Why do we get mad playing smash?

[Zodiac]

Its no secret that people get mad while playing this game with other people, not necessarily on their own, but only when they are facing a human opponent. Someone you have been working towards beating, or someone you feel like you have the skill to beat but for some reason keep getting defeated by. At least this is why I get mad when playing the game, and I know a lot of people simply don't understand getting mad over losing, at least not to the extent they see some people go.

So I am pretty much writing this to ask everyone why they get mad, or why they think others get mad when playing the game. And what do you think you could do to stop it, because lets be honest no one likes being angry.

 

[Bones0]

I love being angry. Why else would I post on SmashBoards?

 

[R@Y]

At least for me, anger vents out the stress of playing in game and I end up losing the match etc.

 

[dRevan64]

failing is frustrating
nobody gets mad when they play well or win

 

[Alexo30]

I get mad when I know I can and should demolish an opponent, don't, and get a mediocre win. I also get mad when people have very poor tech skill.

 

[Deleted member]

it's a emotional investment because you put time into it.

putting time into something and having it feel like a waste of time is frustrating.

 

[ZelDan]

I really only get mad when I start making really silly mistakes or errors or if something ridiculous happens, especially if something like this ends up costing me a match that I otherwise would have likely won.

Otherwise if I am clearly outplayed and outskilled by another, I do not really get mad, but moreso slightly disappointed at myself, then I move on and just look at it as a reminder that I need to improve.

 

[Luma]

i dont get mad at all playing smash, even when i get 4 stocked 10 games in a row or just play like a noob
why? because its my fault in the end, its only me playing and only i am to blame, getting mad over my own inability to perform wouldnt help me in any way (sometimes i do have to stop playing though when its just not my day)

tbh i dont think its healthy to rage at your own mistakes, just do it better next time. and if you cant do it better, well then go home and train your ass off until you can

 

[rawrimamonster]

I got over my anger and frustration after 4 years of playing smash competitively in general. I realized a long time ago that getting angry wont win a match unless you get some kinda godly super saiyan smash powers from it. just gotta gid gud and beat it or get over it and move on.

As far as why others get mad, I realized it playing 64 actually. People get mad cuz they get controlled in a game where you think you should be able to escape but you get bodied anyway because of your own stupidity. Some people rather than admit they did something wrong will blame others, characters, the game, or something else besides themselves to vent. For most people inner reflection comes later lol. It's easy to be good in smash, but to be great and beat those people who are on another plane of existence of skill from you, THAT is a different story. I think when people hit that plateau or wall it's like a very real wakeup call and they dont like it.

 

[stelzig]

I enjoy making a certain smasher angry by gimping him repeatedly. The rage makes it easier and easier. Lovely.

(we only have 1 or 2 danish smashers that really get mad regularely so i'm sure all danes know who i'm referring to :3)

 

[bearsfan092]

What happens to me is that all my bad habits are there for like the first thirty minutes every time I start playing, and it bothers me that it keeps happening. Usually I'll focus on some habits and then others emerge. Then after that if I get beat it's usually something I can bear.

 

[MOI-ARI]

it's a emotional investment because you put time into it.

putting time into something and having it feel like a waste of time is frustrating.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[shadrach kabango]

the gap between expectations and performance

also males are particularly awful at dealing w/ emotions, and anger is the way we've largely been conditioned to express amalgamations of them

start meditating and you'll find it difficult indeed to get angry anymore lol

 

[smashbroskilla]

I don't get mad at my opponent; I get mad at myself for not playing to the ability I've played to before.

 

[Fuujin]

Melee players take everything too seriously.

 

[Roche_CL]

Cause I play Dark's Fox, people doesn't know what PRESSURE really is, also his reaction time is stupid. He doesn't give you a minute to think or plan anything or dash dance happily.

 

[Frogman751]

Whenever I get mad while playing melee I dislike getting mad at the player I am playing against because usually they are a good friend of mine and I would like to keep it that way XD. I would be lying if I said that the reason I was mad was not because of the other player beating me, as a matter of fact that is usually the only reason why I would get genuinely upset while playing melee, but in the end I know that the only person to be mad at is myself. This is not some kind of an "Emo2king" mad at myself though, I am mad at myself because I know I am better than my last game(s) and I need to fix or adjust my playstyle in order to win because I know I can. I love to say that whenever you lose, that just means there is more to learn, it helps to be both optimistic and a little pessimistic when losing. Being self-critical so that you step your game up, but not too harsh so that you lose motivation, and also getting a little angry about losing can give you motivation to keep playing so that you learn from your mistakes. God melee is such a beautiful game, my life would be so much different without it. <3 Melee 5ever (because 5 is longer than 4)

 

[The Business]

I can get pretty angry when I know I can beat the person that I'm playing, but I mess up my tech skill and lose.

