My son just rage lost in SC2...

[CuriousMike]

Not to be rude but gold is pretty bad, platinum is okay, diamond is good, and masters is great.

I used to rage at SC2 as well, until I restructured my mindset going into the game. After that I played a lot better. It is probably your son needs to tackle too.

Although even the best players rage sometimes. I remember Day 9's story about how he punched his keyboard so hard his hand was bleeding after lousing a tournament match.

I don't know what grade he is; I know he plays in the deep end.

At this point, it's really less about how good he is at Starcraft 2 and more an opportunity for learning; perspectives, what's really important, and a couple of you mentioned mindset.

 

[zinfamous]

Just explain to him that all the best Starcraft players are Korean, and since he's not Korean, he'll never be the best. But he can be better at other things, like baseball, or driving.

(man, I really hope he isn't Korean now...)

 

[CuriousMike]

No, not Korean.

If we're in the US, is it even possible to play matches outside the US?
I figured this game was so timing related, that the ping would make it worthless.

 

[zinfamous]

No, not Korean.

If we're in the US, is it even possible to play matches outside the US?
I figured this game was so timing related, that the ping would make it worthless.

I would assume so, you can probably join whichever server you want.

But yeah, the ping versus what you get in Korea would destroy anyone trying.

 

[Craig234]

It's always the quiet ones.

 

[CuriousMike]

It's always the quiet ones.

Everything has been going so smoothly...

 

[Barfo]

It's always the quiet ones.

Serial killer in the making.

 

[Mopetar]

Serial killer in the making.

Nah, just sounds like a teenager growing up and dealing with life and hormones. Probably just needs a better outlet for blowing off steam and dealing with frustrations.

Also, for what it's worth, if you're gaming on a new keyboard, it's going to take some time to adjust. He should probably expect to make some mistakes until he gets used to it.

 

[artemicion]

Well, to put a positive spin on it, at least it's a sign that your kid has some pride. Ragequit usually is misdirected disappointment at one's own shortcomings. Tell him that instead of raging out, he needs to constructively cope with the fact that he's mad because he's not as good as he wants to be, stop making excuses and instead of breaking things, think about what he's going to do to improve himself or come up with a counter to whatever strategy he lost against.

Personally, I see the same stuff with kids in sports and I much prefer the kids who get emotional and rage when they lose than the kids who don't give a crap, don't try, and lose before the game even starts.

 

[Thor86]

Hey no one got hurt (except for a keyboard), so this could be a more "healthy" outcome that other possibilities.

 

[Maximilian]

Warms my heart to think that theres likely been people out there who went mental and smashed something after I beat them at some game :biggrin:

 

[Childs]

I have a 17 year old who rages at times too. The funniest thing is when he screams about mouse lag (which may be true), yet doesn't install the proper drivers, has literally 10 other programs open and running (two/three other web-based games, open Skype, etc), all while trying to play BF4. Well, duh, what do you think is going to happen...somethings got to give.

If he had a faster computer all the extra stuff wont matter. I play at around 120fps while watching twitch.tv/youtube and downloading TV and porn. And its all HD, not that SD crap. Get your kid a new machine.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I rage all the time...problem is it costs me money now. So I'm careful. I have a pad on the wall I can punch for this reason.

 

[blastingcap]

Well, to put a positive spin on it, at least it's a sign that your kid has some pride. Ragequit usually is misdirected disappointment at one's own shortcomings. Tell him that instead of raging out, he needs to constructively cope with the fact that he's mad because he's not as good as he wants to be, stop making excuses and instead of breaking things, think about what he's going to do to improve himself or come up with a counter to whatever strategy he lost against.

Personally, I see the same stuff with kids in sports and I much prefer the kids who get emotional and rage when they lose than the kids who don't give a crap, don't try, and lose before the game even starts.

Given a choice between a lifeless vegetable and someone bad-tempered enough to ragebreak equipment, I would pick the latter as well, but I don't think those are the only two options in life. Just saying. I think your advice is good though, it can be turned into a life lesson.

 

[CuriousMike]

I do recall a recent thread on here where people were comparing how many controllers they've broke raging out on games... so I know it does happen.

 

[Turbonium]

Well, to put a positive spin on it, at least it's a sign that your kid has some pride. Ragequit usually is misdirected disappointment at one's own shortcomings. Tell him that instead of raging out, he needs to constructively cope with the fact that he's mad because he's not as good as he wants to be, stop making excuses and instead of breaking things, think about what he's going to do to improve himself or come up with a counter to whatever strategy he lost against.

