A Video Game Made Me Come Clean About Infidelity

Kotaku - I cheated.

After spending the last three years of my life slowly being consumed by my grave misstep, I've finally come out to say it. I cheated on my ex-partner.

I've never been one for using video games as escapism–I like games that force me to face hard and ugly truths, uncomfortable subjects and unconventional angles. At least, I thought so. When the prospect of Catherine arrived, a game whose entire plot rested on a huge, secret source of anxiety for me, I hesitated. Was I really about to play a game that had me repeating a mistake that had so much impact on me, I hadn't spoken about it to anyone for years?

[2pacalypsenow]

idiot

[Captain Tuttle]

man that's embarrassing.

[DeeZee]

Yeah I agree, it's really sad. If you need a video game to make you feel guilty then somethings off about you.

[jeeves86]

Hey, people cheat - it happens all the time. The important thing to note if you feel any guilt about it is would you change? Would you fall into the same misstep with the same or another person? Or would you always remember the hurt and anguish you'd caused?

[Brownghost]

The weird thing is the person she cheated on is her ex and she was still afraid to tell him

[Hicken]

I'm honestly disappointed in some of the above comments.

Nothing in this world is black and white, and the most gray thing on this planet is probably the relationship between two people. You can call someone stupid for what they've done, but it was their dilemma, not yours.

This is an extremely thoughtful piece, and I for one appreciate the author sharing something as personal as this.

Even more potent is the fact that a video game made her go back and reassess something she'd been trying to hide. A video game made her analyze her own life.

A video game made her do the right thing.

Every other article is meaningless sales or endless debates about what's better than what, or video games looking bad in the media and being blamed for this crime or that.

But an article about something serious, something ultimately positive, and people react by calling the author an idiot?

[RavageX]

I suggest you guys read some of the comments on the site where the original post was, I agree with some of those comments. My personal thought on this....

There is no gray area with relationships/cheating. It is wrong, simple as that. Some say, "I cheated because I was being mistreated/ignored/whatever.&q uot; as if that makes it ok. It does not. END the relationship if you are going to go sleep with someone else.

I think it's good she evaluated herself and handled this issue, but the fact she apparently called up the ex she cheated on years after they broke up to tell him of her actions is silly imo.

She probably feels better about coming clean and the guilt is now free from her, but now her ex has learned something he was probably better off not knowing in the first place. That depends on him ultimately.

[Hicken]

And who are you to decide what is and isn't okay in someone else's relationship?

Some people don't really care about infidelity. Some people view it as punishable by death. That's a pretty wide difference.

I would be happy if my wife or girlfriend cheated on me. But I'm also not so naive as to think accidents don't happen. And I understand that the more you care about someone, the less you want to hurt them. The cheating does nothing to them until they find out, and if the mostly likely way for that to happen is by you telling them, of course you're going to be afraid.

But if you also have a conscience and truly regret what you did, you SHOULD tell that person. What, do you think it would have been better for her to take that secret to her grave? Sorry, but as much as it may have hurt him, he deserved to know.

[RavageX]

If you read what I wrote, I do believe I said MY personal thought.

"I" think cheating is wrong period. If someone else thinks it's ok, then it's their lack of morals. It is also not an accident. You don't accidently sleep with someone.

With the amount of STDs flying around these days, cheating can do something to someone with them being unaware of it.

An old girlfriend calls you up several years out of the blue after you've separated and tells you she cheated on you...wtf is that? The only way that would even make sense is if she explained to him why she cheated, and while that still wouldn't make it ok, at least that way he might have some proper closure.

The only thing I agree with you on is the fact that lots of articles here are much worse. This one isn't bad but I sure don't think it's positive. The overall outcome for her sure, she feels better....but for all we know the guy could have jumped off a bridge after finding out this news.

It's clear her reasons for telling him weren't to help him. She wanted to feel better regardless of what it did to him, which is also kinda how cheating itself is.