Should I stop playing

[jJOEe]

I AM ASKING A GAMING FORUM FOR ADVICE ON MENTAL HEALTH BECAUSE MY LIFE IS SMALL HELLO??!¬?!??!?!

I get angry at losing because I am bad, embarrassingly enough I recently broke my headphones on accident while angry. I am gradually improving the more I play, but I wonder if it is worth the harm I cause to myself when I get angry, I wonder if I will ever be good enough that I won't tilt and damage my own face and possessions. I play a lot of games but nothing tilts me really other than smash, which tilts me horrifically badly. I love watching the game which makes me want to play all the time, but I would say half of my sessions if not more I go away feeling pretty bad and in pain cos I probably punched myself multiple times. Should I just stop playing cos it is unhealthy or what. (btw yes I do get therapy for my smash bros self-harm so this suggestion is not needed).

tldr I am a salty ***** that can't handle a losing in a game where lots of practise is needed to get good and I wonder if I should quit because of bad anger issues even though I want to play all the time and I also want to improve.

wehaha eheheha ehaeehha hhehhahaha
:0 i don't mind if you wanna **** talk me for being ****ing stupid **** me ****
thanks @)!
wahooo

 

[Feral]

You are never going to get good by not playing. Just by playing the game you are contributing to your own skill. It takes time to develop skills, and with a game as deep and mechanical as this it will take pretty long; if it was easy to get good at it wouldn't be as popular.

Just don't take the game too seriously and have fun. You win some and you lose some regardless of how experienced or good you are. Losing is a learning experience.

 

[Nah]

Sometimes it is better to quit, especially if something is harming your mental health. People like to romanticize never giving up and determination and that anyone can do anything, as if life is some ****ing shonen manga, but that's not how reality works. Not everyone can become good at something. Reality doesn't always have a happy ending.

Whether or not you're at the point where quitting is your best option is something you need to assess yourself though. Do you feel that there is no realistic chance that the game will ever become enjoyable/non-damaging to you again, or do you think that there is a realistic chance of it happening?

Quitting also doesn't necessarily have to mean never putting the disc in ever again, you may just need to find other ways to play the game that are (more) fun to you than what you're currently doing.

 

[Feral]

I don't really see how quitting would solve the problem tbh. This sort of stuff doesn't exist in a vacuum where they experience these problems exclusively while playing smash. People need to be able to learn how to deal with their emotions in the face of adversity, and by quitting playing a video game because you get too angry while playing it teaches you nothing.

It's not a matter of "anyone can do anything" or romanticizing determination, its about not giving up just because things aren't as easy as you'd like them to be. You don't need a happy ending to justify sticking with something, especially when a "happy ending" is pretty subjective.

It's likely that there is something seemingly unrelated to smash that might cause you to feel irrational anger while playing. It could be your mindset, the people you play with, or unreasonable goals that you are placing on yourself.

If you want to play all the time and improve like you said, then stick with it. Not everything in life is easy, but that's what makes learning skills rewarding. Everyone learns at their own pace, so getting mad at yourself for your rate of improvement will get you nowhere. Instead of looking towards the best of the best and wanting to be like them, take it step by step and work on the things you are bad at.

Even people who have been playing the game for 15+ years still lose to newer talent frequently. Everyone improves at their own speed, regardless of inherent talent or skill. All you can really do is work on improving yourself, don't worry about others.

 

[Prince777]

Not too surprisingly, there is a myriad of people who feel this exact same way--myself included to an extent. Since Smash 4's Heydey, I have been subject to good days, pure mediocrity, and straight-up awful sessions. I can't explain how infuriating it is to lose to someone you know you should have beaten. I'm not quite certain what it is, but there are specific factors that yield beyond the game's mechanics resulting in this mess.

Some of my friends and I have played Smash more or less for the same amount of time and we each have very little to no tournament experience; yet, some of them manage to play the game consistently well without ever losing a beat. It's rather frustrating, but the good days certainly overpower the bad ones.

As Feral stated, it helps to continue playing (breaks included of course); and to save footage of your gameplay so that you can understand what you specifically you need to do to improve.

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And don't be so hard on yourself; thousands if not millions of people experience the exact same thing. We will break out of those plateaus eventually.