The Game

A bestselling author and journalist’s intriguing, humorous, and informative inside look at a subculture of men striving to perfect the art of picking up women
When journalist Neil Strauss ventured into the subculture of men who refer to themselves as pick-up artists, it was the single most revelatory experience of his life. The person he was—unlucky with women due to his admittedly beady eyes, the “wispy Rogaine-enhanced growth” that is his hair, and the indentations that ornament both sides of his forehead, among other physical shortcomings—evolved into the confident, successful lady-killer known to the underground community of pick-up artists as “Style.”

As Style, Strauss began to learn everything there was to know about seduction from other online characters like Candor, Gunwitch, and Formhandle. He adopted a new lexicon that included words like PUA, AFC, sarging, kino, pawning, and kiss-close. After he met women, he would go online to ask questions of the other “seductionists,” such as “What do I do if she says she has a boyfriend?” to which he would receive answers like “Use a boyfriend-destroyer pattern.” Style was taken in and educated by master pick-up artists, and eventually he became an elder expert, offering advice to others and teaming up for the hunt with legendary seductionists.

The Game chronicles the life-altering year that Neil Strauss spent as Style, immersed in the subculture of men who refuse to let traditional rules of dating and attraction subject them to unfulfilled lives with women—men who strive for perfection in the fine art of picking up women.