The psychology of rage quitting explained
Ever heard of rage quitting? It’s an interesting phenomenon that many players are susceptible to. Broadly speaking, rage quitting is best defined as quitting a game when losing. Sometimes, players quit when they feel like they’re losing or about to lose. Many of today’s video games have built-in systems that penalize players for rage quitting. It’s pretty easy to understand why this is the case, particularly with MMO RPG games in group settings where the entire group’s success often depends on players’ individual contributions.
The science behind why we rage quit presents compelling analysis and commentary. First, we must understand that multiplayer games cannot succeed if players routinely rage quit. Not only does this increase the difficulty experienced by the team, it destroys morale. Evidence of this abounds in live chat sessions, forums, blogs, threads, and so forth. Players detest the mercurial rage quitters for all the right reasons. They are not reliable layers to have on your team.
We have to ask ourselves why people hate losing so much. If it’s only a game after all, why quit?
Fortunately, psychology plays a big part in the process. We can better understand why people hate losing, even in a gaming setting with unlimited lives. The psychological element is coupled with an economic element in the form of time, energy, and resources expended or last during gaming sessions. People can lose in-game currency when rage quitting, and this is especially negative if you have amassed a substantial stockpile of gold coins in Hit it Rich! or a large stash of souls in games like Dark Souls. Rage quitting is like a scorched earth policy – nothing survives the abandonment.
We hate losing more than we love winning
In psychology, it is a well-documented fact that the prospect of losing weighs more heavily on our minds than winning. For example, scores of positive affirmations can easily be undone by one scathing criticism. It’s almost as if human beings are exceedingly more susceptible to negative elements than they are emboldened and encouraged by positive elements. Studies by Kahneman & Tversky (1979) confirm this. Our anxiety reaches fever-pitch levels when we are about to lose or actually on the receiving end of a shellacking. The anxiety, dread, fear, and aversion we have to lose are overpowering to many of us. Indeed, it gives rise to a phenomenon known as loss aversion. We will do anything to avoid losing, even if it means rage quitting.
How skilled are we?
And now we know that the science behind why we rage quit has more to do with our abilities or lack thereof. According to the Dunning-Kruger effect, people who overestimate their skills or abilities, particularly in competitive gaming, tend to be more susceptible to rage quitting. It applies to various disciplines, notably chess, sports, social casino games, testing, grammar, and general intellect. People who remember their successes, particularly in this paradigm, may be likelier to quit rather than blacken their record. A great deal of frustration is at play with these types of folks. They may be unable to progress through game levels/tiers at a pace commensurate with that of team members. Rather than being outed as the laggard or incapable player, they rage quit in frustration.
With cognitive dissonance, there is a path of least resistance and a desire to bolster the beliefs that already exist. The quitters tend to be the blamers. They think they’re too good to play with people of lesser ability, with substandard resources, or in settings that are beneath them. Rage quitters tend to have an over-inflated opinion of themselves and a certain narcissism. This is particularly evident in groups, where an individual feels their contribution was minimal if the group failed. However, they feel that their contribution was significant if the group succeeded. If a loss occurs, a rage quitter blames somebody else in a group setting. If a win occurs, the player inflates their contribution.
Concluding remarks
We know this puerile form of play can be controlled and eliminated with the correct training, discipline, and playing regimen. For gamers of all types – eSports, social casino games, strategy-based games, virtual games, etc.- it is imperative to take regular breaks between gaming sessions. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. The mind can only take so much high-level intensity of play before frustration creeps in. Another thing to remember is that winning is not possible without losing.
Losses are better teachers than wins. When we come up against opponents who are better than us and lose, we learn to step up our game to avoid repeating the outcome. Another phenomenon is attributed to the self-categorisation theory. This posits that beliefs and behaviors can change. Our identities dictate them at the time, and we should always focus on defining ourselves by what is most significant to our lives – our sense of self, core belief system, vocation, friends and families, et cetera. These are the identities we should gravitate towards – gaming is merely a peripheral entertainment-style activity we voluntarily engage in. So, we should focus on our core components and not get consumed by rage.