Eight months ago, Reddit user u/charliekirkedyou would wake up in the morning, go to work, come home and play “crappy itchio games” games from itch.io until 1 AM, only to repeat the same routine the next day. As he puts it on Reddit, it was “pretty depressing.” He had only bought a Steam Deck (OLED version reviewed here at Notebookcheck) so he could play modded Fallout and Nintendo Switch games comfortably in bed after a long day at work instead of sitting at his desk. The handheld wasn’t supposed to improve his social life. Quite the opposite: He actually intended to use it to become even more of a recluse.
One day, he brought his Steam Deck to a café he regularly visited before work. While he was playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom through an emulator (although, as we recently reported, the game can now also run natively), someone suddenly appeared beside his table. u/charliekirkedyou took one side of his headphones off, expecting the usual question about where to find the bathroom. Instead, a young woman asked, “Is that a Steam Deck?”
As it turned out, her name was Maya, and she was trying to set up emulators on her own Steam Deck. However, she’d gotten stuck because she couldn’t figure out which files belonged in which folders. The lucky Steam Deck owner immediately offered to help. If she brought her handheld the next day, he could take a look at it. At first, he didn’t really believe she’d actually show up. But Maya did return – and what was supposed to be a quick 15-minute tech support session turned into a long conversation. More meetings outside the café followed, eventually leading to their first dinner dates. According to the Reddit user, they’ve now been together for five months.
That’s why he considers the Steam Deck a solid 10/10 purchase, jokingly suggesting that “Valve should advertise this.” The comments are full of congratulations. But there’s one question many users are particularly eager to have answered: Do the two actually play games together? Yes, they do. As u/charliekirkedyou confirmed, they’re currently playing Baldur’s Gate 3 together in co-op.
As a child in the 90s, my Gameboy was my steady companion. After school, the PlayStation was fired up. When I finally got my first PC, I was completely hooked. My passion for gaming has never waned since. For me, writing for Notebookcheck means reporting on topics that are really close to my heart – in addition to gaming, I also like to write about e-mobility, photovoltaics and innovative gadgets. When I’m not sitting at my computer, I’m probably on water rescue duty on the Baltic coast or trying to counteract the downsides of my geek life – namely sitting for long periods – at the local swimming pool.