 

[Frogman751]

Melee players take everything too seriously.

I hope youre trolling... Like who are you, a highschool girl? "Oh my god, you take things seriously? Im a popular highschool girl and I'm too cool to take anything seriously..." Kids these days...

 

[the_CAM_factor]

on a scale of 1 to Mario Party, ive never truly gotten mad at smash. I get frustrated sometimes and then i just say eh and either turn it off or jank around with random chars and combos until i remember why i love this game.

 

[Fuujin]

I hope youre trolling... Like who are you, a highschool girl? "Oh my god, you take things seriously? Im a popular highschool girl and I'm too cool to take anything seriously..." Kids these days...

But...

did I lie sis?

 

[Pheta Ray]

I get mad at Smash sometimes because I know I can perform better than what I had just exhibited. For example, I DI correctly but use the wrong momentum cancel and lose my stock, which could have been prevented. Or I cannot get out of a combo string and it ends up in a stock loss. I'll be the first to say that my SDI is pretty bad (thanks, attack stick). When something like that happens, I get upset. So for me, I get mad at Smash when I can't perform to my own set expectations.

 

[♡ⓛⓞⓥⓔ♡]

It's all about psychology

Playing Melee competitively is tough on my self-esteem

I get mad because when I feel (for whatever reason) inadequate I am in truth ashamed. The feeling of being ashamed is reminiscent of my childhood when as a little kid I felt I couldn't live up to the expectations of my father. When I grew older the feeling of being ashamed manifested itself it hatred which I turned inward. Partially because of this I became depressed.

Self-hatred is like primitive protective layer on top of the shameful emotions. Certain situations, such as playing Melee while losing constantly, trigger the shame thus triggering the hatred. I've gotten much better at controlling these emotions while playing but they're still present every time because I'm trying to win and judging my performance. I'm quite a demanding personality and can be hard on myself.

Usually I try to stop playing and have a break, and perhaps continue when I'm on a better mood. I usually run out of "mental stamina" quite quickly so most of the time while playing I play in a "learning mode" where I'm thinking about the situations in the game and I'm not trying to win. Sometimes I practice tech skill mid match or try to otherwise learn something new. This causes a heavy decline in my performance, but since I'm not trying to win the shame/hatred-pattern doesn't emerge so strongly. This is why I usually perform better at tournament matches than in friendlies, in tournaments I go all out and the matches are quickly over.

If I don't quit playing and the emotions start bubbling on the surface I often go into "passive-aggressive" or "****"-mode. That is, if I can't win, I make sure my opponent gains minimal enjoyment in beating me. I start to play bad (shielding till my shield breaks, not attempting to recover, not DIing etc.). This is me subliming my hatred outwards. Alternatively if I keep on playing I might end up smashing the controller to the ground because it's more socially acceptable than self-inflicted injury.

 

[Twilight Emblem]

I never play well with negative emotions and steer clear of them at all costs when playing. Even if negative emotions could provide me with benefits the last thing I would want to do is habitually start using them for a winning edge. The long term effects of subjecting myself to those negative emotions on me wouldn't be worth what winning advantage they give me. I also feel foolish if I allow myself to see playing this game in anyway that isn't fun and exhilarating. I feel it says bad things about my character if I allow many certain aspects of competing in this game to get at me in a bad way.

I'm still trying to learn to cope when I can tell it matters a lot in a very personal negative way to the person i'm beating though. That can put me on a tilt and make me play worse because its not fun to me if the other person is unhappy. I care too much about others to have fun when somebody else is mad. Rebounding from a bad experience and playing with my head held up high at a tournament isn't a problem because I have too strong of a desire to not poison the next person i'm playing with a bad attitude. They don't deserve that.

If I ever have a moment where I can tell my self confidence is starting to crack what remedies this for me is just being frank about how much I know as a player.

