Video games and rage: discussion and venting [Archive]

Choco

2011-11-22, 02:41 PM

So I noticed something funny. Despite the fact that I am A LOT older now than when I started playing video games, and that I overlook most mainstream games in favor of (often) much harder niche games (like the old-school dungeon hacks that seem to be staging a comeback), I seem to get worked up to an unhealthy amount of rage more often than ever before.

And I know the reason too.. Ever since I noticed I have been keeping better track, and the vast majority of things that truly make me rage in video games these days are problems outside of the game itself. I am talking things like disc read errors (haven't touched my 360 in over a year because of this), crashes, power outages/battery deaths, etc.

In general I can handle losing at a game just fine, except if it is pure luck/cheese that leads to the loss, like the enemy getting bout 3-4 criticals on me in a row when we were both near death, the game throwing status effects at you that you have NO way to cure (dungeon hacks love to do this sometimes), or when I just lose so many times in a row it starts wearing down my patience, etc. However, when I get my victory/time stolen away from me due to external reasons, that is when I totally flip out...

Some examples:

One time I was stuck on this mission in GTA4 for about 1-2 hours, then right as I finally completed it and was on my way to save I got a disc read error. I literally walked across the room and picked up the 360 with the intention of throwing it out the window, but luckily I cooled off before I did something that stupid...

Roughly the same situation in the original Dead Space, I just beat this annoying part of the game I was stuck on for a while and I got a disc read error LITERALLY right as I pressed the button to activate the save terminal. That was the only time the neighbors actually had to make it known that I was being disruptive to the peace...

There are also plenty of games that don't let you save when you are in whatever part of the game you do the fighting in, whether it be due to lack of save points there or you simply can't save there at all. These same games encourage long expeditions to get the good XP/loot. So when you spend 2+ hours in one go without saving, only to have the game crash on you or the battery die (seriously, whoever had the brilliant idea of putting the PSP's battery light RIGHT where you have your thumb while playing needs to be taken out and shot), that too is definitely rage-inducing...

And lets not forget a tried and true favorite: Save file/memory card/hard drive corruption....

So what about y'all? How do you fare when it comes to losing your cool at video games? What normally causes you to flip out the most? Any awesome horror stories?

TheLaughingMan

2011-11-22, 02:49 PM

Erm, comrade, there's a video game sub-form just south of here.

To answer your question, the only game I've gotten fairly mad at in recent memory is Sonic Unleashed. No man, woman, or child should ever be forced to look for those stupid Sun/Moon Medals. I'm quite certain that would qualify for torture in most first-world countries.

ShadowHunter

2011-11-22, 05:14 PM

I used to beat my playstation. Go ahead, call console welfare services, but it DESERVED IT. I remember at least one occasion where I openedit up, pulled out the disk and threw it at a wall. I don't remember the game, sadly.

However I have the opposite experience, I have grown to be rather zen while playing games. My roommate on the other hand gets pretty mad while playing games. In particular he gets mad when the game beats him in what he considers a "cheap" way. Meanwhile I must have died 10 or 15 times in a row on two very close to each other boss fights in The Witcher 2 (10 or 15 each) and being pleased that the game wasn't going by too fast.

Whiffet

2011-11-22, 05:53 PM

One that sticks out in my memory was with Guitar Hero. To be specific, the guitar controller was messed up and constantly would strum when I didn't want it to. It wasn't consistent; sometimes I could manage whole songs with no problem, and other times I would fail the song before getting to a single note.

That one sticks out because one of the times it caused me to fail the song, I was playing it when my parents were around and they heard my reaction. :smalltongue: Oops.

Partof1

2011-11-22, 07:26 PM

I'm pretty mellow when playing games, according to my friends, but nobody likes losses that aren't their fault. It will always be frustrating when you do everything right and stuff still goes wrong, but that's life. I recommend keeping an easier, feel-good game on hand. I ave Kirby Mass Attack, myself, though I kinda quit when it decided to force me to collect all of a medal everywhere.

Winter_Wolf

2011-11-22, 07:41 PM

I used to rage when I couldn't beat a game. I remember my crowning moment of dumb was hurling my controller to the ground repeatedly when I was at the last boss in Golden Axe on the Genesis.

Now if I find myself being unduly irritated by a game, I turn it off and find something else to do. When I find myself heading toward, "ooh, that freaking motherloving--!!" I just take a breath and remember that the whole reason I play these games is to enjoy myself. When it fails to be enjoyable, it's time for a break. I have enough other sources of stress in my life that are not entirely within my control to NOT turn off the console or quit the game.

Lately though, I've been really getting back into (computer) chess. Now, I am rather bad at it, and I shamelessly use the undo key. Why, isn't that cheating? From one point of view, yes, I suppose it is. From the point of view that I want to use it to actually learn from my mistakes and progress to the point where I can play a person and not lose my ass within four moves, then it's just a learning tool. And yes, at a lowly level 5 of 10, the computer beat me in four moves. :smallannoyed: :smallsigh: My greatest source of irritation is seeing my own stupidity and/or lack of foresight shoved in my face. But I keep going back for more!

