Anger Management

[ACSeraph]

So... I think I've got a rage problem.

Under normal circumstances I don't really get too pissed off at shmups, but sometimes, when I'm pursuing something incredibly daunting like extremely high scores and pixel perfect runs the endless cycle of hundreds of restarts for the smallest mistakes begins to get under my skin. Give me 3 hours of progress free shmupping and I am reduced to a strange mix of despair and anger, as though no matter how good my planning is the demand for perfection is so high I will never execute it successfully. I'm sure that isn't helping my performance any either.

Now I know that surely, those of you who have pursued some of the more difficult STG challenges out there like perfect chaining in DDP have experienced having to restart hundreds of times on your quest for the perfect run. How did you keep yourself from getting frustrated? Can you give me any advice to protect myself from the mental stress induced by extreme restart syndrome?

[Xyga]

Weed/beer

[Ruldra]

Don't restart, plain and simple. If you mess up, consider it a "practice run" at that point and practice other parts of the game. Restarting over and over again will quickly drain all the fun of playing. Same with constant savestate practice.

Ultimately, restarts and savestates made me burn out on shmups and stop taking part of competitions.

[Eaglet]

What Ruldra said.
Also, since you're in the land of arcades, GTFO and play at Game Centers.
Seeing other good players will give you inspiration and drive, making practice easier.

[Kollision]

I know it's hard to let go, but STOP playing and go do something else entirely.
Or switch to a completely different game.

Recharge batteries and come back the next day.

[endoKarb]

Lower your standards.

I was having the same problem this morning with Dragon Blaze. Then I dropped every single scoring trick, even the really simple ones, and suddenly I was in the Zone.

Frustration generally comes from trying to learn too many things at the same. Just focus on one section at a time then work on stringing each section together.

[broken harbour]

Insanity is defined by repeating the same action again and again expecting a different result.

[Blinge]

^ no. no it isn't. Do you even play this genre?

What makes me rage is doing worse than I expect myself to do, or worse than my perceived ability. A shmup that made me rage harder than any other was Gradius, for wolfman/gimme's tournament back in January.
I don't know what it is about that game, maybe its the feeling of being in control only to suddenly die, or the fact that I thought I should do well because I'm good at Gradius V. It just seemed impossible to improve.
I raged so hard I got up and punched my open bedroom door enough for the pivot-force or whatever to break it off its bottom hinge. Trying to hold the damn thing in place while I fixed it gave me plenty of time to reflect on my priorities..
And I don't think i'll be playing Gradius again for a long time.

I do think improvement happens as/after you recover from raging. like torn muscle tissue mending and leaving you stronger..

DESTROY THE DOOR

[amdiggywhut]

I can't play even play competently when I'm angry (I barely play competently as it is). Exercise helps more than anything else with getting my head right.

[beatsgo]

I would take a few days/weeks off the game if you've been aggravated by same problems in the game. Shmups is a 10% skills, 90% mental game. By feeling fresh and have that state of mind to have nothing to lose is key to handling frustration moments in a run. I know I've been dogged by couple of runs on Gradius Gaiden, Raiden, Dodonpachi Daioujou, Kaikan, OSP Raid, and others, but I know taking breaks from them are beneficial to have much more stronger runs as of now.

Remember, your adventures in this hobby is a journey. There's always a beginning, middle, and ending. Things don't just suddenly happen, they have a connection that adds up to complete the cycle, so take baby steps to reach closer to your goal. Yes, you'll face great obstacles in the process, but being progressive is key to achieving your endeavors.

[Damocles]

Stop and sleep. Let what you've learned sink in. Sleep is the key to learning.

[CloudyMusic]

Sometimes you just have those off days. In those cases, I'll either play a different shmup (one I'm just starting to learn, so I can just credit feed a little bit stress-free), or do something else altogether. If things get really bad, I'll take the next day off too. I also try to make sure I get enough sleep if I start having problems, as tiredness torpedoes my skill more than anything else.

