[random_guy]

I'm not talking about pick up artists: they explicitly target those kind of girls, and they've developed techniques tailored for that. I don't even know about that stuff, honestly, all I know comes from The Game.

I understand your disbelief: I didn't believe it myself before trying it first hand. I know very well that going out alone hitting on strangers requires a lot of motivation but, if you ever feel like that, I can only recommend the experience. After that you will judge by yourself.

[pw0ncakes]

No. There are a lot of really great women out there who don't respond to silly displays of dominance and who won't leave you if they discover someone more "alpha". It's not even that hard to find a great girl; it just takes a lot of time and patience.

If you want to consider basic social skills to be "game" then, yes, everyone is receptive to it, but that's not what I mean. Some bits and pieces of "game" are general social skills that everyone would benefit to know (and 85% of people have already learned) but the worldview itself is a self-perpetuating mess.

The only genuine benefit of studying game is to develop social skills; it's just important to stop there before you start believing all that horseshit (most "evo-psych" is the 21st-century analogue of the four humors). There's no harm in reading it and being aware of the ideas, but letting this culture of runaway hypersexuality poison your view of human nature is a bad idea.

Good: developing basic social skills, making friends, and developing the confidence to pursue women you like.

Bad: Tailoring your personality to the lowest-common-denominator type of person who seeks sex in a bar or nightclub. If you let that filth into your mind, the enemy has won.

[random_guy]

I'd like to be able to believe that once again.

It's really as you said, social skills and no more: it's just about trial and error - knowing a lot of different situations and mindsets and learning how to 'work' with them.

I don't really know about all the esoteric stuff that these guys often talk about: I think they've been created so that someone can make a living out of it. But if they give the guys that are buying enough confidence to actually give it a try I guess it's okay.