Tag Archives: Game

The Bookshelf: Bang

I just finished reading Roosh’s game manual Bang.

The writing style for the book is straightforward and explanatory. It’s competently written, clear, and easy to understand. The book is fairly short (155 pages) and filled with information on running game. Roosh doesn’t waste your reading time by padding the book with fluff. In other words, this is written in the exact way you are looking for a manual to be written.

Roosh doesn’t pull punches in the book. He’s very clear on how much work, disappointment, and rejection is necessary to learn game. He does not promise miracles and does not promise an easy time. It’s good to know he’s no overselling his methods; that kind of honesty builds trust. If you plan to learn game, knowing the costs and benefits accurately beforehand.

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The book is divided into 5 main sections (and an introduction and appendix).

The first section is internal game. It’s short (10 pages), and is focused on the necessity of building confidence and what kind of attitude an alpha needs to maintain. This section and the first part of the second section (which talks of attitudes to approach) are probably the most fundamental parts of the book; without the attitude the techniques, routines, and advice in the rest of the book likely won’t matter much.

The second section, and the large bulk of the book, is early game.  He explains “the vibe”, how to approach, discusses venue selection, gives some routines, advises on conversations, discusses touch and escalation, and generally goes through all the basic game stuff for meeting and approaching girls to get either a venue change (ie. go back to her place) or a phone number.

The third section is middle game. In this, Roosh explains how to turn the phone number into a date with phone game and how to run a first (and possibly second) date with the purpose of getting into the girl’s bedroom.

The fourth section is late game. It’s describes how get sex from the position of being inside her house, with a small section on post-sex dating and relationships.

The fifth section, end game, is very short (4 pages). It’s a combination of encouragement not to give up, some advice on finding your niche to improve your odds, and some of the benefits of having game.

The appendix gives some nuggets of advice on a number of various situations such as “She Lives With Her Parents” and “You Forget Her Name”. There’s also a little cheat sheet of the six most important principles.

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If you want to learn game this is the book to buy. It is clear introductory guide on game and how to learn it.

But because it is an introductory guide to game,  if you’re already proficient at game you’ll probably know most of this already.  Even if you aren’t proficient with game, but you’ve been around the game portion of the manosphere for a while, you’re probably familiar with most of the information in Bang. While you might learn some things here or there, the value of this book will likely be limited for you.

On the other hand, to get most game information requires sifting through hundreds of posts on a number of blogs. Bang, due to its systematic nature, could function very well as a reference guide for the experienced player who needs to quickly brush up on a particular aspect of game.

Now the question you ask is, does the advice work? I can’t really tell you from personal experience, as I am not an alpha and I don’t really have game,  but it’s commonly accepted in the manosphere that game does work and that Roosh is one of the masters so, take that as you may.

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The book is primarily aimed at Night/Club game. I’ve already explained my issues with club game (it just doesn’t seem fun), so I won’t go into them further. There’s some information for day game, but it’s definitely secondary.

I am more interested in Roosh’s Day Bang, but decided to read this first based on a different review. I plan to read Day Bang in the future in will review it here when I do. I’m sure I’ll get more out of that.

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Conclusion: If you are looking to learn game or read an introduction to game, you should get Bang. If you are already proficient at game or have already boned up on game theory (pun intended), this book may not be necessary; you probably know most of it already, although the systematic nature of it can make it a good reference. If you are not interested in game, you probably already know that this book isn’t for you.

If you are looking for day game advice, look elsewhere. If you are looking for marriage game advice, look elsewhere.

Related: I have previously reviewed Roosh’s 30 Bangs.

Economic Analysis of Casual Sex – Prostitution vs Game

I previously mentioned I would I would do an economic comparison of obtaining sex through both prostitution and game for casual sex.

Essentially, which of the two mating strategies obtain the best bang for your buck. (Pun most assuredly intended).

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Prostitution

Starting with prostitution (it’s the easiest):

I’m going to assume a mid-range escort. We’ll ignore low-quality street prostitution, which would be cheaper, but risky and the high-quality escorts, as most people can’t afford that regularly. Our assumption will be a clean, fairly attractive prostitute.

According to this intro to escorting guide on a business blog for escorts (I guess escorts need business advice too; the weird things you find on the internet) costs about $250-500/hr depending on the city.

So, we’ll say $300 for sex from prostitution. Adjust upwards if you live in a high cost area or if you’re looking for higher quality.

Given the transactional nature of the interaction, there are no time opportunity costs.

