The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists Imitation Leather – Illustrated, September 6, 2005

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME: I am 24 years old and never had a girlfriend. I lost my virginity when i was 18 and so far had only slept with 3 girls (Which were all bad experiences because of my nervousness and whiskey d!@k problems). Growing up i was always insecure about myself because i always looked way too young for my age. Girls always went for guys that were older than them and this is the reason i never really dated in high school or middle school or ever. All the girls that i was into wanted nothing to do with me in terms of dating and intercourse. They looked at me as an insecure little boy, resulting in my low self-esteem. Now that i'm finishing college, i'm starting to break out of my shell.HOW I FOUND OUT ABOUT THE BOOK: Since I don't have much luck with girls, and was tired of making love to my hand, i decided to purchase myself a fleshlight. If you never heard of it, it's an artificial vagina. On the website which sells fleshlights and other toys for both men and women, i noticed that they also had a knowledge section. Here is where i came across the amazing masterpiece called "The Game". So i went on amazon to read the reviews and previewed the book. I decided that i need to read this asap. I bought the book a week or so later.WHAT I THINK ABOUT THIS BOOK: My life is going to change after reading this book. Neil Strauss has opened my eyes and made me realize that it's never too late to change and reinvent yourself. He is a perfect example of a AFC who never had much luck with women before he became a PUA. Soon after joining the PUA community, he learned different techniques on how to approach and talk to women. Today he is considered the best PUA in the world. Before joining the community, he would never have thought that he would be successful in picking up women let alone some of the most beautiful women in the world.The stories in this book are amazing. I was hooked from the very beginning. I have never finished reading a book so quickly. It's amazing what kind of adventures he had during his journey being a PUA. It has inspired me to be more adventurous and expand my horizons. My goal now is to learn as much as I can from his teachings and the PUA community and use them in real life. Im ready to reinvent myself. I'm ready to forget about my past and make the rest of my life the best of my life. Although i wont be using only Neil's material like his student who can't think for themselves, I'll create my own that will fit my personality. I figure it will work out best for me.I suggest this book to any guy who needs help getting women. I believe this book will give you confidence and encourage you to make the next step.WHAT THIS BOOK HAS DONE FOR ME SO FAR: I went to a sports bar in NYC recently to watch the world cup final with my friends. This book motivated me to break my mental block of insecurity and to approach girls and start conversations. When my friends and i finally picked a spot to chill at, i saw a beautiful Spanish girl named mercy who was there with 4 of her friends. She was the hottest out of all of them. I was hesitant at first but i found it in me to open up the set. I ignored her at first and started talking to one of her friends. Then i was talking to three of her friends. Noticing that i was paying her no attention, she said something to me and i was in. I made her comfortable with me by making her laugh and being friendly. I later gave her my number (which was a mistake because she never texted me. Probably because she saw me hit on other girls throughout the day. It was a typical AFC mistake.) I also got the numbers of 2 of her friends.Later i started talking to beautiful black woman who had short hair like amber rose. I found her very sexy. We talked, laughed and flirted. She told me she was 30 (Which was shocking to me since i would never think that an older woman would be into a younger guy like me.) she was divorced with 2 kids. MILF!! She later gave me her number but i never called her. I guess i have to build up more confidence to deal with MILFsThen there was Kayla, the sexiest waitress that worked there. She was a solid 8. She was the type of girl that i thought would never talk to a guy like me. I went out for a smoke and she came out seconds after. She asked "does anybody have a light?" i looked at her and, without hesitation, went over to her. I lit her cigarette and we chatted. I made her laugh and feel comfortable with me. I talked to her like i knew her for years. I don't know where i was getting this confidence from. I could tell she was into me. We later exchanged numbers. I still text her from time to time and i plan to visit her again once football season starts. GO JETS.That day i got a total of 4 numbers. My friends were shocked. They never saw me do that before. They've always known me for being the shy kid that never talks to girls. It was a success. I was shocked with myself. Especially because I didnt even rely on the methods from the book. I was just being my confident self. It was a test and it worked. I can't wait to see what the future holds for me. I see great potential in myself now. This book has already helped me grow. And this is just the beginning. Im sure it will help you as well.Good Luck

