• Ragequitting. No-one wants to be on the receiving end of a salty diatribe. No-one wants to be within thirty feet of a spiked controller, either.
• Nevertheless, we should think it possible to call out the aggression of ragers AND support them.
• Ranked sucks. Ping matchmaking.

This is a response to a topic of conversation that occurred earlier today in the NASB2 grind guild.

Player Orange, a Reptar (and chronic ragequitter, as seems to be the stereotype of the heavy player) posted this:

To which Player Green, a self-confessed former ragequitter, disagreed:

The conversation, at that point, ended with:

“People have a gross misunderstanding of ragequitting” is an interesting argument.

Both of these points of view are valid, and I think both can be true. They’re not contradictory as they may appear. I have to disagree, however, on the solution to ragequitting being an individual player learning to ‘fix their mentality.’ If it was that simple, we’d have no more ragequitters. No-one wants to be the person in that position where they’re chronically stuck, not knowing what to do, to the extent that their frustration reaches a boiling point. Ragers know they need to “fix their mentality,” and it’s difficult to look at the game from a different perspective when you’re being vexed by problems you don’t know how to solve.

Where is this raging occurring? If we’re talking about ranked, well, ranked is like answering a call from a number you don’t recognise at 3am. You’ve no idea who that person is on the other end.

If we’re talking about pinging matchmaking, then yes, no-one deserves to be on the receiving end of an angsty, frustrated diatribe, whether that’s directed at them, their character, their opponent’s character, their opponent themselves, the game, and so on. In person, no-one wants to be within thirty feet of a spiked controller.

But pinging matchmaking is very different from playing on ranked. First and foremost, you’re establishing a request to connect and play on Discord, a platform where the network effect is quite plain to see. I’m in this guild because my friends are in this guild. My friends are in this guild because their friends are in this guild. I, a player, am in this guild because others are in this guild, and vice versa.

Second, matchmaking requires someone else to voluntarily respond, as opposed to playing ranked where you hit a button and wait. The dynamic is totally different. Both parties get acquainted with each other before the games start (even if that’s just a simple “BO3?” or “Shall I host or will you host?”). If you have other platforms in your profile/bio, that’s available for your opponent to see as well. You’re effectively shaking hands and agreeing that, for the next half hour or so, you have the right to kick each other’s ass.

Once the games begin, typical platfighter chicanery ensues. One of you is going to come out on top, and at any time, if it is too much that either player is in the position of feeling chronically stuck, not knowing what to do, they can call it there (“Last game,” or just cut straight to the chase with “GGs”); the chicanery ends, the unbeatable, seemingly omniscient adversary reverts to being just another person in the guild, and, ideally, you move onto postgame discussion. I know some don’t bother with it, but on the other hand, no-one’s going to give you a ”Reason You Suck” speech for not knowing how to play neutral, fumbling the bag on combos, mashing, doing the same things out of disadvantage, and so on:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheReasonYouSuckSpeech

On ranked, you hit a button and wait. Even relatively level-headed players, regardless of their skill level, and no matter how much they rationalise that the numbers don’t matter, get bummed out by ranked. Any streamer knows the feeling too well. This is not to say that, in private, their ranking dangles over their head like Damocleas’ sword. Playing ranked can be a truly draining experience for anyone.

Telling a ragequitter to ‘learn to fix your mentality’ has some serious ‘stop hitting yourself’ energy to it, and I know that’s not what Green meant at all. You can give well-intentioned advice and make things worse by invalidating someone’s experience that ‘people have a gross misunderstanding of ragequitting.’ We can support ragers and call out their aggression. These games aren’t easy, competition is cruel, and we’re all in the same boat.

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