Remembering the fact that you're still improving over the long term, even if you're having a temporary blip in your ability to perform, helps keep things in perspective. It's hard to get too mad when I know that I'll still probably raise my PB a few days down the road if I just keep at it.

[Some-Mist]

Don't restart, plain and simple. If you mess up, consider it a "practice run" at that point and practice other parts of the game. Restarting over and over again will quickly drain all the fun of playing. Same with constant savestate practice.

Ultimately, restarts and savestates made me burn out on shmups and stop taking part of competitions.

this is how I've always played shmups and I hate how people call "bs" on me for doing so. My irl friends even ask me how I practice shmups and don't believe me when I say I just feed a credit in and play to see how far I can get... over and over again.

I've never used save states and I seldom use guides (I started consulting guides a bit more often recently cause I realized I was missing a ton of item-based 1-UPs per some ridiculous rules I have to meet first). The best part of playing through on a credit is that you get the first three stages memorized like the back of your hand - including scoring systems - which helps me reach extends.

granted... I'm not a great player, but I've never gotten really sick of sinking time into one particular shmup.

I do restart if I die on a stray in early first stage (anything after first stage is fair game) and I noticed that even after a random death, I still can have one of my best runs depending on what I do in the endgame.

If I get mad I usually laugh at myself for getting mad... and then I decide whether it's worth continuing and seeing myself get frustrated more... or take a break and do something else.

[amdiggywhut]

My irl friends even ask me how I practice shmups

Lol @ having irl friends who play shmups. I didn't even know that was a thing. I tried showing a friend of mine SDOJ & his response was, "you must have really started hating yourself more than usual."

[Some-Mist]

My irl friends even ask me how I practice shmups

Lol @ having irl friends who play shmups. I didn't even know that was a thing. I tried showing a friend of mine SDOJ & his response was, "you must have really started hating yourself more than usual."

actually, most of them don't really play shmups seriously. some of them play mushi futari, ikaruga, and a few other random titles, but I think most of them actually hate the genre while holding the logic "I can beat this game in 30 minutes by credit feeding and be done with it".

My roommates who are huge gamers put absolutely no time or effort into shmups like I do and when I show them a run of Progear the questions start flooding out. so at least they seem somewhat interested... but they definitely don't understand how I can play manage survival and scoring pretty well in a lot of CAVE games by just feeding a single credit into the game over and over again.

[Stevens]

Like anything competitive once you lose your cool you're finished. It could be sports, fighting games, whatever.

The most valuable skill I have learned this past year playing shmups is, as others have said, knowing when it simply isn't your day. Walk away, it will be there tomorrow.

Games are supposed to be fun, and if you're not having fun then what is the point?

[Jonst]

What's the game that's making you rage?

I've been starting to get pissed off with ddp doj blex 360 mode,the entire game up until the TLB is no problem and I can make it there consistently with full resources but the final attack pattern just makes my blood boil! Only your laser will damage it and nothing else,the pattern is super fast.I've been literally a cats whisker away from clearing it on at least four occasions,I just can't be consistent in that final attack...it's really annoying and I come away in a terrible mood.I have credit fed if it goes tits at the last minute and told myself it's a practise run and taken breaks or played something else but it still gets under my skin...

[LordHypnos]

Lower your standards.

I was having the same problem this morning with Dragon Blaze. Then I dropped every single scoring trick, even the really simple ones, and suddenly I was in the Zone.

Frustration generally comes from trying to learn too many things at the same. Just focus on one section at a time then work on stringing each section together.

This has probably been the biggest issue for me playing Mars Matrix. I'll no missed up to the st4 extend once and feel bad every subsequent time because I don't, and rage then do worse, etc., etc. Same with scoring. I just need to remember that doing something once (or a few times) doesn't ensure that you can always do it
So I would agree with this advice.

