So in last week’s article, I asked the question “Does Game Work?“, and despite the fact that I don’t really care for the concept to be rigidly defined as some marketable “unit”, I feel that there is something to it; namely, that one is not limited to the hand you’re dealt at birth when it comes to your sexual prowess, and that you can improve your sexual prowess with concerted effort and study.

The question remains, however: What IS the essence of game, and what is it, exactly, that is improved when you improve your “game”? In other words, why is it that SOME men, some of whom are famously unattractive (such as Henry Kissinger, Grigori Rasputin, or, yes, Giacomo Casanova himself) were able to seduce legions of beautiful women, and yet others who were somewhat closer to being conventionally attractive (such as Mark Zuckerberg or Jeb Bush) completely failed in the mating game, despite the fact that they were equal or even superior to the above stated “Kavorka Men” in terms of power, wealth, or prestige?

Using the four examples of “ugly studs” I always like to use (Pepys, Kissinger, Casanova, Rasputin), there’s not a lot that they have in common: Pepys a middle class civil servant who repeatedly cheated on his wife (and got into fights with her about it shortly followed by wonderful make-up sex), Rasputin a slovenly peasant lay preacher that managed to talk his way into high society, Kissinger a somewhat callous and Machiavellian diplomat whose record is…divisive (to put it mildly), and Casanova a dandy who was notable for bathing daily (in the 1700s!) and in many cases treating women much nicer than other men at the time—in a few notable cases in his memoirs, getting up early to cook them breakfast.

So clearly, having “Game” is not a mere application of being an asshole, or having the “Dark Triad”, or cultivating a slovenliness about yourself to entice society women to “slum it”. While those things CAN be used to attract women, they’re clearly not a necessity—in other words, you can be a conventionally nice person and still get women. And I myself have made this point in past articles, explaining the difference between “cool assholes” and “uncool assholes”.

However, let us take a look at what those four ugly studs do have in common: All four of them lived very interesting lives with lots of stories and anecdotes to tell. All four of them were supremely confident in their abilities—and had the track record of success to prove it. All of them were eloquent speakers. And most importantly, all of them were capable of “reading” the women they were attempting to seduce and modulate their attack to appeal to them—Rasputin exploited a timely fascination for sex and mysticism amongst the Russian aristocracy to get in good with them, and Casanova often went for aristocratic ladies trapped in loveless political marriages and thus craving not only sex, but love and affection as well.

Compare those guys to guys like Zuckerberg and Jeb Bush. Despite their wealth and power, their body language shows they’re clearly not confident, they likely don’t live interesting lives that create that air of danger that excites women, and if their public speaking appearances are any indication, they are neither eloquent speakers nor are they capable of “Reading people”. And thus their love lives suffered as a result.

Thus in my opinion, THIS is the mysterious “X Factor” that enables some men to get women, and some men to live lives of involuntary celibacy. In truth, it is not a mysterious factor at all:

It is merely the ability to provide value to women (and that is almost always accomplished when you earn respect in the eyes of men), be confident, convey that confidence with strong body language and eloquent speech (in other words, don’t just blurt out I HAVE A JOB or whatever like a sperg), be an interesting person, and be capable of doing the “cold read” to formulate a plan of attack based on the individual woman you want.

With practice these things will become second nature to you—even I am not the best in the world at these things, but I am certainly better than the sperg I once was. Anything else is just “Attack pattern alpha” masturbation.