I’ve noticed some people get really wrapped up in a sports event/video game- to the point they will gesticulate wildly and yell and scream. I always thought it was kind of wierd until I got really into this online game called Planetside. It is a really fun MMOFPS/MMORPG but you die a lot and often there is relatively little you can do-
Die, find respawning location
Get killed by spawncamper, repsawn somewhere else
Get run over by tank 10 seconds later, respawn
Get blown up in airstrike 10 seconds later, respawn, etc etc
As you can see on a bad day, there is a lot of dying and not a whole lot of shooting/repairing/infiltrating stuff. I have a tendency to yell and blurt out obsceneties loudly when I play this game. I also growl a lot. Now, I’m not normally this excitable over a video game- I believe it is more a matter of how engrossing the game is, and how frustrating it is to be doing little more than dying. I can now kind of relate to the sports fan who watches his team make bad plays, bogus calls by the referees, and televised cheating by the other team. Its a sobering experience. In order to avoid frightening the neighbors with my screaming at 2 AM playing this game, I often have to chew on a pen or something (take the ink refill out so I don’t eat ink). After an intense game I often have gnawed the thing into an unrecognizable mess but it keeps me from yelling.
**Are you an excitable person? **
What!? NO! Why do you ask!? Huh? Huh? Who wants to know? What are you implying? Huh? Huh? Huh? Don’t look at me, don’t look at me, DON’T LOOK AT ME! What do you want from me?!?
Huh? Huh? Huh?
WHY WON’T YOU ANSWER ME?!?!?
I have the same reaction playing Operation Flashpoint. Well, mixed with raucous laughter from some of the more spectacular/gory deaths…
I am WAY to excitable… seriously… my boyfriend once bought me a bath pillow and I freaked out - I couldn’t stop talking about it for days. I get excited to make dinner, anyting small and simple I tend to completely overreact to. Very odd…
crap… I just realized you were talking about sports and videa games… oops… see what I mean?
Not usually. But for some reason, when I play Super Mario on my calculator in class, its the only time I gesticulate wildly when I die. Also I curse like crazy when I play pool and miss.
One time, we were watching a movie in class, and a friend of mine looked over to see me banging my head on the desk 'cause I just missed a high score in Tetris.
Come to think of it, yes.
I am infinitely calm in all situations.
What?! You don’t BELIEVE me?!
I am not as excitable as I used to be (read: I got married), but here are some of my favorite examples from my glory days:
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Started choking a kid in the 6th grade over a disputed call in a game called Four Square.
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Broke my hand punching a wooden wall because I lost a game of College Football 95 on Playstation.
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Walked up to the drive through window at McD’s and stuck my head in yelling over my messed up order.
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Ran 4 straight stop signs while speeding down a very populated street becuase my girlfriend started talking about her old boyfriend.
All of these happened before I was 20, so I feel much more calm these days. You got a problem with that?
I’m not particularly excitable. I’ve been called everything from “calm” to “utterly unflappable”, but never “excitable”. That said, I have been known to growl quietly or curse softly when a game is kicking my butt. I watched a friend betatesting Planetside, and he seemed to develop a sort of rhytm: Get fragged, take a deep breath, respawn, fire once, get fragged…lather, rinse, repeat. He got pissed at the first few deaths, but eventually he seemed not to even notice it. He even suicided a couple of times because respawning was the quickest way to get somewhere.
No matter how agitated you get over a game, I suspect one of my coworkers–one I regularly place foosball (table hockey) with–can match or beat you. He has to be reminded to let go of the rods when he jumps up and down (which he does after every score, either gloating or cursing) to keep him from bending them.