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Stress and Nerves in Mortal Kombat 11

Hey all,

I've been playing video games competitively to varying degrees for twenty years now. One thing that's common for me, and many, is stress and nerves. Before I go into a public match, Ranked or Unranked, I feel a bit nervous and apprehensive, but this always goes away quickly after I start playing and get into the game. This was the case with the Starcraft franchise, the Halo franchise, and the Mortal Kombat franchise. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, which is the only game I've played in tournaments, this occurred as well.

Mortal Kombat 11 seems different for me, however. I find with this game, the stress and nerves do not go away, they actually get worse the more I play. Again, this does not happen with Private matches or against the AI, only public matches. What I don't understand is, why is this the case?

Basically, by the end of three to four Sets in Kombat League, I find I'm actually sweating, my heart is usually pounding, and I may even feel ill. I've never experienced this with a game before!

Conversely, I started playing Ranked Leagues in Killer Instinct (2013) yesterday, my first time doing public matches in that game, and it's the first game in history where I had no nerves or stress while playing at all, period. That's also never happened before.

So my question, and the reason for my post, is: What is so different about Mortal Kombat 11 that it affects me this way, in a way the previous games in the same franchise never did? And what is it about Killer Instinct that seems to remove all of this entirely? Thoughts?

The best I can come up with is that in Killer Instinct there's never a time when I'm not playing the game, I'm always "busy" and there's always options. As a player, I never feel that I'm in a helpless situation, but I also don't feel overpowered. It's a very good balance where the tools and options provide versatility without dominating.

I recall there being a thread several months back here about people saying that Mortal Kombat 11 would get them worked up enough to make them extremely angry, unlike any game they've played before, but I can't find said thread now.

Curious to read your thoughts.
 

Saboteur-6

Filthy Casual
No doubt. I'm simply curious what about Mortal Kombat 11 causes this in me, where other games, including other Mortal Kombat games, don't.
I'd wager to say that you're attributing it to MK11 when it's more so your own thoughts/perceptions/emotions in playing MK11. You're not experiencing symptoms in one context (ranked KI) but you are in MK11 not because of the game differences, but because of your differences in perception.
 
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As much as I love this game I feel like the reason is bc it's too easy to comeback from any situation in this game. You always have to be on your toes even if you have a significant life lead bc of FBs and KBs(mostly FBs). Now I handle it just fine and the game doesn't stress me out. But for others, they might feel there is no autopilot and every match can be sweaty.
 
I'd wager to say that you're attributing it to MK11 when it's more so your own thoughts/perceptions/emotions in playing MK11. You're not experiencing symptoms in one context (ranked KI) but you are in MK11 not because of the game differences, but because of your differences in perception.
I'm not disagreeing with you, that makes sense, but I'm trying to understand what about the game, or my perception of the game, is causing this.
 

Saboteur-6

Filthy Casual
I'm not disagreeing with you, that makes sense, but I'm trying to understand what about the game, or my perception of the game, is causing this.
It's a self-reflective question honestly. You've already pointed out that even in the same game in different modes (private matches or vs AI), you do not experience these symptoms yet in the specific context of public matches you do. That's significant.
 

Metin

Ermac & Smoke Main
it is because of too much Mortal Kombat love. Welcome to the club my friend. We are all thinking about ourselves like ' i am one of the best Sub-Zero, Kabal or something like that ' and we want to prove that to the entire universe while playing this game but we always missing that the franchise has a huge fanbase and many great players, so we have to lose to someone else. That heartbeating that you mentioned, it is all about love or fear.
 

Mikemetroid

Who hired this guy, WTF?
Krushing Blows/Fatal Blows are intense, rip you out of the game, and do an insane amount of damage for MINIMAL EFFORT (90% of the time, the requirements are easy and low effort. ). Nothing stresses me out than knowing that the grab that I accidentally teched wrong (because my d1 lost the trade due to randomness see: ), then getting genuinely grabbed, losing over 30%?? lol what the fuck???

Also note that Kombat League is a pseduo tournament setting (2/3 is fucking stupid btw) and the premise is to constantly have people climb up a ladder that doesn't fucking matter. NO ONE ENJOYS PLAYING IN A TOURNAMENT, IT IS A STRESSFUL TIME AND YOUR MONEY IS ON THE LINE. Take the money away and now you have a huge mix of players fighting for a goal.. that isn't even there. It's the bragging rights people like and they now have some record to show their "skill".

Even in Kasual playlists, they show a W/L record.... Why? This is beyond stupid. I prefer to play long sets, so when playing Kasual, I sometimes have to wait 10 minutes to find an opponent who's under 150ms, wired, and actually hits the accept button. Then assuming we play, chances are they fucking win 1 game or I win 1 game and they QUIT to PRESERVE THEIR WORTHLESS RECORD. The entire system is designed for fake ass players to come out and feel good about their fake ass records and claim its good. Anyone can have a good win loss record, it's not a hard system to manipulate.