Traab

2011-11-22, 07:46 PM

The only rage I get is playing games of call of duty online where you hit that stretch where you cant even last 10 seconds before you get riddled with bullets. Over and over again. Around the 10th time it happens I start doing the clenched teeth screaming thing, then I disconnect and go find another game.

Feytalist

2011-11-23, 01:39 AM

Heh, we saw it with online games a lot in university. Examples include Counterstrike, Call of Duty (all of them), Warcraft, Starcraft, DotA. Oh, and TF2, latterly. Ragequits happened often. My roommate used to beat on his pillow whenever he died. Hell, my friend broke his toe when he kicked his desk leg in frustration after dying in CS.

It's never happened with single player games that I can remember. Then again, we rarely played on consoles, and saving progress on PC games are generally easier.

I do remember one guy in my residence throwing his screen out of his (third story) window, but that was after the thing died on him during a championship Starcraft game. That was rather amusing.

Starwulf

2011-11-23, 01:54 AM

I used to be the king of video game destruction when I'd get pissed off. God only knows how many controllers I went through when I was younger. I finally got a handle on it when, about 7 years ago, I got pissed off at a game I was playing on the computer(don't remember what it was, or what happened), and I took a pen, and literally cracked my computer monitors screen(one of those big, huge monitors from back in the day) with it. I still have the monitor actually, it's out in my storage shed, as a reminder to not take things quite so seriously.

factotum

2011-11-23, 02:39 AM

Even if I get really frustrated at a game I'm usually still in enough control not to destroy anything I would regret destroying later, so the main sign of it you'll see are the splintered bits of chipboard on the back of the door where my computer is--these are where I've punched it in frustration. Having said that, it's a goodly long while since I got that frustrated at a game that I did that; as Winter_Wolf points out, you just have to learn to give up on a game if it's causing frustration rather than fun. If that makes you somehow less of a gamer, who cares? It's not a competitive sport (in most cases, anyway)!

Feytalist

2011-11-23, 04:42 AM

If that makes you somehow less of a gamer, who cares? It's not a competitive sport (in most cases, anyway)!

Some of the examples I mentioned were competitive, heh. Yeah, my university had Counterstrike and Starcraft leagues. Got quite intense, sometimes.

banjo1985

2011-11-23, 04:59 AM

I use videogames to relax, so I usually don't get worked up about them. However, there are always a couple that annoy me, and they're divided up between ones that get me frustrated about the game itself, and ones that make me frustrated at my own lack of ability.

Assassins Creed Brotherhood was the former. Hopeless controls for some of the precise actions you need to do, and having Ezio consistently jump in completely the opposite direction that I was telling him to go old very fast. Forza 3 has the opposite affect; I'm regularly annoyed at my own lack of ability. I know the game delists your lap time if you put all four wheels on the grass or clip a barrier, it's not its fault that I always go slightly wide towards the end of great laps because I get overconfident.

I don't get to the point where I start throwing things around though. I only did that once, when my PS1 memory card corrupted and lost my FFVIII 75-hour save file. The memory card bounced off three walls before ending up behind the wardrobe, and I still feel it got off lightly. :smalltongue:

Choco

2011-11-23, 09:46 AM

you just have to learn to give up on a game if it's causing frustration rather than fun. If that makes you somehow less of a gamer, who cares? It's not a competitive sport (in most cases, anyway)!

I rarely have to resort to that because I honestly love the challenge of a game that kicks me down over and over, and the feeling of accomplishment I get when I finally win. I TRY not to let external factors ruin a game for me, but I'll be honest and say that I haven't touched GTA4 after the incident in the OP. Just shows how much I was never really having fun with the game, all I could think the whole time was "it ain't no Vice City...."

I do remember one guy in my residence throwing his screen out of his (third story) window, but that was after the thing died on him during a championship Starcraft game. That was rather amusing.

Oh man, I had a friend that was good enough to actually win money playing Starcraft (not enough to make a living, just a couple thousand $$ every year in the smaller tournaments). Then during a game with the biggest payout he ever would have gotten Comcast shut down his internet connection for maintenance right as he was about to win. Lets just say I would have HATED to be the poor service rep on the receiving end of that phone call....

Though that brings up another rage category: The Disconnect. Happens all the time in MMO's or other competitive online games like modern shooters. The biggest example I can remember is back when WoW was new and me and my sister lived together, we were doing Scarlet Monastery and after a few HOURS of people dropping from the group or being kicked for being useless we finally made it to the final boss we needed. I was the tank, she was the healer, and sure enough RIGHT as we say "go" and start moving on the boss is when the connection drops... The funniest thing about that incident was that our curse streams were in synch.

Though now that I think about it, my best stories are from the Your Own Damn Fault, Moron category....

I learned to keep multiple save files the hard way when one time I overwrote my FF7 game that I had been grinding up to beat Ruby Weapon with the new game I had just started. Who would have guessed that having just 1 save was a bad idea, especially if you love to just rapidly jam the "Enter" key (yes, I have it on PC, and it's awesome) when saving to get in and out as quick as possible...

Also in FF7, on my second playthrough I went about 3 hours without saving the game because "I knew what I was doing". So I get to the part where Yuffie steals your materia and you gotta fight that bird-thing boss without any of it. I said I would save after that fight, cause I just curbstomped it the first time around. Sure enough this time I was on the receiving end of the curbstomp....

