Gamer Rage

I want to write about this topic for a number of reasons, but I've struggled to get this topic onto paper properly, and even now this still hardly feels complete.  When it comes to quitting a game due to rage, I sometimes wonder.  Is it just the gamer?  As in, is it in their own fault for how they played the game that they ended up so upset?  Was it just coincidence and circumstance through their experience (typically through online) Or is it possible the game design brought out an unfavorable experience for the gamer?

I had a bout of gamer rage this morning.    As I was up early this morning to pack for travel and to get ready for Superbowl XLV, I found a few friends playing Bad Company 2 online and decided to join them to see how things would fare.   30 minutes later, red faced, I barked up some curse words, gave a bitter farewell and shut off the game.     I was actually really enjoying the gameplay but felt I was performing so terribly that I felt I was of no use and just got upset to the point that quitting the game was all I could do.    In this match up in particular I had 2 major issues.  1) I was dying exponentially more than I was killing and unable complete objectives, and 2) it seemed as though the same 1 or 2 guys were always killing me.  

Sometimes, it just seems all you can do is quit.    I've quit games (prior to rage) because I can just feel the struggle of playing on a bad team isn't worthwhile, and then there is quitting because you're getting absolutely destroyed and nothing is going your way.   The experiences inferred here are from online play which can vary on many aspects.  Besides shooter and FPS games, I wonder how many other online games and even single player games burn players to the point of rage quitting.   I often find the excuse of just online action through coincidence, but at some point gamers may feel the game played is just poorly designed.   

I can say however, I've definitely had more gamer rage in regards to campaign play than online play.  It's also a totally different feeling.   Playing a game this is difficult and makes you replay portions over and over just make you feel cheated as though nothing you do can overcome the AI's superiority or other game parameters.  For instance, anyone who played COD World at War campaign on veteran must have run into the grenade spamming AI soldiers.   I mean, it was ridiculous, you could hardly duck, hide or move w/o being directly shot at, and if you sat still for anything longer than 3 seconds you would constantly be hearing the 'chink chink" of grenades landing and rolling around by.   You were meant to fail, and not just fail, but suffer along the way.   That is how that game felt after I finally finished it up.   I've run through quite a few other games that have similar play circumstances that just feel impossible.  It's really, really, not fun.    Truth be told though, most of these struggles are when playing games on their most difficult setting.  For any game that is this hard on normal play though, the designers were either insane or purposely wanted to create a difficult game to frustrate their user base.  Who knew?

Gamer rage is likely inevitable.   I'm conscious of it in mostly in my play online w/ friends, since its instant feedback.  It just seems to come w/ the territory.  I do wonder if there is a way to curb it, but I can only guess that would require me changing my play style preference or changing the game altogether.     At least in gaming when things seem to be going terribly, you can just shut it off and try again later.  In life its not so simple and if you're the kind to rage quit, you're also likely to end up YouTube.  Speaking of...my flight's just been delayed 2 hours.   I'm stuck w/ this and no quitting now.