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Sometimes Rage-Quitting is the Answer

Sometimes Rage-Quitting is the Answer

So a lot of sports happened last weekend; Super Bowl and all of that. It was a pretty great game, and definitely a tough loss for Cam Newton. As such a young guy with such an explosive season I’m sure that he had every expectation of ending that night with an enormous trophy in his hands and a snowstorm of black and blue confetti filling the air. Things went a little differently, and after the game a press conference was held and Cam was sitting near one of the Bronco’s key defensive players who was also being interviewed. It was the first time anything like this has been done in NFL history and it seemed a little twisted and cruel.

At what will surely be one of the absolute lowest moments in his life, Cam Newton had bulbs flashing in his face and microphones held eagerly outstretched by reporters who were basically asking him to talk in detail about his heartbreaking loss. Meanwhile Broncos corner Chris Harris was talking so loudly about how throwing the ball backfired for Carolina that it was getting picked up by the microphones held out for Newton. It was all too much to bear, and Newton prematurely ended the conference, choosing to walk away instead. Today the internet mocks him, but I know that feel, bro.

It’s what I call the righteous-rage-quit. Typically rage-quitting is something that only immature and childish competitors resort to. In Modern Warfare 2, your game-winning killcam wouldn’t play at the end of the match if the person who died disconnected, I suppose because they needed to be in the lobby for their data to be recreated for the killcam footage. At any rate, it became pretty common for sore losers in every match to immediately speed-quit as soon as they realized they had been killed for the loss, just to spite the victor and deny him his 10 seconds of glory.

That’s not the type of rage-quitting I’m talking about, though. Righteous-rage-quitting is a choice that you make: a choice to immediately cut off a poisonous influence that is bringing anger and bitterness to a time that should be recreational and relaxing for you. If you’re in a match against a team of trash talkers that single you out because you have a microphone, and they decide to focus on killing you exclusively just so they can talk smack, then leave. That’s not rage-quitting, that’s getting out of a situation that would cause you to lose self-control had you stayed. You don’t owe it to the lobby to stay in a game that troubles your mind and causes resentment or rage. It’s not throwing a tantrum, it’s simply leaving the company of fools. It is proverbially recommended that you do just that no matter the context.

Sometimes Rage-Quitting is the Answer

Righteous-rage-quit whenever you’re being trolled and your only option for retaliation is to try to hurt the feelings of the other person somehow. If it resorts to personal attacks, then walk away. That’s what Cam Newton did. This week everyone in the world who’s never taken taken a single hit from a 250 pound NFL defensive lineman wants to tell Cam to put on his big boy pants and take the loss like a man – but you know what? They can’t understand what it’s like to be in a situation where defeat, sadness, embarrassment, and rage are compounding in a way that makes even pretending to be calm and objective completely impossible.

I’ve obviously never lost a Super Bowl, but I understand the emotion of rage and the shock of becoming an unexpected victim. Unfortunately it’s something that can happen all-too-frequently to those of us who invest much of our social lives into our online gaming communities. When part of your identity and self-worth is derived from what you do for a team in a game, it can be tough when you’re ridiculed for failure or bullied just for being there. Don’t stick around for that bullsh*t, and pay any attention to what’s said in messages after you leave.

You’ve all the buttons you need, folks. A button to back out, a button to report the trolls, and buttons to join a new match where people are actually trying to have fun and play. Some people have no empathy, and usually it’s the nastiest hate-mongers who, deep down, are only acting out of debilitating insecurity, so try not to think on it. In the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” Word up, Longfellow.

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