“Raging” is, simply put, when a player gets so frustrated they lose the ability to play effectively. From personal observation, a mediocre, but motivated teammate is far more effective than a skilled, raging teammate. Players aren’t like Rocky or Hulk- getting them mad doesn’t make them ‘stronger’. On the contrary, it makes them more foolish, taking unnecessary risks, bickering with teammates, and just being an all around unpleasant shit.
I can honestly admit to ‘raging’ in a game. If a game has a low TTK (Time to Kill) its easy to die to something you didn’t even see coming. If it happens frequently, you get frustrated, and it starts to feel like nothing you can do can help. Fortunately, raging has remedies.
I think people usually rage when they think they’re behind the annonymity of the internet. They would (hopefully!) not pull the same kind of temper trantrum in public. There are many funny youtube videos of kids/adults just absolutely losing their shit in a game; the two most notable are the German kid playing (counterstrike? ) who picks up his keyboard and slams it, and the “You ninjaed my Cloudsong!” meltdown from some MMORPG I can’t remember. These bouts of unbridled anger can serve as a lesson to us when we ourselves get really frustrated in a game.
In the Dune Movie, they said “fear is the Little Death”. I think in MMOs, its anger. Just like in sports, if someone allows you to lose your cool, you lose the initiative, your ability to think and strategize. Its easy to get so invested in a game that if someone cheats, mocks, or just plain curbstomps you to respond with anger and frustration.
I feel like in particular League of Legends tries really hard to foster a community of good sportsmanship. While its far from perfect I really admire the effort they take toward building a framework (The Summoner’s Code, Honoring players). In particular, the ability to Honor opponents. I think it takes a considerable amount of humility for many gamers to cop to the fact that their opponent was just plain better than them. And I think we can learn a lot more from being able to own that.
If you’re talking about the Angry German Kid video, that was staged.
Anyway, I’m not sure I understand the discussion here. Yeah, getting mad hurts you, and is obnoxious. I feel like it’s tied to a larger, somewhat unfortunately part of gaming culture (the kind that fosters and even defends all the cursing and use of slurs) that is rather shameful and paints a negative picture of the hobby to those with an agenda.
There was an ep of “Celebrity Poker” I always remember with Malcolm Jamal-Warner where he started with a great run, then lost a hand big time. He had some great hands after that, but after that set-back he just didn’t give a damn and played recklessly; he was the next celeb out. I always thought seeing the footage at home must have killed him.
Yeah, the M:tG community also calls it “tilt”. Pretty sure they borrowed it from poker. In person, you can’t just start cussing at the person across the table, but online…most of the time they’ll be shouting and swearing at the shuffler, not at you, though.
In the “Fighting Game Community” this is referred to as “getting salty”; And yeah, it has a tendency to make you suck. Even if you’re not “consciously” playing more risky, you start to do stupid **** when you get frustrated.
) who picks up his keyboard and slams it, and the “You ninjaed my Cloudsong!” meltdown from some MMORPG I can’t remember. These bouts of unbridled anger can serve as a lesson to us when we ourselves get really frustrated in a game.