Stories

New app Joystick Dating, catering specifically to single gamers, launched in June. But ongoing reports of rampant misogyny in gamer culture might impact the number of women interested in signing up.

Niche dating apps aren’t new, but appealing to gamers looking for love shows promise because of the number of people around the world who not only play video games but are avid fans of online gaming and esports. According to the latest stats from The Gamer, there are over 164 million adult gamers in the U.S. alone, which means about 64% of Americans play video games. That’s a huge potential market, considering more than half of U.S. adults are single.

Tinder, while not a niche dating app, has sponsored esports events and organizations, seeing the opportunity to appeal to gamers that Joystick’s creator David Minn sees.

Dating app Tinder raised the alarm for users of its popular dating app as reports of coronavirus spread across the U.S., with confirmed cases in most states.

Tinder has created ads that appear as users swipe through its app, providing links to the World Health Organization’s website with recommendations for preventing the spread of the virus, according to The Hill.

The ad states: "Your wellbeing is our #1 priority…Tinder is a great place to meet new people. While we want you to continue to have fun, protecting yourself from the coronavirus is more important.”

Image: Cosmopolitan

Single life is full of ups and downs, and while the dramatic moments are not always fun to live through, they make for great entertainment. Tinder has partnered with women’s lifestyle magazine Cosmopolitan to create a branded podcast that digs into what dating is really like across the United States.

‘Single, Swipe, Repeat’ is a 12-episode audio show hosted by Faye Brennan, Sex & Relationships Director of Cosmopolitan. Brennan is joined each week by a celebrity guest host to break down the most memorable, hilarious, emotional, romantic and relatable dating stories shared by Tinder users throughout the country.

I just turned 58-years-old and am still clicking on women’s faces appearing on OK Cupid, one of the most popular internet dating sites. No dates went beyond a few, but I have some great stories to tell. Here’s my favorite and most horrific which i call SCREENSAVER GIRL:

I took Screensaver Girl to a seafood restaurant in Sheepshead Bay. Our conversation was typical for a first OK Cupid date. A Q&A followed by the parts of our life stories that weren’t too revealing. We continued our conversation as we walked along the bay. Suddenly, she bent over the metal fence along the perimeter of the bay and regurgitated on the mother of a swan family.

Was it the calamari? That legendary squid? Who knows. All I knew was that Screensaver Girl turned the swan’s white head to dark green. After a few minutes, she raised herself back up. “I’m so sorry, Barry. I ruined a great evening.”

Halloween is without a doubt one of my favorite holidays. I look forward to October every year - the costumes, the decorations, the haunted houses, the pumpkin patches, the apple cider - everything about the season gets me excited, but there's nothing I look forward to more than the horror movies. Some are so terrifying that I can't bring myself to walk down a dark hallway to go to the bathroom. Some provide short jolts of fear and embarrassed giggles afterwards. Others are so campy that they are transformed into low-budget raunchy comedy flicks. In any form, I can't shake my love for horror films.

In celebration of the Halloween season, let's take a look at another kind of scary story: online dating horror stories.

Lynne met her husband, Dave, online six years ago. They met on a dating site called LDS Mingle which is an online matchmaking service for Mormon singles. Back then online dating wasn't as popular but Lynn had exhausted all of the prearranged dates that her well meaning friends had found for her. She wasn't going to give up but she wanted to meet a man whose religious affiliation was with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Online dating was the only real choice for her. When she first connected with Dave online they found that they lived 700 miles apart. This didn't stop them from forming a relationship and they were soon calling each other every night on the phone. In a few months Dave came to visit Lynn and in just 8 hours after meeting her in person, he had proposed. They were married that summer.

For the full story on this dating success story, read the Mormon Times.