MMOs 101: Handling Rage

Sean, aka Gumby, wrote an article recently entitled “Diagnosing Player Rage: A Case Study” where he brought up the topic of player rage and discussed the motives behind rage pertaining to a particularly rageful friend of his. It was a very interesting article and the inspiration for today’s lesson. I highly suggest you check it out whenever you get a chance.

Now class, pay close attention to the title of this lesson. Today we’re going to be talking about “handling” rage, not avoiding it. Rage is unavoidable. If you play video games enough you’re bound to come across it eventually. Video games could pull irritability from the world’s most peaceful monk.

Rage is an emotional response that can be triggered through a variety of causes. Maybe you had a hard time at school or work, or you’re having a difficult time with your significant other, and the last thing you need that day is a losing streak in your favorite MOBA or an unbeatable raid boss killing you over and over again. It’s bound to happen sooner or later.

Despite the individual reason, rage comes from a place of passion. If you’re passionate about gaming, you’re going to get a little irritated when things go poorly or plans go awry.

However, that DOES NOT excuse you from being responsible for your manners and actions towards other people and inanimate objects. Yelling at teammates, trolling other players, shit-posting on social media sites and forums, breaking monitors and controllers, JUMPING IN FRONT OF YOUR TEAM’S AWPER – okay, maybe I got a little too personal with that last one, but you get the point. None of these actions, or any of the thousands of other destructive little results brought upon by gaming rage are excusable under any circumstances.

Handling Inner Rage

Don’t worry, we’re going to cover handling other people’s rage in a bit, but whenever you point a finger at someone you have three pointing back at you. It’s only fitting we look inside ourselves first.

While gaming rage is understandable, it’s 100% detrimental. It hurts your ability to play and your overall gaming experience. (No Timmy, you don’t play better with rage. Such a claim is absolutely ludicrous and only shows you’re in denial and not taking this class seriously. Go wait out in the hall. Some kids just have to learn the hard way.)

Taking control of your emotions will make you a better player. You’ll find yourself climbing the leaderboards higher than ever before, have an easier time making friends, and spend less time on those hard to beat Dark Souls bosses than you would if you let the rage take control.

“But Professor Locke, I don’t rage when I game!” I’ve never broken a Game Boy or Xbox controller either, doesn’t mean I haven’t raged. Quiet seething anger is just as detrimental to your gaming as a screaming rampage. It just costs less money and keeps you from becoming a YouTube sensation for all the wrong reasons.

The trick to controlling your rage is noticing it. I know that sounds cliché, but in this case recognizing you have an issue really is the first step to solving it. For most people, realizing they’re getting angry is often enough to prevent them from crossing over into rage. When you feel it coming on, take a deep breath and a second to realign yourself before continuing.

A Smite-y Example

Not too long ago I got heavily into Smite, a MOBA by Hi-Rez studios that’s currently – at time of writing at least – undergoing their second World Championship tournament. While I never played at the pro level, I did get seriously into ranked play and considered getting in on the ground floor of the pro scene. Being someone who played in World Chess Federation tournaments at a young age, I naturally tend to have a mind for video game strategy and found myself being the team shot caller in Smite more often than not.

(Yes, I see some of you rolling your eyes. Just stick with me through the example and you’ll get the point.)

Shot calling in a competitive environment is one of the worst roles for someone who rages easily. You have to keep your mind clear and on the objective at hand. Setbacks are inevitable and your teammates are only human.  Even the best players in the world don’t perform perfectly 100% of the time.

I found myself in a game where a random squad of ranked players decided to put the game in my hands, and it wasn’t going well. We weren’t completely out of the game yet, but our backs were against the wall and nothing seemed to be working to get us back in the game. We were losing fights we should’ve won, people were getting caught out of position left and right, and I was starting to get irritated. Everyone had fallen silent, waiting for me to tell them what our next strategy was and I couldn’t come up with anything. So I did the unthinkable – I took my hands off the mouse and keyboard, removed my headset, leaned back and closed my eyes.

In a team based competitive game, like a MOBA or FPS, every second matters. You can’t afford to be idle, but in this case I couldn’t afford not to be. I wasn’t giving up; far from it in fact. I was taking a few seconds to calm down and get my mind back in the game. I sat there for 15, maybe 30, seconds at most before jumping back in. I gave myself enough time to take a deep breath and remain calm, to keep the rising emotions in check.

