Up For Debate - Why do we Rage Quit Games and What's Been Your Worst Rage Quit?

Written by Jon Sutton on Tue, Dec 26, 2017 11:57 AM

We’ve all been there. Being on the receiving end of yet another impossibly lucky headshot. Letting in a goal during the last kick of the game. Or getting to the DOTA 2 home screen. Now, more than ever, we’ve got intense competition between us and our fellow humans at our fingertips. Where once a football match or race took organisation, now we can engage in Overwatch, Siege, PUBG or FIFA 18 with a few clicks of a button.

It puts us as people in a unique position that throughout history we’ve never had to cope with. At any time of the day, we can enter and win a contest, resulting in a flood of testosterone and dopamine into our brains. The victories feel great, and once we’ve had one, we always want more. Sadly, we don’t usually keep winning. Eventually, we lose. Coming from a winning streak to a losing streak, we’ve emptied the tanks of dopamine and we’ve usually got an excess of testosterone. Sure enough, we reach boiling point - the rage quit. It comes in many forms; the instant shut-down; a torrent of abuse; deleting the game; even hurling a controller in a fit of rage.

Some people, naturally, take it a bit too far. They’re so consumed by an internal rage that I can only presume there are other factors in their lives at play. You know the ones, they who end up physically putting their fist through a monitor, or hurling an entire PC out of a window. Just don’t let them near the kitchen knives when you’re having an argument with them.

Rage quitting has quickly reached the point where developers have had to take preventative measures in order to try and stop it happening. In Rainbow Six Siege you get a temporary ban plus a reduction in Renown earned, while in Rocket League it’s a similar temporary ban. It’s all designed to stop players leaving a match early in a fit of rage, doing the right thing and seeing it out to the end. There’s also that needling idea that rage quitting is the ultimate form of satisfaction for your opponent. You just know that no matter how much release you get from rage quitting, your opponent has just had a far better time making it happen. There’s a certain element of dignity to hanging around until the end, but it can be easier said than done.

So, it’s time to clear the air, to admit our dirty dealings. Come clean on our worst rage quits. I’ll get the ball rolling, but I’m (not) sad to say the instances are few and far between. My worst offender is undoubtedly Rocket League. A rage quit usually brings my Rocket League session to a close. It’s not usually opponents that draw it out of me though, but teammates who take things far too seriously. Drop too many sarcastic Nice Save!’s and I’m likely to prod in a few own goals before closing it down. Bitter, I know, but it’s my only method of recourse if someone's being an absolute tosser. Aside from this I do just outright turn off FIFA 18 and walk away if I get on the receiving end of a thrashing. Fortunately, I’ve yet to actually damage anything physical during a rage quit, I manage to compartmentalise it and move on.

Over to you now then, what’s been your worst rage quit? And which games do you think are the most rage-inducing? Let us know!

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10:55 Dec-29-2017

Way back with GTA III, rig was sh!t, it kept lagging, I raged and bashed the tower, GPU dead.

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16:04 Dec-28-2017

Has to be Nioh and Dark Souls 3 for me

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12:46 Dec-28-2017

I ragequit so many times in Six Siege that I have stopped counting :)

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12:47 Dec-28-2017

Once i took the keyboard and hit my head for getting spawnkilled

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17:24 Dec-28-2017

Ah spawn-killing one of the many reasons why I do NOT play R6 anymore XD

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05:26 Dec-28-2017

probably watch dogs 1 done me

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12:40 Dec-27-2017

I always stop my self from destroying something but once i broke keyboard over League of legends ranked game. other noticable rage quit when i played csgo and friend blocked me allowing enemy to kill me oooooo boi was i mad :D

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12:33 Dec-27-2017

Worst I ever did in any game is Alt-F4, though never in any multiplayer strictly competitive game in which one player can cause your whole team to lose. I just don't like to be that guy. I'll either focus and finish the game if I can, and if I can't, I'll do my best and quit when the match ends.
There's no point in breaking anything, because stuff's not cheap and it doesn't amount to anything.

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12:38 Dec-27-2017

Exactly.... it's not like winning a match or beating one more level on the hardest difficulty level is going to enhance your life in any significant way..... if you're that mad, just walk away for a bit and go channel that rage into something that will enhance your life, go work out, get fit, angry workouts are the best workouts!

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11:36 Dec-27-2017

Why rage quit and destroy stuff over a ****ing video game. Get a Life please :D.

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11:26 Dec-27-2017

I haven’t broken anything myself but my neighbour broke 2 of my ps4 controllers when we were playing fifa. He wouldn’t even pay me any money for it either

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12:41 Dec-27-2017

I understand him breaking you the first one if that caught you by surprise, but I'd never give him a second one after that, especially if he doesn't want to pay for it.

