Salt level regulation (A slight cry for help)

[throwawway1999]

**LONG POST**
Hello everyone!

For the last year I have been facing with a massive problem regarding Splatoon. I love the game aesthetically; Music, lore, stages, characters etc. I honestly think that it's one of, if not, the best settings in video games in general. I also loved the gameplay but beginning around Drizzle Season 2023, it makes me want to burn my switch and never touch it again.

I understand that no game is supposed to last forever. Obviously the "New Game Hype" disappeared a long time ago. I found for myself that setting a goal helps me to enjoy the game more. I set myself a goal of 5-starring E-Liter 4K and reached it around Sizzle Season 2023. I made some wonderful memories playing this game. I've met some amazing friends through splat and even met my girlfriend with whom I live with now lol.

But when it comes to playing the actual game now, I get tilted at the smallest things. Playing anything besides single-player or SR is basically forbidden for me due to excessive tilt and salt. At first I justified it: sometimes you get bad teammates, or had a rough day or any other factors. But as time went on, I started to realise that this anger and salt and tilt is not normal. I believe it's okay to be skeptical and it's okay to have a negative opinion on things, but this is something different.

I am salty about the tacticooler meta. I believe it rewards stupid plays. Drizzle season 2023 was IMO the worst freaking season with literally nothing of note. I do believe that brushes are overpowered for vanilla solo queue. The matchmaking and ranking system in splat 3 is absolute trash and it was better in splat 2. Marlin Airport is an absolute hell for backliners and Bluefin should have been left in splat 1 and forgotten like a bad dream, it's so bad to the point that if any of these 2 maps are in rotation, I close the game and go do something else.

Those are all opinions that a person might have and that's okay. What I'm talking about (RE: this weird tilt) is literally NOT BEING ABLE TO PLAY because of it. If I die, it feels like the end of the world. If I lose a game, then I might as well not exist. The moment I realised that something inside me is FUBARed is when I was spectating my girlfriend playing and witnessing her being splatted and her team wiped out. She didn't really react to it/was more like "Alright, let's focus up and regain advantage in this match" but inside me I felt the same anger and tilt like I would feel when I'm playing. It was almost like I was feeling the tilt FOR her. And it literally wasn't me playing.

And it would make more sense if I was a toxic/angry person IRL, and sure, recent events (Both global and local to me and my family/friends) have made me more angry/sad, but I still feel like I can achieve any goal I set and all such inspirations and confidence. Currently switching college majors but have all the confidence in the world that I will fight hard to get it. Yet when it comes to splat I feel like the most toxic, most tilted squid, most angered squid...

I guess, please let me know if any of you had/have the same things and I appreciate any tips! :>
Thank you

P.S.: I know burnout is a thing and I feel like I have it to a degree, but once I put the game down and say "I'm not playing it anymore" it results in the opposite. I want to play it more than ever and when I sit down to do so, the cycle of tilt repeats...

 

[Grushi]

It's always really hard to deal with tilt, but props to you for recognizing it in the first place! I know too many people who don't even admit that the game's making them angry, and it's not fun to watch

As for tips welp, a thing that helps me is to stop taking the game too seriously. I know most of the time I tilt is because my ego's being wounded, I put too much pride in my skill and when it's being questioned by... unfortunate results? I usually get upset at myself. A lot of it is probably also due to whatever self worth issues I have (not gonna open that can of worms here lol), but I also just set unreasonable expectations for myself sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I can recognize the pattern in myself but that doesn't mean I can stop it easily (I usually stop playing whenever I notice it though)

Sooo tl;dr I tend to tilt a lot less when I stop taking the game too seriously, sometimes I just start making fun of the ways in which we lost, or some of my mistakes, which makes me play noticeably better. Like there's a lot of groan inducing things in the game but I try to write them off as just silly stuff that happens, even if said silly stuff makes me lose 60 points of my X series and yzfdgvsgjsbh
Like when a teammate makes an infuriatingly bad decision, now I tend to go "oh wow that sure is a... bold move" instead of getting upset at them

