It can be tough when you spend a lot of time and energy trying to beat part of a game, and you just fall short of succeeding. I've been facing this quite a bit lately with two games especially: Patapon 2 and Plants vs. Zombies.

Patapon 2 can be hard. There were times when I would spend 25 minutes fighting a single boss, slowly wearing him down with my last standing Patapon warrior, steadily holding the rhythm just so, and then ultimately getting Patapwnd by a single, unblockable attack and losing all my progress.

And in Plants vs. Zombies, I'm currently trying to get the Endless mode achievements. In Vasebreaker, you have to get to level 15. Last night, I got to level 14, and lost on the last 3 zombies! Now I have to start again from level 1. Ugh. This is about the tenth time I've had to start over. And I, Zombie Endless keeps kicking my butt.

What I struggle with when these kinds of things happen isn't rage. I think I've got that under reasonable control. What I struggle with when I lose is trying not to feel like I've just wasted my time. Whether I've won or lost, I still got to play the game and have fun while doing so, right? Losing just means that I get that much more playtime out of the game when I try again, right?

Right. I'll just keep telling myself that... :)