How to not get angry at multiplayer games
The Joy of Losing - Learning to Have Fun Playing Games - Extra Credits
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winning a game shouldn't be only fun
when you're winning can't only be fun
when you're winning as an industry and
as a community we seem to have forgotten
this we've forgotten the importance of
finding the joy in losing real quick up
top please give a warm icy welcome to
Kelsey who's doing guest art for this
episode thanks Kelsey in games today we
put a huge emphasis on winning we've
moved it from being the goal of most
games to the raison d'etre of most games
especially in multiplayer environments
in many multiplayer games we've let
winning become more important than
having fun we've let it Eclipse the joy
of the game itself time and time again
we've all run into players that aren't
having fun unless they're winning and
when they're losing their actively
having a bad time losing makes them
angry irritable or sometimes even mean
it puts people in a bad mood the very
opposite of the thing we usually sit
down to play games for but as hokey as
the saying wedding isn't everything is
it's kind of true here like what's
really at stake in these games for most
of us exactly nothing nothing materially
changes in your life if you crush a
particular round or if you get
steamrolled heck in most games you can
usually just pick back up and try again
at no cost whatsoever
even if you're playing on ladder those
few points up or down don't really mean
anything and they certainly shouldn't
ruin your day and losing isn't actually
a bad thing it's often how we improve
it's easier to learn what you did wrong
and what you could do better from a
losing game than from a winning one and
it's much easier to gloss over those
mistakes and just assume you did
everything right because you won and you
know what that's where the real joy is
in getting better at least that's where
it should be those of you who have
played any of the from software games
know the joy that can be found in losing
if when you lose you saw one small thing
you could do better or if you came up
with a new strategy to try next
that should be the feeling that we take
to every game that has winning and
losing if you're playing dota or
counter-strike league or overwatch FIFA
or Madden that's the feeling that losing
should bring sure it's a little
disappointing that you lost but then you
get to think about the ways you know you
could have done better and get super
excited about jumping into that next
game because you want to try your ideas
out you immediately get the chance to
test your new hypothesis and see where
you were right and where you were wrong
that is exciting because winning is just
a yardstick just a measuring tool to
tell you if you've improved your play
it's how you test all thoughts you have
about how you might get better and know
if you were right but that's all it is
it has no inherent value in and of
itself now I know there's going to be a
contingent of people out there who will
say they get frustrated when they lose
even when they're playing well when they
lose because someone on the team wasn't
good and yes I absolutely agree that
when someone is actively trolling that's
frustrating and disappointing though
more disappointing in humanity than the
game but I digress when other players
are just uncoordinated or maybe not that
great at whatever you're playing that's
an opportunity to improve as well as a
leader and a mentor I've seen teams
filled with people who are mechanically
unskilled at a game trounce teams of
highly skilled players because they had
one person who helped the team
coordinate and rallied them when they
were down and that's something you can
get better at as well you can get better
at being that person your team never
groups up what can you say or how can
you signal more effectively so that
people actually do your team ignores the
objective to just get into brawls how
can you bring them together to focus on
the goal of the game or maybe it's just
people getting into a defeatist attitude
when things go a little bit against them
how do you rally them to give it one
more go these are as much skills in a
team game as fast Mouse work or clever
builds and getting better at them is an
amazing feeling the most rewarding games
I've ever had
weren't the ones where I did the coolest
shot or stole the objective they were
the ones it was clear that the team was
about to give up and something I said
got them to group up and give it one
more go and in all seriousness it didn't
really matter if we still lost it felt
like we gave it our all and that feels
amazing we can't invest our self-worth
in just winning just achieving victory
in some arbitrary game not only is that
not healthy at all but it also bucks
against a fundamental truth in most
multiplayer games at least half of the
people are losing all the time no form
of entertainment should be miserable for
half of its audience or make half of its
audience feel bad about themselves so we
have to find the joy not in winning but
in improving or just in playing the game
itself because if you're not playing for
the gameplay the hook you're playing for
is as much of an illusion as any
free-to-play treadmill or MMO grind and
we can't fall for that because games
shouldn't be about rage or
disappointment games should never cause
you to toss the controller or to shout
at another person they're meant to
engage us and much of the time to be fun
a winning is everything mentality just
breeds toxicity so we need to find the
joy in losing in being beaten in a
really good game in seeing other
people's incredible displays of skill or
in learning about the game itself we
need to find the joy in simply playing
win or lose because when you're not
having fun it's time to stop GG everyone
gg
[Applause]
[Music]
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