Chill, relax. It's just a game!

[Quadcentruo]

How many times have you ever played a game over the internet with some random people and they just get enraged for something that happened in-game? If you play multiplayer games more often than not, you've probably heard at least one or two people rage because of the outcome of part of the game. You might have even wanted to tell these people "Dude, chill. It's just a video game." Well, why do people so rarely take this advice?

The answer might be because game developers almost never tell the player to relax and calm down whenever they start to fail slightly. Older games never had this problem because they usually always offered unlimited retries and kept the player wanting to get past an obstacle and feel accomplished. Newer games aren't so lucky. Some games don't have an auto-save feature and it can be frustrating to gamers when they get a game-over after a long stretch of game and accomplished a lot, but then it's just gone.

But that's the hidden rage nobody ever sees because those are generally single player games. The games you always here people rage about are the mulitplayer games. The biggest causes of rage in a gamer while playing multiplayer games is refusing to accept defeat and overconfidence in their own skills. Whenever my friend played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at my house, he would always get incredibly angry whenever he was shot down by another gamer. He thought he was better than the other gamer and refused to accept his defeat against this gamer. I've even seen two holes in my friend's wall (different friend) because he was just that angry at a video game. Again, because he thought he was better and he refused to accept defeat in a game.

Ultimately, this could've been because developers failed to send this simple message to gamers: Relax and calm down; It's only a video game. But how are developers supposed to send this message to players while simultaneously make the game make logical sense to have such a message communicated to the gamer? The most obvious way is to have a character break the fourth-wall and tell players straight-out to relax and not to get too worked up over such a insignificant part of your life.

But what about multiplayer games? You can't have a character tell you to relax in a game when there aren't really any characters that speak to you in-game. You would have to send the message almost symbolically to the gamers, but how exactly would this message be sent? Valve seems to have done it perfectly, but a majority of people miss the message. With the Pyromania update, the new weapons have attributes that are fun and enjoyable to use in a match, but not necessarily the best thing to use in a competitive situation. With the Pyroland Goggles, each class laughs when hit or upon death, explosions turn into balloons and confetti, and body parts from an exploded body turn into springs, confetti, and even a unicycle. Even though they have experienced defeat, the classes still enjoy doing what they are doing (shown by their laughter on hit/death). Even Pyroland is something that you literally can't take seriously and thus causing you to take the game less seriously, which helps reduce the number of times and severity of a gamer being enraged while playing the game.

Of course, gamers will always rage at their video games. They will always get frustrated with their progress in a game, but developers need to send a message to tell the players to relax every now and again. Developers should also try to make games less frustrating by adding in features that lessen the possibility of rage, such as auto-save, adjustable difficulty, and maybe even some less serious parts more frequently. There really is no reason why people should get so worked up over something that is almost never important to their real life.

[Cat333Pokémon]

(I hate feeling like I made a short reply to something long, so I apologize.)

I certainly agree here. Games are meant to be fun, and while they can get irritating, it's always worth it to take short breaks from games that get on your nerves.

[The Spirit of Time]

I don't think it is the developers' responsibility to just send them a message: Relax, it is a video game. The gamers themselves should be aware of that. Of course, in a single player mode, getting enraged because of losing progress is a common and natural thing. Anyone would get angry after losing something he worked hard to get, whether it is a video game, a sports game or a general thing in life. It is hard to prevent that, since it is a natural reflex that occurs without us thinking. You suddenly lose, and you shout in frustration immediately without thinking. Once you start thinking, you obviously replay what you have just missed.

As for multiplayer, I think the main issue hides within the story you narrated, since I did experience something like that, but to a less extent. Yes, when you play alone, you think you really have mastered the game and that you are doing great, but once you play with others and discover that there are many people around the world who are better than you, you feel disappointed and frustrated. I experienced something like that when I first tried WiFi battling in Diamond. I lost miserably to many people, since I just battled with my in-game team, not knowing anything about competitive battling. But it was these many losses that encouraged me to improve, so maybe your friend is getting enraged, but he should also be motivated to improve his skills in order to match those elitists.

[Shiny]

It's not that I'm bad, it's that they have campers, quickscopers, shotgunners, sprayers, headglitchers, and people who can shoot a gun better than me.
I yell. A lot. It doesn't even have to be a CoD game to rage. I've yelled at games as simple as Uno. BECAUSE THEY PLAY A 7 AND STEAL MY CARDS.
But yeah, sometimes we need to chill. Especially me.

[SpaceMan++]

When suddenly I lost 10 hours of progress (common if using a GBA savedata memory stick from China), I won't have the motivation to play it again. It's not rage, it's just sad.
One year later, I may have the mood to play it again.