Depending on your jurisdiction, prostitution, or aspects related to prostitution, is likely illegal, so there would be a cost attached to the . Every year, about 8,000 johns are arrested and about 45 million Americans (15%) use prostitutes, so the odds of getting caught are extremely low (about 1 in 5000), especially if you are using escorts rather than streetwalkers. The average fine for a first-time offender is about $250, so the economic costs of the risk of getting cost are negligible (about a  nickel).

Cost for Sex: $300

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Game

I’ve been reading Bang and am almost done (review to come). Near the end of the book Roosh has a little bit on the costs and successes of an average player (someone who goes out to clubs on Saturdays and Sundays with competent game). I’ll assume Roosh knows what he’s talking about (he did write the book on the subject), so we’ll use his numbers.

He does the math in the book, but essentially you are spending $300/month on going to the club, going out on dates, etc. ($3600/year)  for 3-8 notches per year (p. 135 if you want to see). We’ll assume each “notch” leads to an average of three sexual encounters, as some might be one night stands, but a couple might become short- or longer-term relationships.  We’ll give our player 6 notches a year, so 18 sexual encounters at a cost of $200 each.

In addition, each sexual encounter requires time, the nights out, the dates, etc. is time spent in the club, on a date, etc. running game rather than another activity.If you spend an average of four hours clubbing each of Friday and Saturday for a month, that’s 400 hours a year (assuming 2 weeks off).

In addition, from Bang, it seems you can generally expect sex on about the third date and you can expect sex from about half the women you date. So if we assume 2 hours per date for each notch and dating ending in a failure to obtain a notch, we get 72 hours (6 notches *3 dates *2 hours *2 for failures) spent a year on dating.

So, at 472 hours a year at a modest wage of $10/hour, comes to an opportunity costs of spent time is $4720, or $262/sexual encounter.

You would add this to the costs, assuming that you do not enjoy clubbing, game, or dating for their own sakes but are solely in them for the sex. I personally hate clubs, as do many others, and from reading 30 Bangs it was my impression like Roosh only barely tolerates the game so he can acquire sex, so me, Badger, and Roosh would have to add this.

If you enjoy clubbing, gaming, and dating for their own sakes and would engage in these activities even if there was zero chance for sex, you would not have to add these to the calculations, but I’m assuming most wouldn’t, so…

We can conclude that the cost of getting sex through game for the average player is about $460. You could reduce this by becoming better than average, finding a niche like Roosh suggests, running day game, or otherwise reducing your opportunity or real costs.

Cost for sex: $460 ($200 is you enjoy clubbing, gaming, and dating for their own sake)

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For casual sex, a mid-range prostitute is cheaper than game.

On the other hand, most of game’s costs are in the form of time opportunity costs, so if you have a lot of free time and little money or you enjoy the activities of clubbing, game, or dating  even without the promise of sex, then game might be a better deal.

In addition, the higher your average wage, the more expensive game becomes relative to prostitution, as the opportunity costs of game increase the more potential earning you sacrifice.

Conclusion: For obtaining casual sex, game is the better option if you are paid low wages and have free time or if you enjoy game and related activities. Prostitution is the better option if you are middle-class, don’t have the free time, or dislike engaging in game.

In the future, I’ll have a post on the economic costs of sex in marriage and relationship game.

Lightning Round – 2012/05/29

Mentu writes one of the best posts I’ve read on Christian game, a must for budding patriarchs. Read it now. I think I’m going to start learning game now.

Also, for patriarchs: a great list of things to teach your son.

Increasingly worthless. Related. Related to the related.

The state as God produces some odd thinking.

As an example: the left goes into the vapours whenever someone thinks about even touching their internet privacy, but you’re crazy if you don’t want the government forcing you to reveal personal aspects of your life for the census.

They sold themselves to the state under the social gospel and are reaping the rewards.

I wonder how common this actually is. Am I a sock-puppet?

I’m sure someone on the manosphere will object to this. Assuming any Quebecers are actually part of the manosphere.

Men’s centres are not welcome; men are too irresponsible and not educated enough on gender issues to have them.

The punishment for false rape accusations should be brutal.

Hehe.

Mugabe as UN tourism ambassador. About what I’d expect.

Sometimes you worry about the next generation.

(h/t SDA, Althouse, Smallest Minority)

Lightning Round – 2012/05/15

Roosh shows an intro program to learning game. Bookmarking it for if/when I attempt to learn it in earnest.

