There's something about playing video games that can really get the blood of some people boiling. It's kind of like road rage––seeing them freak out can be unnerving. I used to play Mario Kart with someone who'd become furious each time they lost. They'd throw the controller. Sometimes they hit someone. As you can imagine, I don't play video games with that person anymore.
After Redditor TheRaidaHuntah asked the online community, "What is the worst fit of gamer rage you've seen or experienced?" people shared their stories.
"He was 11."
My cousin throwing his Sega Genesis controller out the window. We were on the 5th floor. He was 11. That was the only controller he had.
"There's a guy in an apartment..."
There's a guy in an apartment somewhere above me, he's had some pretty gnarly episodes. I haven't heard him in ages so either he learned to tone it down, or moved out or something.
But I'm pretty sure one day he flipped over his TV stand or a shelf or something because I remember hearing him go off and then a loud crashing sound happened.
"I'm not proud of this..."
Okay. It was me. I'm not proud of this, but one time, I was losing in an online game. Like bad. I didn't have my headset, so I couldn't vent to the other players. It actually got so bad I turned the console off, powered down the television, got off the couch, and did the dishes that I'd been putting off for an hour.
"I was outside the building..."
Not sure if it was gamer rage but back when I was in college I saw someone throw their PlayStation out a dorm window while screaming profanities. I was outside the building so don't know exactly what he was saying but I was not sticking around for that drama.
Can't blame this person.
Who would want to? Not I!
"I used to babysit..."
I used to babysit our neighbor's son after school. He was an absolute terror, spoiled rotten, and whenever he got in trouble, it was either baby talk until he got out of it or blame everyone but himself.
He loved video games. His mom gave him whatever he wanted. We fell into a rhythm. He'd come over, I'd get him a snack, he'd do his homework, and then he could play video games for about an hour or so until his mom got home.
He loved Mortal Kombat, probably not the best game for him, but it and Dead Rising were the only ones he was really interested in. He would not even try anything Nintendo and most of my Xbox games were in the M category.
He was the classic case of when he's doing good, he'd talk trash, thankfully just to the NPCs and not to real people. But when he'd get beaten by an NPC, he'd repeatedly slam my controller down on the floor. I'd tell him to stop, he'd stop. Until he lost again, then he'd be right back to slamming it on the floor.
I'd tell him if he did it again, he wouldn't be allowed to play. So he'd behave for about twenty minutes or so. I told his mom the first afternoon it happened, she said she'd talk to him. The kid could control himself, make no mistake, because once I told him if he busted my controller, he'd be paying for a new one, the controller slamming completely ceased.
"He was discharged..."
Had a guy in the Air Force playing Madden 2001 at a worksite against other people. He beat everyone he played and was challenging everyone and boasting loudly. One guy piped up and said he'd play him. The new guy beat him with a last-second TD.
The other guy threw his controller at the TV, busted it, threw the TV to the ground, and kicked it, then smashed the PS2 that wasn't even his.
He was discharged from the Air Force after serving less than 2 years for "destruction of government property."
You can usually tell which people are going to ruin their lives with their anger.
I knew a guy who punched a hole into the drywall in his basement. Years later, I learned he'd been fired from a retail job after berating a customer and destroying workplace property. I wasn't surprised.
"I once slammed a mouse..."
I once slammed a mouse so hard it broke into many pieces in my hand. That was difficult to explain to my parents. I can't even remember what game it was now... that puts some perspective on the ridiculousness of my response.
"Know a guy..."
Know a guy who put his fist through his laptop after giving up first blood in a League of Legends game.
"Nowadays..."
I'll share a personal story, because to this day I've never seen anyone ragequit as hard as me. Mind you, I was a victim of heavy bullying for being two years younger than my classmates, and for being skinny and frail. That made me an angry kid with a very short fuse.
I was about 12 and was about to finish Need for Speed: Most Wanted on PlayStation 2. The final police pursuit consists on evading the cops at maximum heat until you're given a way out through a bridge. It's not that hard, but it's intense nonetheless.
I make it to the bridge, cops are catching up...the game freezes right before I cross the final point. I then proceed to punch my PS2 full force, so hard the optical unit dislodged itself. I stood there paralyzed in fear for about 20 minutes realizing what I've done to the expensive PS2 console my father worked so hard to give me.
Back then I simply told him something was wrong with my PS2 and we eventually got that fixed, but on that day I swore I'd never rage so hard about a video game again. I shudder to think about what my dad would do if he ever found out I broke my video game in anger.
Nowadays, after some anger management, I realize games are made for your entertainment, and getting mad about them will not do anything good for you. So I just let it be, even on more competitive online games I play.
Lesson learned: rage gets you nowhere.
Indeed it doesn't.
If only other people could get the memo.
"Well, I managed..."
Well, I managed to punch a cavity in my desk. The bottom plate of the desk actually started protruding on the other side.
Impressively enough, the keyboard survived it, even though it took the brunt impact.
"It didn't."
Played through Dante's inferno, got to the last boss in one sitting. 16 year old me figured the game would automatically save so I turned off the console.
It didn't.
I lost 16 hours of progress.
Locked my PS3 in the garage and haven't touched it since.
Ouch.
That's got to hurt.
"We join the room..."
Warhawk on PS3. I was a slightly better than average at flying in that game, but my buddy was ridiculously good. I mean like a legit KDR of 40:1. On his everyday account, not one of those accounts someone uses once to get a huge KDR then never uses again (yes, some people did that in that game to be on the leaderboards, no I don't know why). Anyways, our play styles complimented each other very well, and playing with him made me a better player.
It got to the point where battles would be quite lopsided, so we started making matches where it would be ground vehicles only, no flying. A couple of gents from another clan started mouthing off about how much better they were, we only made the room no flying because we were terrible at it, etc. So we challenge them to a clan fight. Then they challenge us to an air battle.
We join the room, and after talking all that sh!t, the sh!t talkers didn't even join the match, instead sending in their top pilots. We crushed them again. So we tell them all to join, and we'll beat them 5v2. Which we do, handily.
Open mic is a wonderful thing, especially getting to listen to them meltdown, blame each other, and so on. Their clan disbanded after that match. We still talk about that one occasionally.
Rage is pointless.
Hey gamers, we all get frustrated now and again. But freakouts are not okay. Anger management is available and it can be remarkably helpful. Safe Horizon is one of the best resources to keep on hand. The National Domestic Violence Hotline can also provide referrals for mental health counseling and other forms of support.
Have your own stories? Feel free to share them in the comments section below!
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Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram