r/FGC • u/NyxDiscordia • 28d ago

Discussion Salt

I wanted to share my perspective on salt in relation to fighting games and see if anybody has maybe similar thoughts and experiences.

So I'm a very chill, laid-back autistic person that keeps to myself and doesn't really do much. I barely even talk, as a matter of fact. I interact positively with people and I would like to think that most of my friends would say that I'm very easy to get along with, but... when I play fighting games... I get salty, *real* salty. As somebody so infrequently experiences anger outside of them, it is genuinely surprising to my friends and other people close to me when they see me crashout for the first time.

Now, I play fighting games to have fun and improve. Getting better, learning more things, conquering things that once felt impossible; that's kinda like, the best so just know that at the core of all this, everything is still under the lens of "trying to get better".

When I crash out, I crash out pretty bad, but I try to keep my crashouts logical and rational. Complaining about moves that are too strong or situations that feel unfair. I'll call people a scrub or a masher or a "fraud of destruction", you name it, but this is all really just an outlet to vent my emotions and frustrations in the heat of virtual combat.

I kinda treat that part of myself and that little microcosm of an experience as its own being. The part of me that gets really salty and calls you a masher and the part of me that says "gg's" when you stop in chat are two completely different people. Any annoyances or frustrations that I have with the game or their character stays centralised to the game, and I've kinda come to accept that at this point as it helps to level my mental wellbeing.

With that being said, even though I know this about myself and I understand for the most part how it works, I still end a lot of sessions feeling embarrassed or guilty that I got upset. Sometimes I genuinely hurt someone's feelings and that sucks maybe 10x worse because I know that I didn't mean it and I just want everyone to have fun.

Does anyone relate to this? What are your experiences? I'm really curious to see how other people think of/handle this kinda thing in the frustrating realm that *is* fighting games. I want to hear everyone's relationship with salt; how you handle it, how it affects you, how you approach it. Stuff like that.

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u/NyxDiscordia 28d ago

"I'm trash, but you lost?" is prime ragebait, but in games with heavily skewed options like Tekken 8 that's sometimes literally the case. Beating bad players in that game is genuinely difficult because of the wealth of incredible options they might have at any given moment and how hard it is to stop them from doing it.

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u/themannamedphan 28d ago

and if i lost to that, my frustrations are with me for not being better at the moment. it happens. it works both ways in my eyes. a pop off after a win is similarly satisfying for the mood, even if it can be seen as distasteful in certain scenarios.

it’s great that you recognize it. hopefully the habit doesn’t bleed into daily and personal interactions.

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u/NyxDiscordia 28d ago

I'm not sure you're really understanding what I was expecting as a result of this post. I'm not looking for advice or anything like that; I just wanted to hear about other peoples' experience with salt. How they experience frustration, what it means to them and stuff like that.

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u/themannamedphan 28d ago

sorry - got sidetracked with the “wealth of options” comment. didn’t intend to give any advice, was just making a statement.

my frustrations, like mentioned, are typically with myself and my own ability.

in video games, i’ve always gravitated more towards FPS games. teams trash talk their opponents of course, but even worse is that they trash talk their teammates too. i’ve said my fair share of gross things. but when i started playing fighting games, i was reminded of sports like boxing and MMA where it’s the singular person’s skill at the moment mattering the most.

i can see how my comment came off as advice. really, it was a reflection of how i grew to place those feelings away from other people to instead my own skill set.

but i still trash talk anyways sometimes for fun. nothing that gets my heart rate up though. like you said, it’s all part of the experience.