"The Game", at first, appears to be an informative, eye-opening, entertaining and DANGEROUS MANUAL ON HOW TO SEDUCE WOMEN. Deep within this controversial book, however, lies one of the best self improvement books available to man... as long as he understands and embraces the fundamental reality that the acquisition of confidence and personal worth are strictly required in order to succeed at the Game. A lot of low self esteem individuals will read this book and become, I believe, better men.And I completely understand the threat many women would feel by this material. But intelligent women are insulated from the manipulation at which many of the individuals featured in this story are so inept. Only the naïve are at risk, as they always have been.Many people refer to this book as a manual on how to seduce women. But Neil Strauss, its author, never made such a claim. It was merely his honest and humorous account of his experience in the PUA (pickup artist) community. But Strauss is a talented writer. And, as such, he not only managed to make this the very entertaining and insightful manual everybody said it was, but has also given an extremely valuable tool to goodhearted men with benign goals - a tool that can be used with mutual benefit, without anyone getting hurt or played. In spite of other reviewers' claims to the contrary, Strauss does disclose the nature and vivid examples of the emotional and spiritual consequences PUAs reap when they manipulate people for narcissistic purposes.This endeavor began when Strauss, a writer for the New York Times, was given an assignment to write about the underground pickup artist community. Strauss was a skinny, balding intellectual who felt awkward around women and hadn't had much success with them prior. He immediately homed in on a character named Mystery and hit the mother load. Mystery was a modern day Casanova and widely considered, by the cumulative underground community of PUAs, to be the preeminent pickup artist in the world. Tom Cruise's seduction guru character in "Magnolia" was supposedly based on Mystery. By the time Strauss finished his assignment, he had transformed himself and assumed Mystery's title as tenth degree pickup master of the universe.As I began reading the book, I felt uneasy. Knowing this knowledge was out there felt akin to suddenly discovering a bunch of troubled kids figured out how to make nuclear weapons.I've always had great interest in psychology and what makes people do the things they do. I discovered my knowledge of psychology was pale in comparison to these guys. They (the serious ones) study contemporary literature on psychology and ancillary subjects, many of which involve some sort of self-improvement. The young, horny ones operate with one laser-focused mission: Bed women... bed as many "9+" women as possible! The more they bed, the more they validate themselves. But some, more enlightened ones, were simply looking to find the best wife/partner they possibly could.Strauss began as Mystery's student. After a few successes, he began to catch the eye of other PUAs to whom he quickly acclimated himself. He soaked up their knowledge like a sponge. At the end of two years, Strauss had studied, one-on-one, the methods of all the world's alleged greatest pickup artists and took that which best suited his own personal style and made it his own. In the process he became an underground, worshipped legend - Code Name: Style. But in the process, he also greatly strengthened his core person and acquired the Holy Grail: self-esteem. This book doesn't just contain the cumulative knowledge of the PUA community, but one hell of an entertaining story.It must be stated that the Game's contribution to much of Strauss' unstoppable success is mitigated by the fact that he was a writer for one of the most respected publications in the world, living in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills over Sunset Boulevard (a consequence of rising to the top of the PUA community), regularly interviewing celebrities and driving a nice car; most men with these assets aren't having issues dating. Still, I believe the majority of what he achieved was aided by his mastery of the basic principals of "The Game". And those are:1. You can only "game" a woman with whom you are prepared to fail (if you find yourself wanting her too badly, you'll never have her)2. Exude extreme confidence3. Demonstrate some kind of value, skill or talent NEAR your target, but not directly to her. Initially, pretend you don't even notice her.4. Win over her friends5. Be hard to get6. Be fun7. Handle challenges from competing men intellectually and psychologically. Never fight.8. Respond to any signs that she's not interested as if it were "no big deal"9. Once you have your target's attention, playfully insult ("neg") her. For example, "I like your hair, is that your natural color?" The more beautiful the woman, the more effective the neg is in garnering interest as they rarely hear comments of that nature.10. Once attraction has been established, punish any unwanted behavior by withdrawing and disinterest, but do not pout or have an attitude.11. Alternate between attraction and disinterest signals in a push-pull fashion until rapport is establishedThere are many other rules, but those are the ones that stuck out to me.As I read, I found myself subconsciously adjusting my behavior, according to Game theory... and getting surprising results. Women that used to intimidate me with their "presence" were suddenly acting goofy/nervous around me. Could this be real? After I got over the initial excitement of my newfound knowledge, I began to get disappointed that the women that made ME goofy/nervous for so long could be so easily manipulated. I feared that I would start to lose respect for women. Who wants someone they don't respect?But by the time I got to the end, I realized that I wasn't manipulating anyone. I was simply carrying myself with more confidence. I found myself initiating conversations with strangers. There were no signs of neediness or social anxiety. I realized a man with a conscience can take a small portion of the knowledge shared in "The Game" to simply get over that first, most difficult hurdle of establishing rapport with a woman to whom he is attracted. I realized all anyone reading this book is really looking for is confidence. And many individuals that happen to gain a skill or talent as a result of his quest for a better sex life might just get some self esteem in the process. And that, I believe, is the greatest good of this material. The greater one's self esteem, the higher his goals.Knowledge is power. And it's only how that power is used that can reveal the nature of its possessor. The only real dangerous "players" out there are the ones whose cognitive reasoning and emotional maturity never fully develop and, at the same time, possess Oscar-worthy acting skills. Yeah, there are a few out there. But an intelligent woman knows when she's being played. And as Strauss saw repeatedly, manipulating and seducing a woman, in and of itself, is a victory that invariably leaves one hollow, still unfulfilled. In the end, your true self is what counts and is the only thing that can find and keep love.

