Uncontrollable Rage

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

I've been playing video games all of my life. A natural part of gaming is anger. It comes in so many different varieties and strengths. My rage is usually a simmering 5/10. It's been bad enough to throw my controller, curse and such but today I just had these quick spurts of rage. They came in literally blinding flashes.

I was playing "Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix" again. I play it a lot now, rarely touching my other games. But after today, I'm done. I deleted the game to symbolize the finality of my decision to never play it again, even though it's redownloadable...

I was playing Scoreboard Matches and lost twice in a row. First to a crap Ryu by a hair and then to a mediocre Fei Long. I just stood up, screamed and smashed that mother ****ing controller. I've never destroyed one before but it just had to happen...I feel like ****. I hate that ****ing game.

Ah...anybody else ever break a controller, handheld, or something else in video game related anger?

[Microphone_Kirby]

Mario Kart Wii... all I'll say about it is that the controllers I smashed were already unusable, and I didn't cause any more damage.

[DarkZero]

No. My anger has never been able to overshadow the knowledge that controllers cost money.

[X-3]

The most I do is go, "**** this game" or "this ****ing game".

[glux]

I have also cursed and yelled at games. Super Smash Bros., Zelda, and Mario Kart really bring out the yelling, but neither of those series have caused me to throw a controller.



Well... Ocarina of Time did once, but that was a combination of not being able to beat the boss, and my 2 friends sitting next to me chattering in my ear constantly. I've never thrown a controller as bad as I did that time.

[Sim Kid]

Actually, no. The only anger I've had at games was saying "No dammit move move move" when I was lagging or going "ARRGH!" but I've never broken anything.

However, if you really want to see some gaming anger, don't ever play DotA 2 or LoL. Holy freaking crap...those guys make a bipolar incredible Hulk look like someone syaing "I am displeased." calmly.

[Booyakasha]

Maybe it's best you don't compete if you can't bear to lose.

[glux]

Maybe it's best you don't compete if you can't bear to lose.

It's not the losing per se, it's the "catch-up AI" as it's been called.

[Microphone_Kirby]

Maybe it's best you don't compete if you can't bear to lose.

If everyone thought like that, there would be no games, Period.

[S1x]

^ wat

[Booyakasha]

^^I don't follow your logic. Would you explain it, please?

[glux]

"I'm not going to like it if I lose, so I better not even try" is a pretty ****ty way to look at things.

[S1x]

This implies that having an ugly reaction upon losing is to be expected. Why?

[glux]

Nobody likes losing. No matter what the subject. People can hide it all they want and be happy for the winner, but no one likes losing.

[S1x]

But why should that automatically mean an emotional reaction, rather than simply going "aww, oh well" or "gg"

[Microphone_Kirby]

But why should that automatically mean an emotional reaction, rather than simply going "aww, oh well" or "gg"

Because, in all the above cases, the player is in the (relative) privacy of his/her home. His/her opponents are either CPUs (and thus, won't matter either way) or online foes and thus can't gauge one's anger through a monitor (assuming the person doesn't use a headset/microphone or a camera of some sort).

Sure, in public, someone would go "aww, oh well" or "gg", but in private (or on the inside) s/he's seething (or worse, depressed).

... And one gets angrier if it's through no fault of their own.

[Random User]

The angriest I've ever gotten at a game is mumbling curse words and making weird gestures with my arms in anger.

[CaptHayfever]

Nobody likes losing. No matter what the subject. People can hide it all they want and be happy for the winner, but no one likes losing.

Not expecting/liking something isn't the same as being completely unable to bear it.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Oh, actually, I just remembered that I broke a NGC controller before. I was cocky because I was good at SSBM so I told my two friends, "You guys can team up against me, no problem." Well, I was beating them so easily I jumped off of a cliff to waste a life and let yhem beat up on me. I took it too far though and barely lost. They celebrated mockingly, knowing but denying my superiority. They're good at pissing you off, screaming their incoherent cheers over my calm, inside-voiced defenses. After a while, I could endure no more. I would have hurt them if I had any less self-control. Maaan, I obliterated that ****in' thing...just lifted it high as possible and sorta gathered power in my arm, and BAM! The room went silent, and nothing ever shuts these guys up. Felt good, man.

