Rules of the Game (41 page)
Authors: Neil Strauss
THE LOVE VERSUS IN-LOVE OPENER
THE ALBINO GARY COLEMAN OPENER
THE NANCY FRIDAY FANTASY ELICITATION
THE LAST-MINUTE-TENSION ELEVATOR
EPILOGUE: A NOTE TO FEMALE READERS
There is no such thing as a pickup line.
But there are pickup
scripts
.
What's a script?
It's a text, with stage directions, that if carried out properly achieves a consistent effect wherever and whenever it's performed.
The idea of a script may be off-putting to many people. To some men, it seems insincere: they'd rather just be naturally seductive without having to resort to canned material. To some women, it seems fake: they've learned through experience to sort through potential suitors and quickly make a binary decision about eachâ
yes
or
no
. And the idea that men can fake the qualities that elicit a
yes
short-circuits this entire evaluation system.
So I urge you not to use the following scripts. Instead, make up openers, stories, and gambits that are true and interesting to you.
However, before coming up with your own material, you might want to look these over anyway. Because they work. And they helped transform me from a guy who was too scared to speak to women into a guy who had experiences that, even in his wildest fantasies, he never imagined were possible.
One of the most interesting things about the so-called seduction community is that it functions like an international laboratory. Every routine that follows is something I've done myself scores of times with success. And only afterward did I share it in the seduction forums, where tens of thousands of men all over the world tried them out within days. Their feedback quickly made it possible to identify which routines were universally effective.
Even as I became more successful and natural in my approachesâable to say pretty much whatever was on my mindâI still found these routines valuable as fulcrums to move to the next stage of an interaction before the conversation
hit a lull. Other times, even when I was in a relationship, they proved useful simply to liven up a boring dinner party or to win over a business contact.
The best of the best are included here (all in updated, improved versions)âexcept, of course, for the routines that were included verbatim in
The Game
(such as the Jealous Girlfriend Opener, the Best Friends Test, the Cube, the Evolution Phase Shift, and the Dual Induction Massage).
Because I've shared variations of these routines over the years, I wanted to make sure they hadn't become too widespread before publishing them. So I put together a street team of students from around the world to test the material. Before each routine, I've listed the results of their approaches, including the
difficulty level
(how easy or challenging the material was), the
saturation level
(how often students were accused of using game), and the
success rate
(how often the routine achieved its intended effect).
One interesting thing to note is that, even in the rare cases where the material was recognized, most students were still successful as long as they didn't get flustered, didn't lie about it, bonded over this unexpected commonality, and comfortably continued to talk to the women they'd approached.
Remember that there are no magic powers in the words on the following pages. What makes them succeed is your delivery. Reciting them like a memorized grocery list won't lead to a rich and varied social life. Instead, understand why these routines work before using them, be genuinely curious about the questions you're asking, and share the material more for your own amusement than to attain a desired response.
Like a comedian or an actor, you should connect with your audience members, making it seem as if your words are only for them in that moment. However, unlike traditional theater, the key to success in social interactions is improvisation: be willing to accept interruptions and unexpected reactions and run with them, rather than trying to finish the routine exactly as written. And, by all means, feel free to modify each of these scripts to fit your own personality and interests.
Finally, make sure you reread the section of
The Stylelife Challenge
associated with each type of routine before attempting it for the first time, so that you learn the timing and subtleties of the delivery. When using the openers, for example, make sure you add your time constraint and root. And when you start generating your own routines that work just as consistently, don't forget to share them with your friends, fellow challengers, and favorite authors.
YOUR FINAL WARNING:
ROUTINES ARE THE
SPAWN OF THE DEVIL.
THEY CAN LEAD TO DEVIANT
SEX AND TEENAGE PREGNANCY.
DO NOT USE THEM â¦
⦠UNLESS YOU REALLY, REALLY HAVE TO.
Type of Routine:
Opener
Difficulty Level:
3/10
Success Rate:
91%
Saturation:
1.6%*
Comments:
“The reactions are always good. This is my usual default opener. It's a great one and usually always leads to interesting follow-up questions.”âG
RAND
M
ASTER
F
LEX
Origin:
While writing
The Game
, I accompanied Courtney Love to an awards show. At one of the after-parties, her boyfriend was upset at her because, from time to time, she made out with women. She said she didn't consider that cheating. He said he did. So we decided to take a poll in the room.
* The statistics reflect the results of up to 1000 individual tests of each routine.
YOU
: Hey, guys, we're having a little debate and need a quick take on something.
GROUP
: What's that?
YOU
: If a guy is dating a girl, and she goes out to a bar with her friends one night and makes out with a guy just for fun, do you consider that cheating?
GROUP
: Yeah, it's cheating.
YOU
: Okay, that makes sense. So here's the real question. And I'll tell you why I'm asking in a second. If she goes out and gets drunk and makes out with a
girl
for fun, is it cheating?
GROUP
: [
The responses will vary, but if any guys say “no,” you can call attention to their double standard (but with a smile
â
always)
.]
