You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry

I’m generally a mild mannered polite sort of chap, a person who is considered shy and quiet preferring to sit and watch the crowd instead of participating. Yet put a controller in my hand and something terrifying happens, I become easily frustrated and prone to outbursts. I go from lying back relaxed playing a fun game with friends to Basil Fawlty-esque moments, me crouched onto all fours screaming notes only heard in the fiery depths of hell. I did it in Halo 3, did it in Geometry Wars 2 (many, many times) but nothing quite incites the badness inside me like football games.

It’s a much more personal experience than playing as an identikit marine on some alien land, you’re playing as your club and it adds a level of passion to gaming that is missing from other genres. If I lose at Halo (which if I’m honest is pretty likely) then I have let myself down, but if I lose at Fifa or Pro Evolution Soccer then I’ve let down the century of history that’s behind my club along with all those fans that pay good money to see the club. That’s the level of stress that comes with playing online with your club, you go on with an inherent responsibility to uphold the values and traditions of the club… it sounds amazingly stupid but ask any football fan what it feels like to lose online and they’ll tell you it hurts like no other game. One notable moment came when playing my own sister at Fifa 97 on the Mega Drive back in the day, I made a comeback of herculean proportions and turned around a five goal deficit to win in the last minute. My joyous moment was short-lived though as she leapt around screaming in my youthful face before tearing a magazine I was absently flicking through in half, today we’re lucky though as mute buttons means your moment of hate can be hidden online. If they can give me immense anger though it follows through that they can give me the greatest joy possible. I’m currently playing Football Manager 2009 on the PC and finding myself being cheered up after awful days by my team playing well. I’m lying awake at night grinning thinking of how my inspirational team talk turned around that European game and how I have a cup final to look forward to at the weekend. It’s perhaps a testament to the madness of the fans that even fictitious representations of football inspire the same emotions and dreams as the real thing. In 19 years of gaming I’ve not seen another genre come close, and I doubt I ever will.