Gamer rage -- why?

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Yes, unless football players go around punching holes in the wall (the closest equivalent I can think of for breaking a $50 controller.)

Well some people with a deep interest in football tend to go around burning down cities and murdering people over their frustrations in my experience at least. Anyway breaking an object out of frustration is hardly common behaviour amongst gamers despite the fact that it has ocurred recently for one of them. I don't disagree with the fact that it is a silly thing to do but it seems like you are generalizing by simply assuming that all gamers do it - for instance when I'm frustrated with a game I tend to shut it down and not play it for a while.

I've never understood that either -- it doesn't happen in the US at all, despite all the stereotypes about Americans being not only Football obsessed, but prone to violence.

As for the other, I'm not stereotyping gamers as doing this as a group, I'm asking why we seem to condone it when a significant minority, if not the majority, of the group does it. The "when was the last time you broke a controller" type threads being a great example of this.

 

[SilentCom]

Simply, they mad.

People get frustrated and mad, they tend to do things to alleviate that frustration, including going through fits of destruction. Don't tell me you haven't wanted to blow something up because it would be fun and release frustration?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Because games that are genuinely challenging and engrossing cause a lot of people to go on huge adrenaline highs. There's nothing bad about that and it is extremely fun to play like that.

The downside of that is when a game we've become very passionate about suddenly decides to kick our arse, it can lead to frayed tempers. It's not a pretty sight, but It's being a bit harsh to judge people for getting passionate about games, especially on a gaming site. People express their passion for things in different ways, and just because you don't blow your top doesn't make you better than them.

I'm going to point you to my above post. Not blowing my top is a sign that I'm a well adjusted human being; small children blow their stack, as do people with rage issues. Normal people don't, at least not on a regular basis. I really find it scary that not only is this common, but accepted among gamers.

Anger is a legitimate human emotion (closely related to situations of thrilling excitement) and people are going to express it whether you like it or not. What would you rather? They vent it at a game where they're not hurting anyone, or they vent it at real people, with real blood?

People aren't perfect, but comparing them to bratty children just because they sometimes get angry at things that don't really matter makes you look like an ass, just sayin'

How does comparing someone to a bratty child for throwing a temper tantrum make me look like an ass? Because that's what gamer rage is. A temper tantrum. Well adjusted adults take out their anger in constructive ways, not destructive ways.

 

[Mad Maniac with axe-firing chainsaw]

Because games are an interactive medium, people can get much more wrapped up on them. On top of that, players physically put effort into a game, an investment they don't make watching films or reading books. When that goes awry and that investment doesn't get a positive return... tempers flare and plastics break.

 

[GaryH]

I've never thrown a controler in my life, but I've used the expression. It's just a gaming specific way to say "I was really, really frustrated".

It's hardly just gamers that act that way either, you just think they do because you probably know more gamers than other people.

 

[Soviet Steve]

I've never understood that either -- it doesn't happen in the US at all, despite all the stereotypes about Americans being not only Football obsessed, but prone to violence.

As for the other, I'm not stereotyping gamers as doing this as a group, I'm asking why we seem to condone it when a significant minority, if not the majority, of the group does it. The "when was the last time you broke a controller" type threads being a great example of this.

Ah, that's a bit simpler. Gaming is often about escapism, and while not all, a large number of gamers tend to be socially awkward or have other issues which games offer a comfort zone from. One reason it might be more common amongst gamers would be that the frustrations that they are unable to deal with in their normal lives get magnified greatly when their comfort zone is disturbed by glitches or perceived unfairness (I was prone to this before my teenage years)

Having a larger proportion of such people involved with gaming means there is more people who are going to feel that such behaviour is unfortunate but not uncommon. So therefore while it isn't the norm amongst gamers I would say that it is unsurprising that we have a higher proportion of people who respond aggressively to frustration in games.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Because, generally speaking, the kind of people who can afford a console are the kind of people who don't have much to be unhappy about in life. Their desire to rail against injustice is largely limited to simulated worlds. Also, emotional immaturity.

 

[bombadilillo]

Because modern gamers are pampered children who despise challenge and risk.

I have never thrown a controller. But the times where I get mad enough to want to, or stop playing. Doesn't have to do with challange. Its cheap things in a game. Like a RPG's where a boss wipes your party in one hit and its basicly the game saying "go grind for 2 hours". Thats just upsetting.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Because games that are genuinely challenging and engrossing cause a lot of people to go on huge adrenaline highs. There's nothing bad about that and it is extremely fun to play like that.

The downside of that is when a game we've become very passionate about suddenly decides to kick our arse, it can lead to frayed tempers. It's not a pretty sight, but It's being a bit harsh to judge people for getting passionate about games, especially on a gaming site. People express their passion for things in different ways, and just because you don't blow your top doesn't make you better than them.

I'm going to point you to my above post. Not blowing my top is a sign that I'm a well adjusted human being; small children blow their stack, as do people with rage issues. Normal people don't, at least not on a regular basis. I really find it scary that not only is this common, but accepted among gamers.

