Some games make us so mad that we fling our controllers across the room in rage, forgetting for a split second that it’s rarely, if ever, the hardware’s fault that we lost.

But sometimes we get so angry with a game, at being pwned online, at losing for the nth time to that end-of-level boss, that we decide to hang up our controllers for good. Which is exactly what a number of gamers in Japan seem to have done if a collection of photos doing the rounds on Twitter today is anything to go by.

“Hey now, which joker got a Gamecube controller tangled up in the power lines!? LOL” Tweeted @E_R_Hakuri yesterday afternoon along with the below photo of the aforementioned controller swinging up high.

Well out of reach and doomed to remain so for a very long time (or at least until a disgruntled city employee is sent up to remove it), this act of controller tossing is every bit as mischievous as the old shoe-fling prank, yet — through what is perhaps a stroke of unintentional artistry — could be interpreted as a subtle commentary on the now defunct role of such technology in our increasingly wireless society.

https://twitter.com/E_R_Hakurei/status/364399813346865153

User @kkuro613 also spotted a controller, this time a PlayStation 2 pad, swinging in the breeze near their home town on the exact same day.

And quite how long this poor Nintendo 64 controller has been up there we’re not sure, but @CHANDA_NOW noticed it back in May.

https://twitter.com/CHANDA_NOW/status/338957343440117760

So what on earth is going on here? Are Japan’s gamers simply sick of tripping over their old hardware? Have the more recent generations of consoles turned us all into lily-livered weaklings unable to handle the challenges that older games present, resulting in a sudden influx of angry controller flinging?

In fact, it’s much more likely that these gamers have simply been watching the 2012 documentary film Indie Game: The Movie, which features a hanging controller as its signature image on posters and ads.

indie game title

Never given an official release in Japan but now available to download and purchase on DVD, perhaps gamers in japan have finally had a chance to see the documentary for themselves and, falling in love with the popular image, decided to imitate it. But remember, kids, only a bad workman blames his tools! Give your controllers the send-off they deserve: sell them on eBay or keep them in a box somewhere in the hope that no one else had the same idea, and in 50 years you can use the cash to get a firmware update for your PlayStation 12 brain implant.

Source: Gotech (Japanese)
Indie Game The Movie image via Rock, Paper, Shotgun