The entire 2nd half of Homeworld: Cataclysm was made WAAAAY harder than it needed to be because I was playing the game with about half the unit cap. I never realized you can build those unit cap increasing pods on carriers too, as well as your mothership. I didn't find that out until well after I beat the game and was talking with a friend about it, and I still don't know if I should feel proud that I beat the game with only half the unit cap, flippin stupid because I overlooked such an obvious thing, or both...

Ricky S

2011-11-23, 09:49 AM

Dead island really annoyed the **** out of me. I was playing single player and got to a point where it was really difficult for me to beat. Worse still was that it was an escourt mission so if I didn't die then the idiot I was supposed to be protecting would die. Also after each time you respawn your weapons lose their durability so by the end of it you cannot beat the situation without multiplayer. A game that advertises as singleplayer and multiplayer should cater to both.

The Succubus

2011-11-24, 04:49 AM

Rage? I haven't seen a single example of anything I would class as "rage".

If you would know the heart of the Beast, do the following:

1) Install Desert Strike.
2) Make it to the final campaign
3) Make it to the final mission
4) On your final life, watch as the fuel counter gently ticks down to zero on the way back to the ship, no matter how many buildings and trucks you blow up desperately trying to find some more.
5) As your Apache drops silently out of the sky, reflect on the fact that you will need to start again, from the beginning.

...and now you truly know the meaning of rage.

Eldan

2011-11-24, 05:42 AM

Rage over failing games?

Oh, sure. Ground Control. Last mission of the first campaign, finally finished it.
Video sequence starts, and the game crashes, because it can't read the video sequence.

It also erased my save file.

I don't think I've ever played Ground Control since then.

The Succubus

2011-11-24, 06:09 AM

Lately though, I've been really getting back into (computer) chess. Now, I am rather bad at it, and I shamelessly use the undo key. Why, isn't that cheating? From one point of view, yes, I suppose it is. From the point of view that I want to use it to actually learn from my mistakes and progress to the point where I can play a person and not lose my ass within four moves, then it's just a learning tool. And yes, at a lowly level 5 of 10, the computer beat me in four moves.

Heh, that reminds me of a story. When I was about 9 or 10, my junior school had a chess club. I managed to beat my opponent in exactly that way (known as a fools mate, uncharitably) and then he claimed that his pawn was allowed to move sideways "in an emergency". A...disagreement followed, in which I attempted to force-feed him two rooks and a knight.

I wasn't welcome at chess club again after that. :smallbiggrin:

factotum

2011-11-24, 07:28 AM

1) Install Desert Strike.
2) Make it to the final campaign
3) Make it to the final mission
4) On your final life, watch as the fuel counter gently ticks down to zero on the way back to the ship, no matter how many buildings and trucks you blow up desperately trying to find some more.
5) As your Apache drops silently out of the sky, reflect on the fact that you will need to start again, from the beginning.

I've got a better one than that. Midwinter 2 on the Amiga is a game where you spend huge amounts of time capturing islands and cutting trade routes in order to weaken and slow down a pending invasion of your home island. I spent hours upon hours doing all that until I eventually got the message that the invasion had been launched, got back in my plane and took off, ready to join the fight, and then got the message that I'd lost the game. Seems the enemies had somehow managed to teleport directly from the mainland to my home island. A bug, of course, but still incredibly annoying when you realise all your efforts have gone for naught.

Form

2011-11-24, 08:49 AM

I used to hit my computer a long time ago. Once I actually caused it to swallow up a disk in the drive and when I managed to get it out again the disk had been shattered into smaller fragments. It took the disk drive with it too. That was a very stupid mistake and very careless of me. :smallannoyed:

Since then I'm a lot more careful with my PC and I don't subject to abuse anymore. Generally I find that if a minor computer related nuisance enrages me, it's because I'm actually angry about something else entirely.

Mewtarthio

2011-11-24, 12:35 PM

Heh, that reminds me of a story. When I was about 9 or 10, my junior school had a chess club. I managed to beat my opponent in exactly that way (known as a fools mate, uncharitably)

Wait, it's actually possible to beat someone with a fool's mate? :smalleek: I though that was just some sort of theoretical thing that no real human would be stupid enough to fall for.

Oh, right, the actual topic. I've never been angry enough to physically inflict harm on a $200 console, no. I have stared in disbelief for about a minute or so, though. Freaking Cave Story Heavy Press...

The Succubus

2011-11-24, 01:12 PM

Wait, it's actually possible to beat someone with a fool's mate? :smalleek: I though that was just some sort of theoretical thing that no real human would be stupid enough to fall for....

In fairness my opponent was 9 or 10 as well and I think it was more random luck than a carefully planned strategic gambit. Hence the argument and the attempt to discern the nutritional content of a chess piece. :smalltongue:

Whiffet

2011-11-24, 01:16 PM

Heh, that reminds me of a story. When I was about 9 or 10, my junior school had a chess club. I managed to beat my opponent in exactly that way (known as a fools mate, uncharitably) and then he claimed that his pawn was allowed to move sideways "in an emergency". A...disagreement followed, in which I attempted to force-feed him two rooks and a knight.

