Anger Management

[OldsterHolster]

OK, folks, 'fess-up; what do you do when you get totally frustrated and pissed while playing a game? Its got to happen to everyone. A seemingly insurmountable foe, an unsolvable puzzle, or repeatedly almost succeeding and failing at the last moment, must have some effect; and I was wondering what you all do to handle the situation.

Personally, I really try to limit myself to my vast collection of cuss words with a good solid fist-pound to the table for emphasis, but I've sure been tempted to slap the keyboard around or molest the mouse on occassion. Heh, heh. How about you? Has anybody destroyed anything? Do you stomp off to the kitchen looking for chocolate, or maybe kick the dog? Heh, heh. Tell the truth!

I mean, I know we are all mature, level-headed, well-adjusted, adults; (more or less) but nobody's perfect, and stress does have to be relieved, after all. What game has driven you to this state, and how did you handle it? The only game I've bought and never finished was Grand Theft Auto. The lack of a quick-save feature meant I had to repeat some of the levels, especially the race sequences, over and over, again; and I finally ran out of cuss words and just quit before I got to the rampage state. Heh, heh, heh. Edward.

[Nova]

I usually just cuss as well, but I have broken 3 headsets and punched a hole in my wall in the past :mad:

I am more patient now :D:

[Fzoulcmbyl]

Lol....wow Nova! I always say...better the wall, than a person you know, right?.....the wall won't hit back.... :wink:


I usually do the cuss and pound my fists thing too, I try not to hit the keyboard, cause I don't want to buy another one, but sometimes it get in the way.

:D:


Fzoul

[Nova]

Exactly, I'd rather not take out my frustrations on people. The headsets were getting expensive after a while though...

You know, there was a really funny thread about this on GameSpy. I remember that one guy was playing on his roommate's SNES and after screwing up something he had been trying to do for weeks, he threw the console out the third floor window, control pads attached and all. I laughed for 3 hours straight when I read that.

[Ojnod]

I swear under my breath and then throw my body into the back of my chair but that is about it. That is on a rare occasion.

[Chylde Roland]

I usually take a break. I'm playing several different games right now, so it's not too hard to do. For example, Ninja Gaiden on my 'box almost had me pulling my hair out, so I've taken a hiatus for a couple of weeks. I'll get back into it soon, I'm sure. The thing with that game is virtually every enemy is a potential freak out session, it's that hard.

:):

[Rafal Dudek]

oh yea thanx to Ninja Gaiden I came up with bunch of new cuss words that never knew they even existed =P Sometimes I pound on the desk out of frustrations and on occasion, I light some neighbor house on fire, but thats about it.

[Terry Penrod]

.

Yeah, a string of cusswords and takng a short break to cool down usual works for me too. I would never break my game gear though, because I love it and it generally treats me like a king. It is the publishers and developers that I get mad at when missing features, bad designs, lousy controls and plain old bugs make a game too frustrating to finish. If the difficulty is just too high, I simply change it to something easier. If that's not possible, I take a break from that particular game, play similar titles that are not quite as hard, try to get better and then go back for another go. So far, that has worked for me in all sorts of games from fast arcade shooters and crazy platform jumpers to sophisticated RPGs, adventures and strategies.

Cheers, Terry

.

[Kalbrecht]

I have a "punching pillow" to use, plus a stress ball.

Works well - I haven't broken anything.

[DanTheManPR]

Although I never go into fits of rage or anything, I do occasionaly get extremely pissed when I play in an UT2k4 server where everyone has vastly superior skills.

Also, I can't help but feel flustered when I play Halo (for Xbox) and Super Smash bros with one of my friends who is just so good at those games, it is un-real. Whenever he is owning me too bad, I say "Lets play some Bond". We pop in the Goldeneye cartridge, and suddenly our roles change. I just wipe the floor with him in Goldeneye - That always makes me feel better (he and I have been playing Goldeneye for-ever).

A cousin of mine gets so pissed when he gets beat playing games that he hits the controler on the chair as hard as he can over and over. He says "Its hard plastic".

[OldsterHolster]

OK, not bad; so far. We've got holes in the wall, lots of new cuss words, equipment failure, and the neighbor's house on fire. Heh, heh, heh. Is there more? Remember, "Confession is good for the soul." I'll have to admit, like Fzoul, the damned keyboard has "got in the way" a few times, but they sure are durable, aren't they? And, similar to Chai's punching pillow and stress ball, I have a "mad spot" downstairs in my garage. I'm a carpenter, and there's one spot on my very well-made workbench that I hit with my hammer when the rage needs immediate attention. Well, I didn't just quit Grand Theft Auto; I carefully put the CD back into the jewel case, took it downstairs to my spot, and beat the damned thing into a million pieces. How embarrassing because I paid good money for that thing, too; but it sure made me feel better. Heh, heh. So much for "mature, level-headed, and well-adjusted," huh?

So, is there something you're not telling? Edward.

[Gaim Mastr]

Well, I handle stressful gaming situations a bit differently today than I did many years ago.

Back when they first came out, I had one of these...


http://www.gamersmultiverse.com/gaimmastr/nintendo.jpg


... which rested on top of one of these...


http://www.gamersmultiverse.com/gaimmastr/tvtray.jpg


I can't recall what game I was playing, but it was one of those that forces you to complete the entire level before giving you the code, thus saving your progress.

After who knows how many tries, I finally got up, stormed to my closet and grabbed one of these out of my camping gear...


http://www.gamersmultiverse.com/gaimmastr/knife.jpg


I stormed back over and drove it down hard enough to centrally skewer this...


http://www.gamersmultiverse.com/gaimmastr/nintendo.jpg


... and burying it into this...


http://www.gamersmultiverse.com/gaimmastr/tvtray.jpg



After the smoke cleared (literally, it was still plugged in), I tossed it out and waited another year before buying another Nintendo.



Nowadays, worst case scenario, I'll hunt the 'net for cheat codes, mods, plugins, trainers, editors, Game Shark (http://www.gameshark.com/), Game Genie (http://www.gamegenie.com/), etc. that will get me past a frustrating part. If that doesn't work, and I feel like it, I'll use one of these (http://www.technologismiki.com/en/) and do my own 'custom' editing of the game's files.

But similar to Terry, I'll find myself cursing the poor quality of game design and/or QA from the developers or publishers whenever I judge a game as being ridiculously too difficult, or if the AI gives the game enemies a cheating type of advantage.

MoH:AA sniper town, anyone ?? :p:

[O'C]

1. Slam fist on desk.
2. Go to kitchen.
3. Get beer from fridge.
4. Repeat as necessary.

[Dan Speziale]

I also will resort to cheats, especially when due to poor game design, one has to repeat entire frickin' levels in order to finish. This includes even funny, well-written and acted cutscenes. I don't care how many well-paid actors are voicing the game. If I have to watch it all the way through without skipping, I'm sick of it after a few times.

This is one of the reasons why I continue to play Simpson's Hit and Run. While there isn't a save during mission feature, you can skip a mission after failing a few times. To this day, even after cheating, I still can't finish all of the levels in the time allotted.

I think the one game that really got to me was Giants. This is one of the funniest games, but I never finished it, even with the codes, cheats, etc. It was just too difficult and there was no save feature. However the worst thing I did to this game was to resell it and buy a different game. In a weird way I felt better once I did this.

I've had more than my share of being frustrated by games, but I usually keep a few arcade-type games on my system so I can vent any frustrations right there. Most games are cheaper than getting new furniture, so I think I'm saving money right there.

[Mr. Natural]

I'll take a break for a while, then go back and try again. If this fails after a few times and I really want to go forward with the game, I'll look up a cheat to get past. This is a last resort and I only use a cheat when I feel is absolutely neccessary. Sometimes if I get fed up with a game and I have another one to play, the game may go under the "unfinished" category.

[Mara]

Me, get angry??!! Frustrated?!?!? Curse!?!?!? Never! :D:

[Chylde Roland]

I hear you, Dan. I HATE games with no in-mission saves. I play games to (generally) have fun, and when the frustration level reaches a certain peak, I quit playing. Same thing happened to me with Giants.

[Impresario]

It was much more frustrating years ago before the advent of the net, gamefaqs and other gaming forums etc. I remember playing the first final fantasy games and calling a for pay tips number or buying strategy guides. Funny when I think of it now some of those original tip numbers actually had live people giving you game info. That must have been a thankless job heh. I never trashed my equipment but probably did curse a bunch back then. As for these days I take a more cerebral approach and if the game isn't cheap then I usually don't mind a stiff challenge. Regarding Ninja Gaiden - I really dug that game, a lot of fun. What was great was that technique was just as important as reflexes but I have to admit that I did scour a lot of gaming sites for the best strategies to defeat the bosses. Another funny thing I find myself doing when playing an intense game using a gamepad controller is making spastic motions. With a keyboard setup you usually remain relatively sedentary but with a gamepad type controller for a console system I find myself leaning and jerking and doing all sorts of strange stuff – needless to say the sweat starts pouring and the controller gets so slick that I have to wipe it down.