We've all been there at one time or another. You have a bad day, you get a horrible teammate on LoL, or that stupid fucking Demo in TF2 is spawn camping with his stickies.

Anger is perfectly natural and healthy, if channeled properly. On the other hand, it can cripple your gameplay and ruin the experience for other gamers, who may simply be new to the game or just not as good as you.

How do you deal with your rage and prevent it from controlling you? I think this could be a thread where DLP gamers can share tips on how to channel your rage effectively to make you a better gamer and not ruin the experience for yourself and others.

Suggestions, anyone?

 

I stop playing for a while.

fapping helps too.

Those definitely aren't related.

 

You can't channel your rage into video games. Whether it's a game of strategy and planning or tactics and twitchy reflexes, there's no scenario where boiling rage can be usefully applied. If you're losing your shit, walk the hell away, because you're setting yourself up for a vicious cycle wherein your diminished abilities fuck you over and you get even more pissed off, leading to even more loss of control, et cetera.

Either walk away from the computer for a breath of fresh air or a drink, or play something else that you can satisfyingly stomp through even diminished (Payday: the Heist on Normal for me). Come back to the game once you've got your shit back together.

I picked up the term 'on tilt' for this scenario years ago from watching World Series Poker, and the advice for it applies to video games.

 

Yeah, I'm just going to third the advice of walking away. I know exactly what you mean, and really going outside and reading a book is what helps me the most. It's all about getting everything back into perspective. After all, at the end of the day it's just a video game.

 

Hmm. When I meant channel your rage effectively, I guess I misspoke. I was thinking something along the lines of transforming your anger into determination or something.

I tend to be pretty easygoing in games, but sometimes I do let the heat of the moment get to me and get really fucking pissed.

Walking away from the game for a while helps (Nice to see you after weeks of not having seen hide nor hair of you, Tehan! =p ), but it's only a temporary solution for people who have serious rage issues with gaming. I've played with people who are NEVER pleased with how well you play, always finding something to fault you with. This is usually accompanied with an endless stream of profanity.

 

When in rage, I ragequit.

 

Honestly? I tend to push until I get whatever the fuck I want done right. But only when I'm alone.

While I boil on the surface, after awhile I switch to a sort of cold rage. Where I'm just quiet and vicious and utterly devoted to nothing besides a total, humiliatingly lopsided victory.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Interestingly enough, my temper is much longer when I'm around other people. Because I can loosen myself up with jokes or conversation or simply focusing on helping them do well instead of myself.

I learned, some years ago, to work right on through being pissed beyond belief. Because my situation gave me absolutely no choice but to learn to do so. Now, I have trouble getting up and walking away when I'm pissed, as I'd much rather just get more and more angry until it ... shifts.

I've always had trouble quitting. Always had trouble just walking away from things. I don't give up easily.

Unfortunately, it's not always a good thing.

 

I have a misc keyboard that I usually break.

 

Don't know about everyone but I try to go on. Most of the time there is no improvement(actually it gets worse) but sometimes by the grace of gaming gods I set personal records. Though my neighbors do complain about some words I yell during this period.

Much like that but instead of sometimes its most of the times.

 

Leave whichever game causes the rage for a week or so. Try to remember and focus on the good aspects of it when you pick it up again.

 

my girlfriend usually ends up having to wear large sunglasses for the next few weeks.

 

Don't get so invested in the game that such a response is warranted. Bad teammates, etc. are just another aspect of online games. Getting angry at them isn't going to get them to do what you want. I find people are generally open to coaching if you don't phrase it to make them feel dumb.

 

When really in a rage? Rarely happens, but break my capslock and go chill somewhere else.

 

I realize I can't control other people, I can only control myself. Letting yourself be overcome by something that you can control is not something I like to let happen. Remind yourself that it's just a game and that you are better than that. Realize how ultimately unimportant it is and just focus on doing the best you can do and feeling good about that. Letting other people enrage you over something relatively insignificant in the scheme of things won't help you in the game or in life. It is just a matter of remembering that. Easier said than done of course. I don't know if channeling rage can make you a better gamer but the ability to control it and ignore it will spill over into your overall level of focus and can only help.

And I don't mean think to yourself "oh, it's just a game and it doesn't matter." That is bullshit and as a gamer I hate when people say that because it is generally an excuse for why they suck.

 

GL's Friendly Neighbourhood Advice for Coping with Online Rage​

A) Play near an open window. When your rage starts coming on, hit mute, listen to the outside world for a few moments, and remember that nobody else gives a shit.

B) Get better at the game.

 

I break DLP and figure out a way to make sunglasses stay on my hand for the next few weeks.
For FPS games, which I haven't touched in a while, I would just joke around with the other dead folks and wait for the next round.

For LoL in particular, I play against bots to relax because there's a slightly smaller chance that the team is completely retarded. Granted this doesn't always work, as my dozen odd losses in co-op vs AI can tell you, but racking up killing sprees against bots is more satisfying than simply losing consistently. Sometimes I'll play a ranked solo queue for the hell of it and find that most of the retards are on the other team. Other times I'll play pick up games with friends from school or DLPeeps, and they tend to turn out fun even if we lose because most don't take everything too seriously.

Personal experience leads me to doubt there's a way to effectively "channel rage" into winning or even anything productive, I play better when I'm calm. I just let the pent up rage build inside me until I turn into a giant green monster because of gamma rays or some shit.

 

Sure, but not in the heat of the moment. You need to let that shit cool before you can do anything with it.

Don't fucking play with people like that. I'll berate people for doing something fucking stupid, but the point of doing so is to highlight what they did wrong so they don't fucking do it again. Someone that's always looking for faults to pick at is just trying to shift the blame off their own ineptitude.

I'm almost always on Steam. Hit me up there if you want to chat.

 

Depends. Usually, I just leave and find something else to do, but if I'm especially pissed off, I find something easy (BF2 or 1942 vs bots, for example) and rape the shit out of it for a while until I feel better.

 

I don't play online.