I wasn't welcome at chess club again after that. :smallbiggrin:

Now, see, if your chess club had me in charge, I would have welcomed you back with open arms and congratulated you on your problem-solving skills.

Traab

2011-11-24, 08:08 PM

Wait, it's actually possible to beat someone with a fool's mate? :smalleek: I though that was just some sort of theoretical thing that no real human would be stupid enough to fall for.

Oh, right, the actual topic. I've never been angry enough to physically inflict harm on a $200 console, no. I have stared in disbelief for about a minute or so, though. Freaking Cave Story Heavy Press...

Meh, I got caught out by that when I was first learning to play. I think anyone who hasnt been beaten by that move set at least once is either lying or was specifically warned about how it works ahead of time. I miss playing chess, I was in my high school then college chess clubs but since I graduated, I cant find anyone willing to play. Cool thing though, I was able to play against this disabled chess master in a rest home who had a caregiver advertise that he was looking for people to play against him. He was completely paralyzed, had to roll his head around a special keyboard to let me know what piece he wanted me to move for him. He must have gone easy on me, because it ended in a stalemate. I mean, I was always in the top 3 ranking in my club, but I know im not chess master level.

Mewtarthio

2011-11-24, 11:58 PM

Meh, I got caught out by that when I was first learning to play. I think anyone who hasnt been beaten by that move set at least once is either lying or was specifically warned about how it works ahead of time.

Are we talking about the same trick here? The one where white loses in two moves by very specifically moving the pawns of his king's knight and bishop to expose his king to attack from the black bishop? I mean, a newbie losing to blitzkreig is understandable, but I thought fool's mate was just a "this is theoretically the fastest possible checkmate if both players are trying to make white lose" thing.

Gnoman

2011-11-25, 12:38 AM

factotum

2011-11-25, 02:40 AM

I mean, a newbie losing to blitzkreig is understandable, but I thought fool's mate was just a "this is theoretically the fastest possible checkmate if both players are trying to make white lose" thing.

A newbie to chess probably doesn't think 14 moves ahead like a more experienced player does, and if you're not thinking ahead, getting yourself into either of the situations mentioned here (Fool's Mate or Scholar's Mate) would actually be quite easy.

KillianHawkeye

2011-11-25, 02:44 AM

I can't relate. I don't get mad at inanimate objects.

On the other hand, my friends and I will swear profusely at each other whenever we play Halo, but it's all good fun in the spirit of trash talking.

Starwulf

2011-11-25, 02:58 AM

The two-move checkmate, which pretty much never happens in actual play, is technically called the fool's mate, but 99% of he time the term refers to the scholar's mate, to the extent that even professional chess books use the term in that way.

A scholar's mate can be either colour. I've almost always seen it as a White victory. The proper sequence of moves for a white scholar's mate is:

E2-E3 (Unmasks queen and white bishop)
D1-F3 (moves queen out)
F1-C4 (bishop to flanking position)
F3-F7 (queen to checkmate)

This is a very easy maneuver to block, hence the name. However, variations on the theme can work well, such as replacing either piece with a knight. A delayed scholar's mate, where you set part of it up early, then finish 7-8 moves into the game when he forgets why he has a knight at F-6, is also possible.

Hehe, that has been my favorite opening gambit since I was 13. It rarely works against any one experienced, but as you said, 7-8, or a few moves more down the line, and your opponent might not be thinking about it anymore, and BAM, it's over. I've tricked more then a few people that way, and those who don't fall for it, still hate me for always opening with it, since they know that's when I'm playing serious, and they usually don't stand a chance(I was chess champion of my schools club(also founder, lol), and have played several former state champions and won. I never really got into competitive play back then though, wish I had. I remember a couple of matches back in High School with my science teacher(who was the teacher in charge of the Chess Club). They got pretty epic, whenever we played everyone else wouldn't even play that day, they'd just stand around and watch us duke it out. He was pretty damn good, and I learned more then a few tricks from him, that's for sure.).

Dhavaer

2011-11-25, 06:09 AM

I think my biggest moment of rage at a game was playing WET, specifically the Falling For Kafka level. That hateful, hateful level. I think I died almost thirty times on that one damned level.

Nero24200

2011-11-25, 10:43 AM

I remember getting angry at Last Remnent a few times. Though that's mostly because the combat in that game is just unfair and badly designed. I remember once fighting a boss and getting owned, reloaded and went completely to town on the thing just because I had better luck.

I remember one vividly that would curse any unit that attacked it in the first turn and how lucky I was that in my first turn only one of my units didn't get the "Wait" command, meaning I could steamroll over him because the only thing the boss had going for it was that it could insta-kill my units with the curse ability.

Then there's the Gates of Hell boss...the less I remember of that fight the better though...we're talking about a boss that can crush a unit then convert it to fight for him...which is problematic when you take into account the fact that units YOU control have a lot less hit points than monsters but deal a lot more damage.

Then theres LOL, I get pretty mad at that sometimes. Not the game itself, msotly the idiots on there. And I don't mean someone playing badly, I'm talking about idiots that chastise me for not ganking even though they're pushing the lane constantly :smallfurious: or who blame my support for not saving them with a heal or stun as though I have infinate mana and no cooldowns.

