Learning how not to rage at games might sound simple in principle, but we all have been there! Unless you really don’t care about winning (which I know you do), a habit of rage quitting can take hold of even the most placid of gamers.
But can you really blame yourself?
You’ve been fighting a squad all alone. The battle is brutal. It’s so close, but something is missing – your allies. They are all dead, spectating, or even worse, backseat gaming.
Why not be mad? You have every right to be.
Except, it’s just a game. And yes, I know it’s not just a game – it’s a sport, it’s principles. You don’t deserve to be trolled by that one opponent who does nothing the whole battle and then acts like a hero once your death timer starts ticking.
It’s hard to not rage quit when this happens. Whether it happens to you or other gamers in your team, anger will be lurking and ready to strike.
Ever felt the same way?
Here’s two pennies worth on how not to rage at games… ever.
7 Steps To Overcome Gaming Rage
If the definition of rage quitting is when a player gets extremely upset after losing and quits without saying anything, then chances are you’ve rage quitted more times than you can remember. Truth be told, I used to be a serial rage quitter.
Having now learned to play with a little less spine, I’ll go through several tips that helped me lower my rage while playing games and even somewhat prevent it. It’s helped me enjoy games as I should in everyday life and I hope that it helps you.
Here’s my 7 best tips to stop rage quitting:
- Stop Tilting & Change Perspective
- Take Short Breaks
- Lower Difficulty Settings
- Swap Activities
- Do Some Physical Exercise
- Venture Into The Real World
- Seek Help
Now let’s delve into each one of them a little deeper.
–
Stop Tilting & Change Perspective
Tilt is a real thing. If you’ve ever seen Poker players on tilt, you’ll know that tilting is a one way express train to a not very fun time. I’ve been learning more about competitive games (such as how Dota 2 rankings work) for ages (since Dota 1), and all I did was overextend my video game addiction. This made tilting all to easy as I was constantly running on fumes.
Here’s how my nights went:
- 1AM – Just one more game. I need to rank up.
- 4AM – Just one more game.
- 5AM – Until I win one game.
- 8AM – I don’t want to live anymore.
When you play like this, even the friendliest of allies become enemies, and from 4 AM to 8 AM, you are constantly in a 1v9 instead of a regular 5v5 battle. My biggest advice here?
Don’t give let frustration get to you!
Dude, take a chill pill and stop playing like your life depends on winning. Change your perspective and understand that both life and gaming is about progress, not perfection.
If gaming was supposed to be simple, we would all be trading banter at the yearly ESL Intel Extrem Masters (IEM) event; right? Be competitive but don’t let gaming consume you.
Take Short Breaks
The number one pro tip for stopping rage quitting has and always will be to make regular breaks between the next session; no matter what game you are playing. When you watch eSports professionals on Twitch or YouTube, you’ll often see that they take large breaks between games. Sometimes up to half an hour!
Why? Because your brain needs to reset.
“But it’s so hard and so tempting.”
I know, Billy, but unless you want to lose control and destroy the experience for others; tilting them in return, take a break. Watch a movie, or do something IRL. Just enjoy everyday life. Don’t let gaming define you.
If you don’t stop rage quitting, it becomes a vicious circle.
You tilt people, then in the next game, they tilt others, and in the next game you get to play with people who were previously tilted by the people you tilted, so now it’s their turn to tilt you back (by intentional feeding, quitting etc).
It’s good to pause a video game, drink some water, grab a snack, and refresh. Get into every particular game like it’s a new one, not like it’s the continuation of the previous junk trash game that you could never win and should just forget about.
Devise a system for how often you rage quit. You know how you feel. For example, if you’re the ”why be mad type”, then a 15 minute break is more than suffice. However, if you’re finding yourself being unable to stop rage quitting, an hours break might suffice.
Or maybe even a day.
More likely, you’ll save some ranks and make the world less toxic; for everyone!
Lower difficulty settings
I’m a person who always goes for the hardest difficulty when playing games. Otherwise, I don’t consider it a challenge or as entertaining. However…
You don’t need to have your video game difficulty set on the hardest to prove yourself something or enjoy the game, Billy. You just have to enjoy the video game, and not let your inner gamer rage comes out.
So if you’ve been playing a single-player game and it’s been taking you ages to move past that chapter, consider trimming that difficulty down to “Normal”, or at least “Hard”. I know you think you’re GOATED and “Extreme” does not exist for you, but just consider it.
You can’t have cat-like reflexes for every video game, nor the patience.
For example, some popular gaming genres are designed to display acute details that draw your attention so much that you simply cannot react to every monster that a video game programmer sends your way.
But even so, it’s a single player, and you are playing against “zeros and ones.” So when the enjoyment factor starts fading away and gaming rage kicks in, consider lowering the difficulty and go from there. It’s how you improve.
