We've all been there: down a goal in the dying stages, you desperately search for a way through a bunkering defense. Players in the opposing color are seemingly everywhere, breaking up every pass, tackling the ball off your best attacker, flummoxing every chance with superhuman feats of agility. Finally, you find it: a bit of space at the edge of the box, the perfect place for a curled shot to the far post. You mash the buttons like a morphine addict laid up in a hospital bed after back surgery. The ball flies—for all the world looking true—and you prematurely jump off your couch to celebrate what is surely the goal that will bring you level against some guy from California that deserves to lose because he picked Barcelona.
CLANG! The ball hits the post and bounces away. The referee blows his whistle, and the game is lost.
And what do you do? Why, you fling your controller across the room in a fit of rage, apoplectic that the ball didn't go in and that that jackass that won't stop talking trash can gloat over his victory. The controller smashes into the wall, a sickening cracking echoes across room, and you look down to see you've destroyed it. Now you have to get a new one. And for what?
If you've ever been that guy, or the guy that fights his buddy over a game of FIFA, or the hothead that curses up a storm any time the "computer" comes back and steals a point or a win in season mode, then you'll understand why the Daily Mail is reporting that playing soccer game causes more aggressive behavior than violent titles like Grand Theft Auto.
Never mind that aggressive behavior over a lost FIFA match is perfectly understandable when the game totally cheats, and just because you smacked your brother for talking trash when he beat you 5-0, that doesn't mean you're a violent person. He totally deserved it.
--
