Love and marriage...
ACORNSOFT/Ivan Berg Soft ware have produced two, similar looking
packages to help you decide whether you really do hate the sight
of your marriage partner or whether it's just an illusion you've
been having.
Both packages are designed to run on the BBC Micro and the Electron.
The Dating Game by Dr Glenn Wilson and ... I Do by Hans J. Eysenck
(of "Test Your Own IQ" fame) each contain two cassettes
and instruction booklet.
They are both good games, handy for provoking conversation,
but hardly designed to change your life.
I remember, as a teenager, avidly doing the quizzes in "Jackie"
to rate my chances in love and marriage, and these packages pander
to exactly those same impulses.
You are sure your innermost self will stand revealed to you,
and it's always a bit of a letdown to find nothing very exciting
after all.
Eysenck's "... I Do" is a real old psychological test
in the true spirit of these things.
He makes sure you don't cheat by asking you the same thing three
different ways, and words the questions as though we've all had
Mensa membership since we were in nappies.
The results are displayed as positions on eight different sliding
scales.
However the labels used at each end of the scales have a high
jargon factor, so that when you finally get your score, it is
not all that clear what it means.
The scales include: Extroversion — Introversion Psychoticism
- Superego Tender minded - Tough minded High libido - Low libido
You can see that these are supposed to tap your personality
and attitudes, but just where that gets you in relation to your
partner is another matter.
The handbook suggests the test be used in the spirit of "Know
Thyself, though if you don't already know the things it tells
you, you are probably beyond redemption!
However you might just learn some unknown quirks of your other
half.
Glenn Wilson's The Dating Game, although similar in its basic
concept, is designed with greater imagination and even a sense
of humour and proportion.
Incidentally, when you enter your personal details you'll need
to lie about your age if you are under 16 or the program will
hang up on you.
Mr Wilson has a more relevant approach than Eysenck. The questions
seem quite realistic and meaningful and on the whole it is less
obvious which is the "right" answer.
The first cassette contains just the one questionnaire, "The
Dating Game", which can be played by up to 40 people.
They can each be tested against each other for compat-ability
(platonic or sexual).
The scope this gives for engendering daftness at parties is
obviously a point in its favour.
The second cassette contains several smaller and less well-constructed
"games". Love Style characterises you as fanciful or
practical, cool or passionate, serious or playful and so on.
Other tests investigate your Preferred Relationship and assess
your Dating Skills.
Really both packages should be marked "Strictly For Fun".
To pretend greater things for them (as Eysenck does) is really
rather pompous and ridiculous.
However if you do take them in a spirit of jollity they are
both quite entertaining.
The ... I Do quizzes will seem rather uninspiring to old hands,
but if you've never done anything like them before they will pass
muster.
The Dating Game is more readily comprehensible in both questions
and results, its approach more refreshing, and its sense of its
own importance more realistic.
For example, if you score low on your dating skills it will
advise you: "Seek help immediately or become a hermit".
Wendy Cook
