If you’re reading this, then I’m pretty sure you know what ‘lag’ stands for. If not, you could head over to A Very General Guide to Gaming Terms to learn more about it.

Needless to say, every gamer, especially the ones that play online and competitive games, will have experienced lag from time to time. You may have the best internet in the world, but there will be a day when your broadband becomes so sluggish that you’ll turn into a ‘monster’ that will even shock yourself (once you’re calmed down, that is).

Trust me, we are all guilty of raging, particularly when you’re in the middle of an intense match with players of the same skill level as you or a raid. This article will attempt to describe the many ways that players who experienced lag can be loosely categorized into.

Explicit Explosion! The most common group of players that you’ll see when they experience lag is to unleash a torrential of explicit words at a pace that can put a high-end fully-automated machine gun to shame! Even the most reserved person you know may just start pumping out vulgarity that rivals gang-bangers. In fact, from their explicit explosions, you can learn quite a number of new choice words as well.

Some people may even start insulting everybody and anybody, including their god/s as well as the mothers of the employees of the game company, the server hosting company and the internet provider. Nobody will be spared from the vulgar onslaught! Instead of trying to calm him or her down, it’s best to just stay in your room or your area of the room and enjoy the free entertainment.

The Destroyer. When encountering lag issues, some of the more crazy players will morph into The Destroyer! From the keyboards to the mouse… and sometimes, even the LCD monitor, nothing will stand in the way of The Destroyer’s madly punching fists. Some Destroyers may not stop at damaging only their property; they may start smash up other people’s stuff as well (For example, the shared dorm router). These are also the sort of people who spend a ridiculous amount of money monthly to buy computer accessories… in bulk (and no, they do not own a computer shop).

Despite being in desperate need of anger management courses, these players often go unnoticed and may even be considered as peaceful people until their destructive alter ego is awakened by the lag. And when that happens, it’s best to stay out of his or her way. Physical injury is possible if you try to intervene.

The Devil Within. Furthermore, some players will unleash their devil within when they encounter lag. This sort of people is very different from The Destroyers – they do not resort to violent physical outbursts to display their discontent. Instead, these players will ‘sabotage’ others by, for example, unplugging everyone’s internet cables from the router or even dismantling the wireless antenna for the router while using an internet cable to stay connected. Some may even tap into other people’s internet, if they can, just so they can avoid the lag that their internet service is experiencing. These sneaky and spiteful actions made this sort of players deserve their titles of being ‘devils’.

Cool and Collected (Pass the shades please!). Not all players react badly to lag, there are some that are what I like to call them, cool and collected. They are so chill with having lag that they could even laugh off their characters’ untimely and, sometimes, humiliating deaths in competitive matches, particularly ranked ones. They are so chill that anything you throw at them will end up frozen and will shatter on the ground, meters away from their body. They are like walking freezers that wear shades.

However, don’t be fooled by their calm outer appearance – you never know, there might just be this huge bubbling and seething lava of emotions that are barely held back. It’s like an assassin before performing a killing strike. It’s best not to go prodding them mischievously, whether it is verbally or physically… unless of course, you fancy your chances of surviving the rush of the massive body of pent-up emotions when the dam breaks. In other words, let’s just DON’T do that and leave them alone.

Nonchalant. The last on this list of player reactions to lag is the very rare ‘nonchalance’. For these players, games are just games. When lag acts up, they will just calmly force shutdown the game client (the famous Alt+F4) and actually go out to enjoy real life (and yes, they actually have real lives). The amount of zen-ness that these players have is extraordinary and it’s rather surprising that they have not yet reached the stage of enlightenment. They would have become demi-gods if they do! Most of these nonchalants are, however, not hardcore gamers and will never understand the sense of urgency that competitive games can bring to the table… or perhaps they are the ones who can see-through all the façades of gaming and truly know their lives’ priorities. Good for them!

Have you encountered any other types of player reactions to lag? If you do, feel free to comment below and who knows? I might just write a Part 2!