Change Activities
If you, for a fact, know what alleviates your stress levels and helps with anger management, use that to your advantage. I see people on the internet recommend that you should “take your gamer rage elsewhere.”
No! God, no!
Don’t go around and spread that stress elsewhere.
Instead, find other activities that make you calm and reduce your gaming rage. Chances are you already know what helps you relax. Is it reading a book? Us gamers don’t read that much, but what if we are talking about some nerdy epic fantasy? No, not your cup of tea?
Well, what about YouTube? Watch some stupid cat videos just to clear your brain. Put your gamer rage on pause and press play on something else.
Some would say that boxing bags are a good solution. Well, we’re are a friendly bunch of tech nerds over here; so we don’t promote anything violence-related. However, maybe just throw a punch or two? It’s proven to help with anger management.
Not a tough guy either? Well, if you are a gamer at heart, I bet there are games (I mean, I know) that you simply can’t rage quit. Play The Sims or something like that. If Buddhist’s created a video game, it would probably the something like the Sims.
Go find something chill!
Try Physical Exercise
Without sounding like your mother, exercise is life’s greatest remedy.
Mens sana in corpore sano, or “a healthy mind in a healthy body” is why I think we all rage quit when playing games. We are on our computers nearly all day, every day. Our worlds revolve around them and we seriously neglect our bodies.
You are probably aware of that as well, but, like I, have done nothing about it.
I feel like gamer rage is all about that extra energy that accumulates in our bodies. When physically tired, there’s much less likelihood to rage at irrelevant things. Hit a gym, waste some extra energy, do anything to get your body moving and you’ll feel better.
I guarantee you’ll reduce your stress levels if not eradicate them completely. It’s a key to proper anger management and emotional well-being.
Meet the Real World
The world that we’ve been living in, the virtual one, is much less stressful than the real, physical one. Unless we make it stressful of course.
If you build an obsession, and whatever you build it around, you will rage as soon as a tiny bit of it isn’t going like you expected it to go. That’s why I think we should all step away from the PC every once in a while. Breathe the fresh air and see how beautiful the world has become whilst you’ve been in your gaming room.
Go for a run, get into the real world, and talk to people in person. Remind ourselves that those things away from our PC desks are the reality and that the PC desk should be a place where we come from any brutal real world realities to relax.
Not the other way around.
Once you feel the stress of the real world, you’ll find playing online games calming. You’ll probably laugh at how stupid you’ve been for rage quitting and will most likely find it impossible to rage quit again. It’s good for your emotional well-being.
Still too hard? Then, seek help!
If everything else falls apart, and you feel like you get mad at games and in every other aspect of your life pretty easily, it might be a good idea to talk to someone and not let the frustration reach impossible heights.
As with most habits, once they are formed, they are much harder to kick into touch.
So seek the advice of wisdom before it gets too much. There are plenty of people you could talk to who do this regularly (treatment for anger management), but the trickiest part is to spot the symptoms.
Gamer rage, and honestly, every form of rage is slow, and most of the time, it’s a boiling one. And, before you know it, you lose control.
It’s hard to notice them in time, but here’s a checklist of all the symptoms of anger issues you might want to cross off your list.
Stop Rage Quitting Conclusion
I know you won’t become a ZEN master after these 7 tips on stopping rage quitting, but I also know for a fact that if you listen to any of these, you’ll get:
- Much better at any video game
- Calmer when playing violent games.
- More enjoyment from competitive games.
- A much longer life span.
No, just kidding. I have no actual statistics to back that last point up. However, it’s commonly known that stress does deteriorate general wellbeing. And, that makes sense.
Because gamer rage is fundamentally not a great thing.
It’s good when served in tiny bottles because that means you care. But it’s tricky to notice when tiny bottles become loading with Pepsi and Mentos. And, we all know what happens when you combine those two consumables!
Hopefully, this will help you with anger management and prevent rage quit while playing online games and make the gaming community a better place.
Know of any other tips on how to not rage at games? Hit the comments!
If you enjoyed this guide on rage quitting, feel free to check out some of our other tutorials and gaming guides from our geeks at GamePro:
- One Handed Gaming Keyboard: Pros & Cons
- Wired Vs Wireless Mice: Which Is Best?
- Is 256GB SSD Good Enough For Gaming?
- Does EB Games Do Payment Plans?
- How To Cool Down Overheating Laptop
- Benefits of Unreal Engine for Game Development
- Is 512GB SSD Enough For Gaming?
- Best Gifts For Australian Gamers.
Content Disclaimer: This list of tips to stop rage quitting has been independently written. GamePro has not been commissioned by company to write this article, nor have we received any royalties. This includes financial reimbursement, free advertising or free gifts.
Should you click on any link to Amazon on our website and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission. But that’s just how we keep this website alive and free to use!
Rage Quitting FAQs
Questions about rage quitting? Here’s the most commonly asked questions we receive about how to not rage quit. If you have any other questions, hit the comments!
–
