Sure it sounds like an odd title for a website section that’s focused on gaming, but like all things in life, it helps to dip our heads above the sea in which we’re swimming to understand the ways of those people who aren’t like us.

For the same reasons that I don’t totally understand why a person might get a thrill out of spending 5 to 7 nearly consecutive hours playing GTA V or one of the many Naruto editions, certain gaming fan boys and girls may have no idea why a person wouldn’t want to engross themselves into the world of gaming.

As such, here are a few reasons why your significant other doesn’t want to play video games with you – and perhaps how you can combat them to help you gain a gaming partner:

Gaming feels like a waste of time or a guilty pleasure

The reason certain folks might eschew the process of sitting down and literally picking up a controller to play a game is due to good old American guilt that has drummed into our heads that gamers are lazy losers. However, quite the opposite can be true.

For every report about violent and unproductive video games, there are more positive articles that point to the benefits of hand-eye coordination and creativity that playing games can bring. So focus on those articles.

It seems childish but can be a bonding, productive experiment

Becoming an adult doesn’t mean putting away all your video games – but certain people do have a mistaken viewpoint that they should no longer like such a childish activity.

On the contrary, I know a married couple who both have very successful careers as developers with a large technology company, and in their downtime, they spend hours playing World of Warcraft together. Knowing the way that gaming provides a bonding experience for the couple and provides them with necessary time to give their brains a break from all the coding, I would say that these advantages would surely help another person trying to convince their non-gaming spouse to come aboard.

The game you’re playing literally sucks or is of the wrong genre – so find a better one

Besides all of the other above reasons, one monumental factor that a non-gamer who doesn’t like to play games with you might pull out of their hat is that it’s actually a bad game you’re trying to get them to play.

Perhaps that means the game has poor playing instructions, or is replete with the kind of common printing mistakes – like bad spelling, awful grammar and poor resolution for the gaming images – that you find on websites or signage that you may run into every day.

Alternately, whereas a more timid person might hate to play a game with lots of bloody, gory scenes – they might exist just fine in playing a different game with a sports theme or something lighter in spirit. Therefore, try to convert your new non-gaming buddy who’s set to become a gamer by changing your selections. You may have won a gamer friend for life.