Unbridled Gaming Rage

Nearly every gaming forum and community-run site I frequent has been overrun by impotent and misguided rage from gamers. They rail on about perceived slights and insults to them personally from some multi-national corporation serving as publisher, whether these threats are real (overpriced paid DLC right when a game's released) or imagined (this idea that EA is charging extra to pre-order games on Origin - hay guys, it's a down-payment, not an extra charge).

This is what I don't understand about all this: gaming is supposed to be about relaxing and having fun, but so many people spend so much time complaining on forums about how horrible gaming is now. Why would a reasonable person spend all that effort and time? Sure, maybe if a bunch of loudmouthed people complain enough, they'll hold back the tide for a very short period of time, but is it really worth having spent so many hours raging on internet forums - in some quickly-forgotten thread that disappears into the bitbucket the next day - about how you're upset that some video game won't be quite as amazing as you originally thought it'd be?

And just for some perspective: I live and breathe video games. I grew up playing them, I work in the industry, and the only job I've had as a productive, responsible adult has been in video games. I'm invested as hell in this, and at worst, I don't have even one third of the vitriol and hatred spewing from my fingers as some of the shit I've seen recently.

I don't disagree with the very basic feelings people have, assuming that the thing they're upset about is actually real. What I don't understand is the unbridled anger that goes into it all, along with the significant amount of time wasted complaining about video games on the internet. There are people out there who don't get enough to eat; they're homeless, they've lost their jobs, they have no way to get to an unemployment office to register for unemployment, and their families have abandoned them. (I'm talking about here in America, not some far-off country.) How wonderful must your life be when the worst thing that's happened to you all day is that you found out your most hotly-anticipated upcoming game will only appear on a digital delivery platform that you don't feel like installing?

Get things into perspective, people. Worry about things that matter: about how you're going to make the next mortgage or rent payment, or whether your car will make it to 200,000 miles before the transmission goes kablooey, or whether you're showing your family and loved ones how much you care, or whether you will still have your job in six months. These things matter; video games are what you're supposed to have for a little escape from it all. Try and treat them like that, OK? And if you've got all that other serious real life stuff figured out, then try starting a game up and, I dunno, playing it and having fun!