Okay, who here has either yelled at the TV / Screen, thrown a controller or rage quit a game… stand up as say I?
For those of you still sitting, who are you kidding?
All of us gamers get so much into the game that it becomes our life, we become one with the game and must see it through to the bitter end. When we do this our emotions run wild, we curse, we scream, we grip the controller with all our might. Sometimes we even take a whole day off to spend our precious time trying to beat that very game that seemed to get the better of us… Sound familiar?
So why do we do this to ourselves?
What is it that makes us want to throw our controller so far into the screen that it would take forceps to dislodge its remains?
It’s Passion! … pure passion.
When you are passionate about something you slap every once of emotion in to it, you embrace its very existence. When it comes to video games they can be there for us when others are not, we put our heart our soul and many thumb cramping hours of dedication into this virtual world. I am sure more people have spent their days with Mario then they have with their significant other. Okay I’m exaggerating but know what I mean.
I know I am guilty of the occasional video game rage myself… “Castlevania, Battletoads, EVERY MEGAMAN GAME EVER!!!” I remember so many times throwing my NES controller that I am surprised it still works (then again I haven’t tested it in a while), you can say that my controller has seen more air than Michael Jordan!
You would think that if a game were to cause so much rage then why would one keep playing it? The answer is simple really, we crave the challenge! How dull would life be if we didn’t challenge ourselves? would sports have a reason to exist? NO!… Sure we get angry, but that does not mean we have to distance ourselves. Could you imagine if video games were so dead-easy that you could play them with one hand behind your back while blindfolded and eating tacos? of course not you would rather watch paint dry, go shopping with Mom or listen to a time-share sales pitch. Just think how boring fishing would be if every second you dropped your line in the water a fish would land in your lap? … Would people go to any sporting event if they posted the winner before the game even started? We need that suspense in our lives, it provides motivation to strive for bigger and better things.
Video games are not “just a waste of time” like some like to say, they are an outlet for our emotions and our feelings… an escape to another world. So the next time you play a game and begin to shout some questionable words, crush the controller, jump on your bed or run down the hallway. Just think to yourself “I am only doing this because I care” … Just don’t do that to another human being, because unlike a video game… they have feelings too!
Brian Pudden
If I turn the game off and re-visit it later in the day or the next day I usually do better when I re-visit it.
How many times have you been trying to sleep in bed, and you are visualizing how to beat a certain part of a game, and you have a “Eureeka” moment, so you get out of bed to play the game.