Anger is a legitimate human emotion (closely related to situations of thrilling excitement) and people are going to express it whether you like it or not. What would you rather? They vent it at a game where they're not hurting anyone, or they vent it at real people, with real blood?

People aren't perfect, but comparing them to bratty children just because they sometimes get angry at things that don't really matter makes you look like an ass, just sayin'

How does comparing someone to a bratty child for throwing a temper tantrum make me look like an ass? Because that's what gamer rage is. A temper tantrum. Well adjusted adults take out their anger in constructive ways, not destructive ways.

Some of the most 'well-adjusted' people I know maintain their temper with people because they go and beat seven kinds of shit out of a punch bag at the gym. An utterly pointless, unrewarding task in itself, not at all constructive, but it's better than losing it and punching real people.

It's not the points that you're making that make you sound like an ass it's the way your putting it. You're making it sound like (whether or not it is your intention I don't know) that you're getting up on your soapbox to explain why you are the only sane being left in a world gone mad, and that attitude is not the way to go. Stop looking down in puzzlement at all us imperfect mortals and accept that some people feel anger stronger than others. It doesn't make them imbalanced (actually getting violent with real people for no reason is imbalanced) it just makes them human.

 

[jazmonkey]

Obviously there are not a lot of golfers on the Escapist. Most people who have golfed have seen at least on guy (usually around the age of 50 from my experience) throw a club into a lake or wrap a putter around a tree after hitting their 4th shot in a row into said lake or missing a 2 foot putt. Usually it happens towards the end of the day, after many similar occurances. It just drives some people crazy that they are failing at something they consider themselves to be good at, and they don't know what they are doing to cause them to fail.

 

[bononob]

I have never thrown a controller. But the times where I get mad enough to want to, or stop playing. Doesn't have to do with challange. Its cheap things in a game. Like a RPG's where a boss wipes your party in one hit and its basicly the game saying "go grind for 2 hours". Thats just upsetting.

I couldn't agree more with you!!!

 

[Polyg0n]

People do it because they get angry/annoyed and that is a natural reaction for them. Calling gamer rage seems a bit wrong though, considering that many people watching sports on television or doing sports themselves and losing tend to get just as angry.

 

[BanthaFodder]

well, for me at least, making life take the lemons back can actually help an experience. I'll get mad so I don't just give up. the game has wronged me by being so full of shit. I'll show that asshole.

also, take Portal 2, the

Spoiler

parts underground in the old Aperture Science Spheres

were just flat-out rage fuel. I hated those puzzles SO much... then I beat it and felt like I was the smartest goddamn person on the planet. if I beat a part of a game that's really hard in one challenging go, I'll feel pretty badass. but if I beat a hard part of a game that made me go through hell and back, only to be kicked in the balls upon my return, I feel like a frigging GOD.

 

[iLikeHippos]

*Sigh* No, you're not a minority. Your group is just not as loud and outspoken as the ragers.



I myself just scream, sigh and bang my fist against something as if I were drumming a dirge of hatred and vengeance. Property damage, however, is not my style. I have far more sense than to waste my time, effort and money to trash many of my day-to-life apparatuses.

I do scream my lounges out once in a while however.

Capthca; Privy ionmansu.
... Is that a sentence?

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I've stopped breaking my controllers, after the second one I've learned it's a very expensive outburst, so all I do now is just get annoyed and swear a lot. Why? Because it makes me feel better, and as for the controller breaking, it's incredibly infuriating when I die the nth time and I can't seem to clear the level or kill the bloody boss, or get close enough and then get murdered.

I do realize it's childish, and that never occurred to me that it was, but all I can say is we are no better than the fanatic sports fans that get pissed when their team looses a game.

 

[Pearwood]

I tend to go into "Buddha Mode" when I get to a really difficult part of a game and try to do everything perfect. It doesn't usually work but it stops me getting annoyed and careless long enough for persistence to pay off

 

[Hyper-space]

Its because we view video-games as we view sports, at least on a sub-conscious level.

Playing a game of football and loosing makes me as angry as when i loose at video-games, if not more. Some people are just generally more angry and are prone to outbursts (harsh tackling, throwing the controller) and seeing as games are meant as an outlet, these emotions are nothing uncommon.

So in other words, gamers have become the people who used to steal their lunch money? That saddens me. I see them as, you know, games -- although I see sports that way too...

Not really, unless you live in stereotype-ville, its the basic premise of accomplishing something by using ones skills that makes games and sports related.

I am a sports-freak that can run, climb and jump like a pro that has been reading comic books since i was 6 and playing video-games since the days of Nintendo Game & Watch.

 

[Vrach]

Does anybody have any insight into why this is so common? Do gamers have a huge population of people with anger management issues, or is it something else?

So what you're saying is, you've never seen someone playing sports get angry?

 

[kortin]

I would never throw my controller. When I rage, I go up to my room and write down plans on how I am going to exact my revenge from whatever made me rage.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

The angriest outburst I remember ever getting is growling.

Yeah, i'm a very calm person in general.