Example- If I can't combo a certain character for crap I start feeling insecure about my ability as a player and then just think " Oh yeah, I barely tried at all to learn how to combo this character. Therefore it stands to reason that i'd obviously suck at it. If I just go practice and learn how to do it, this won't be a problem anymore"

Also as weird as this sounds I like being beaten because it helps show me what i'm doing wrong. If I can really lock on to the WHY when I lose and get better from that, all they're doing is helping me learn to perform better next tournament. Why care about winning the whole tournament when you're not good enough to. Just go as far as you can and get beat and learn why and come back next time.

 

[Problem2]

I'm seeing a lot of responses be because it is hard to accept failure. Accepting failure is a difficult thing to accomplish.

But I think another reason many people get frustrated is because they build preconceived notions in their head on how the game is supposed to work.

"I have the lead, my opponent is supposed to approach me" or "you're at the ledge, I'm supposed to have the advantage" are a few examples of how a player thinks the game works, but really doesn't have to. These are many conventions, and normally, they pan out that way, but people should remember that this is an action video game. It requires coordination and button pressing. Players are not 100% accurate, and players can make mistakes and have bad moments.

It is important to remember that there is no etiquette in the game itself on how it should be played. If I can win by spamming Marth's f-smash, so be it. It's metagame says that it is not supposed to work, but it's working on you today, so that's why I'm doing it.

The game always has the last say. You can't contest what just happened and say "no, that's not how smash works". It doesn't automatically punish a player for not approaching or never committing, so why get mad when someone takes advantage of that? Maybe you look cool because you did a slick combo to finish the game, but my win is just as real if I push you off the ledge just before you inputted d-smash resulting in a suicide d-air.

Submit to the game. If the results are not what you expect, then your understanding of the game is off somewhere and you need to figure out why.

 

[SAUS]

I used to get really mad over small things like getting shine spike gimped, chain grabs just in general, and things like how Falco and Fox up-b has no landing lag so if you flub the edge guard you get combod.

Now I only really get mad if I'm in a bad mood and let frustration get to me or if I for some reason can't get my tech skill down (this is all pretty much the result of being tired - I don't mean exhausted tired, but lack of sleep tired).

 

[Varist]

but use the wrong momentum cancel and lose my stock

excuse me

 

[Pheta Ray]

Oh **** this is the Melee thread.

Wow I'm embarrassed.

 

[ndayday]

Yeah in any Smash or any game really it just comes down to getting pissed at your own mistakes and insufficiency.
And to the person that said no one gets mad when they win...it's somewhat true but when you become really good at a game getting a "bad" win feels rotten and annoying. Not quite worth getting angry but it feels bad.

 

[Substitution]

Because fighting game.

 

[SAUS]

Yeah in any Smash or any game really it just comes down to getting pissed at your own mistakes and insufficiency.
And to the person that said no one gets mad when they win...it's somewhat true but when you become really good at a game getting a "bad" win feels rotten and annoying. Not quite worth getting angry but it feels bad.

I think the best way to say it is that people don't get mad when they play well. When you lose, you may not conclude that you played well, so you will get mad. In your case, if you didn't play well, but won anyway due to the opponent SDing or something, then you will still be mad at yourself for not playing well. There's a limit on this of course, because if you didn't even expect to win anyway, but made the games close against a really strong player, then you can still lose and be not mad. I think "if you played well, you will not be mad" encompasses that idea best.

 

[Varist]

It's a strange phenomenon of self-delusion when you perform badly and get mad at yourself.

"I put in all this practice and I should have played better. I know I could play better than that."

Yeah, you could totally have played better than that. With more practice. The idea that you should have played better is an illusion, you played the way you did because that was the best you could have played in that situation.

You don't deserve to have played better than you did because "well I spent all this time practicing".

It's like thinking of an alternate reality where things "went how they were supposed to go".

It's not that you "should have won but lost", or "should have pulled off that technique right but didn't", it's that you lost. That you didn't do it right. The instant that outcome occurs is the same instant in which it was justified.

If I only have 1/50 inconsistency with a certain technique and I find myself in a match where the stock decider, and maybe then the match decider was me pulling that technique off correctly, and I don't pull it off correctly, it wasn't that "well that's bull**** if I'd have pulled it off correctly I would have won, I'm so mad".

It's that you didn't put the work in to have 1/75 inconsistency, or 1/100. You get out what you put in, and the idea that you were somehow robbed of something you deserved, triggers your little injustice-detector, and that makes you mad. But the only one you're bull****ting is yourself.

