I'm wondering how long it should take to 'learn game', and whether there are many people here who have read all the books, done a fair few approaches, but are still getting absolutely nowhere....and also what is normal/to be expected.

I have maybe made about 150 approaches since reading 'bang', 'magic bullets' and 'the game' after trying again to have another crack at it, as all of my friends have sex lives and i'm jealous.

It's only been about 5 months this time around, but I actually read my first 'game' books a good few years ago, so in a way, it's been YEARS of very little success.

The patterns are either:

I get a very cold reaction straight away.

I am able to open them and they don't seem overly hostile, but I run out things to say as they tend to give me very short answers which makes it very hard to 'thread' from

I will FINALLY meet a girl who is both receptive to my open, and I can talk to her, BUT she will either turn out to have a boyfriend, or It just fizzles out after a little while.

I'm not sure whether I have not understood the material i've read? Or maybe i'm expecting too much? Or something else?

How does one know whether they 'know game' (other than sleeping new girls all the time). Is there some sort of test we can take on the various theories?

If you are a long term struggler, post here and share your story.