Oh, and about the rage thing. Like I said, it's not always controller-breakingly intense but if someone feels no anger upon loss to another, the person's a robot, or doesn't care about what it is they're playing.

[S1x]

Because, in all the above cases, the player is in the (relative) privacy of his/her home. His/her opponents are either CPUs (and thus, won't matter either way) or online foes and thus can't gauge one's anger through a monitor (assuming the person doesn't use a headset/microphone or a camera of some sort).

Sure, in public, someone would go "aww, oh well" or "gg", but in private (or on the inside) s/he's seething (or worse, depressed).

... And one gets angrier if it's through no fault of their own.

Oh boy. Ohhhhh boy.

Why does your ego start feeling this way at all?

I've submitted a lot of poker training videos as an instructor so far. A frequent topic that comes up from students is emotion. Mainly, it's negative emotions stemming from a string of losses. They wrongly associate losing with failure, or that somebody else is automatically superior to them. They proceed to follow up by making moves they wouldn't normally make if they hadn't just lost a big hand, even though the cards have no memory and do not care in the slightest bit. I once was like this when I started out, but then after enough experience I had a magical revelation. The secret?

YOU WILL NOT WIN EVERY TIME, AND THAT IS OKAY

In fact, the main objective of poker isn't winning the most hands. It's purely about making decisions that lead to the most profitable result in the long run. You can do this by betting with great hands and being called by worse hands. You can also do this by letting go of your hand when their betting patterns have made it obvious they have something better. Is this "losing"? Well, if the hands were reversed and the opponent would not fold, then you actually won money by losing less. Fate might put you in a situation where you can't win, and your main test is reacting to it to lower the damage to the minimum. There are several hands that I've lost by running into an unexpected hand that I do not regret and I would play it the same way 100% of the time. If I think there were flaws in my own play somewhere, nothing productive will happen from beating myself up about it. All I can do is review it later and think what I'll do next time that situation comes up. Adding emotions to the equation does nothing at best and makes me screw up and spew money at worst.

As for "getting angrier if it's through no fault of their own", did you know that something called luck exists in this world and you have to deal with it? And that it happens to everybody equally over the long run? Somebody may show me a hand where they played it absolutely fine, but all the chips went in with cards still to come, and the opponent hit their miracle card. I'll ask them what their question is, and they'll say something odd like "how do I avoid things like this?" Then I have to step back and say that I cannot influence luck; all I can do is advise them on how to make the best decisions possible when it's their turn. Because you can't avoid getting sucked out on. You do not automatically deserve to win a pot just because he called your huge bet with a crappy hand. You do not deserve to win just because you've been patient and folded for 10 minutes because you weren't getting anything decent. The fact that they will win those pots sometimes is the factor that keeps the game fun for them. It's what keeps them playing and donating money to sharp players in the long run. That variance is why I can have a good, hilarious game of Mario Kart with somebody, and why I rarely play chess now, because the outcome is going to be the same pretty much every time.

Of course, there are also games where nothing is on the line, except maybe some fake currency or some online bragging score. In that case, losing doesn't cost you a thing. So why let it do anything to you if you lose against a random nobody? If you're not getting relaxation/satisfaction, or you're actually getting the opposite of that, it's perfectly valid to just stop, just like how I end a session early if I feel I'm affected enough that I can't focus on my decisions optimally any longer (and even this is much more mild than "seething"). Friends play games together to have a good time. Would you do something hurtful to win that caused your friends to stop playing with you forever, just to fuel your low self esteem? Just because winning is the current objective, that doesn't mean it is the absolute priority for everything ever, long-term friendships and enjoyability be damned. Respect goes a long way.

TL;DR: You're doing it wrong