Shame on me: breaking my PS3 controller

Yesterday I did something so childish and uncharacteristic that I deserve to be publicly humiliated for it: I broke my PS3 controller after spiking it on the ground. It is, I have to shamefully admit, the second PlayStation controller that has fallen victim to my rare bursts of rage.

A couple days ago, I read this BBC article about Electronic Arts being voted the worst company in the United States two years in a row. (EA? Really? Of all the companies that willfully price gouge, pollute, and produce low quality products, EA is voted the worst company in the country?) Thirty years ago, the company apparently asked in an advertisement, “Can a computer make you cry?” I suppose it can, especially if one of EA’s video games can induce controller-breaking irritation.

I was playing NCAA Football 12. My top-ranked San Jose State Spartans were playing at tenth-ranked Air Force. The game was in hand in the fourth quarter, 20-6, and Air Force could do nothing offensively. However, bad passes kept me from blowing the game wide open. My frustration grew with each knockdown, catch-stripping hit, long pass, and interception. I began taking it out on the controller. I spiked it once, then again a few minutes later. I spiked it a third time, harder, and was amazed that it was still working. “I have to stop doing that,” I thought, reminding myself of the PS2 controller I broke years ago. However, a fifth interception and ensuing touchdown return broke me — and the controller. I threw it to the ground and the number light on the front went out. I knew it was broken, so I tossed it across the room. It skipped on the carpet and hit the wall, leaving a white mark by the L1 button.

I turned the game off. After a minute of cooling down, my guilt began to crush me. I am so sentimental that I even feel bad about mistreating inanimate objects. “What have I done?” I thought. Lovingly, I gently picked up the controller and examined it. I could hear a small piece rattling around inside. I pressed the PS button and the “3” and “4” lights flashed red. I did not test it to see if it worked (it still may), but it seemed I had made my controller, the original that came with the system, special.

The worst thing about all this: the controller was innocent. It had nothing to do with my awful performance. Taking my frustration out on the controller was as useless as when people shook monitors when their computer froze. (The monitor had nothing to do with it.)

As a thirty-year old man, I know better than to do that. It was a childish thing to do. Shame on me.

Update: Actually, the controller still works. I used it to beat Air Force, 37-3. The only difference now is that the “1” and “2” lights on the front do not work.