If you wanna just play something to have fun, go play Diablo 3, or Sim City, or Tomb Raider or any other of tens of thousands of games that don't require a competitive mentality or the desire to be challenged to win.
Because one can't have fun and take the game seriously (but not too seriously) at the same time.
Aye, I have to comment on this bit as well.
The idea that "being challenged" and "having fun" have to be seperate things at all times is, to me, bloody stupid.
As gamers go, I'm one of the rare few that really enjoys a good challenge. Further than that though, I typically need the challenge level to be MUCH higher than what most would consider to be normal just for a game to even hold my attention. Something like Dark Souls? Not good enough. Too easy. Not a bad game, but I got bored. Something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uON3zty3-Q is along the lines of something that I enjoy. Granted that particular example is a bit extreme, but it ranks as one of my favorite games of all time.
But I dont play something like that just because of the challenge level. If I'm not also genuinely enjoying it and having a good time, I dont bother. Because what's the point? What does it accomplish if it's not providing fun and enjoyment?
Going along with the concept, the fact of having fun while playing it does NOT prevent me from doing all of the crazy crap in the vid there. Quite the opposite: If I start to get angry at it, my performance just goes down the drain, which also seems to be the case for most gamers in an overall sense.
And I really think alot of gamers these days do not think about or even REALIZE that one simple fact, and that's one of my biggest problems with competetive gaming. Whenever I see it happening, I always wanna say "You know, if you werent screaming f-bombs at your teammates here, you MIGHT be able to be doing alot better yourself, possibly, perhaps, maybe, potentially, and they would too".
And yes, I do alot of competetive gaming as I believe I've mentioned. Fighting games at a very high level. So I'm not unfamiliar with the idea, and as such I reiterate that going into these with the objective of having a good time is the BEST way to do it. You wanna do the best that you can? Then have some bloody FUN with it already. You get yourself into a good mood, and you'll do MUCH better than you otherwise would..... and on top of that, you'll be yelling at your teammates less, which means that not only will they do better, they'll also learn more from any given match due to the lack of being screamed at. If the whole team is having a good time, they're well on their way to becoming that much better. That hyper-serious attitude? Slows ya down. Simple as that.
There's a quote I really like, that I saw when watching a stream of a Smite player... who looked pretty irritated the whole time... that was doing league games (or whatever that mode is called), which kinda sums up some of my thoughts on the matter overall: "his face is exactly why i dont do leagues. hes not even having fun. not having fun is a waste of time." I think I mighta quoted it before, but it fits all of this here, so I quote it again.
The concepts of having fun, being challenged, playing to win, practicing seriously..... these dont have to be seperate at all. They're at their best when all put together. And it's really too bad that more people cant see this, particularly since it's so simple....