Raid Rage

Anyone who has played a video game has probably experienced a moment of extreme frustration. It could be that part of the game is very difficult, you don’t know what to do or where to do next or something as simple as, “the dumb guy won’t jump that high, this is impossible!” These are all too common in gaming and it happens very universally. One of the hardest parts of gaming is keeping your cool.
So what are the causes of rage? Usually in World of Warcraft, you will be attempting to defeat a difficult raid boss for the 100th time, and the SAME person keeps standing in fire. High expectations can often cause rage because deep down, you know this person is oblivious, you’ve seen them repeat mistakes 99 times before this one, so why did you expect a different result?

How should you handle your rage? There are multitudes of ways to express and handle your rage. The first and easiest (although not the most effective) way to handle your rage is to yell at the game. If you’re playing with other players, you can yell at them. Don’t let them sass you back in any way, if they start yelling back, yell louder. Throwing things is another way that people exert themselves. Hurling that controller or headset really channels your rage into the fuel that propels this poor technologic object across the room. Even though your wallet will ultimately be the victim of this rage propulsion, you are still satisfied enough to possibly do it again. Giving up is also a worn path that gamers also take. They tell themselves, “If this mother front door does this one more time, I am done” and sometimes follow through with their threat. Upon failure, the said gamer will toss remotes, fling headsets, and leave the area. If someone were to enter the area directly after departure, it would be like a modern day ghost town. These are just a few ways that gamers express their rage.

How I handle my rage? I’m guilty of all of the activities listed, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. However, lately I’ve found that it helps to laugh at the situation now. I laugh because it is really funny, I am raising my blood pressure because some “ones and zeros” aren’t acting the way I expect them to? Well deeper than this, I believe that gamers freak out because of failure. They may be playing these games to win and anything that denies that win is a direct oppressor to their happiness. I’ve learned that playing the game itself is what’s fun about playing games, not necessarily seeing the credits roll. Not that any of these excuse failure, but they help to deal with it when it’s inevitable. I haven’t had a freak out since I was a juvenile, but I do know that gamers ranging from young to adult still have fits. Just remember that the situation is funny, and if you really want to laugh, take a third-person’s perspective on the situation. I highly recommend going to youtube.com and search “video game freak out” to get a glimpse of how funny freak outs look.