My point is, the game is stressful for two reasons, one is because everything is so rewarding but the risk isn't consistent at all. The second reason that the game is stressful because of how it presents itself (much like many other very stressful eSports-like competition games i.e. R6S, CSGO, OW, LOL), instead of making modes truly made for new/training players, they focus on "glory hunting" and let scrubs feel good about their records. It's ass and thats why no one can get gud anymore, everyone is competiting against each other instead of teaching each other shit. OVER NOTHING. No one discusses anymore, no one plays casuals anymore, no one reaches out to randoms because the fear of being "blown up" in these bullshit online matches. Nothing about MK11 is chill and fun, at all... It is a stressful sweatfest through and through, if the game was fun you would even have fun playing towers, but you don't, towers suck and that's because the gameplay sucks.
 
it is because of too much Mortal Kombat love. Welcome to the club my friend. We are all thinking about ourselves like ' i am one of the best Sub-Zero, Kabal or something like that ' and we want to prove that to the entire universe while playing this game but we always missing that the franchise has a huge fanbase and many great players, so we have to lose to someone else. That heartbeating that you mentioned, it is all about love or fear.
I do indeed love the franchise, but in no way shape or form do I consider myself "the best," nor am I looking to prove myself to the world. I'm also not afraid of loosing at all, or even being steamrolled, as I see such things as opportunities to learn.

@Mikemetroid Thanks for the detailed reply. I've personally never had an issue with Krushing Blows, though I'm not sure how I feel about Fatal Blows. They are similar to the good ol' X-Ray, but not being tied to Super Metre, they seem less risky to use than their predecessor. When someone has a Fatal Blow loaded, I'm aware that they can try and let it rock, but I don't find my nerves increasing much by the threat of it.

I've never played in a formal fighting game tournament, but I do know that Kombat League is patterned off the general set up, save it's a best of three as opposed to best of five. As I mentioned I used to play Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne in tournaments, which were online (no locals back in 2003), with a paid trip and money on the line should you rank high enough, but I never felt like I do with Mortal Kombat 11. There, my stress and nerves would vanish when I started playing and be gone for the rest of the tourney.

The win/loss record thing, yes, that's certainly true in Mortal Kombat 11, and has been in absolutely every competitive game I've ever played. My first ever being the original Starcraft, and people were freaking and protective of their record even then, despite it meaning nothing.

For me, my record doesn't bother/concern me, not in the way you describe at least.

Basically, my main intention for playing this, or any game, competatively is to actually enjoy the game, to learn it better, and to improve myself. That's always my end-goal: to learn, and to have fun with it while improving to becoming the best that I can personally be. I'm not looking to be, or expecting to be the best overall.

For Towers of Time, my frustration with them is the modifier system itself, I don't like it's design. The Living Towers for Mortal Kombat X, the modifiers generally affected both you and the AI equally, and I found them fun and silly (in a good way). For Mortal Kombat 11, modifers now mainly affect you alone, are insanely powerful, and I feel as if I'm fighting the game's design here as opposed to enjoying the Tower. Which isn't enjoyable at all. If you look at Killer Instinct's "Shadow Lords" Single Player mode, that was an excellent implementation of modifiers and consumables.

...

Something I said here just clicked with me: "Fighting the game's design." I need to reflect on that more. Perhaps in multiplayer, I also feel like I'm fighting the game's design more than playing the game. I know I find wake up rolls very inconsistent, which is quite frustrating, hitboxes in the game are not on-point as we all know... Hmmm....
 

Popegina

Hymen Holocaust
I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily stressed, but I'm usually COVERED in sweat and my forearms and wrists get sore after only like 3 online matches (I rarely play online). The soreness is likely due to panicking and bad form, but I'm not a sweaty person at all and I get completely fucking drenched playing a stupid video game for 5 minutes quicker than I do when I exercise.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
The biggest thing that helps is to honestly decide to level up.

Once you become focused on leveling up, instead of just whether you are winning or losing, it changes everything in online games. Because each loss just becomes a source of information. It's not something to get happy or sad over, it's just something you analyze and go back to the drawing board on, so that you don't lose to it the next time.

Once I started focusing on improving my play with every match, win or lose, instead of just focusing on whether I won or lost, I lost almost all the anxiety I had about online gaming. And the nice side effect is that you start losing less anyway.
 
The biggest thing that helps is to honestly decide to level up.

Once you become focused on leveling up, instead of just whether you are winning are losing, it changes everything in online games. Because each loss just becomes a source of information. It's not something to get happy or sad over, it's just something you analyze and go back to the drawing board on, so that you don't lose to it the next time.

Once I started focusing on improving my play with every match, win or lose, instead of just focusing on whether I won or lost, I lost almost all the anxiety I had about online gaming. And the nice side effect is that you start losing less anyway.
That's the thing, this is exactly my mindset in playing any competitive game, and has been for almost twenty years, yet I'm still having this reaction to Mortal Kombat 11.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
That's the thing, this is exactly my mindset in playing any competitive game, and has been for almost twenty years, yet I'm still having this reaction to Mortal Kombat 11.
I honestly think that if you're that stressed about Kombat League, you're still attached to the outcome of the match.