Also taking a break from one game is good. The best run of MM I ever had (at least from a survival perspective, but my score was pretty decent, by my standards, as well) was after about a week of not playing it.

[Bananamatic]

Now I know that surely, those of you who have pursued some of the more difficult STG challenges out there like perfect chaining in DDP have experienced having to restart hundreds of times on your quest for the perfect run. How did you keep yourself from getting frustrated? Can you give me any advice to protect myself from the mental stress induced by extreme restart syndrome?

restarting hundreds of times is part of the process

just realize that it's normal, watch some better players' streams to see how much they reset on early stages, they don't shit out PBs every second run(and neither will you)
and if you can't deal with the stuff involved when playing home run derby, go back to teeball

[Doctor Butler]

Don't restart, plain and simple. If you mess up, consider it a "practice run" at that point and practice other parts of the game. Restarting over and over again will quickly drain all the fun of playing. Same with constant savestate practice.

Ultimately, restarts and savestates made me burn out on shmups and stop taking part of competitions.

This.

[Lyv]

You don't seem to allow yourself any room for mistake, which may be part of the problem. While I understand there are some situations where getting a "perfect" run would be required, I doubt this would be the case most of the time, unless you're planning on beating WRs or something. From browsing the forums, I take it that even players who pull out really high scores don't often consider their run as the best they could do.
Making room for the inevitable failure might be a good idea ; if you're aiming for a score of 100M, practice so that your theoretical "perfect" run reaches 150M. This way, you can just keep on playing even if the current run isn't going that well (so less restarts, and less frustration).
Apart from that, I guess it boils down to how you enjoy playing. I personally don't mind spending 80%+ of my shmup playing time practicing stages/portions/bosses and only doing full runs very rarely (see Prom's guide about it), so this might help keeping the restart syndrome away.
Also, yeah, take a break/play something else/do something else and come back to it later.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious ; this kinda works for me, so maybe it'll help you somehow.

[Bananamatic]

Though if you practice separately from full runs, there is no point in continuing a run that is pretty much heading into the trash already.

[DEL]

Restarts are not a problem.

For me its simply adrenaline which mixes with testosterone and manifests in rage/anger......if some bullshit happens, which of course it will.
Adrenaline is the Juice but its also the Powderkeg.

No cure. Just let it out and throw the TV out the window.

[Icarus]

Just let it out and throw the TV out the window.

[pegboy]

Don't restart, plain and simple. If you mess up, consider it a "practice run" at that point and practice other parts of the game. Restarting over and over again will quickly drain all the fun of playing. Same with constant savestate practice.

Ultimately, restarts and savestates made me burn out on shmups and stop taking part of competitions.

Totally agree. I'd rather watch a run with deaths and recoveries over a "perfect" run anyday. I think they are far more exciting, especially if the player manages to pull off a 1CC when it looks hopeless.

Some of the best runs I did were games that I initially thought were unsalvagable but I decided to continue on anyway. Those are the runs I'm the most proud of, not the "perfect" ones.

I also never play on emulators or use save-states, even in "practice runs", I think it ruins the experience personally.

[JWS]

Some really good advice in this thread.

This is pretty much my problem too, it stopped me from playing the genre for about 5 years. Except rather than getting angry I get so upset and depressed about my inability to play like a robot resulting in some really dark evenings. I have a pretty emotionally stressful job so the last thing I want to do is come home and have my ass soundly and metaphysically kicked by a game I feel I should be able to complete.
Sometimes I feel like I should give up games entirely. I've been playing since I was 9 and they a such a huge part of my life. But if I can't "GET GOOD" at something so important to me whats the point?

Going to Stunfest and seeing the worlds best players make mistakes has really helped. Just talking to people and discussing mood control (the counterpart to rank control) has put things in perspective for me. I think at the end of the day no one is satisfied with their play. The low tier guys like me weep at an inability to 1cc and the highly skilled guys get upset about dropping chains. Its all the same at the end of the day.

