Kittens Rant: Ninja STFU

So it seems I’m riled up this week! So yes I’m back on my litter box to shout out about something I think is STUPID! This time it comes to us from a very famous Fortnite player and streamer Ninja who came out with this gem on twitter the day before I’m writing this.

“The phrase “it’s just a game” is such a weak mindset. You are ok with what happened, losing, imperfection of a craft. When you stop getting angry after losing, you’ve lost twice. There’s always something to learn, and always room for improvement, never settle.”

For such a simple little paragraph there is so very very much wrong with it. Now Ninja later came back to say that this does not mean to go and rage and throw your mouse/controller and such but let’s be honest here. In this day and age there is a ton of toxic behaviour in games especially if they are multiplayer games. Don’t believe me? Go and look up stories about children cursing people out over chat in Call of Duty, look at toxic fandoms in League of Legends and Smite where you get slammed for taking your hero down the wrong lane.

Kevin and I once had a good laugh about someone sending him a PSN message after a game of Dead by Daylight because they thought he was camping them when they were hooked. Which keeping the people hooked is literally the name of the game and when the rescuers don’t even give you time to hunt them down before they are at the hook trying to rescue someone…well there’s only so much that can be done. Anyway, the point here is that we already have a bunch of people who embrace their anger and rage when they lose and now you have one of the most important Fortnite streamers saying that you should be angry when you lose.

Here’s the big thing he doesn’t realize and that is very obvious in his post. He’s being a bit biased, which you can see when he derides the phrase “it’s just a game” and when he says an “imperfection of a craft” it shows that he is speaking from his esports/business perspective and not that of a normal gamer. Let’s be honest most of us playing are playing to have fun, to relax, to have a bit of sport and unlike him we don’t have millions of dollars on the line. Unlike him we don’t have millions of people watching our videos that we have to pander to. To most of us playing video games it is exactly that “Just a game”….I mean hell it’s right in the name- video GAME.

Now, I will give him some credit. He is right that there is always something to learn and always room to improve and if you enjoy doing something then you shouldn’t settle because if you do then you’ll end up giving up. Giving up is how you lose. The thing is a normal well adjusted person doesn’t get pissed because they lost at Candy Land, so why should it be any different when you lose a game of Fortnite or World of Warships, or even a sport like Basketball or Baseball. If it is just a game to you then it’s not worth getting angry over, it’s not healthy to be angry over something so small as a game. I can kinda understand anger at losing in sports…if you’re on a team….in a league. I mean a sort of anger that comes with disappointment is normal if you have something riding on your performance. Most people however don’t have something riding on their performance in a video game. There is no trophy to put up on the shelf, there is no money for yourself or charity for the normal player.

Another huge point here is you don’t need anger to learn and improve yourself. I play Fortnite all the time and I’m not the greatest at it I will admit… but you know what I do all the time without getting angry? I study the maps so I know how to move better with the storm, I read patch notes to see what’s been vaulted so I know better what I want to have as a loadout, I look at weapon specs. I do this same sort of thing for World of Warships, Monster Hunter, Orcs Must Die and any number of other games I play. I do this because I want to do good, I want to improve my game but it’s not because I’m angry that I lost something. It’s not lazy to not get angry that you lost in a game, it’s called being well adjusted and having your priorities straight after all for the majority of players it is just a game. Let’s take a quick listen to Ninja rant and then I’ll say a few last words.

So Ninja, instead of being an Asshat and telling casual players that they are stupid, lazy and horrible human beings…maybe try growing up….maybe stop letting your pride get in the way of your self growth. We aren’t Lebron James, Tom Brady or dare I say it Ninja. This isn’t our life, nor do the casual players out there necessarily want to make it our lives. Competitive nature doesn’t need to be toxic and filled with anger, we can lose with grace and still grow and learn. You talk about respect, you think we disrespect ourselves because we stay calm and say “It’s just a game” but you’re wrong. The disrespect is coming from you and your attitude about this. You say it’s so much bigger than a video game and I get it for YOU it is, this is your livelihood but again not everyone is Ninja, we don’t have our lives hanging in the balance of how many kills we get in a solo match, most of us aren’t dependant on a youtube algorithm or twitch/mixer money to pay our bills.

So often in life, we come up against people that just don’t understand the simple fact that we are not them and should not be expected to govern our lives by their rules. Our founder Kevin Coryell is a prime example of this. His best friend and one time writer for this site dropped him during his cancer journey. Kevin is on disability for multiple things but Chris knew others that had cancer, and depression, and this and that and they weren’t on disability. So because of this, he judged Kevin and his multiple problems against several people who each had one or at most two of those same problems. He judged Kevin against his own life and biases, and that’s exactly what Ninja is doing here.

He’s comparing casual normal gamers to someone who is known as a pro-gamer. He is comparing casual gamers to professional athletes. Ninja needs to reevaluate this mindset and realize we aren’t all like him, we can’t all be held to his unrealistic and unhealthy standards. I’ll admit I never watched his video’s until I heard about this but now that I have watched some I have to say his outlook is very childish. I have seen him rage when people kill him in the game and it’s really not healthy mentally or physically. Ninja in my opinion, needs to grow up, get some anger management classes, study meditation or something. He also has to stop judging others and being a downright dick because they are treating a game like…well a game.

(Just a note I have seen people say he is only saying this to people saying it to professional gamers. If this is so then he should have made that known both in the post and in the video. After all, children can be very impressionable and if adults can say it’s about anyone then it’s not a far jump in logic to say one of the kids that follows him will take that to heart.)

As always I love you all (except Ninja right now…he can just STFU)

Kitten!