Game Imbalance Hypothesis

www.girlschase.com /content/game-imbalance-hypothesis
This is the first in a three-part series on regional sexual
selection pressures. This piece introduces the concept of
game imbalance, defines it, and posits it as a contributing
cause of mens difficulties with women.

I have an alternate theory why certain classes of men struggle with women far more than certain other classes
do, on average. Alternate from what most guys cite: looks discrimination, racial discrimination, height
discrimination, income discrimination, etc.
The one weve been seeing the most complaints from on the discussion boards lately are men of Indian descent.
Asian and Arab guys struggle a lot as well. Of course, men of all races complain about their inabilities to
succeed with women (and Ive heard plenty of success stories and known personally plenty of successful guys
from all of these racial groups), but some of these race-level complaints are far more ubiquitous than others.
So what makes the difference?
I have a theory. Actually, a hypothesis. Id like to call it game imbalance hypothesis.
And if youll walk with me a moment, Ill show you how I think the effect the hypothesis describes is hampering
certain men and favoring others in the sexual marketplace.

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In 1859, in his masterwork On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin posited that species of animals and plants
(and other sorts) spreading into new environments succeed or fail at being invasive species based on the level of
competition theyve faced in their native environment:

As natural selection acts by competition, it adapts the inhabitants of each country only in relation
to the degree of perfection of their associates; so that we need feel no surprise at the inhabitants
of any one country, although on the ordinary view supposed to have been specially created and
adapted for that country, being beaten and supplanted by the naturalised productions from
another land.

That is to say, take a toad from a region where toads face a great deal of competition for food, territory, and
survival, and throw it into an equally environmentally-suitable region where the species inhabiting the same
niche as that toad have faced far less competition, and the new toad will rapidly outcompete his competitors.
Likewise, take a toad from a relatively untested environment, where there is not much competition for food,
territory, or survival, thrust him into a far more competitive environment, and watch him be eaten alive.
Today this speculation of Darwins is known to researchers as evolution imbalance hypothesis.
It took 155 years, but scientists have finally proven Darwin right ; researchers examining species success at
invading new environments in three varied destinations found that the stiffer the competition for survival a
species faced in its home environment, the greater the success as an invasive species it could expect in a new
environment.
What Id like to propose and what every world-traveling (or even city-moving) skilled seducer already knows
is that this effect is not limited merely to natural selection.
It also occurs among sexual selection, as well.

Easy (Less Selection Pressure) Environments

Now this is not to say that any single group of men has it easy, per se, when it comes to succeeding with
women. However, the social structures and requirements tend to differ dramatically from place to place.
Lets start with Asia and India, the two continents with the men who struggle the most on average with doing well
with Western women. What do you notice about their dating and mating cultures?
Well, for East Asia, their men have historically contributed nearly as much to their gene pools as their women
have; in other words, for every 100 women whove reproduced, 91 men have. That means that, for the most part,
in these societies, theres more or less been 1 woman for every man; a man is all but assured of passing on his
genes.

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Figure too that warfare and accidents are contributing to knock many of those 9 out of 100 men who fail to
reproduce out of the gene pool, and you pretty quickly identify a society where competition seems to be quite
low; one way or another, every guy in East Asia gets laid and makes babies.
How about India? Indias ratios werent figured into that American Journal of Human Genetics study, but if the
lifetime sex partner counts and age at first sex from Durexs 2005 poll are any indication, Indias easily one of the
most sexually conservative nations on the planet, and that usually indicates one man, one woman as well as
anything as India has both the highest age at first sex of any nation (19.8 years; compare that to 16.9 years in
the United States) and the lowest lifetime partner count of any nation (3.0 lifetime partners; compared to 10.7 in
the U.S.; additionally, Ive seen other numbers citing as low as 1.6 partners for the average Indian, which is
probably more accurate if we include the many Indians too poor to participate in an online poll).
So while dating and mating and finding a partner is never easy, at least in these places, if you hang in there
and do what the culture expects of you you are all but assured a mate.
Women arent ditching one man for another. The divorce rate is low; the rate of hooking up with new partners is
low; the conformity to reserved social expectations is high.
As a result, men from these environments are not forced to compete for a mate nearly as hard as men from
some other cultures are nor in completely the same ways.
In China, the expectation for a man is that he own an apartment before marriage for him and his bride to live in;
many parents will purchase these for their sons. In fact, real estate has been so popular in China for the past
several decades that many of the people you will meet in the country own multiple homes or apartments even
a cleaning lady I had while living in Beijing owned 4 apartments (on a wage of $3.25 an hour). This is not an
especially stifling requirement for many. Since there is not a going out culture, most people still meet their
mates through introductions via friends and family.
In India, arranged marriage remains common, especially in poorer areas, but even among wealthier
demographics, and introductions remain an important part of helping the rest of the population to find mates.

