Game Rage

Patience lost, civility forsaken, controllers destroyed.



Summary

Over the last few months I have been piecing together bits of commentary from gamers of all kinds, collecting stories of rage, violence, and even murder? Keep reading. I suspected, from personal experience, that I was not the only person out there who experiences a uniquely intense rage from failure at video games. I've done some maniacal things in response, but I now realize that psychological treatment may not be necessary, for there are others worse than me....




Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8




Part 1


- o0o -





Mark Jones, MK64:

"My red controller: I hit it with a hammer that I was using to hang posters with... so it started to rattle. It was cool for a while then last night I swung it like a sling against my wall... and it stopped rattling... when the left wing cracked open and the little pieces inside fell out. Now it doesnt rattle any more. It works perfectly... except when you hit down on the analog nothing happens."


Patrik Nilson, GE

Patrik let images, not words, describe the product of his anger. We'll excuse the English because this picture is classic:






Breck Fresen, GE:

Breckish: when something went wromg
Breckish: well lets just say he suffered
Breckish: he became my punching bag


Jason Whalls, many games:

JWhalls64: well, someone suggested counseling to my mom
JWhalls64: because they thought it was really weird that I would get angry at games
JWhalls64: put a small hole (quarter sized) in my wall
JWhalls64: I believe from a controller throw
JWhalls64: and I have 2 controllers with moderate to heavy damage from beating
JWhalls64: something went wrong with my old monitor because I slammed on the desk it was on a few too many times
JWhalls64: oh yeah
JWhalls64: and I broke my desktop lamp
JWhalls64: gave it a loving push off my desk after an unfavorable race in Mario Kart: Super Circuit
JWhalls64: it has since been duct taped back together though
JWhalls64: to limited success
MarioKartUpstart: have you ever killed anyone?
JWhalls64: no comment


Myles Bukrim, MK64:

Legend has it that he threw his cartridge into a river. I'll assume he cried himself to sleep that night. Then again, I believe it was to eternalize his retirement.


Eli, friend:

(after saying he never really got mad:)

ECP4EVER2: only thing i can really think of is ripping GE out of the console and throwing it across the room going for target times back in the day for cheats
ECP4EVER2: had no effect on the game except it erase one of the other files i had going

Eli's original controller suggests untold stories of abuse - when you pick it up you can hear lose parts moving around like grains of sand.


Ben Gorman, PD:

Refused to comment on "Goron Race incident" (What almost cost him his MM 2-day challenge. When he originally told me of the incident, I remember him saying something about literally screaming, and fearing the neighbors would call police, lol)

He did summarize his game rage:

ParagonX9: i'm always mad when i play
ParagonX9: just imagine me shaking violently while constantly spewing spit and swear words at the television screen


Ben Miller, MK64

Battlebro Ben: smashed my cousin's "R" button on his controller
Battlebro Ben: it was in my hands when I hit my fist into the table
Battlebro Ben: and the R button smashed
(a few IMs later)
Battlebro Ben: I mean he really pushed (me as Ben) over
Battlebro Ben: so I then lost
Battlebro Ben: then I punched him
Battlebro Ben: and hit the table
Battlebro Ben: then smash
Battlebro Ben: the R button got smashed
(later)
Battlebro Ben: if its a WR miss I drop controller in lap, punch couch and drop an almighty fawwwwwk


Joe Maloney, friend

He bit his video games when he got mad, some to the point of breaking.


Greg Woll, GE:

Angry at what he currently assumes was GoldenEye, Greg decided he was tired of kicking his chair in anger, so he decided to go after the source--the TV. After a few kicks of the TV, it seemed to be a satisfactory venting method--until one firm kick sent it off the stand. It landed on its side, and did not break, so Greg was able to watch 15 more seconds of death cinema.


Nick Harvey, many titles:

In response to me asking if he ever did anything in response to game rage:

"Not really, except throwing controllers (Once I had 99 coins in a Super Mario 64 level, Snomwan's Land, and died)"

Nick14578: Oh, I spit on my TV screen sometimes.
Nick14578: When a character causes me misfortune, I may spit on them
Nick14578: One time I was playing Mario Party 3 and Yoshi took seven stars from me in Chance Time and I yelled, "F*** YOU YOSHI, F*** YOU!" and held up my middle fingers (both of them)
Nick14578: By the way, I must also say this: sometimes when I'm mad I take it out on my saved data (the last time I did this was for the SNES Mario Kart-- I played with a Game Genie code and lost to 50cc players
Nick14578: I once hit myself in the head (not hard!) with a controller when my father beat me at Mario Golf and he fussed at me quite a while

JWhalls64: I can see hitting yourself
JWhalls64: but spitting at the screen is dangerous


Stephen Chan, GE:

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to play very well this weekend...my controller's control stick just broke off, so now I'm using another controller, but it hasn't been used much so the stick works too well now."

Conventional joystick wear and tear?


Bryan Youse, GE:

"i've been making a bad habit of yanking at my cord (my controller's cord, that is) after a good run gone bad, or an untimely death or something...and the other day on train 00a...i yanked it right out of the controller. turns out there are only 3 individual wires, a red, white, adn black one within the black cord. they've got to have the lowest grade copper inside of them...that @#%$ did not bend together, and so twisting it back together was the biggest pain in the ass ever. i had to take my controller apart (surely voiding any warranty that probably expired one year ago) and solder them back together. good as new now, only my cord is like 6 feet long now...rather than 8"


Me:

"Lately I'll just slap the controller out of my hand. It's less damaging than throwing it on the ground, and I get to hit something. I would recommend this to anyone."




- o0o -



Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8




This page was created by Derek Clark. If you would like to contribute to the page with your own story, please email me at clark@the-elite.net. All contributions are encouraged. I will continue to append this page as new stories come in.


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