Advice for learning social skills, for those of us who are not so socially. Combine with above.

Another good question to ask yourself. What do you want?

Uxuriousness is an awesome word I didn’t know before. Avoid it.

Worship: Jesus is King not Boyfriend.

An inspiration to us all.

Not sure what I think on it, but I’ve seen some convincing arguments for not voting recently.

I went to a nightclub/bar (I’m not sure which) once, but I didn’t care for it. Seems others don’t as well.

Good news on the oil front.

How much longer can the statist myth continue? (More)

More evils from the War on Drugs.

Free thought is only allowed if you think the proper thoughts. (More)

(h/t SDA, Private Man, InstaPundit)

The Bookshelf: Married Man Sex Life Primer

I finished Athol Kay’s Married Man Sex Life Primer 2011; at the same time I read his How To Answer “Do These Pants Make My Ass Look Fat?”: and get laid like tile! (hereafter referred to as MMSL and HTA).

MMSL

MMSL is essentially a book on using game in marriage. Athol lays out the biochemical reactions that underlie love and underscores the concept of sex ranks and how they work in the sexual marketplace and in marriage. He gives out all the good red pill information on how to be alpha and keep your wife happy and sexually charged, but, unlike most game guides, he applies this to creating longer-term relationships and marriage rather than just scoring lays. In doing this he emphasizes the importance of displaying beta traits in maintaining a marriage.

His Male Action Plan (MAP) lays out the steps you need to improve your marriage or to secure the best post-marriage deal should your wife be unwilling to help improve the marriage. He lays out what you need to do to get your wife (and other women) to desire you. He also has advice on how to get your wife to try naughty things with you that you may not know how to introduce otherwise.

MMSL is a softer red pill. If you want to introduce the red pill to someone who you don’t think would be receptive to it or is more traditionally inclined, they would probably be much more likely to accept the information from Athol than say Roosh or Roissy. I would highly recommend this book as a gateway to red pill thinking.

What the MMSL is not is a primer for those looking to pick up women. He will occasionally talk about how his advice applies to pick-ups, but this is generally tangential to his main focus: marriages. So, if you’re looking for a game guide, look elsewhere.

Similarly, if you’re currently looking for a wife, this guide will not really help you find one. It will help prepare you for improving yourself to maximize your value on the sexual marketplace and has some good advice on choosing a wife, for which it is invaluable and highly recommended, but it will not have much information on the finding a women or going through the whole dating/courtship thing.

As for the writing itself, Athol’s style is both straightforward and fun. He doesn’t mince words or sugarcoat things, but is very frank. The book is also filled with levity, while the topics and writing are serious, you will still enjoy yourself and have the occasional laugh. It’s an informative and engaging book.

I will note, conservative religious folks may have some moral problems with this book. Athol does lay out a defence of divorce if a wife does not meet her husband’s sexual needs. He also seems to advocate some mild flirting with women who aren’t you’re wife and the use of porn in marriage, which may not strike some as entirely moral.

On the other hand, Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation himself, made similar arguments concerning divorce. Luther’s advice of when divorce is appropriate: “Then it is time for the man to say: If you are not willing, another woman is; if the wife is not willing, bring on the maid.” is very much echoed by Athol’s advice. So, I wouldn’t judge Athol’s advice on this too harshly.

The big question you’re probably asking though, is does his MAP work? The answer: I don’t have a wife to practice it on, so I really can’t tell you. I can say that a number of people have claimed Athol has saved their marriage, so take that as you will.

For myself, when I do enter a long-term relationship, I will be applying the MAP. I will also be trying to apply what I can of it in my singleness.

If you’re married or looking to be married, I would highly recommend this book. If someone you care about is having marriage/sex problems, buy them this book.

HTA

HTA is a collection of posts from Athol’s blog. They’re all great posts, and the writing is and information is good.  All the praise of MMSL just as easily applies to HTA. The problem though, is that a much, if not most, of the information in HTA is in MMSL, so if you have read the MMSL, a good portion of HTA will be rereading what you’ve already read.

Of the two, the MMSL has more information and is better organized, as it is written as a book, in a logical fashion by rather than as a collection of essays written in chronological order.

There is some information in HTA that is not in MMSL, but usually it is not really the important stuff you’re buying these books for. There are a number of essays in HTA talking about his own personal life and relationships that is not in MMSL; these can be used as illustrations for his larger points, and if you’re interested you may want to pick it up.

