Mind Games: To Play or not to Play?

I have a guilty pleasure. It's called Young & the Restless. Soap operas, yes, they're cheesy and dramatic and over-the-top, but every so often, they teach you a thing or two about the human condition.

One episode touched on the early stages of dating. Annoying blonde bimbo, Amber, has recently been seeing a man, Cane (as in 'hurricane'...try not to fall off your chair laughing), whom she met online. After a night out together, he calls the following afternoon to invite her to lunch, to which she replies, "Sorry, I'm busy." Conveniently nearby, her friend, Daniel, overhears the conversation, which prompts her to inform him of the "rules," saying she is applying the 3-day rule. In turn, the man can feel like the hunter in pursuit of his prey. Then while chatting up Daniel over coffee, she asks for a favor. She pulls out two third row tickets to Snow Patrol. She asks Daniel to call Cane and tell him he has two tickets to Snow Patrol that he can't use, offering them to him. As planned, Daniel gives the tickets to Cane, who then asks Amber to the concert.

Whew! Talk about an awful lot of trouble to get a guy's attention. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. But all in all, well-played on Amber's part. Aside from the fact, risking Snow Patrol tickets for any guy is not worth it. Do manipulative mind games work? Or is it an unjustified, deep-seated notion embedded in our heads? If the thrill of the chase is what causes butterflies-in-your-stomach, which we associate with love, and/or feelings of love, then perhaps the rules truly weren't meant to be broken.