Topic: How is this supposed to work?

[Petzbreeder]

I was looking through some of my old bookmarked web pages, and I rediscovered this.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20080417

Just how does this work?

Basically, the idea is that the more angry the player gets, the harder the game is to play. I've always found that if a game is too hard for me to play, I get angry that I can't play it.

I've often wondered how many pcs have been destroyed by people lobbing them across the room out of anger after playing it!

[sylar]

this is actually so funny

[Lord Raven]

Ever seen a smash match? Because there are things that make people angry and aggressive (think camping) and that causes them to get flustered and make more mistakes. That's kind of how pressure works in competitive video games in general.

[sans the skeleton]

the name for this is 'tilting' if it comes to stuff like overwatch, but this one uses it against you so you have to calm down

[lets all go out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes]

i wish i knew more about neurochemistry to sound more authorative than this but

Spoiler: "a condensed (?) and handwavy read on ur nervous system n why ur Chill disappears when u get stressed" • show

you have three nervous systems, the Central Nervous System which we dont really care about here

but the other two which we do care about here are the parasympathetic, and the sympathetic nervous systems.

you basically have one brain circuitry in ur body for resting n bein chill (parasympathetic nervous system) and u got another brain circuitry for running about and kickin hella wooly mammoths and goin into beserker mode (the sympathetic nervous system). you can't really be running both at full pelt at one time (i.e. you can only play one version of pokemon on ur 3ds at any one time) and ur concentration end of things is in the Chill part (naturally) and not the Unchill part.

going into them is too complex for a small carepost on a pokemon website but in an extremely handwavy sense your nervous system/brain uses brain chemicals or "neurochemicals" to do many things in the body, and one of them is to switch from one of these aforementioned nervous systems to the other.

(in the tortured videogame reference imagine the neurochemicals are you switchin the videogame over when you want to play Pokemon Parasympathetic instead of Pokemon Sympathetic. in this example Pokemon Para. is the chill game with the chill evil team and Pokemon Sym. is the one where everyone is SCREAMING and u get like running boots 2x and can't go into doors cos ur too busy crashing into the walls next to the door cos ur running too quick)

the neurochemicals that govern concentration and being Calm after panic (norepinephrine) can be offset by the brain chemicals associated with Stress and Anger (epinephrine and serotonin respectively) when ur brain gets put into a bit of a Stress playin the vidya game.

stress/anger brain chemicals go up, and ur brain switched, and neurologically ur fighting a wolly mammoth in order to survive. but not really, you're havin a tantrum cos you got brutally owned in a videogame and all this pent up rage has to go SOMEWHERE. and then after the tantrum ur neurology goes "ok we're safe and not gonna die now" and ur norepinephrine kicks back in and you switch back to the Parasympathetic nervous system (the chill one)


additionally if you are genetically/neurologically....uh....Different (so to speak) i.e. you have adhd, add, autism, bipolar, unipolar depression, multi-ass, suicidal tendancies discography, conclave chest etc etc you are kind of predisposed to have a different level of neurochemicals for reasons scientists dont quite understand yet (neurology is a complex thing) so you're even more prone to losing your concentration in hilarous and illogical ways when getting mad at a videogame for Complicated Neurotransmitter Reasons

anyway yeah tl;dr: being chill and concentrated is one side of ur nervous system and gettin caremad at a videogame and severely unchill and unco-ordinated is on the other nervous system and ur body kinda switches from one to the other depending on what it thinks its experiencing. in this case, losing at a videogame.





anyway that was my mangling of neuroscience theory, thanks for reading

[Petzbreeder]

i wish i knew more about neurochemistry to sound more authorative than this

You've given me a lot of insight into my own behavior while I'm playing games, or doing anything for that matter. I've never really thought about it before now, but I get angry fairly quickly, mainly because I'm always trying (and failing) to be as good as everyone else. I often compare myself to other people, simply because I feel like I suck at everything that everyone else is good at. I just want to fit in, but a lot of people just see me as a loser, simply because I'm just not as good as they are. The people who think of me as a loser are probably just being big-headed though lol.

I've played warzones (PVP basically) on Star Wars The Old Republic before, but a lot of people blame me for making the team lose, as though I'm the sole person to blame.

I guess I should just learn to keep my cool.  I can learn to focus on things much better. Not just while playing games, but in everyday life too!