How about this positive spin: just because you lose to another RTS player, it doesn't necessarily mean you're less intelligent than that person.

Honestly, the term RTS is a bit of a joke. These games are more about patience and enough "care" to actually want to learn about build orders, counters, etc. It becomes a game of knowing your options in a given situation, and then executing whatever path you choose, and drawing from the your experience from games past etc. to predict outcomes and adjust accordingly. It's less of a game or battle of wits and more of a chore/job to be honest.

That being said, whenever I lose an RTS match, I almost always feel depressed and less intelligent, but seriously, it's just a limitation of the medium (the game). It's not like it's the perfect thing to judge one's intelligence with, let alone self worth in general. Far from it.

Warms my heart to think that theres likely been people out there who went mental and smashed something after I beat them at some game :biggrin:

That warms your heart? Get a life.

 

[Spidre]

The game is frustrating, especially the way people view the leagues.

People will tell you gold is bad, and diamond+ are the only good players. But really, since the game is so far after release, the only people still playing ranked games are veteran players. You will come across bronze players who have had 3 years of practice, and would roll new players with ease. Another thing to consider is the internet. If you play baseball, and are a good baseball player, you are only comparing yourself to local players (home town + surrounding towns). Every day on the internet is the olympics of gaming. If you are in the top 50th percentile in sc2, you will be playing the top 50 percentile in your continent.

Gold isn't what it used to be with league depression and changes, but likely your son is in the top 50th percentile. When you think about the fact that he is playing competitive, against players that likely dedicate a similar amount of time as him (and have had 3 years to do it) and he is still above average, that is a good feat to reach.

Eventually he will figure out (or you should tell him) that the best way to improve, is to play the game for fun, and not even take note of his rank. If you stop stressing yourself, you will enjoy yourself much more, play more, and build up mechanics that are crucial to playing at higher leagues. This really applies to every competitive game. He should also avoid the blizzard forums like the plague, for they are cancerous.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[B-Riz]

This is way OT, but do something with your son that is not gaming and teaches patience.

I recommend a project car / truck. Something from the 80's, not too rusty.

Tear into it, make it nice, learn to fix / upgrade stuff on it.

Or fishing.

 

[IEC]

I've never broken any electronic device from "raging", even when I was a teenager. Your son needs to learn that defeat is an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and correct them. Watch the replay, figure out what you did wrong and what the opponent did right. Even then, everyone has an innate level of talent which will be hard to surpass without insane amounts of time and practice. Sounds like your son is competitive so you need to find an appropriate outlet for that competitiveness.

Anything involving building or refurbishing significant things (cars, boats, furniture, etc) can be a good outlet as well. It's almost universal for a man to be proud of something he has made with his own two hands.

 

[CuriousMike]

This is great, and you've hit one of the core themes we as humans need to be better at; realizing how we're 'ranking ourselves.'

I'm currently reading "David vs. Goliath", and he actually spends some time on this topic in regards to a new college student having the oppty to going to one of the top 10% schools in the nation vs a state university.
The student chose a science curriculum at the top 10% school, and found herself against the very best students and struggled to have that success she was used to.
Subsequently, she changed from a science major to a softer major.
The authors point is that if she would have chosen a state university, she would have been around "more average peers", and judging herself against more average (as opposed to the top 10% of students nationwide) would have kept her in the major she really wanted.

The game is frustrating, especially the way people view the leagues.

People will tell you gold is bad, and diamond+ are the only good players. But really, since the game is so far after release, the only people still playing ranked games are veteran players. You will come across bronze players who have had 3 years of practice, and would roll new players with ease. Another thing to consider is the internet. If you play baseball, and are a good baseball player, you are only comparing yourself to local players (home town + surrounding towns). Every day on the internet is the olympics of gaming. If you are in the top 50th percentile in sc2, you will be playing the top 50 percentile in your continent.

Gold isn't what it used to be with league depression and changes, but likely your son is in the top 50th percentile. When you think about the fact that he is playing competitive, against players that likely dedicate a similar amount of time as him (and have had 3 years to do it) and he is still above average, that is a good feat to reach.

