A little competition is a good thing, as long as you don't go overboard.

I'm a competitive person. I don't usually like to admit that, but it's true.

I love games. Pretty much any game that you can play on a table is one that I can play quite well.

I love playing pool. I love skeetball, bowling, video games, and anything else where two people can compete.

There's just a real feeling of victory when you get a higher score than someone else. It's a great feeling.

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Whether it's pool, a two person shooter, or a swimming competition........it feels great to win.

It's easy to forget, though, that the other person you're competing against has feelings. The truth is that people don't like to lose...... and some people take it harder than others.

We usually call these people sore losers, but the truth is if you continually beat someone and make a big deal out of it, then they just won't want to play you anymore.

Who wants to constantly lose?

Shortly after getting married I built my wife a new computer. It was faster and better than the one that I was using, and I was very proud of it. I also built her a desk and got a nice chair so that she had a comfortable computer area. The entire ensemble was sitting right by our balcony door.

My computer was in our bedroom, which was very close to the balcony door.

I networked the two computers together because I knew that my wife liked playing games. I also like playing games so I figured we could have a lot of fun playing video games and sharing a bond that way.

I bought 2 copies of my favorite games and installed them on both computers.

Strategy, first person shooter, action games..... we had every type of game you could think of.

At first it was a lot of fun. I constantly beat her and she would be upset, but I would take her out to dinner and all would be forgiven. Or so I thought.

As I continued to play, and I continued win, she was growing more and more weary of spending time with me in that fashion.

Soon enough she didn't want to do it anymore. It just wasn't fun for her and it was too late for me to fix things in that area. Finally our relationship broke apart. I don't think that the video game aspect was a big factor really, but I still think about it once in a while.

Did I act like a jerk when I won? I don't think I acted any more unreasonable than most people do when they win. However, that's not to say that I wasn't acting like a jerk. Don't you do a victory dance when you win? Don't you mock the other person just a little bit?

I think we all do. That's just kind of how things go. However, if you're playing someone try to remember that the relationship is more important than the game.

You can do a little dance or mock your partner or whatever you want to do as long as it's not a constant thing.

No one likes to lose all the time, and be mocked for it.

A little competition is a good thing, as long as you don't go overboard.