When the IT helpdesk received a ticket that read simply, “My game controller is acting strangely,” they expected the usual complaints about unresponsive buttons or dodgy Bluetooth connections. What they did not expect was the emotional crisis that the attached photo and message revealed.
The ticket came from Jason in Marketing, who wrote, “I think my game controller has developed an identity crisis. It keeps trying to change the channel on my TV, but it doesn’t work. It’s really confused, and now I’m confused too.”
Curious, the helpdesk team dug a little deeper. Jason explained that while playing some video games, his controller inexplicably began pressing the volume buttons on his TV and even attempted to switch to DVD mode at one point—despite being plugged into his PC, not a television at all.
A particularly exhaustive troubleshooting session uncovered the tragic truth from the controller’s perspective: it was convinced it was not a game controller at all, but a remote control with a desperate yearning to “find its true purpose” amid a sea of buttons it no longer understood.
The helpdesk jokes aside, the device’s firmware had actually been accidentally replaced with TV remote software during a routine update glitch. This digital identity disorder led the controller to send mixed signals—literally—to Jason’s computer and TV, resulting in half-baked attempts to do both jobs.
To make matters worse, the controller had reportedly begun “feeling useless” when not in remote mode, and was suspected of increasing the microwave timer minutes during an unrelated kitchen mishap.
Finally, after a firmware reset and a pep talk from the IT manager reminding the controller that its true calling was to defeat digital villains, not change the channel, the crisis was resolved. Jason’s controller “seemed much happier,” according to the helpdesk notes, and ceased its futile remote control ambitions—unless, of course, there was an update for aspiring multitasking devices in the works.
The helpdesk team concluded the ticket with a gentle reminder to all staff: “Even devices need purpose, but if they start behaving like mid-life crisis remotes, just send them our way.”