Well, even the biggest game skeptics like Aaron Sleazy still talk about 'minimal game', so there is at least some minimal set of behavioral patterns involved. At a minimum you need to be confident enough to approach, keep a conversation going and escalate.
I've always liked the empirical, field-test it, no non-sense, practical what works approach of the PUAs. The problem is that there are so many variables, it's often going to be very difficult to isolate exactly what the reasons for pick-up success/failure were. Hence you end up getting a lot of gimmicky bullshit and weird theories/ideologies/rationalizations mixed into the game stuff that have no basis in fact.
At the end of the day, if you have a theory/idea about pick-up that's not supported by solid science, you just can't be that sure that your theory/idea is anything more than rationalization/entertainment on your part.
If you look at the actual bona-fida science behind pick-up and sexual attraction (evolutionary psychology), so far as I can tell, the studies actually tend to come down more on the anti-gamer side; according to the actual bona-fida scientific studies, only looks and money are strongly correlated with what attracts women; pure looks for short-flings (the alpha strategy) and resources for long term relationships (the beta provider strategy).
I've always liked the empirical, field-test it, no non-sense, practical what works approach of the PUAs. The problem is that there are so many variables, it's often going to be very difficult to isolate exactly what the reasons for pick-up success/failure were. Hence you end up getting a lot of gimmicky bullshit and weird theories/ideologies/rationalizations mixed into the game stuff that have no basis in fact.
At the end of the day, if you have a theory/idea about pick-up that's not supported by solid science, you just can't be that sure that your theory/idea is anything more than rationalization/entertainment on your part.
If you look at the actual bona-fida science behind pick-up and sexual attraction (evolutionary psychology), so far as I can tell, the studies actually tend to come down more on the anti-gamer side; according to the actual bona-fida scientific studies, only looks and money are strongly correlated with what attracts women; pure looks for short-flings (the alpha strategy) and resources for long term relationships (the beta provider strategy).