Its very easy to compare yourself to someone else. For me I always end up comparing myself to Blinge. He's ascended really fast and we play together a lot in real life. But it doesn't help, it only makes me feel worse. The more I think about this the more I see this genre as a personal journey.

I think for me, I am coming to accept that even though shmups are short it doesn't mean they will be any faster to complete than a normal game. Therefore its really irrational to believe I can 1cc after playing and credit feeding a for a few hours practice. This kind of hard to accept because modern games have taught my generation to think you can just simply waltz through games.

I see a lot of parallels between shmups and cycling, something I do quite a lot in my spare time. I'll make a thread about it one day. My point being even after a few thousand miles in the saddle you'll still be learning, struggling and you'll have shit days. But that doesn't mean you should get upset, follow the advice in this thread, take a break. Come back another day.

In terms of dealing with the rage in the moment I use the "Pillow Scream" technique. Grab a pillow scream into it loudly rather than breaking something. Its so ridiculous a thing to do that it will break you out of the rage state. Better than chucking a console, something Ive done and really regret now.

Games should be fun.

[Blinge]

Its very easy to compare yourself to someone else. For me I always end up comparing myself to Blinge. He's ascended really fast and we play together a lot in real life. But it doesn't help, it only makes me feel worse

plz STAHP. I haven't 'ascended' fast, the foundations were laid years ago.

baby I think we need time apart =[

[chum]

I think different games will frustrate you in different ways.

The frustration that comes from RNG heavy scoring is different from the frustration that comes from fucking up at a crucial moment. Unique gameplay elements will also find different ways to frustrate you, what I mean is, fucking up a specific thing in a specific game will create a specific feeling during a specific moment, in the end, coping with stuff is a personal struggle and you probably know the solution best, yourself. The endurance it takes to keep going despite the frustration may or may not be worth it, it depends on how much you care about the game you are playing, in relation to other things in your life, how much you are enjoying the game, and how much you are enjoying the thought of getting what you want from it.

Stopping and continuing another day is a valid option but in terms of overcoming the frustration that's obviously not a solution. It may be a solution if you just want to feel better (this depends on circumstances and your personality though, the thought of playing the game may not leave your head, then you'll feel bad for giving up) but at the same time, if you give up because you are angry, then you've let the game get to you too much. This happens to me as well sometimes, so believe me, I know what it's like... but when I play the games I enjoy the most I had no trouble to keep putting in credit after credit after credit... the feelings I felt were a mixture of wanting revenge, chasing the dream of "that" run, and simply addiction.

IMO: If you are clearly making much less progress than normal, then you have the fair right to give in and you should try to not feel bad about it, try another day. I think we all have bad days when we play worse and make no progress. On the other hand, if you are playing better, then you should try to endure the mistakes and keep spamming runs because it could very well be your lucky day. That is, of course, taking for granted that you are in some way enjoying what you are doing. You can get frustrated or mad and still enjoy the game at the same time, I find.

I think shmups is a lot like gambling, you will rarely win, and it's best to know when to stop, but in the end, some of us are more addicted than others and can't let go.

One thing I forgot to mention is that practicing the late game from time to time can keep the game from getting stale and therefore hinder some of the frustration, since normally in shmups, the early game is less exciting than the late game.

[JWS]

baby I think we need time apart =[

Oh honie....

I think you just have a great dedication and level of patience. I've seen the same with your fighting game play. I guess I am more the collector rather than a player, but it irks me that Ive been interested in this genre so long but have not had the confidence to practice. Its the same with playing the guitar.

Anyway, enough of the self flagilation.

"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."

and

"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying."

Nietzsche, a true shmup player if ever there was one.

In b4 Icycalm.

[nasty_wolverine]

Just stop, throw your controller to the nearest available wall with a mirror, kick your puppy, break your siblings favourite toy, think about whats happened and you will realize its just part of learning the game.