Playing competitive games if you're trying to feel better after having a bad day at work sounds like a terrible idea.

Play a game with a proper ~~ELO~~ Elo system. You shouldn’t be in a game where the sweaties play against the noobs. That’s not fun for either person.

Single player all the way.

Or, if you MUST play something online, play against bots.

Quit your job and git gud, scrub.

This is the main reason why I don't pick up FPS games, even when they're on a crazy sale. Back in the day, when they had proper campaigns, rather than barebones tutorials for online matches, I could at least enjoy working through a campaign at my own pace. Now that everything seems to be just about multiplayer, by the time the games get down to a price that seems reasonable for something I'll only play on occasion, the only people left are the ones who seem bent on making a career out of playing that game. It's just no fun, but there's also no chance I'd be willing to drop the stupid amount of money those games cost at release to be able to play against others at my level.

Oh well, these days, I also haven't really got time to be playing a bunch of games at once, so my limited gaming time goes towards other genres, anyway.

Just play single player games, they are much less stressful. I used to play StarCraft and Warcraft 3 when I was younger, but now I'm too slow for those games and for some reason there are no no RTS games since StarCraft 2.

I've found competitive games just aren't for me.

When I'm doing well competitively, I'm just not having as much fun. Have to take it too seriously to compete and particularly in strategy games the best strategy is often not the most fun.

Playing with known friends in a small instance is decent, but playing in an open scenario just feels exhausting.

I played Enlisted for a few hours a day up until last year. It stopped being fun when I realised I was getting frustrated at topping the scoreboard in most games because my perception was that my teammates were bad or weren't trying hard enough. The problem was me playing too much and having end game gear which gave me a huge advantage.

I just stick to singleplayer games now.

you feel bad because you had a shitty day

I feel bad because my life is worthless

we are not the same

Lol had this happen to a discord buddy of mine recently. He's Master rank Guile on Street Fighter 6 and he loaded up a ranked match with no warmup after work one day and got a Guile mirror match as his first opponent. He got completely stomped and thought to check the opponent's name... it was Tyler1.

So he loaded up his stream, and since it's on a delay he got to see the end of his own match and have Tyler1 shit talk him after the fact.

Admittedly, cold loading into ranked is probably never a good idea, but when you have a real 9-5 and limited time to play video games in the evenings I understand the desire to just belt out a few ranked matches before bed or whatever.

I felt secondhand frustration after I heard about it.

This is why I don't play PVP games these days. Either I'm bad at it, so it's not fun, or I start to get good enough that it starts to feel like a chore to keep up with the meta.

Be Me

Log into Highly Competitive MOBA / Team Shooter Game

Rank: Mud

Get slotted into a team of 8-year-olds, Alzheimer's patients, and people on disability after falling off a ladder at work.

Lose to a team of 9-year-olds, Parkinson's patients, and people playing the game on a second screen during an office meeting

Oh gee, I wonder how it feels to be The Best Player In FlobsKnight: Cry of Obligation, kicking dirt on little old me!

Win against a team of 6-year-olds, people in a coma, and players with no arms learning to use the control with their toes

I am the greatest FlobsKnight player on earth!

Rank Up: Dry Grass

Quality of opponent improves slightly

Never win again

Do PVE not PVP

just play 1 of the thousands of solo games. why tf would you play with sweaty jobless nerds

I play mostly Space Station 14 where the culture is overwhelmingly enthusiastic about helping new players learn the ropes. Like, the nature of the game makes it genuinely enjoyable to welcome new folks into the fold and train them on various jobs and game mechanics. It's so awesome.

Many servers have actively enforced rules against powergaming, as well.

There were games I was practically godly at, I preferred being matched with similar skilled players. Though you can learn unique tricks from newer players too. Then I started to get older and had to work more, lived alone so all chores were mine to do, and hours varied. I eventually realized I can't perform at that level anymore and it was getting frustrating. There really isn't much division in skills with PvP elements so I avoid it. I've learned coop games are some great fun or if it's PvP it's something that's goofy fun.

This is why I won’t touch anything with PvP.

What game are we talking? AFAIK some games' matchmaking is just that bad.

What do you expect? You want them to let you win? You're not a child and they're not your dad lol

Also known as pwnin n00bs.

And on the flip side of this there’s people who barely spend any time in the game beating no-lifer’s causing them to finally rage quit the game.