Shooting the giant moth over my head was like arguing with my mother. I wasn’t getting anywhere as I continued and I was looking at the sky every few minutes as though I was rolling my eyes. The fight was finished with me on the floor and the moth savoring its victory in the sky; that’s about the only difference between arguments with my dear mommy.
On the moth topic, not parent/child disagreements, it made me extremely frustrated because I attempted the engagement five times before I gave up, turned off my Xbox 360 and gave Borderlands the pretty side of my middle finger.
There are many times, not just in Borderlands, that I got so hot-headed I had to shut down my system, put the title back in my stack of video games which I desperately need to finish, and just sit in my chair and think of what I’m doing wrong. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the one doing something wrong or is it the game with a specific flaw that drives me to failure. Who knows? I sure as hell don’t.
I recently finished Assassins Creed II. That game is one of those games that I point the blame of all my failures and hick-ups on the controls. I knew what I wanted to do, but the game wanted me to do something else as if it had a mind of its own and it just wanted to screw me for kicks and giggles. One example was when I was about to assassinate a naughty templar who killed my family. I was going in for the kill and I pressed the correct buttons to commence with the assassination, but instead Ezio jumped into a singing jerk and stabbed him right in the forehead. My target got away and all I was left with was shame and anger. Maybe it was my fault or it could have been the game; I stick with the later.
What did I do to get rid of stress? I used break things. It is a foolish temper I held, but it was there and it got out sometimes. I bought a special edition Halo 3 wireless headset along with the legendary edition of Halo 3, a purchase I regret. I smashed the headset against my cousin’s bedroom wall when I was having a bad day and lost numerous multiplayer matches in Gears of War. I was one pissed-off fellow. I did get past all the brutality that video games brought out of me.
How did I lose these feverish rages that I succumbed to after getting my ass kicked? I learned that it wasn’t worth it to get angry over a game. The key is to just keep trying, no matter what. Give it a few attempts and if you just have no luck, turn the game off and hit the sack or do something else. Then, come back to it and try again. I guarantee it works.