Maybe you've picked some bad habits back up again, without knowing it.. But it's hard to stress about something like KL if you're not particularly attached to how every match turns out.
 
I honestly think that if you're that stressed about Kombat League, you're still attached to the outcome of the match.

Maybe you've picked some bad habits back up again, without knowing it.. But it's hard to stress about something like KL if you're not particularly attached to how every match turns out.
That's certainly possible as well. I'll need to reflect about this a little more.
 
One thing I will say the game does well is expose bad gameplay. I've played every MK and was lurking on this site during the glory days of mk9 and this game is by far the most polarizing. In mkx and mk9 I would steam roll people often if I put in the time. And sweatfests were few and far in between. In this game I can't rely on game mechanics to dominate. I was very bad at neutral and anti airing. This game forces you to level up if you want to win. I can't remember the last time I had an easy win in this game. Everyone on KL got much better. It's very competitive which is a good thing IMO. You just can't slack off anymore if you want the win. The player with better fundamentals has a huge advantage in this game. But you ALSO have to have good reads. That separates the elite from the good players.
 

Marinjuana

Up rock incoming, ETA 5 minutes
Turn the music off and play something more relaxing.

Try to change your attitude and maybe find someone you like to play casuals with. Honestly, the frequency of shit talk, teabagging, my desire to not get fatalitied... These all make a game that is already stressful(in a fun competitive way) more stressful for me. Maybe you are like me in that, and going into the game with the right attitude or playing with someone helps keep the game in the fun zone.
 

Popegina

Hymen Holocaust
my desire to not get fatalitied...
What's wrong about getting fatalitied? When I lose, which is like 95% of the time, if I get fatalitied it just tells me I lost to a player who knows his character.

Or at least that's what I tell myself to make me feel better lol
 

Szkarad

( • )( • )ԅ(≖⌣≖ԅ)
IMO the most annoying thing in the game that makes me fucking angry is the amount of time spend not doing anything... So obviously the matchmaking and map loading is unavoidable, that makes sense, but then, after you win/loose a match there is the "Finish him" screen, then the fatality which takes 30 secs of your life or the outro and I tell you man, the outros are more annoying than fatalities cause you have to wait for you gear (which nobody gives a shit about) to level up before pressing continue. So for every 10 minutes playing MK you spend 5 looking at the fooking screen doing nothing looking like that mike wazowski meme
17197
Rant over


BTW. Tekken 6 has an option to finish the round immidiately after your healthbar drops to 0 so you don't get comboed because they thought it would increase toxicity among the players.. Shame we can't have a setting in MK that would make it so when you loose your HP the match is over just like that without fatalities or anything
 
Read Seth Killians article Domination 101 on Shoryuken.com. The chapter "On Mental Toughness" is what applies to you, since you seem to get inside your own head when you feel like people are watching you, or your record is on the line.

We used to call that shit "ladder anxiety" in Warcraft 3 and that shit is real. You're more worried about your record or the perception others have of you, than actually trying to win and/or learn.
 

Vslayer

Juiced Moose On The Loose
Lead Moderator
Simply put: it's fear. You fear losing, so you go in a match thinking the worst possible outcome is losing, and thus you don't focus on what your opponent is doing and what how you should react to them.
 
Try to change your attitude and maybe find someone you like to play casuals with. Honestly, the frequency of shit talk, teabagging, my desire to not get fatalitied... These all make a game that is already stressful(in a fun competitive way) more stressful for me. Maybe you are like me in that, and going into the game with the right attitude or playing with someone helps keep the game in the fun zone.
Casuals and Private matches are never a problem for me. I also don't have an issue with teabagging or Fatalities at all. For "shit talk," I play on the PC version, so there's no voice communication.

The chapter "On Mental Toughness" is what applies to you, since you seem to get inside your own head when you feel like people are watching you, or your record is on the line.

We used to call that shit "ladder anxiety" in Warcraft 3 and that shit is real. You're more worried about your record or the perception others have of you, than actually trying to win and/or learn.
I'll read the article in a bit. I've also read (and thoroughly enjoyed) "Playing to Win" by Sirlin.

The thing is, as I mentioned, I don't have an issue with people watching or my record, and I used to play Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne in tournaments. I've never had this issue with any other online game before, thus the reason I'm trying to figure out what about Mortal Kombat 11 makes me feel this way.

I'm quit familiar with Ladder Anxiety and it is indeed absolutely real. As I mentioned, my Ladder Anxiety always goes away as I start actually playing a match. This is with every game I've played for the last twenty years, save for Mortal Kombat 11.

Simply put: it's fear. You fear losing, so you go in a match thinking the worst possible outcome is losing, and thus you don't focus on what your opponent is doing and what how you should react to them.
But that's the thing, I don't. If I loose, I loose and move on to the next match. If I'm frustrated with a loss, I take a breather. The rule I developed playing real time strategy games, which are, in my opinion, more intense and challenging than fighting games, is if you loose two games in a row, you stop. You're done for the day as you're off your game.