The ideas around non-monogamy weren’t sufficiently part of the world at that time for the PUAs of that era to have encountered them. When I first read THE GAME, I thought, “Cool, a guide to sleeping with more chicks, more effectively.” Now I read it and think, “There are things these guys get, but they are immature and miss so much.” The fallout nearly destroyed his relationship, and in the process taught him that there was a downside to being a pickup artist: getting caught.” Solution, tell the chicks you’re into non-monogamy, make them part of that structure, help the threesomes flow.

Mystery has a problem when he sleeps with some chick, and then “she e-mailed Mystery’s girlfriend, Patricia, and told her about her boyfriend’s extracurricular activities. Much of the silly drama in THE GAME could be resolved or lessened through a non-monogamy structure, though I also think most of the guys described lack the maturity or intellectual framework to put it into practice. What’s it most missing? In my view, regular readers will not be surprised to learn, non-monogamy… these guys want to sleep around but haven’t figured out how to structure their relationships and lives to enable women to be congruent and consistent with that desire. THE GAME, the classic memoir, is still a fun read, maybe because, at the expense of truthfulness, it follows a very classic structure, in which the hero (Neil) gets an almost literal “call to action” or “call to adventure,” meets helpers (Mystery) as well as challengers and temptations (bad chicks, liars, also Mystery), undergoes severe challenges on his quest, descends into the abyss, atones, and finally returns bequeath us with the game.

The game neil strauss mystery