I have serious PTSD from the PUA community. I am the srt of woman who would scream f off! As mentioned in this book, the sort who didn't fall for their methodsI have been raped before by PUA feeling I owe it to them. You know whenthey rip off your pants and you're screaming no! no! Kicking him off etc, etc I'd better spare the detailsThe constant put downs -- it never stops, everyone hating on me forever. Why would anyone create this method?So what did I like about this book? Why, these guys actually did screw with women and screw them up. So many woman seek staying home now and are permanently traumatized from how they were treated by these guysAnd, it's important to talk about these things. This was huge, these guys where seriously harming, sex abusing and putting down women relentlessly -- they still are -- it's only gotten worse. A world created where so many men have to constantly be mean, hateful, and rape-y to women, because, they were told guaranteed success if you just keep tellinh her everything about her is wrong. Never mind he's a big guy and she's a little woman not expecting constant aggressive sexual persistenceNow to be fair many women do like casual sex. And focusing on those women for casual sex in nice way would have been fineBut to decide to use the internet to convince every man to verbally attack and abuse any woman he decides he has the right to have sex with and evily work at isolating her and putting her in a position to make her have to have sex -- because that's the point, no free will for her!This is a very real, awful traumatizing part of the last almost 30 yearsFor me, I needed someone to talk about it openly, frankly amd with a human heart -- despite the errors he himself might have madeWe need to talk about the awful, tragic things that happen in society in a meaningful wayThis book talks frankly and openly about it, and in its 20/20 hindsight isn't cruelFor anyone greatly affected by the behavior of men involved in this, perhaps this book will help you face it and feel like you were part of a greater victimization, that it wasn't just you being constantly torn down by every man, but that each of a huge number of men have been robotically walking from woman to woman treating each terribly and forcing sex on them in huge relentless numbers getting angry and forceful when we say no, threatening, so many threats -- harsh words, that we can't say no (and knowing now it's because they were selfish in believing that the woman would just give them sex -- all the women -- and it is really easy to rape a woman -- she's small, scared and alone. This is a huge rape movement with women left very traumatized after relentless, endless men just needing to non-stop "neg" her. The men will even line up practicing their routines for the "10" whose life has now been shut down. She can't get to the train station, the men won't let her. She can't sit in a coffee shop, the men won't let her. She can't go on lunch break, the nen won't let her. She can't study biology at campus, the men won't let her. All her time is taken up with loud, abnoxious men putting her down, demanding dates and sex and getting angry because "no" from her isn't an option. They were told treating her poorly meant instant sexWhy would any man think they should be making women have sex with them?? These women wanted something else -- this is a form of rape on every level treating women like this. These men should be charged and jailed for abusing women, abusing their time, and abusing their sexualityBut, as I said, we need to talk about the horrific things that happen in societyThis book was so very good at talking broadly on this part of our history, part of our societyIf you need material that talks frankly about this, this book doesI recommend this book to anyone who needs to piece together what has been happening in the horrible mistreatment of women that has been taking place, and apparently world wideI just want men to be nice to me, but regardless of what he's thinking consciously, if he finds me attractive, or has to build a relationship almost all men now think they should play the mean sort of games that are in this bookYou can actually face these things and see them written out here, by someone who has a broader sense of what happenedIn the author's defense, there were PUA (Pick up Artist) gurus everywhere, so what the gurus loca to you, or the popular abuse towards women was at the times it affected you are likely different and very much harsher than these guys in this book, because these guys may not have meant it as meanly as your local PUA guru. This community is tied to the misogyny community, and there are all kinds of misogynistic views in the PUA community. It is misogynistic itself to not think much of what it does to all the women having the Pick uUp Artist behavior forced on themPUA is an acronym for Pick Up Artist

Tolles Buch Cover, Karl Ess hat das Buch mal empfohlen daraufhin habe ich es gekauft - gelesen habe ich es nie aber es sieht schick im Bücherregal aus.

Very interesting.

Horrific.

superb