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09:07 Dec-27-2017

Oh well.. After a unsuccessful taking a turn with a drift in NFS Payback I rage quited twice.. already.. I'm glad I bought bf 1... Still i have 8h left for NFS. Otherwise yesturday I was kicked by the admin cuz of camping in bf1 rofl. I was moving a lot and then some guy trying to kill me. And then I went down to 2 hp and below there were some rocks where I can hide there and heal myself..

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09:12 Dec-27-2017

After I got full HP I killed the guy who was camping from above more than me... and after a couple of seconds i was kicked from the server. ROFL. This ain't a fcking camping, but a fcking self defence tactic...

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07:22 Dec-27-2017

I was so close to have a rage quit in FarCry 4. I have been detected because of a stupid animal when i was trying to stay stealth for 5th time :D i almost broke my headset but i stopped myself :)

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11:06 Dec-27-2017

LOL! Ever since far cry 3. Animals tend to make noise when you are near them. So you had to kill them first for a complete stealth gameplay.

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06:02 Dec-27-2017

I remember playing with a guy who broke 6 mice or so because he had a habit of throwing them at the wall. I never really understood losing it that much. I just leave a game if im not having fun and find another. (which ive done many times)

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06:04 Dec-27-2017

I guess ive banged my fist on the desk...... Maybe i rage more than i realize now that i think about it... But ive never broke anything

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01:28 Dec-27-2017

My worst rage quit was in CS GO, i broke a G502 Mouse, a G430 Headset, left a white spot in my monitor from throwing my headset at it and i punched a hole in my door before i finally left the game. . . xD

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18:34 Dec-28-2017
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23:50 Dec-26-2017

I don't normally rage quit. If I'm getting my butt handed to me I see as an opportunity to learn. The more you lose, the more you learn. Last time I rage quit was due to Overwatch's poor balancing. I felt like there was no point in continuing since taking the time to learn my character and sharpening my skills seemed pointless if I was to continue being screwed over by an over abundance of network interpolation and characters being given more and more cheese abilities.

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00:23 Dec-27-2017

Actually IMO losing is more fun than winning, because you learn just like you said, which eventually will allow you to overcome the thing you are losing to, then the win is super satisfactory, but only the first few times, then to me it gets boring, to be honest everything I get good at I start losing interest in, because I don't feel any sense of achievement and everything becomes easy and comprehensive to overcome and learn. When you win you just do something you have done before time and time again.


Funny, my brother is the exact opposite, so are my friends come to think about it, they rage and smash and hit when they lose :/

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04:52 Dec-27-2017

True that. Live For Speed is the only place that I can remember rage quitting. I didn't throw my whole wheel around or anything coz I love that wheel a lot :D but I always just Alt+F4 out of there whenever I couldn't catch up to some guy. Eventually stopped being such a jerk and decided to keep following my opponents..

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05:08 Dec-27-2017

...to the best of my ability. A while later I noticed that I was very easily keeping up with the guy who was annoying me so much just a while ago It turns out I had started to use his line through the track. Easily overtook him. If you are losing take a look at what your opponent is doing different to you.

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09:47 Dec-27-2017

Honestly I like it when I win a lot as it shows I've accomplished my goal. But my skills must be tested in the process. Wining against someone who has never used a mouse to aim offers zero validation of my skills and is useless. If my skills are tested thoroughly and I win, then that is a great feeling.

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21:14 Dec-26-2017

Never happened for me tbh, even in worse situations (not even Dark Souls could brake me :D) ... single player or multiplayer (I only played LoL, DOTA 2 and Planetside 2).

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20:53 Dec-26-2017

lol I'm not that high strung.... can't say I ever really did a proper rage quit.... walked away from games frustrated? sure.... but never anything crazy.

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20:51 Dec-26-2017

I rage at a game if I keep failing at a section, but never destroy anything and most of the time I eventually get past the mission I'm stuck on, and actually apologise to the game :(
The only games where I've actually quit are Half life 1 (Though I did play Black mesa and got through it without incident) and GTA San Andreas(I think we all know what mission)

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05:10 Dec-27-2017

You had one job CJ!

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20:19 Dec-26-2017

I've never had a rage quit where I broke stuff. I do recall one time however, where I stopped playing on a whole console for four months because I couldn't get past this puzzle in the end-game.

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20:01 Dec-26-2017

my worst rage quit was breaking my 12 year old fragile wood desk during dark souls 3 pvp with lag switch players. dont worry it's all held together now by a C clamp.

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19:16 Dec-26-2017

EA and their money making ways.


Battlefront 2

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19:12 Dec-26-2017

FIFA is the most rage inducing game ever. Period.

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