It happens to all of us. There is a quick flick of the joystick, a missed button combo, a misplaced tile and the rage builds up. Then we are pissed and sometimes it's hard to come down from that. Personally I have been working on on my outburst as I see it as a juvenile response and at this age I should be passed it. I am not. I am also not going to argue that video games make people more violent, while there has been some support for it in children, games like tetris can upset people as well depending on their performance. I even want to be careful with saying that for children games make them more violent because there are a lot of environmental factors that come into play and it's still far from proven. This would be fun to dive into later but not here.
The General Aggression Model (GAM) is a comprehensive, integrative, framework for understanding aggression.(Allen, Anderson, Bushmen) This model had been used previously to understand aggression in different media but has recently set it's sites on video games.(Przybylski, Deci, Rigby, Ryan) In the paper "Competence-Impeding Electronic Games and Players’ Aggressive Feelings, Thoughts, and Behaviors" they delve into tendencies toward aggressive feelings in games through seven different experiments. Through these experiments they did not find a strong correlation between violent games and aggression but more player self reported competency being correlated with aggression.
In the "Competence-Impeding" paper they explain a theory of called self determination. Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation and personality that concerns people's inherent growth tendencies and innate psychological needs. (wikipedia) What they are suggesting is that our physiological need to feel competent is directly correlated with aggression rather than the content of what we are playing. In several studies, with several games, they tested and confirmed their hypothesis. Even with a game as simple as Tetris, once the game was increased in difficulty to lay down harder pieces then in the standard mode, people would become more aggressive if they were not performing at an expected level.
This is a really interesting study and I am about to get non-scientific at this point but it also makes sense. My least favorite times of games is when I feel the game is being unfair or the controls aren't great. For example in the last version of Resident Evil I played I explained in my review my dislike for the quick time events in the game. They are varying and sometimes really do not make sense in the context of the game. This is easily the most frustrating moments and I can say that I was less than pleased at those times. I can also hearken back to rage filled moments in League of Legends where what I expected from the inputs and what I got from the game did not correlate in my mind leading to frustration.
It makes sense the anger comes from the competency and not the content. It would seem then that the best thing to do when upset with a game is evaluate whether you are just in need of more practice with the controls or the game simply inhibits progression through poor design. With this distinction it seems easier to know whether practice or some time off from the game would be the better solution. I think this could also be important to those who design games in giving them something to look for in their testing phases. Find out why and if people are upset. As shown in the "Competence-Impeding" paper there is a correlation between the two.
Knowing what can trigger you can have a positive impact on your gameplay experience. To know that your frustration isn't yours alone and in fact a product of your interaction with a stimuli should lead to a realization that getting truly upset is not necessary. Acknowledging that your basic need for competency and fulfillment is not being met will give more people the tools they need to make better decisions after they play and I am sure save a many controllers.
(Side note: I like to link to the places where you can buy the papers as some might do so in support of the team. Most papers, especially older then 2 years have been "liberated")
The General Aggression Model (GAM) is a comprehensive, integrative, framework for understanding aggression.(Allen, Anderson, Bushmen) This model had been used previously to understand aggression in different media but has recently set it's sites on video games.(Przybylski, Deci, Rigby, Ryan) In the paper "Competence-Impeding Electronic Games and Players’ Aggressive Feelings, Thoughts, and Behaviors" they delve into tendencies toward aggressive feelings in games through seven different experiments. Through these experiments they did not find a strong correlation between violent games and aggression but more player self reported competency being correlated with aggression.
In the "Competence-Impeding" paper they explain a theory of called self determination. Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation and personality that concerns people's inherent growth tendencies and innate psychological needs. (wikipedia) What they are suggesting is that our physiological need to feel competent is directly correlated with aggression rather than the content of what we are playing. In several studies, with several games, they tested and confirmed their hypothesis. Even with a game as simple as Tetris, once the game was increased in difficulty to lay down harder pieces then in the standard mode, people would become more aggressive if they were not performing at an expected level.
This is a really interesting study and I am about to get non-scientific at this point but it also makes sense. My least favorite times of games is when I feel the game is being unfair or the controls aren't great. For example in the last version of Resident Evil I played I explained in my review my dislike for the quick time events in the game. They are varying and sometimes really do not make sense in the context of the game. This is easily the most frustrating moments and I can say that I was less than pleased at those times. I can also hearken back to rage filled moments in League of Legends where what I expected from the inputs and what I got from the game did not correlate in my mind leading to frustration.
It makes sense the anger comes from the competency and not the content. It would seem then that the best thing to do when upset with a game is evaluate whether you are just in need of more practice with the controls or the game simply inhibits progression through poor design. With this distinction it seems easier to know whether practice or some time off from the game would be the better solution. I think this could also be important to those who design games in giving them something to look for in their testing phases. Find out why and if people are upset. As shown in the "Competence-Impeding" paper there is a correlation between the two.
Knowing what can trigger you can have a positive impact on your gameplay experience. To know that your frustration isn't yours alone and in fact a product of your interaction with a stimuli should lead to a realization that getting truly upset is not necessary. Acknowledging that your basic need for competency and fulfillment is not being met will give more people the tools they need to make better decisions after they play and I am sure save a many controllers.
(Side note: I like to link to the places where you can buy the papers as some might do so in support of the team. Most papers, especially older then 2 years have been "liberated")
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