Eventually he will figure out (or you should tell him) that the best way to improve, is to play the game for fun, and not even take note of his rank. If you stop stressing yourself, you will enjoy yourself much more, play more, and build up mechanics that are crucial to playing at higher leagues. This really applies to every competitive game. He should also avoid the blizzard forums like the plague, for they are cancerous.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[CuriousMike]

This is way OT, but do something with your son that is not gaming and teaches patience.

I recommend a project car / truck. Something from the 80's, not too rusty.

Tear into it, make it nice, learn to fix / upgrade stuff on it.

Or fishing.

He plays banjo, guitar, mandolin and piano.
He spends as much time working on those instruments as he does on the computer.
He's a bit of a perfectionist, and I suppose it's easier to measure gains on the banjo than the game.

He knows every Mumford and Sons banjo piece, chord progression by heart. He's really quite good.

I'm still keeping the keyboard.

 

[mizzou]

He's 16, and is incredibly mild.
Quiet.

To say that his mother and I were surprised and disappointed was an understatement.

I talked to him an hour after the incident, and he was just in a major feeling sorry for himself state, claiming he isn't good at anything. (Claiming he wasn't good at baseball when he was clearly a good player, amongst other things.)

He has put a LOT of time into SC2, continuously watches streams of top players playing, reading key forums etc.

He told me "I've put so much time into the game, and I still suck."
Which can't be true because he's Gold or Platinum or whatever the next to the top rank is.

There's some growing up going on in the house this week, that's for sure.

my brother is a mild person, but would CONSTANTLY rage when playing video games, he would throw the nintendo controller at the TV then all of a sudden realize how stupid that was.

my wife, a mild person, will show rage as well.

my best friend, a mild person, would also show violent rage.

Anyway....the mild people are usually the ones you gotta be careful with

Hopefully it's a maturity lesson for him and he can realize what tangible things are worth getting violent about and what aren't. Sometimes, you just realize you are an angry violent person and you have to tailor your life to manage it so you don't get locked up in jail or ruin friendships...or at least punch walls and break things

 

[smakme7757]

It's been about a year since i played SC2, back then i was Platinum/Diamond and I noticed a sharp increase in player skill as time went on.

So, today i would expect the player base to be of a higher standard compared to how it was a year ago, or even two years ago. I'd imagine that todays Bronze might be as good as old highly ranked silver players. There are less people playing and most people that still play have a lot of experience, apart from the newcomers. It's much tougher now than it was a while ago. To get above platinum you would have to dedicate way too much time to that game.

It's unfortunate he smashed his keyboard, but i can understand the frustration. He puts in a lot of effort and doesn't get the reward he feels he deserves. Unfortunately SC2 is an extremely hard game to master, even more so now than ever before.

 

[artemicion]

This is great, and you've hit one of the core themes we as humans need to be better at; realizing how we're 'ranking ourselves.'

I'm currently reading "David vs. Goliath", and he actually spends some time on this topic in regards to a new college student having the oppty to going to one of the top 10% schools in the nation vs a state university.
The student chose a science curriculum at the top 10% school, and found herself against the very best students and struggled to have that success she was used to.
Subsequently, she changed from a science major to a softer major.
The authors point is that if she would have chosen a state university, she would have been around "more average peers", and judging herself against more average (as opposed to the top 10% of students nationwide) would have kept her in the major she really wanted.

Were the authors suggesting that the student should have gone to the state university to begin with? IMO, if the student quit because she didn't get immediate success at the top tier school, it's indicative that she wasn't very passionate about that field to begin with.

There's lots of good reasons to go to a state unversity over an ivy-league type school (cost benefit being a good one), but the desire to rank yourself among a more average pool of piers is not one of them, IMO. That's just cowardly.

 

[B-Riz]

He plays banjo, guitar, mandolin and piano.
He spends as much time working on those instruments as he does on the computer.
He's a bit of a perfectionist, and I suppose it's easier to measure gains on the banjo than the game.

He knows every Mumford and Sons banjo piece, chord progression by heart. He's really quite good.

I'm still keeping the keyboard.

LOL, get him an old IBM Model M tank keyboard.

It's good to have an outlet other than trying to be super mega boss at a PC game.

I have come to realize, after years of PC gaming, that sometimes you have it and sometimes you don't. Some games click and you can beast all the time anytime, some you can get good but not great and other games are a trial.

If it starts being a race to perfection instead of fun, I would back off and find another game in the same genre to play.

SC2 seems more a FPS than RTS to me, with the perfect build order and timing and all that, I would have a stack of busted keyboards if I tried to get awesome at it...