slut? game player? which is worse?

i have been plagued lately with this question- is it worse to be a slut or a game player?

this came to me when i casually asked some of my guy friends if they would date a girl they slept with on the first date. the answers were a resounding "NO!". most often, i was told, they would lose respect for her or see her as a slut/easy. oops, seems if i've ruined all my potential relationships already since i can't seem to say no.

then they described how to "land" a guy by playing games and not sleeping with him, even if i wanted to. hmmm isn't this the kind of behavior men constantly bitch about? their biggest complaint about women is the drama, yet men all respond to it. the whine about not getting sex from women, but the secretly don't want us to sleep with them for fear of losing respect for the girl. i don't get it. i thought we were in the 21st century here, guys! do i really need to resort to behaving like a 1940s virgin to "catch a man"?

it seems to be a catch-22. play games and be labeled a dramatic bitch, or do what you feel like doing and be labeled a slut.

what about the flip side? would women date a man they slept with on the first date? considering he's just a slutty as she is, since he gave it up right away too.

one thing about me, is that i loathe game playing with a passion. if i want to talk to a guy, i do. i don't wait a day to call him back. i don't make the guy wait a perscribed amount of time before fooling around with him, i do what feels right. it just sems so junior high to me to manipulate men with immature games.

i guess that's what i need to do. i don't seem to be having much success in the dude dept with the current m.o.

but what do i know? i am the one sans bf.