<p>Oh, we certainly spend time doing other things! We can sit for hours and talk, we’ll go out for a dinner and a movie, we go to concerts and also do things together with friends like bowling or watching Lost.</p>
<p>We also have separate lives. I have my friends and activities, and he has his. But video games still ARE a dominant part of his life. They consumed him before he met me. But the playing for 4-6 hours a day has dwindled to about an hour a day, sometimes none. Then other days he’ll play for about three hours or so. But then there’s also rock band and those types of games for when friends come over. But he is in college making very good grades and he has a part-time job, so he has some priorities.</p>
<p>I like video games a lot, too. Like I said, I can almost beat him at Mario Kart (there have been many close calls, and a few victories on my side) and my knowledge of all games Zelda vastly outweighs his. And I am a master at the Sims. He has always played the games I wanted to play patiently and willingly, and now I think it’s fair that I give his games the old college try.</p>
<p>Particularly, there was this great moment at a video game arcade that we were at with some friends. I told him I would like him to teach me some basic fighting moves on street fighter, and we spent a few games learning the basics. If I wasn’t getting something, he would come up behind me and have my hands follow along with his. It was a really incredible the feeling I had, like he was imparting a part of his self with me by teaching me these things. I know that sounds cheesy, but I want to recreate those feelings. I would not mind learning how to play every video game in the world if he would just teach me like he did then. He was so happy that I wanted to learn, and he was enthusiastic in teaching me.</p>
<p>But when we play the video games on an XBOX, he will teach me some things, then push me into situations I am not nearly ready for, and before I am about to die, he will take the controller and finish it himself. How will I ever learn and play competently with him when he does things like that?</p>
<p>@Gerontius: I used to get really annoyed at his video game “addiction,” but that wears off after about seven months or so. He is really happy when he plays video games, and he’s pretty responsible about getting other things done. I realized that he wasn’t trying to use video games as a way to spend less time with me, but it’s one of the only things he feels that he is really good at (it’s not, but I can’t convince him). I want to share in his happiness instead of trying to keep it from him.</p>