[PHANTOMxTRAINER]

OMG. ME AND MY FRIENDS GO COMPLETE RAGE MODE. We all scream, yell and curse out our opponents when we get killed in something like Halo.

[7dewott8]

Personally, I don't see the point of getting all raged over a video game death. I mean, sure it does end up getting irritating after a while, but you don't need to overreact against pixels. Besides, what's screaming over a death going to prove? You end up re spawning (or get healed) anyways.

[BadboyUK]

I dont get that mad when I die in a Video Game ,The only time I do is when there are spawn killers ,and after that I just leave the game because whats the fun in keep dieng, in a never ending loop??

[TurtwigX]

I don't think this so much applies to me, I mean, games are about 1/3 of my life since I'm a shut in nerd that doesn't do much socially.
Sure, I did break a Wii Remote because of Kirby's Epic Yarn(Don't ask). Sure, I did destroy a case because of Mario Kart Wii, but that's just me. I have the tendency to believe I am perfect in every way, so loss after an extended period of time will frustrate me to no end, and I get angry fast and easy. But I know as much as beads and THAT STUPID BIRDO hate me, it really means nothing at the end of the day. I can always quick save my progress, drop the controller, and get me a glass of lemonade or something.
To go along with what you said, the game providing incentive for the player to turn it off would be a good way to reduce stress from loss. Like The World Ends With You, it provides "Shutdown PP" meaning the longer you have the game off, the more EXP you get for your pins, which means more attack power and more things you can do story-wise. It's convenient, and takes the hard 2-screen gameplay off my mind.

[SyracuvatTenlii]

In the words of JonTron, "I firmly stand my belief that a casual video game should NOT take the diligence and precision of NEUROSURGERY."

[LugiaDialga]

I play video games for fun and enjoyment, of course, we all do! ᴱˣᶜᵉᵖᵗ ᶠᵒʳ ᵗʰᵉ ᶜᵒᴰ ᵈᵒʳᵏˢ ʷʰᵒ ᵗʰᶦᶰᵏ ᶦᵗ'ˢ ᵗʰᵉᶦʳ ᶫᶦᶠᵉ⋅⋅⋅ ﹡ᶜᵒᵘᵍʰ﹡⁸ ʸᵉᵃʳ ᵒᶫᵈ ᵇᵒʸˢ ʷᶦᵗʰ ᶰᵒ ᵈᶦˢᶜᶦᵖᶫᶦᶰᵉ﹡ᶜᵒᵘᵍʰ﹡
But I will admit that even I can quickly become frustrated. I play games for another reason as well, the story lines. If the game has a super enthralling story then I get sucked up into the world in which it's taking me on a ride in. I stare at the screen like a fish, unblinking in other words. When this happens my emotions go on a rollar coaster ride. I will smiles and cheer when I do something amazing or get past a difficult session in the game. However, when I start to face the harder challenges and end up seeing the "GAME OVER" screen or "MISSION FAILED" screen yelling at my face 5, 10, 30 times in a row... THIS is when I start to boil over in rage. I will literally sit there and yell at the game. x3 It's rather sad and silly all at the same time. I hate being mad, I really do. And it's silly to start playing a game for ENJOYMENT but end up rage-quitting all because I cannot make Ezio jump up a wall in Assassin's Creed or Dom can't shoot his gun in Gears of War or something silly like that. If I can get a grip on myself however, I will just save and turn off the game and either stop all together or play another one since it's silly to stay mad, especially at a video gameing entertainment system. But yeahup, I am indeed a crazy raging gamer who will throw controllers if I 'die' too many times.

Though I will say I cannot play Multiplayer because I am a sore looser at times and I hate knowing that in reality, when I think I'm good at a game I'm nothing compared to my fellow Nerds who will spend entire sleepless weeks worth of time into mastering the killing techniques of a multiplayer online video game. So yeah, multiplexer is not my thing (except for friendly Pokemon wi-fi battles, that does not count in my book)!

[Fubab_107]

Much like Cat, I'm sorry I have a short message. I'm a man of few words.

I do hate people like this who do take the game seriously. I mean in a competitor sense, I will be all rage like, but it's more in a sense just to keep a nice competitive mood. But when people get to the point where they would want to punch me in the head , that's when I think they really need to calm down. I'm a person who prefere to just play a game for the enjoyment, not for the win. But having a slight competitive attitude does add to the game. As I said, as long as they keep it minimal, it's all good. But wanting to throw punches and hurtful insults, that's going far.

[kakashidragon]

I sometimes get angry on call of duty games. But when you know that a player is using hacks or is cheating, no-one at my house dosnt under that. Sometimes if the games lag (I call it glitching on me) I do get a little upset cause the game lags when someone is either on the internet or is using some sort lagging hack. (I know this cause i will have full bars and the game lags as if someone is on the internet)