 

[SAUS]

lol Varist I like your post, but it's so hard to read it seriously with that as your avatar.

 

[Zodiac]

Personally if I know I played to my absolute fullest then I don't get mad, even if I do get four stocked, as long as I am confident in the fact it was the best I could have possibly done I'm cool with it. And I think a lot of the anger I feel is from going against the flow, the flow that leads to me accepting that I got beat, and that continues a downward spiral of playing worse than I usually do. So to get better I have to first accept that I am not as good as I thought, which is highly frustrating since I put so much time into the game and I am STILL not at the level I want to be at.

A lot of the time I find that if you know your opponents skill level before hand then you are less likely to get mad, because you are already now where to place your expectations.

 

[ZaXXoR]

just think of it like an RPG, ur at a level, ur opponents at a level, its not that basic in smash due to playstyles, matchups, maps etc. but usually the best player wins, you can only get better if you're always losing, look at the glass half full instead of half empty and you'll find you can see through your own excuses like "ive done that properly before" and find that maybe i should practice this more so i can do it more consistently.just take a breath and anaylze the situation, find out what they're doing thats working, and what ur doing thats working, but if they start clueing in, dont keep doing it. its simple as training,studying, and analyzing your own gameplay, if you cant consistently short hop, prctice that, if you constatly roll or shield while trying to shffl aerials, just practice it, you can only get better right, you'll find sometimes ull get so fast at something you end up doing it too fast, then u slow it down, and find the proper timing, everything comes with practice. and perfect practice makes perfect, not just regular old practice which means you have to have a method to your practice, level up your character like you would in an rpg, training. but to answer your question i get mad when im doing the wrong aerials and rolling on accident, some days i just cant seem to perform, its probably just due to state of mind, tirednesss, nourishment, try to keep healthy, and focus on whats going on in the game and u wont get as upset

 

[Varist]

lol Varist I like your post, but it's so hard to read it seriously with that as your avatar.

what the ****

 

[SAUS]

what the ****

lol I just keep imagining the derpy bird guy from that short film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjgHbRrnjhU

I don't mean there's anything wrong with your avatar or post, just that it distracts me and makes me lol

 

[Zylo]

I almost never get mad at my opponent. Any anger I'm feeling is generally self-directed due to poor play. I could get absolutely bodied by someone, but as long as I know I'm playing to the best of my ability and making good decisions I don't get angry. It's when I make bad decisions or flub simple tech stuff that it starts to get to me.

 

[Manaphy21]

I know this post is very old, but I'd like to add to the conversation:

Lately, I feel that I have retracted my developing mindset in staying calm and collected during losing situations in Smash 4. The past couple of weeks--even a month--has been one of the hardest times of my life, and I think the stress from outside the realm of the game had unfortunately manifested itself in post-set rage or frustration.

The worst part about this stress was that I had to cut off a group of friends that finally admitted that they grew so annoyed and tired of my emotional habits that they wished I'd talk to other friends instead of them about my issues, in and out of the game.

The thing is, these friends weren't the best kind of support group, either, as they constantly **** on me for either using a high tier or not being good enough because of my gender. And I think this was where the majority of my in-game frustration came from: the fact that I constantly felt the need to prove myself because I'm not a guy playing Smash 4, but--to quote one of these individuals--a girl that's "biologically" slower in reacting or adapting mid-battle.

Smash 4 has unfortunately become a game filled with terrible memories that I've finally been pushed to the breaking point of dropping it from my life. I felt belittled, left behind, and even dwelled in the anxiety that my former friends didn't believe in me because of my gender. How could a girl possibly get good in a video game? was the constant question nagging me and subtly biting me every time one of these individuals threw trash talk at me.

Long story short, the main reason I got frustrated or angry at the game was because of the kind of negativity that surrounded me, that fueled the pressure of trying to "git gud."

 

[Mr Snak3_]

I've personally only gotten mad at sm4sh and only annoyed at melee.

Since they removed wave dashing making rolling the only thing close to it (and perfect pivoting being not far enough to dodge) I'd get mad if I lost to someone who kept taunting, rolling and airdoging.

But with melee it's instead not the lack of options that makes me agitated it's my lack of skill so I'm only able to blame my lack of skill and should git gud. Plus if you wanna get salty at melee against someone (excluding netplay) you have to be salty in front of the entire venue and commentators/stream. In which you make an ass out of yourself.