Choco

2011-11-25, 11:07 AM

Then theres LOL, I get pretty mad at that sometimes. Not the game itself, msotly the idiots on there. And I don't mean someone playing badly, I'm talking about idiots that chastise me for not ganking even though they're pushing the lane constantly :smallfurious: or who blame my support for not saving them with a heal or stun as though I have infinate mana and no cooldowns.

Dude, I feel your pain. I was a healer on WoW (and despite the complaining that is about to commence, I still find it BY FAR the most fun role to have), which means any time someone died or even took a lot of damage it was entirely my fault.

Tank runs up and aggros the next 2 pulls at the same time while I am drinking to get my mana up, and SPECIFICALLY said so like 5 seconds prior? TPK is entirely my fault.

DPS guys keep doing taunt abilities and stealing threat from the tank? When they die it is entirely my fault.

People stand in damaging environmental effects? Once again their deaths are entirely my fault.

Someone is taking damage and thinks that running around the corner is a good way to deal with it? Yeah, they die and it is totally my fault for not healing them.

Tank is DPS specced and is downed in 3-4 hits? My fault for not keeping him better healed.

Though luckily, as a healer, I never had to put up with that crap. After the 2nd or 3rd time if the group refused to kick the person (or people) that was the problem I just left the group, and within 3 minutes was back in with another one.

Sipex

2011-11-25, 12:49 PM

I feel your pain Choco, I used to be a white mage in FF11 (have specifically avoided healer roles in WoW ever since) and people getting on your case for running out of mana is no fun.

"I wouldn't run out of mana if the tank could hold aggro for more than 2 seconds!"

Blargh.

Anywho, I'm pretty calm playing games these days although my temper used to be pretty bad and it still flares up in unexpected circumstances.
- Games which glitch out too often. I don't care if I haven't done anything remarkable since my last save it's just annoying have to restart everything then fiddle with the system for a bit to get the game working just so it can freeze again 20 minutes later.
- Assassin's Creed and jumping where you don't want to jump. We've all been there and we've all lost a race or twenty because somehow the character interprets 'Dash forward' as 'Jump off to the left into those guards there'
- Actually, most racing stuff where I can't tell where I'm going easily. I hate losing a race because I had to spend 10 seconds to figure out where the next checkpoint is.
- When you get that one online game in Halo/CoD/whatever where you just have absolutely no choice but to die repeatedly, despite your best efforts not to. A friend of mine and I got completely reamed when we went up against a team of 5 guys (3 of our guys dropped) who proceeded to kill us at every opportunity. No matter how hard we tried, what tactics we formed we would get reamed every time. We made it our goal to stop the lot of them from, at the very least, getting 'invincible' medals.
We succeeded, so it wasn't a total loss.

Murska

2011-11-25, 05:06 PM

I don't generally rage at games, and I never break anything valuable (though I do sometimes slam my fist on my table) but I do have a couple 'stress' games which I play on multiplayer generally just to scream profanities at the screen for a while until I feel better about my life in general.

Shpadoinkle

2011-11-25, 10:35 PM

I don't get angry at games nearly as often as I used to. Granted I still get frustrated, but I'm getting better at finding something else to do before I get really upset.

Which isn't to say I NEVER get upset anymore. If, after a long segment that I haven't been able to save during, that I'm managing, with a lot of effort, to do okay at, the computer suddenly does something like pull off eight critical hits in a row and smoke my entire team, THEN I get pissed off. It almost never goes beyond swearing loudly and slamming my fist against my thigh any more though.

Starwulf

2011-11-26, 01:59 AM

I feel your pain Choco, I used to be a white mage in FF11 (have specifically avoided healer roles in WoW ever since) and people getting on your case for running out of mana is no fun.

"I wouldn't run out of mana if the tank could hold aggro for more than 2 seconds!"

Everybody should take a WHM to level 40-50 at one point in time or another in their FFXI career. I had to for my MNK back in the day when Chi-Blasting Kirin was our only viable source of damage(go go Chi Rotations!), and I gained an entirely new level of respect for how tough the job can be. I never got to go into LoO(which in the early days was a WHMs crucible, their make or break point), but just taking it to 40 was enough to realize how hard MP management can be, and how frustrating it is when people start bitching about not getting heals and haste and protect and shell(god forbid if you take longer then 2 seconds after it wears. "PRO AND SHELL PLZ! PRO AND SHELL PLZ! PRO AND SHELL PLZ! Hey WHM, we need PRO & SHELL, what are you doing man, sleeping?" BLARGH.

It's a bit easier as a RDM, since you're pretty much just a back-up healer for the most part, but god forbid if you get into a party pre-40 >< Trying to debuff, keep up pro and shell on the tank, and heal on a Humes MP pool is NOT fun, and if you even DARE to ask for a short break in-between consistent chain 5's, you're the ****tiest RDM who ever lived. I eventually got fed up with it, and soloed my way(back when FoV pages didn't exist) from 32-44, with only a single Eastern Altepa Desert spider/beetle/dhalmel party(I LOVE Eastern Altepa Desert. Best spot for EXP at that level, but so many people INSIST on crawler nest(or did, anyways).