After getting myself together, I set to work getting my teammate’s heads on straight and back into the game. We came back to win, eventually outlasting the other team until their own team play broke down and we capitalized.

Know When to Walk Away

That all being said, sometimes a few seconds just isn’t going to cut it. How many times have you spent hours upon hours trying to beat a boss only to wake up the next morning and beat it on your first or second attempt? Maybe you’ve come up during this softer side of gaming where normal settings are the new easy mode, but I’m willing to bet most of you have had a similar experience and know what I’m talking about.

At the end of the day you have to remember that you’re just playing a game. Games are supposed to be fun, even when you’re playing with a million dollars on the line. Sometimes the best thing you can do is walk away and come back to fight another day. The game isn’t going anywhere. Time is on your side, so use it to your advantage.

Handling the Rage of Others

If you’re going to play MMOs then you’re going to run into rageful players eventually, whether it’s a toxic player in a MOBA or some random asshole spamming your chat in WoW or whatever other game you play. There are number of ways to handle these players.

1. Mute, Ignore, And/Or Block

These functions exist in games for a reason and are my favorite way to handle rage-ful people. Chances are you’re not going to be able to talk the rager down, especially if he/she is a complete stranger. The best thing you can do is worry about yourself and better your own game experience by muting, ignoring, and/or blocking the rager. MMO worlds and competitive communities are so vast that you’re probably not going to come across them ever again anyway, so why bother interrupting your game experience and giving them the attention they seek?

2. Calmly Conversing With The Rager

How many times has yelling back at someone who’s yelling at you ever worked at defusing a situation or having your viewpoint be heard? Probably never, because it seldom works. However, speaking calmly to someone experiencing rage and helping them defuse their anger slowly can work quite well. A lot of the time, ragers just want their voice heard and acknowledged. Although this tactic has a 50/50 shot of working unless you already have some sort of rapport with the rager, so I still advise deferring to the first option in situations involving a complete stranger.

3. Talk Circles Around The Rager

Okay, admittedly this option is a bit childish, but ragers can be really fun to mess with and you can turn a negative situation into a positive one by having a bit of fun with them. You don’t do this by engaging them angrily or with your own curses and slurs. Instead, take a smarter approach and use their logic against them. Spontaneously playing 20 questions and turning the topic of their rage on its head are just a few ways you can entertain both yourself and the other people around you. It’s free entertainment if you can pull it off. Think something like this. Just know when it’s time to stop and move on.

4. Placate The Rager

Maybe he/she has a good reason for being upset and simply doesn’t know how to communicate effectively. If you have the time and/or inclination, help the rager out. Again, most of the time they just want to heard or want someone to listen to them. If nothing else is working and your team is losing anyway, why not help top lane? What do you have to lose?

The Point is to Not Rage Back

Whatever you choose to do, raging back at a rager is the worst possible option. It only serves to ruin your mood and game experience in the long run. This is not a case where fighting fire with fire is a viable option. Stop fanning other people’s flames with your own.

If I were a weak writer, I’d drop a Ghandi quote right here, but I won’t because gaming isn’t always about peace. It’s perfectly acceptable to get hyped and smash your opponent’s face in with your avatar’s foot. Just don’t copy that move on your mouse and/or keyboard and you’ll be good to go.

Extra Lesson: Giving Up is Raging

This lesson is for the competitive multiplayer crowd only. If you don’t play MOBAs, MMOFPSs, or similar genres then you’re dismissed and I’ll see you on the servers. The rest of you cretins need to listen up.

Earlier, when I said “know when to walk away,” I was not condoning rage quitting. This includes every form of rage quitting, from disconnecting entirely to sitting at base and waiting for the other team to win. You can try to say you’re not raging all you want, but your “I just don’t care anymore” attitude is bullshit and we all know it.

Rage quitting does a disservice to your teammates, yourself, and the developers who spent thousands of hours working on creating the game you’re playing. If you’re not going to play, uninstall the game and play something else. Stop wasting your time and the time of everyone else around you. Play the game to its completion and quit playing after the game is over instead.

I’ll admit I’ve done it before. Most of us have at one point or another, just like we’ve all raged before too. That doesn’t make it okay. It just means we need to work harder to be better, more responsible gamers.

Handle your rage, don’t let it handle you.

That’s all for this lesson. Until next time, have fun and I’ll see you on the servers.