RAAAAGE!

I'm a gamer. I play games! I play games because games are fun. In fact, I'm a pretty laid-back gamer. Losing a game 42-0? No problem! I'll crack a joke as I try for the sixteenth time to assault a position in a new and reckless manner that will inevitably result in my body parts being strewn across the battlefield.

Sometimes, though, games are not fun. Take today, for instance.

Today, I jumped on Left 4 Dead 2 with two of my friends. We've been playing together all weekend, and we're starting to work well together. We've got good communication, and we've been known to incapacitate the the other team before they've even left the safe area one or two times. What I'm trying to say is that we don't totally suck.

Today, you'd probably call me a liar. We played a round of Dark Carnival on Versus mode. This is not a new thing. We know what to expect, and we've won it several times before. We sucked. Hard.

It probably didn't help that the other team was good. I can only guess that they had some excellent communication going on, because they did a fine job of attacking and surviving in coordination. Bravo, other team.

Even so, we should have done better. Several times, as survivors, we were incapped moments out of the safe room. As infected, we fared no better. The opposing team made it to the safe room no fewer than three times with all four members standing. If you've ever played Versus, you should know that's no mean feat. Even a poorly-organized team of infected should be able to either knock off one of the survivors or stop them just short of the end, as the pressure mounts. We failed to do even that.

It seemed like the game was working against me today, what with (apparently) getting shot through solid walls and (apparently) glancing off survivors that should have been firmly in my grip. Once, as Charger, I bowled directly into the survivor who was playing Nick. For the uninformed, the Charger is supposed to grab onto the first survivor he hits and smash them on the ground. Instead, my character pushed Nick to the side and continued on. I can honestly say that this was the worst round I've ever played.

As all of these factors accumulated over the course of the campaign, I could take it no more. I did something I never do, even when I'm losing a game my a ridiculous margin: I ragequit.

Ragequitting is one of the lowest actions you can take in a small team-based game, short of teamkilling. You leave your team without a member, and typically the ragequitter doesn't even warn his teammates that he's leaving. It's just a nasty thing to do.

So why did I ragequit? I got to the point where it seemed like the only option I could take. The game had gotten me so worked up (normally something that doesn't happen) that it just wasn't fun anymore. Why play a game if it isn't fun? It may be excusable to get angry at a game if you're playing competitively and you have something riding on your performance, but it's my opinion that if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong. What's more, if you continue playing through the rage, you'll probably wind up ruining the game for yourself.

Everybody has bad days. Today is one of mine. I find that the best way too cool down after an unhealthy dose of rage is to turn the damned thing off and move on to something completely different, like writing a blog entry on Destructoid. It's working out nicely for me.