Knaight

2011-11-26, 06:32 AM

I don't get angry at games. I have, however, both seen and prompted some rage quitting, mostly in turn based strategy games where one is able to show up with completely ridiculous forces by outplaying the others and just cut through them quickly.

Cobalt

2011-11-26, 02:16 PM

I have never played a racing game that hasn't made me want to break every single thing in my house and my neighborhood. And then there're FPS's where the last save/checkpoint was me in the middle of a swarm of enemies and there's no escape from dying instantly upon respawn. I typically respond by slamming my fists and feet into the nearest doors and tables until said doors and tables are no more. Then I try again in vain.

Provengreil

2011-11-26, 08:13 PM

for video games as a whole, loading times. Big offenders are RPGs that have a "party switching area" that has to do a loading screen all on its own. biggest offender was NWN 2, which to do that you have to run through the docks(they almost never dump you at the starting point next to the inn), then load the inn, get your party, load the docks, leave, and load the area you want.

But for an actual rage at a situation, I'd have to say Akula from Ace Combat Assault Horizon got me madder than any single video game...anything ever has. This guy has it all: plot armor WHILE YOU FIGHT HIM, missiles that shoot backwards, quick time events midfight, a long fight duration, and no midfight saves. oh, and you have to do the whole thing in their godawful dogfight mode, so i can safely say that if I had been in the testing groups I probably would have thrown the console at someone. As it was, It was my console so it stayed there, and I traded the game in for halo reach.

Hyudra

2011-11-26, 11:42 PM

What really ticks me off is games with promise that continually fail.

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (WAR) was one such game. WoW-alike with a great intellectual property to base itself on. First MMO I played where you could PvP from 1st level to max and feel good doing it.

But the Devs just never seemed to understand their game.

Class X: We're underpowered.
Class Y: (on opposing faction): They're so underpowered.
Guy A: Here's mathematical proof on why they're so underpowered.
Class B, C, Z: They're the worst class in the game.
Devs: "Nerf class X!"
Me: /Rage

And they kept doing it.

Gnoman

2011-11-27, 04:28 AM

There is one point in one game that made me truly furious. There's a tricky jump halfway through Duke Nukem, Manhattan Project that has a checkpoint right before it. Every time you die, the checkpoint re-saves one pixel further forward. After about fifty deaths, you start over the pit and die (and the checkpoint stops moving.)

The Glyphstone

2011-11-28, 06:51 AM

ShinyRocks

2011-11-28, 07:49 AM

This was years and years ago, but I was playing Zombies on the Megadrive(/Genesis). Awesome game, with a brilliant design aesthetic. Loved it, and still do.

Also really tough. Not only can you die from normal, you know, dying (from zombies or mermen or devil dolls or aliens or anything else), you also lose if you don't save the neighbours.

You start with ten neighbours, and you have to save them all to complete the level. If one dies (that is, gets TOUCHED by an enemy), then they're gone forever. That means you have fewer to save, and go through levels quicker, but also gives you less margin of error. If you only have one neighbour left to save, you're pretty screwed for the most part.

(As an aside, the scream of the dying neighbour is massively creepy, especially when that neighbour is a baby.)

Anyway. Finally made it through the 50+ levels to the last boss. Defeated him. Smoke and flames etc. The game freezes and I don't get to see the ending. I wasn't angry so much as hugely disappointed. I never even tried again. It kind of broke me.

I think the only thing that really gets me het up these days is final bosses in fighting games. They're always about fifty times harder than the rest of the game and cheap cheap cheap.

The Succubus

2011-11-28, 08:31 AM

Draconi Redfir

2011-11-28, 09:02 AM

Hunted:The demon's forge. I haven’t even played the dang thing, first it was just an inability to play it with a friend of mine, and i tried making some adjustments to try and fix the problem, but that just made things worse!

Now i cant even get IN the game, i try to launch it, get a steam message saying it's preparing, get a popup asking for administrator permission, i give that, steam says preparing, get a popup for administrator permission, i give that, steam says preparing, i get a popup asking for administrator permission, i think you get the idea.

It is the launch that never ends, yes it just goes on and on my friends, it just, keeps on launching no matter what i do, it'll never finish launching so it seem i am quite screwed. Yes it is the launch that never ends, yes it just goes on and on my friends, it just, keeps on launching it no matter what i do, it'll never finish launching so it seems i am quite screwed. etc.

Even uninstalling and re-installing the dang thing twice didn't help.

IncoherentEssay

2011-11-28, 09:48 AM

I got the rage-against-game beaten out of me nice and early by Soulblade Edgemaster mode. One gimmick match after another, against opponents using better weapons and not limited by the match gimmick = pain. Didn't help that i was pretty terrible at fighting games back then.
Now i can just think "at least it's not as bad as *pick any one of many cheap matches*" :smalltongue:.

Cristo Meyers

2011-11-28, 11:00 AM

Choco

2011-11-28, 11:21 AM

Elements of Saints Row 3 have been tickling my rage bone in a way that I haven't felt in almost a decade...

When you're screaming at the monitor "GET IN THE [Samuel L Jackson impression here] CAR YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF TRASH!" when doing the Traffic missions, you know it's time to stop...but then, it's Saints Row, so at least I can just vent a little frustration on hapless passerby...