Hard (High Selection Pressure) Environments

On the other side of things from low selection pressure environments like East Asia and India, we have
environments like Europe, North America, Africa, and the Middle East.
Going by genetic history, we can see that among Europeans, 77 men have historically passed on their genes for
every 100 women who did so; among Africans, those numbers are lower still, with a mere 71 men passing on
their genes for every 100 women who do so. Compare that to the 91 East Asian men whove passed on their
genes for every 100 women, and the numbers of Europe and Africa are startlingly low.
Considering that around 20% of a population on average historically died of disease or other causes naturally
anyway only, say, 80% of females born pass on their DNA that means the actual number of men reproducing
throughout history is even lower to the tune of around 62% of European males and 57% of African males.
Your odds of successfully reproducing as a male if you hail from one of these regions is markedly lower than
your odds would be if you came from India or East Asia.
So what would we expect? Well, wed expect societies (and perhaps even genetics) in Europe and Africa and
their cultural and perhaps genetic descendants that expose their men to tougher competition for mates.

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In fact, as a result of more stringent sexual selection, wed expect white men to be pretty good at getting girls
(compared to Asian and Indian men), on average, and black men to be a little better still.
What about the Middle East?
Thats an interesting one. Because of the role Islam plays in Middle Eastern society today (markedly different
from the role it played during, say, the Islamic caliphate, which was nearly as sexually liberal and feministoriented at its apex as Western society is today), competition for women is conducted in unusual ways, like:
Throwing your phone number at women and hoping theyll call
Random-dialing phone numbers and hoping you reach a woman
Approaching women out of site of the police and trying to trade numbers
Even though it is difficult for many men in the Middle East to find mates, and polygamy is not so uncommon that
multiple women leave the market for a single male, leaving many frustrated bachelor males (who end up being
convenient for those with political agendas that could benefit from making use of desperate, angry young men),
men do not commonly get opportunities to directly compete for women, so in this case it is a difficult mating
environment yet without as much direct competition as in a place like Europe or North America (a man may still
compete by becoming wealthy or powerful, but thats a strategy used worldwide and is not one accessible to
the majority of men).
Unlike European and African societies today, at no point during the use of most of Middle Eastern mens girlgetting tactics are most men getting a whole lot of social practice in.
This would actually be an example of a society in which the sexual selection pressures against their members
are too extreme.
In comparison to evolutionary imbalance, we might rank nations thus:

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India / East Asia: the game equivalent of interspecific competition in Australia or Hawaii, where most
species have faced low competition due to their isolation, and invasive species frequently achieve
runaway ecological success as soon as they grab a foothold

Europe / Africa: the game equivalent of interspecific competition in Africa or North America, where
most species have faced tough competition and been forced to adapt or die, which makes these
frequently tougher places for invasive species to gain a toehold in, but also places that can export species
that perform extremely well in less competitive locales where the local species offer little real competition

Middle East: the game equivalent of interspecific competition in the Arctic, where several robust and
specialized species hang on, but are not especially well suited as invasive species elsewhere, nor are
other species effective at gaining toeholds here
Thus, wed expect Indian and East Asian men Indian men in particular, owing to their lowest rates of mate
competition to have the toughest hurdles as new entrants to a market; Middle Eastern men to be poorly
adapted to being new entrants as well, though perhaps a bit better off than Indian and East Asian men due to
their pure hardiness; and European and African men (as well as those from the Americas, especially North
America) to fare the best as new entrants on the whole, as theyve generally faced the most direct sexual
competition (as opposed to restrictions in the Middle East designed to limit or prevent sexual competition),
resulting in the highest levels of social calibration and learned game.
Yet, even within societies, there remain wrinkles.

Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the
sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.
Exodus 34:7

In genetics, there is a fascinating process known as DNA methylation, whereby certain environmental triggers
such as stress can actually change the expression of an organisms genome.
In some cases, these changes are even passed down through the generations.
Thus, a gene controlling leptin, one of the bodys hormones for regulating hunger, can be altered due to stress,
with the subsequent methylation, resulting in obesity, not just affecting the individual, but her children and
grandchildren as well.
The genes themselves do not change; they remain exactly the same. However, the expression of those genes
whether they are switched on or switched off, effectively changes dramatically.
In mice studies, exposure to certain environmental triggers can even change the color of the fur of a mice, with

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ripple effects down through multiple generations.

Much like how the environment can leave its mark on the expression of our genes, it can also leave its mark on
our socialization habits, as behavior quirks and attitudes and mindsets and expressions get picked up from the
parent by the child.
As such, while we all like to think of ourselves as separate individuals, the fact of the matter is a bit more
complicated.
You, in truth, are an extension of your forebears, and even if you have never lived in it, the culture and familial
setting that they themselves grew up in reaches down through time to affect you now.

Why Some People So Unaware

Ive known a few Indian-American and Arab-American guys who were abundantly adept with the opposite sex.
They slept with lots of pretty girls, got pretty girlfriends, and were generally pretty cool, laid back guys.
However, the more common variety of these men you run into in the States (especially the Indian-American
fellas) tends to be not as successful with women.
When you hear them lamenting their luck with women online, it sounds like just limiting beliefs.
But when you meet them in person, you can immediately see why theyre having so much trouble: they simply
are not very well socially calibrated.
They dont know:
They effectively act as if they are constantly in the middle of an interview, trying the best to act impressive and
not to show an ounce of weakness. It comes across to most Western people as artificial and discomfiting.
They havent developed nearly as much social aptitude as similarly-aged Western peers, because they grew up
in an environment with far less socializing and mate competition, got started far later, and/or were born in a
Western country but with foreign-raised parents who maintained a more home country-style upbringing,
including shielding them from excess socializing or the early dating most Westerners plunge right into.
The coolest Indian and Arab guys I know? Usually second or third generation in the West. By then, theyre
growing up in mostly-Western households, and neither they nor you consider them Indian or Arab theyre
just American, or British, or whatever their nation of origin.

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East Asian men are similar; many East Asian men are brought up to be quieter and more polite, so will tend not
to be as in-your-face as Indian and Arab men, which makes them not stand out as much. But if you yank them
into conversation, most of them are just as adrift as Indian or Arab men, though their problem is more in not
taking action at all than it is in consistently taking mistaken action, like what happens with many Indian and Arab
men (at least at first / while young).
The interesting thing is that when you examine Asian and Indian culture, you will notice that there is frequently a
discouragement of socialization, as it risks detracting from ones studies; in China, many parents make their
daughters keep their hair cut short through their teenage years to not excite the boys and get distracted from
their studies; in Korea, teens are kept working so hard that many of them attend school all day, Monday through
Saturday, and then head immediately after to after-school lessons where tutoring firms further instruct them late
into the night to help prepare them to do even better.
The end result is you have math and engineering and science whizzes who are fantastic at technical learning,
but impaired with social skills, when compared to individuals from more socially and sexually competitive
environments; in a way, its almost akin to training up entire societies of males (and females) who are mildly
autistic.
Of course, this isnt limited just to Indian and Arab and East Asian men. You will still find plenty of white and black
men whove grown up in conservative towns, or conservative homes, where theyve been underexposed to
socializing, or gotten a late start, and they just struggle to be able to read social cues and muster the correct
response in various social situations. The advantage these men have is that they and their parents will tend to be
plugged into the broader local culture, so they will tend to have been exposed to social rules and expectations
throughout their lives via peers, books, television, and movies, even if they havent been personally practicing
these.
In the case of less socialized Westerners, many of the lessons they need to be socially and sexually competitive
are already internalized, and simply need to be unlocked through corresponding real world experiences.

