Ragequitters don’t know how good they have it

It’s a fact of life for anyone who plays modern games online… people are going to get their shorts bunched up if you do better than them and rage quit. It’s just how it goes.

Sometimes it’s funny… sometimes it’s annoying… but it is always going to happen.

I can’t stand it, honestly. If I’m getting my ass kicked on Madden, I want to keep playing against this guy so I can learn what he’s doing right and I’m doing wrong. Nobody is going to improve by quitting every time the going gets rough.

I also can’t help but realize that these punk kids and whiny college guys that moan when they rage quit never knew the day of the video arcade. I can’t help but think that they don’t know how good they have it.

Back then, if you were getting creamed by the other player you had to take it like a man. It was bad enough to be the guy who couldn’t block anything the guy controlling Ryu wanted to do to ya, you didn’t dare turn and walk away from the machine. It didn’t matter that you were 400,000 points behind in that doubles game of Galaga… you finished it out rather than run away.

Call it a code of honor. Call it a sign of the times. Call it what you will, but I can’t help but feel that someone walking off in the middle of that Mortal Kombat II game in the mid-nineties wouldn’t have been allowed back into the video arcade. They’d have to hang their head in shame and start playing at the Discovery Zone down the road, taking on little kids next to the big plastic slide and foam rock climbing wall.

Ragequitters today don’t know how good they have it. They can disconnect from XBox Live and return to their Jersey Shore marathon without anyone pointing and laughing at them and still be welcomed back the next time they want to play.

It’s the coward’s way, but it’s the only way they know.

7 comments

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NeoSilverThorn

Something worth remembering is that a lot of companies are starting to take the tact of having their matching services put rage quitters aside in their own little group, where those of us who DO play through the whole match don't have to put up with them.

Ramminchuck

When I was a kid if you rage quit you got a fist to the face. Which is hilarious when it's your friend's younger sister punching you in the face. Damn Mortal Kombat.

MaulerGWR

I don't think I have ever rage quit. I prefer to learn how I was steamrolled, just like you implied, Mr. Patterson, so I can learn how to see it, avoid it, and counter it. I agree, though, we grew up in a different era of gaming than kids these days. They just can't handle getting "owned".

GamerSciz

I also have to admit at times I rage quit. It's only in pubs though. I have never, and plan to never rage quit during tournament play. But I do remember the arcade as I was born in '85 so I was a kid back then (lost so much of my parents money at the arcade haha). Either way, nice read good article and good point.

OcarinaOfTom

I must, admit, I was guilty of this when I was younger. You have a lot of ego and you think no one could possibly take you out and then you get rudely awakened. These days, I have learned to appreciate taking my beating like a man, which is good news because I am not what you would call skilled at most shooters and sports games.

NintendoLegend

I totally remember Discovery Zone! Haha. And that Jersey Shore bit was great...

FoxSynergy

Is *that* why everyone else disappeared when I used to play Mario Kart DS online? I thought they had found the "character death real" option.

Ragequitters don’t know how good they have it

Patrick Scott Patterson