5 Gamer Struggles
Malaika Tayach
Picture this, you’ve been playing the game for hours without rest, chatting with your teammates on THAT winning strategy against the opposing team. The time ticks closer to the end but all of a sudden, you hear: “Food’s ready! Come down now!”
Your mother’s calling you from the dining room and you realise that you have to quicken your pace to try to finish the game. Victory is within reach and your fingers start to slip on the controllers as you hear your mother’s voice rise in volume to the point where she’s yelling for you to come down for dinner. You’re faced with two choices, continue the game and win, but face your mother’s wrath, or log out yourself.
At this point, you can sense your mom coming up the stairs, and with a heavy heart, you quit that online match and making your way to the dining room. You feel bad, sad perhaps because you probably let your team down and lost that chance of victory… All because you played that game at the wrong time.
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​Most gamers can relate to this scenario or something similar to it, so we can all agree that it sucks and I’m all about talking about things that makes my heart heavy. So! I will be talking about 5 struggles that all gamers can relate to.
(Games)
#1: “Nothing to Play”
We’ve all been here before, you’re looking through your stack or folder filled with a lot of different games and for some reason, you don’t feel like playing any of them. This is one of the classic problems faced, and it isn’t even a one-time thing. I can remember so many situations where this happened to me. Back in my Nintendo DS games, I had a ton of games like Mario Party, racing games, Pokémon Diamond, etc. I even had a ton in my Gameboy! But, for some odd reason, I still felt like I didn’t have enough. Nothing to play, you know?
#2: Lags
In general, anyone who plays online, whether its MMORPGs like League of Legends, or just online matches, experienced this and knows how frustrating it can get, to say the least. Best case scenario, you die in the game once. Worst case scenario, you find yourself walking out to take a break because every step your character takes would activate a lag. Lags are one of the most annoying aspects to deal with during an online match because you’re fighting against real players, in real time, with no mercy whatsoever. If the lag’s too bad, you could cost yourself or even your team the loss, and we all know that we want that victory more than anything.
#3: Crashes
The long lost twin to lags are “crashes”. These are equally frustrating, and if not, even more annoying to deal with because they could even appear during your single-player run throughs. ESPECIALLY! If you didn’t have the chance to save your progress and the game decides to die on you.
Thanks game… Now I have to defeat that really tough boss that took 3 hours to beat, again! Speaking of saving, that ties into the next problem!
(Egamingbet)
#4: Forgetting to Save/Accidentally Deleting Your Saved File
Ok, it’s bad enough that you didn’t get the chance to save before the crash occurs, but it’s worse if you DID have that chance but didn’t take it because you felt that you could breeze through the next part of the game. Luckily for us, more recent games have an automatic save feature, so we finally get to breathe a sigh of relief when a crash occurs. Yet, for older games you would need to have a part of your brain wired to save manually, so make sure to not forget!
#5: Rage Quits
Last but certainly not the least are rage quits, and there are two scenarios for this. The first case is that, you were the one who rage-quitted. Maybe because the boss was too challenging or that player you were against was just too good, so that left you with two choices, either you take the loss and feel awful about yourself or you let your anger and frustration get the best of you and quit as a last resort to saving your pride.
The second case is that, you were in the receiving point, you were beating a player so well you knew that your victory was sealed, but just before the time ran out or you could pull that final blow, your opponent disconnected.
Either way, you would feel quite bothered in both situations, as the first case, you would be annoyed at the player or boss, and for the second case, you would still be annoyed at the player. I guess there’s no way around the frustration with this one, huh?
(Push Square)
To sum it up, there’s a ton of struggles that we gamers face that non-gamers wouldn’t understand. Frustration and annoyance can easily flow through our veins if one of these appear during our playthrough. Throwing your controller across the room is a bad idea, so don’t let that player or boss get into your head! Beat them with no mercy and don’t forget to save!
Works Cited:
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Games, Stoney, director. Destiny 1 Online Gameplay. YouTube, YouTube, 20 July 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E0Qn5UdvFU.
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Egamingbet. “Bet LoL League of Legends Odds Gameplay.” Esports Betting A-Z, EGamingBet, 2015, www.egamingbet.com/bet-lol-league-legends/attachment/bet-lol-league-of-legends-odds-gameplay/
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​Push Square. “Guide: Dark Souls Remastered Ornstein and Smough Boss Walkthrough.” Push Square, Dx.net, 29 May 2018, www.pushsquare.com/news/2018/05/guide_dark_souls_remastered_ornstein_and_smough_boss_walkthrough.