Overgaming
Overgaming, in PUA, is when men try so hard to not seem needy or desperate that they go too far in the other direction.
Example[edit | edit source]
In incel Discord servers that allow femoids, one will often see men calling 6/10 girls "cunts" and such, in their eagerness to not seem like beta orbiters. The original concept of overgaming was that it would be overgaming to neg sixes. The idea behind negging is to stand out by being the one guy who makes a backhanded compliment to a 9 or 10 rather than worshiping her. But almost all women under an 8 are insecure about their looks and would feel hurt if you neg them. So while a 9+ is supposed to scramble to regain her "rightful place" in your esteem, a less-hot woman will just think you're an asshole for pointing out flaws that she already feels bad about, and she will associate you with negative feelings. Negging should be limited to women over an 8.
A key exception is when an 8 or 9 doesn't know she's hot, due to body dysmorphia, or being from a culture with different beauty standards that she doesn't meet. Or her self-esteem may be screwed from an abusive childhood or relationship. Negging is counterproductive with these women just like it is with actual ugly women. But frustratingly, this type of woman will often put on a cool, dignified façade, so you'll have no idea that she's secretly the sensitive type and your backhanded compliment hurt her feelings and she's crossed you off the list of people she'd ever bone.
Some 6s also think they're 9s because of the fat acceptance movement; they confuse big tits and ass with fat tits and ass. These women are delusionally full of themselves and should be negged for sport, regardless of whether it makes them want to have sex with you. Some other sixes who think they're 9s may not be fat, but may be from a small town with a high inbreeding coefficient and she was the least ugly out of all of them so she grew up thinking of herself as the prom queen. Generally, game should be tailored to the woman's own self-image and degree of fragility. How she actually looks is irrelevant to how she will respond to some tactic.
Because negging is such a precarious tightrope walk, the best advice might be to just avoid it entirely. It's too easy to get it wrong and be written off as a douche, and even when you master the art, the rewards are minimal. Other types of game can achieve the same effect of shifting your apparent relative mate value, without the risk.
See also[edit | edit source]