At the end of the day there's just a lot of factors you can't control in pvp, and at one point, you have to make your peace with that, it's not easy though

No idea if that might help you personally but uhh, there we go, I'm sure everyone here can agree that tilt is a complicated topic

 

[sevenleaf]

i'm no therapist nor do i have the same issues with tilting so take all this with a grain of salt, but idk, maybe some of this might help you:

i feel like a long-term break from the game would help you if you can manage it. if it's making you that angry, the best thing to do really might be just to walk away. and like - that's easier said than done, as you've found out. so i guess step 1 would be to figure out how you can make yourself take a break. try to play other games for a while, maybe even games on other consoles/PC games so you're less tempted to open splatoon instead. if you have a physical cartridge, it might even be worth physically moving your cartridge somewhere... not necessarily hard to get to, and try not to purposefully lose it obviously, but somewhere more inconvenient than where you keep the rest of your game cartridges, so that when you're tempted to play you're forced to spend extra time getting the cartridge - time you can use to think, wait, am i really ready to go back to this game yet?

and if you opt to make yourself take a break and then go back on that, don't then beat yourself up over that. it can be hard to stick to this kind of thing.

but if that's totally off the table, there's no way you can successfully take a break - or you just really don't want to, you don't think that'll help - i'd consider trying to find ways to lower the emotional stakes for yourself. i agree with what @Grushi had to say about trying to take the game less seriously, though i know that can also be easier said than done. besides that, if you're mainly a ranked player, i'd recommend avoiding anarchy series and x battles (if you have the latter) for a while; if you can still stand turf, play turf, and only play anarchy open. i personally do not tilt as easily if i'm playing with friends, and if you're the same way, playing with friends might help.

and in the moment you're probably still gonna tilt if things go wrong. playing turf/open instead of series/x battles or playing with friends isn't going to magically get rid of your tilt issues forever. so i think another important skill to try and develop is the ability to just... let your feelings come and pass. don't turn your focus in a play session to trying to talk yourself out of tilting or going ugh, there i go again, why can't i just play the game without getting tilted? - try and accept that you're feeling this way, keep playing, take a break before jumping into matchmaking after the match if you need to. it's hard to logic yourself out of extreme emotions in the moment, and trying to shame yourself out of them certainly won't help. (if anyone has any during the game strategies for calming down a bit, though, feel free to chime in. i personally have none. lol)

best of luck! one way or another i hope you can work through this and find joy in the game again. and you're not toxic for feeling how you feel - if you were then taking your tilt out on other people, then your actions would be toxic, but feelings are neutral.

 

[neonscreenlight]

and in the moment you're probably still gonna tilt if things go wrong. playing turf/open instead of series/x battles or playing with friends isn't going to magically get rid of your tilt issues forever. so i think another important skill to try and develop is the ability to just... let your feelings come and pass. don't turn your focus in a play session to trying to talk yourself out of tilting or going ugh, there i go again, why can't i just play the game without getting tilted? - try and accept that you're feeling this way, keep playing, take a break before jumping into matchmaking after the match if you need to. it's hard to logic yourself out of extreme emotions in the moment, and trying to shame yourself out of them certainly won't help. (if anyone has any during the game strategies for calming down a bit, though, feel free to chime in. i personally have none. lol)

it's really cool to me that the kinds of advice people give for dealing with tilt is very similar to the advice that actual therapists give for dealing with anxiety

 

[sevenleaf]

it's really cool to me that the kinds of advice people give for dealing with tilt is very similar to the advice that actual therapists give for dealing with anxiety

my psych degree isn’t earning me much money but at least it helps me give advice about video games

 

[Alphine_Agnitio]

it's really cool to me that the kinds of advice people give for dealing with tilt is very similar to the advice that actual therapists give for dealing with anxiety

Squid school moment tbh