What it's like to be a gaming widow,

I know what you're thinking. No it's not just for sports teams. Football and Baseball are not the only things that can drive a wedge in a relationship the size of the Titanic.
See, what had happened was...

My husband and I have been together for 17 years, married for 16. As I stated in my previous post we have 5 beautiful heathens and he has a daughter from a previous relationship, whom I claim as my own.

I had never owned a computer when we met in 2000. I know, I know, but I was too busy working two jobs and buying my own home at 26 years old to worry about things like that. Which if I stop and think about it is hilarious considering that my father, mother, uncle, and grandmother ALL worked in the tech industries at one time or another starting in the early 1960's.

Anyway, the love of my life convinced me to get a PC so that he could play Diablo with his friends. He also moved in carrying an N64, SNES, and PlayStation One under his arm. The last console I had seen was an Atari 2600 (wish I still had that thing...).

Gaming had never been a big part of my life, I'm a bibliophile and I just couldn't grasp the fascination. Until a few years later when Diablo2 was released. That was the beginning of the end for us I think. He started spending more and more time online. Sometimes I would find him still sitting at the desk when I got up. We fought about it a lot. His job allowed him for a much more flexible schedule than mine did so he spent most of his off time either playing the game or hanging around in forums talking to other gamers.

When the bottom dropped out of D2 during the "great banning of the bots", I was secretly jumping for joy (especially after watching him snap the keyboard in half). I thought finally, I was going to get my husband back and my, at the time, 4 children were going to actually get to know their dad.

I should have known better, a gamer will ALWAYS find a game to play. Enter stage right, my baby brother with what I now refer to as "the other woman".

Yup, that's right. I am a Runescape widow. My husband has spent at least 5 years total hour game play in the last 7 years. I am not exaggerating. It has drove us to the brink of divorce twice. And still I cannot get the dragon claws out of his hide. I tried ranting, raving, not paying the cable bill (he just went to the public library), threatening to leave him, not feeding him, completely ignoring him, everything short of shooting the PC. RS has become the 3rd wheel in my marriage.

I know there are going to be comments of "then why do you stay?" or "just leave his arse if he doesn't appreciate you." Well, the problem with that is this; he DOES appreciate me, he does spend time with his children, whenever I have been ill, or the kids are hurt, he is always there. He just doesn't get as involved in the daily grind as he should, he tunes out when he is playing.

We have had to come to some sort of understanding I guess you could call it. The way I look at it, it could be alot worse. I have had friends who's husbands cheat, are verbally abusive, or worse, to them and their children, have drug addictions, etc... Mine just happens to be more absent than present some days, even if he's sitting in the same room.

Is it okay to tune out on your family on a regular basis? Probably not. Should I leave, or continue to rant at him for something that obviously isn't going to change? I'm too old for that now. So what to do after 17 years? Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Until next time, be nice♥

~Tabz