If you've ever been close to anybody who's particularly into
video games, you'll know that there's not much that will come between them and their precious console. It doesn't matter if there's hot food waiting for them on the table, a great movie about to start on the TV, or even the promise of some
quality time with their significant other - a true gamer will forego it all in order to complete that one tricky level they've been playing for the last three hours.
It's perhaps understandable, then, that the partners of gamers sometimes get a little bit frustrated with having to compete with a bunch of pixels on a screen.
With that in mind, one woman decided to draw up a list of rules for her boyfriend after buying him the latest Call of Duty game for Christmas.
Ashley Davison, a student at the University of Oklahoma, wrote out five simple rules for her other half to follow if he wanted to play the game:
1. If I call you must pause the game and talk to me with full attention
2. No starting another match if we are planning to hang out or I ask to hang out
3. You must ask if it is okay for you to play while I am over at your house with you. Make sure I have something to do while you are in battle.
4. You must reply to a text no longer than 11 minutes
5. Do not forget to give me just as much attention.
And, if that wasn't enough, she also got him to sign a contract which said:
"I, Blake Perry, will follow these rules and in return, I will be enjoying my new game and loving my girlfriend at the same time.
"But if I do not follow these rules my girlfriend, Ashley Davison, can take this game away from me at anytime for the rest of my life.
"So I will follow these rules and not forget about my girlfriend."
If you think this sounds a little over the top, you're not alone. Blake Perry, Ashley's boyfriend, was quick to share the list to
Twitter - along with a message to say that the rules weren't going to last very long.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/B_perry_9/status/944974183003578368]]
And, while some people were supportive of Ashley's stringent rules...
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/jacobdefoor7/status/945474080605687808]]
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/TheRealKMae/status/945775300666851333]]
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/heath1477/status/945749555869618179]]
Others thought she was just getting in the way of her boyfriend's fun...
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/King_Rodrigues/status/945821018957996033]]
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/HausOfEmiily/status/946438649318604800]]
However, after going viral with 8,000 retweets and dividing the internet's opinion, the couple had to fess up that it was actually just a playful joke.
Really, though, is it so unreasonable to ask your other half to make a little time for you while you're in their company? Or, failing that, let them join in on a two-player or co-op mode? After all, you know how that old saying goes: the couple who takes down nazi zombies together, stays together. Or something like that.