YOU
: Okay. Interesting. The reason I'm asking is because my friend over there has been dating this girl. And she likes to go out and get drunk and make out with girls. Now, some guys might be into that, but it upsets him and he thinks it's cheating. She says it isn't. So we thought we'd get an outside perspective on the situation.
GROUP
: Well, it really depends on â¦
Type of Routine:
Opener
Difficulty Level:
3/10
Success Rate:
88.8%
Saturation:
1.5%
Comments:
“Cool opener. I opened six sets and it worked every time. Most of the girls said they used the same line because they were just not into the guy.”âL
OS
D
OG
Origin:
I met a girl online who sent me topless pictures of herself, then came straight to Project Hollywood (the house where I lived while writing
The Game)
to have sex. For some reason, I'd noticed that many women who just want sex, but have little time for formalities like phone calls, meals, or spending the night, are often cheating on a husband or boyfriend. So as we lay in bed together afterward, I asked her if she was dating anyone. She replied that she was married. “I love him,” she confessed, “but I'm not
in
love with him.” It seemed like a small distinction, but for her those two letters were important enough to make all the difference between faithfulness and infidelity.
YOU
: Hey there, my friend and I need a female point of view on something: What do you think the difference is between love and being
in
love? She wants to know because her boyfriend just broke up with her. He told her he loves her, but he's not
in
love with her. What's weird is that some girl made
the exact same speech to another friend of hers recently. So we've been trying to figure out what the difference is exactly.
GROUP
: I think the difference is â¦
YOU
: Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Because I can give my best friend like a bear hug and say, “I love you, man.” But if I say, “I'm
in
love with you,” he'll probably freak out and punch me.
Type of Routine:
Opener
Difficulty Level:
5/10
Success Rate:
85.5%
Saturation:
1.8%
Comments:
“The routine was very successful when used properly. It's more difficult to use with a group that includes both men and women. A good way to do this is to first ask the men what they think, then ask the women and compare both answers.”âM
AJOR
Origin:
One day, a pickup artist known as Swinggcat and I were at a bar, waiting for a friend of his to arrive. His friend is a confident, gnomish-looking guy who'd just gotten out of a relationship, so to kill time we decided to find out if any women there were interested in dating him. Not only did this work as an effective opener that night, but, in the process, we discovered the qualities each woman found most attractive in menâand in what order of importance.
YOU
: Hey, I'm about to meet a friend here, but before he arrives I need some quick advice for him that you'll probably know.
HER
: What's that?
YOU
: His girlfriend recently broke up with him, and tonight is his first night out after recovering from it. He wanted us to give him some advice on meeting women, but you seemed like more of an expert. So out of curiosity, while
we wait for him, what do you think is the number one thing that women look for in a guy?
HER
: Sense of humor [
or whatever
].
YOU
: Okay, sadly, he has no sense of humor [
or whatever
]. Is there anything else that women look for in a guy?
HER
: Maybe if he's really rich [
or whatever
].
YOU
: Well, he's not really rich [
or whatever
]. In fact, he just lost his job at Taco Bell.
HER
: Well, if he's not funny and he doesn't have a job, I wouldn't date him.
YOU
: What if he's the best-looking guy you've seen in your life? Or he's the smartest person on the planet? Or he's amazing in bed? There has to be something else.
HER
: I guess if he was really intelligent [
or whatever
], and I could learn a lot from him.
YOU
: Actually, he's not that intelligent [
or whatever
] either. Do you know Gary Coleman from that show
Diff'rent Strokes?
[
If you don't think she'll recognize the name, feel free to use a different pint-size actor like Mini-Me from the Austin Powers movies
]. He's five foot one and looks like an albino Gary Coleman, except he's not funny.
HER
: [
laughs
] I don't think I'd ever date him.
YOU
: That's okay. You're not his type anyway. [A
small percentage of people may be insulted if you say this without a teasing smile. If this happens, recover with:
] Just kidding. Thanks for the awesome advice. You should totally have your own radio talk show or something.
Type of Routine:
Opener
Difficulty Level:
5/10
Success Rate:
88.6%
Saturation:
4.4%
Comments:
“I had a hard time remembering the important tidbits of this opener, so I did actually struggle the first six times. But it kept on working despite my uneven delivery, so it's pretty damn good. And it transitions well in any number of directions, so it was easier to lead smoothly out of the opener into a value demonstration.”âW
INGDING
Origin:
When I started learning the game, I signed up for the first-ever workshop that a pickup artist named Mystery was offering. He instructed us to approach women by asking, “Do you think spells work?” Since he was a magician, it was easy for him to follow up the line by making her drink levitate. But I, on the other hand, had no magic to follow-up with. Fortunately, I remembered that when I was writing a book with the guitarist Dave Navarro, an actress once came over to his house and left an attraction spell under the cushions of his couch. Two weeks later, she became his girlfriend. So I used this story to turn Mystery's random question into conversation.