Man, gotta love it when a game's ****ty controls and/or design is what is screwing you over... One that I remember making me see red was Jedi Power Battles on the Playstation. Some levels had a lot of platforming elements to them, and I remember MULTIPLE TIMES having to jump DOWN somewhere, and yet for some reason the designers thought it would be funny to make it so you CAN'T FLIPPIN SEE WHERE YOU NEED TO JUMP. Cue multiple restarts while I memorize where all the jump-down platforms are....

And while on that topic, the most rage I have EVER had at a game was probably during the 3 DAYS I spent trying to beat the 12th mission in Homeworld 2. I didn't find out till later, but APPARENTLY the game is coded in a way that it adapts the difficulty to your skill. How it determines this is looking at your performance in the previous level. I DOMINATED the 11th level, and went into the 12th with a maxed-out fleet and enough $$ in the bank to replace it many times over.

That is when I learned the designers apparently didn't think to add an upper limit to the difficulty increases. I was met by a fleet 3x the size of mine (6 battlecruisers, 15 destroyers, etc. (yes, I counted)) that was on top of me before my fighters were even done undocking. On the 3rd day (and maybe 15 hours total of trying) I was FINALLY able to win by exploiting the AI targeting priority (they target resource collectors first, so I used all my money mass-producing them and sending them to the front to shield my battlecruisers). It felt SOOOOO GOOD when I finally won, but damn I am surprised my desk/monitor/keyboard/computer survived the journey....

Draconi Redfir

2011-11-28, 12:48 PM

And while on that topic, the most rage I have EVER had at a game was probably during the 3 DAYS I spent trying to beat the 12th mission in Homeworld 2. I didn't find out till later, but APPARENTLY the game is coded in a way that it adapts the difficulty to your skill. How it determines this is looking at your performance in the previous level. I DOMINATED the 11th level, and went into the 12th with a maxed-out fleet and enough $$ in the bank to replace it many times over.

That is when I learned the designers apparently didn't think to add an upper limit to the difficulty increases. I was met by a fleet 3x the size of mine (6 battlecruisers, 15 destroyers, etc. (yes, I counted)) that was on top of me before my fighters were even done undocking. On the 3rd day (and maybe 15 hours total of trying) I was FINALLY able to win by exploiting the AI targeting priority (they target resource collectors first, so I used all my money mass-producing them and sending them to the front to shield my battlecruisers). It felt SOOOOO GOOD when I finally won, but damn I am surprised my desk/monitor/keyboard/computer survived the journey....

Sounds like a fun game :P

factotum

2011-11-28, 01:23 PM

Now i cant even get IN the game, i try to launch it, get a steam message saying it's preparing, get a popup asking for administrator permission, i give that, steam says preparing, get a popup for administrator permission

I had a similar problem with Skyrim. Fixed it by starting the Steam client as administrator in the first place (e.g. exit Steam entirely, then right-click the Steam icon and select "Run as administrator").

Cristo Meyers

2011-11-28, 01:40 PM

Man, gotta love it when a game's ****ty controls and/or design is what is screwing you over... One that I remember making me see red was Jedi Power Battles on the Playstation. Some levels had a lot of platforming elements to them, and I remember MULTIPLE TIMES having to jump DOWN somewhere, and yet for some reason the designers thought it would be funny to make it so you CAN'T FLIPPIN SEE WHERE YOU NEED TO JUMP. Cue multiple restarts while I memorize where all the jump-down platforms are....

The really annoying thing, and probably the thing that's hitting the RAGE button so much, is that it's patently Fake Difficulty. Real Difficulty doesn't bother me in the least: I died no less than a dozen times each trying to finish the final sequences of STALKER: SOC and CS, but never once felt really frustrated. This is my AI controlled protectee mindlessly milling about while the car (that you can't drive) is being riddled with small arms fire, sniper fire, and minigun fire...it tends to make things a lot more irritating.

Choco

2011-11-28, 02:07 PM

Sounds like a fun game :P

Actually, other than that little incident it is damn awesome. All 3 of the Homeworld games are. Though all 3 have their "I'M GONNA THROW THIS COMPUTER OUT THE WINDOW!" missions (the Kadesh missions and the last mission in the first one, can't say much about Cataclysm because I was playing with half the unit cap, and mission 12 in the 2nd one).... Although the last mission/boss fight in Cataclysm was definitely memorable. This is a space RTS game we are talking about, and that mission made me utter the phrase "Did that thing just EAT my dreadnought?!?!?". Yes, it ate my dreadnought. Both of them. And then most of the rest of the capital ships in my fleet too...

The really annoying thing, and probably the thing that's hitting the RAGE button so much, is that it's patently Fake Difficulty. Real Difficulty doesn't bother me in the least: I died no less than a dozen times each trying to finish the final sequences of STALKER: SOC and CS, but never once felt really frustrated. This is my AI controlled protectee mindlessly milling about while the car (that you can't drive) is being riddled with small arms fire, sniper fire, and minigun fire...well, things get a lot more irritating.

OH GOD YES, "Fake Difficulty" is definitely one of the worst offenders when it comes to inducing rage.

I still have nightmares about trying to solo the original Gears of War boss fight on whatever they named the hardest difficulty.... I beat him 3 times with 3 different people in co-op and he was barely any challenge at all. But solo, I just couldn't do it. Problem is the fight is basically designed for 2 people, and your AI companion is worse than useless....

