A lot of players hate on the Mystery Method. Yet from my knowledge of the PUA scene back in its heyday, the Mystery Method worked really well. Even borderline aspie nerds were getting lays from it (read the mASF/Attraction Forums archives circa 2006-07).

But overexposure did the community in - The Game was published, the VH1 show came out, lots of amateur PUAs got into the scene and guys started getting called out on the routines. Then a bunch of "PUA gurus" out to cash in flooded the market, the frauds and hucksters got exposed and the whole scene fell apart.

Roissy breaks it down here:

http://heartiste.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/natural-game-is-dead

With the seduction community now having morphed into the seduction industry, every self-professed pickup guru and their grandpa is peddling their own PUA method. Guys are getting pulled in every direction following different gurus with different schools of thought. Nobody really knows what they're doing anymore.

Ironically, this means that there are far fewer guys out there nowadays still using the original old school field-tested MM routines that have been proven to work.

Moreover, the vast majority of college girls today have never heard this stuff before:

  • The Game was a bestseller in 2005. College girls were pre-teens at the time.
  • The Mystery Method peaked around 2007-2008. College girls were still in high school.
  • Outside of the US no one gets VH1, so most have never seen or even heard of The Pickup Artist TV show.
  • With far fewer guys using routines these days, there's less of a chance of getting called out.

I'll cite an example from my personal experience. I've started running day game using Mystery Method tactics with incredible success. I've used several classic routines to great effect - the "is kissing cheating" opener, C vs. U smile, finger length etc. This stuff is crack to chicks. It's an emotional rollercoaster, a psychological mindfuck for girls.

Moreover, this stuff is even more devastating during day game when a guy has complete control of the interaction, and your girl isn't distracted by cockblocks, smartphones, loud music etc.

And of the hundred or so college girls my buddy and I have approached using smoothly delivered pre-rehearsed material over the last few months, we've been called out.... once.

If routines are netting you a steady supply of digits, if your follow-up text/phone game is tight, and if you have natural game to carry the interaction forward on the date and get the bang, why not use canned stuff that works during the initial interaction?

As Chris Rock astutely put it, a woman has made up her mind about whether she'll fuck you within the first 10 minutes of meeting you. You want to maximize your utility from your approaches, get into that fuck-worthy pile, get the most bangs for the least time invested.

There are 2 approaches:

  • You can play a Paul Janka style numbers game, spending hours and hours approaching hundreds of women, invest minimally in the interaction, and collect lots of flaky numbers.
  • You can be the guy that invests heavily in the interaction, wastes a lot of time on one particular girl, and lands in the friend-zone - the dreaded "20 minute set to nowhere".

Your rap over the first 5-10 minutes is key. This is all the more so during day game cold approaches when there's little margin for error, and the slightest hint of hesitation and awkwardness can send the girl running. And even more so for average-looking guys who can't coast on their looks as a source of value.

So if going natural on a girl means you get 1 in 5 numbers while using scripted routines gets you 1 in 3, use what'll get you more lays at the of the day. Especially now in 2011 when the odds of getting called out are next to none.