothers, is to bring some things to your attention that you may not have thought of.

First of all, single player games will never be the same. It’s one thing with the semi-gamer, who is content to just watch while you tackle a game’s story mode, but when you are sharing a TV and console with someone as dedicated as you are, there are some complications. This is a problem we ran into playing Super Mario Galaxy; we decided to just pass off control of Mario every turn while the other person used the second Wiimote to be the co-star. It works for a while, but by the time you hit your stride it’s time to pass the controller back and wait for your turn again. In addition to that, you only get to really play half the game. You wanted to be the one to figure out that jumping puzzle? Too bad.

You could just take turns on your own save files, but then more problems arise. Who goes first? The person who goes second is going to see everything before they get to play it. That’s like a fun vacuum.

We honestly have no idea what we’re going to do when Zelda: Skyward Sword comes out.

It’s not a major issue if you have little overlap in taste. There’s plenty of games that Christina likes that I don’t care too much about and vise versa. The problem mostly rears its ugly head during big blockbuster releases with wide appeal, like the Marios and the Zeldas. That’s why I liked New Super Mario Bros Wii so much more than the Galaxy games (which are still mind-blowingly awesome)… I didn’t feel like I was missing anything.

Then comes the money issue. We’re all getting older, we all have jobs and bills and responsibilities. We can’t afford to buy games the way we could when we all still lived at home with our parents and the biggest financial burden we had was loaning Antonio $10 so he could come to Taco Bell with the rest of the group. If you had a hard time deciding which games to buy on a limited budget before, imagine how it is when you have two cooks wanting a taste of the broth.

Again, we have similar taste so it’s not TOO big an issue, but there are games we’ve both passed on because we couldn’t really justify dropping $60 on a game only one of us will like. We do make exceptions, of course (I can’t wait to hold you in my arms, Cataclysm collector’s edition!) but we shop smarter.

Theeeeeeeen there’s competitive multiplayer. The big draw of having a significant gamer is that you’ll always have a player two. But what happens if things go south? What if you beat her with a cheap move in Street Fighter? What if you throw one too many sticky grenades in Halo? You’ll find yourself becoming very acquainted with your old friend the couch. I can’t say that this has happened to me (because it hasn’t) but there are times when feelings get hurt for whatever reason and we stop having fun. This is why I love games with co-op modes, because we both get to play and we get to work together rather than against each other.

I’m lucky enough to have been able to not only find a girl as passionate about games as I am (and honestly in some ways, she’s more hardcore than me), but to convince her to marry me as well. There is no better feeling than sharing a passion with someone you love. It helps you bond and it gives you plenty of common ground. It’s not all fields of roses, but the roses that you DO get are the sweetest smelling of all.

(Did that analogy work? I think I overdid it. Oh well.)