Not to mention all the times I died because I wanted to charge down a hallway and my character jumped behind cover (or the other way around)....

Then there is <insert any escort mission from any game ever> where the person/people you are escorting think it is funny to run ahead of you and into mobs of enemies....

Nerd-o-rama

2011-11-28, 02:09 PM

Blue shells.

Shpadoinkle

2011-11-28, 04:59 PM

Fake difficulty is a big frustrating factor for me. I don't rage at it, but I do get annoyed and may simply put the game down for some time if there's a particularly stupid section of the game I'm having trouble with.

I think a big part of the reason I'm actually raging less at games is the fact that I've shifted my outlook on them somewhat- I'm just there for the journey. It's PROBABLY going to end with my character laying in a ditch with seventeen spears sticking out of him, or with all his bones ground to paste, or with a bunch of new and exciting holes in his body, or simply vaporized. If I win, hey, that's pretty cool. But just because I'm probably not going to be successful doesn't mean I can't enjoy the ride.

The Succubus

2011-11-28, 06:50 PM

Draconi Redfir

2011-11-29, 07:16 AM

I had a similar problem with Skyrim. Fixed it by starting the Steam client as administrator in the first place (e.g. exit Steam entirely, then right-click the Steam icon and select "Run as administrator").

hmmm, i'll give that a try next chance i get.

potatocubed

2011-11-29, 07:45 AM

I didn't find out till later, but APPARENTLY the game is coded in a way that it adapts the difficulty to your skill. How it determines this is looking at your performance in the previous level.

I know there are fighting games which 'learn' your favourite combos and special moves as you play through, so the final boss is always adapted to your style - my flatmates and I used to abuse that terribly by handing the controller off to someone else for the last fight, which tended to be a cakewalk for a new player.

I don't ever go for physical rage vs video games, but my incoherent screams of frustration are the reason why I don't get on Skype or voice chat or anything. League of Legends is the most recent culprit, although any team-based game where you get randomly matched with people from the internet is a pretty good bet.

GungHo

2011-11-29, 03:26 PM

Probably the worst instance of rage I experienced with a video game was the time I tore the joystick out of a Street Fighter II cabinet and nearly killed some lady by throwing the stick across the arcade as hard as I possibly could. Luckily, that was back in the days of Aqua Net, so the hair absorbed the blow like Kevlar eats .22 LR.

That got my picture put up on the arcade manager's booth/cesspool as a persona non grata for a couple of years. In my defense... Bison. And, I wasn't the only person who had abused that cabinet... so it's not like I was Superman.

A severe beating from a grown man who actually wasn't looking at my girl and the Marines cured me of random acts of rage after that.

The Glyphstone

2011-11-29, 03:48 PM

A severe beating from a grown man who actually wasn't looking at my girl and the Marines cured me of random acts of rage after that.

Parsing this sentence right, or wrong, makes it unintentionally extremely hilarious.:smallbiggrin:

Anteros

2011-11-29, 04:02 PM

I remember getting angry at Last Remnent a few times. Though that's mostly because the combat in that game is just unfair and badly designed. I remember once fighting a boss and getting owned, reloaded and went completely to town on the thing just because I had better luck.

I remember one vividly that would curse any unit that attacked it in the first turn and how lucky I was that in my first turn only one of my units didn't get the "Wait" command, meaning I could steamroll over him because the only thing the boss had going for it was that it could insta-kill my units with the curse ability.

Then there's the Gates of Hell boss...the less I remember of that fight the better though...we're talking about a boss that can crush a unit then convert it to fight for him...which is problematic when you take into account the fact that units YOU control have a lot less hit points than monsters but deal a lot more damage.

I don't recall either of those battles being that difficult. They just require you to actually think about what you're doing.

There are some really frustrating luck based optional battles later in that game though. Unless you're severely over-leveled.

Elder Tsofu

2011-11-30, 08:27 AM

I tend not to rage at games or at external causes of game-related problems. The way I counter situations where it is too much to take with a straight face, due to tears or a clenched jaw and murder in the eyes, is to close down the offending apparatus followed by leaning back and closing my eyes.
What I do get more upset about than other things is when I am the cause of the problem. Forgetting to save or accidentally deleting something (save-files, in-game items, pvp'ing while tired and overconfident) are the usual offenders, not unusually spiced with tiredness from a long gaming-session to make the error even worse than it could have been. This also applies to word documents and work related things.

Last time I did it was when I lost more than a weeks worth of gaming (crammed into one day due to airport) after closing down the game to get a milkshake. Since quite a lot of things in the game were determined by a sort of random mechanic I haven't really managed to take it up again (a year later). Sure, randomness adds to replay value but when I want to get to the point where I lost my save it is darn frustrating.
It was one of the best milkshakes I've had though.

I do get this interesting feeling of clear-headedness instantly after clicking the wrong "yes" or "x". I think it might be heightened awareness inherited from my ancestors to save my life after missing a tree-branch or when I'm tumbling down the slope towards the river full of crocodiles, but now it serves to rub it in instantly after I lift my right index finger and all apparent chances of recovery are gone.