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Regional Differences Inside of Countries

If you thought we were going to stop at the country level though, theres more to this than that!
If youre a city boy with game whos ever gone and traveled through the more pastoral parts of your country,
youve no doubt run into a clear-as-day phenomenon: country girls are easy.
Heres the thing though: for country boys, country girls arent easy. Theyre the norm.
In fact, if country boys head into the city, their first reaction tends to be: Whoo boy these city girls are HOT but
TOUGH!
Why is it this way?
Simple: cities are more sexually competitive environments .
There are plenty of men who do not learn game and will suck at meeting women whether they are in Smalltown,
USA or New York, NY.
However, the man who gets good at picking up in, say, New York, then goes and visits Smalltown, is usually
going to have an easy time of it. The man whos good at picking up in Smalltown but then travels to New York will
be in for more of a challenge.
If you want an easy comparison, think of it like this: the guy who becomes a good player in Smalltowns ping
pong league, versus a guy who becomes a good player in a large NYC ping pong league.
Put those two guys in a match, and who comes out looking like a star versus who comes out looking like an
amateur? 9 times out of 10, the NYC guy is going to come out on top, quite possibly in a big way, because hes
faced a larger pool of opponents, which usually means a tougher pool of opponents, to reach a ranking of good
given his relation to his competitors. What it takes for him to be good at ping pong relative to the competitors in
his environment is much more than what it takes for the Smalltown man to be good in his environment.
You even see this difference between different cities. I moved to Washington, D.C. right after university, where I
had a relatively easy time (as far as this goes for a 23-year-old suburban kid meeting city girls for the first time
who was making up most of it as he went) picking up new women.
I then moved to San Diego, and struggled for a while. Everyone was better dressed, more attractive, and had
better game and also, the female-male ratio in S.D. is far less favorable to the male sex than the female-male
ratio in D.C., and that means fiercer competition.
On the plus side, after climbing my way up to a point where I was doing well enough for myself in San Diego, I
now found nearly everywhere else I traveled a cinch by comparison. Because I had tested, honed, and shaped
my skills in the fires of a highly competitive city when it comes to mating and dating, I came out on the other end
ready to serve as an effective new entrant into other dating markets and clean up right away.
And even within cities themselves, there are areas that offer more fertile ground for new entrants than others.
In Washington, D.C., for instance, its easier to pick up in Dupont Circle than it is in Adams Morgan because the
competition for women in Dupont Circle is not as great. Most of the bros and playboys and frat boy types are
not there, and would not be caught dead there; but these are typically the guys with the best game (or at least,
the best combination of fundamentals + aggressiveness, and really this is all you need for most women).
In San Diego, its easier to pick up in North Park or Ocean Beach than it is in Pacific Beach or the Gaslamp
District because, again, there is less competition in these places.

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Practical Application?

I started writing a section here on practical application, but its a giant topic acclimating to more competitive
social and sexual environments from less competitive ones is climbing a mountain, and, further, its sort of what
this site is all about anyway.
The best recommendation to anyone realizing this is his issue hes moved from a less competitive
environment into a more competitive one is to study this website, and to busy himself with familiarizing himself
with and learning from the men around him who are already well-adjusted to the more competitive environment
he now finds himself in.
What do they do? How do they do it?
What dont they do? Why arent they doing it?
Much of the time this will mean becoming aware of social rules and nuances you previously didnt even know
existed they werent used or werent much used in your previous environment, but here they reach their
tendrils into everything and affect it all.
At the upper echelons of game, if you want to be good, seek out progressively more challenging environments to
train your game in. You probably dont want anti-competitive environments e.g., gaming girls in a place on
religious lockdown, for instance.
However, somewhere like San Francisco, where men outnumber women by a fair clip and many of your
competitors are guys with money to throw around? Yes.
Or, San Diego or Vancouver, both of which are places where men outnumber women AND the men are buffed
out with huge muscles? Oh yes.

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You will be in for some mean competition here. And whys that good?
Because anywhere else you go in the world is like walking on Easy Street.
(alternately, if youve still got a lot of work to do on your game, you probably want to steer clear of places like this
and gradually level up)
The most important takeaway though is that if youre in an environment where it feels like everyone just knows
something you dont, chances are they do your task, if you want to be doing as well as they are, is to figure out
what those things they know are... what those social rules and nuances of socialization could be... then
emulating them, and using them in your own socializing, until youve got them down and they are second nature.
In this way, you can adopt the adaptive optimizations of the newer, more competitive culture you find yourself in,
and absorb the strengths of those men whove acclimated themselves successfully to these sexual marketplaces
so that you may do as they do.
Chase Amante

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