But overall, the HTA is unnecessary if you have or will be reading the MMSL (which you should be), so I can’t recommend it. On the other hand, there’s something to be said for supporting Athol in his endeavours to help others’ marriages, so you may want to buy it to support the cause.

Recommendation:

I would highly recommend buying the Married Man Sex Life Primer 2011. Although, Athol is currently finishing up his 2012 primer, so you may want to wait a month or two, or however long and get that instead.

As for How To Answer “Do These Pants Make My Ass Look Fat?”, buy it if you want to support Athol or if you really liked MMSL, but if you buy the MMSL, you won’t miss very much if you don’t get the HTA.

The Bookshelf: 30 Bangs

I got my copies of Roosh’s books last week, and I read through 30 Bangs first, simply because it’s episodic nature and short length lent itself to being read through downtime during my rather busy weekend.

The book is simply a description of 30 different times Roosh had sex and the events and his actions leading up to the act. It is written in a very matter-of-fact, almost clinical, manner.

If you are looking to start learning game, this is not really the book. Game is present and you will probably learn something about it, particularly the game attitude, but this is no manual and the actual game techniques are sometimes glossed over in his stories. There is a small lesson at the end for the basic commonalities his success stories had.  If you are already learning game, his experiences might help you identify errors or find areas of improvement.

What I really like about this book is that it is a short, well-written, and interesting look into the life and experiences of a PUA, someone who has fully embraced the red pill. For those of us who (like me) have not tried game to any significant extent and to whom this kind of life is unfamiliar, it is a pair of binoculars allowing us to see through the windows into a player’s bedroom.

After reading this book though, I can say that I’m not very interested in the clubbing lifestyle. The descriptions of his nights out trolling for sex mostly seems joyless and mechanical. The book was obviously written analytically to deconstruct his experiences so they could be learned from, but I still expected some sense of enjoyment to leak through, but there was little. He could just as easily been writing about his experiences filling out TPS reports, for all the fun this book conveyed.

A couple times he mentions how a particular conversation or girl was fun or interesting, but usually it seems like he’s simply tolerating them and the bars for the hope of sex. For example, at one point he writes, “I was becoming skilled at tolerating stupid girls long enough to beat their pussies up in bed. Since she had a nice body with a tomato ass, I decided a little pain now would be worth a lot of pleasure later.” He writes similar things a number of other times.

While I’m sure having sex with lots of beautiful women is extremely pleasurable, the entire process seems unappealing. Reading Roissy and other game blogs, I got the impression that obtaining sex with game was a simple matter; a quick, fun conversation at the club with some gaming, then a trip to the women’s bedroom. Reading Roosh’s stories it seems to be a lot of trolling of clubs (and I personally dislike clubs/bars, as I don’t care for either crowds or noisiness, with the exception of metal concerts), engaging in conversations you don’t really care for with people you don’t care about (something else, I have a very low tolerance for), spending more time maintaining frame than enjoying yourself, then slowly weaseling your way into sex through manipulation and persistence.  I was struck by the amount of time/effort he seems to expend working his way from club to cab to apartment to bed to sex while slowly overcoming the resistance his partners put up; from my readings of game blogs, it had always seemed so much more breezy and quick.

Maybe I’m missing something, but it would seem to be a lot less effort just to pay for sex than to engage in all this for a few one night stands (I think I might have just had an idea for a future blog post) and the occasional short-term sexual relationship.

On the other hand, his day bang stories seemed less draining and effort consuming than his club game stories.

So, in sum, if you’re interested in knowing more about the life of a player, or for learning a bit more about game from real-life examples, I’d give this book a read. If you’re wanting to start learning game, try a different book first.

I found this book helpful, this helped me to know that I do not want the clubbing lifestyle. If I do ever end up fully swallowing the red pill, I will not be doing club or night game. It does not seem worth the effort to me. The temporary pleasures of sex, however fantastic, just do not seem to be worth the seeming grinding, joyless monotony of it. I’d either work on day game, pay for sex, or go without; any of those three would seem preferable.

One last note that’s probably totally unnecessary, but if you’re squeamish about sex or are a rabid feminist or whatnot, the book will offend you, but you could probably tell that from the title.

I still plan to read and give my impressions of Bang and Day Bang, but my reading list is filling fast, so I don’t know when I’ll get around to it. From this book, I’ve got a strong feeling I’ll probably appreciate Day Bang a lot more. I’ve also got Athol Kay’s The Married Man Sex Life Primer and How To Answer books on the way; I might read and review those first. We’ll see.