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Enoguh of this "gamepads are inferior" bullshit.
12 years ago
If keyboards/mouse was truly superior to a gamepad, it would be impossible for my friend to pwn your stupid asses with gamepads, so shut the fuck up already.
The fact of the matter is that the only ACTUAL difference a keyboard/mouse gives you is a wide range of customization options. Everything -literally EVERYTHING- else is a matter of personal preference, or developers being idiots/lazy. A mouse may be capable of more precise actions than a gamepad, but BOTH are more accurate than HUMANS ARE CAPABLE OF BEING. As far as the human capabiltiy for accuracy is concerned, there is not difference between the two.
I use a gamepad for gaming on PC as well as consoles. Why? Because the mouse is too jerky for me, and using two separate inputs does not come naturally to me. Give me a gamepad, I'm a decent player. Give me a keyboard+mouse, and I'm completely hopeless.
The reason for this rant is because in seeking help for solving a problem I had, I received no help whatsoever. I only saw a desperate insistence that it is impossible to map the important functions of an MMORPG to a gamepad that didn't go away even after his argument was completely eviscerated.
I can map any MMORPG to a gamepad using a program called XPadder. The only exception are ones where the devs lock out such programs. Challenge me on that if you want - any aspect of the gameplay I can address.
In the end, locking out gamepads is a stupid idea even if you believe they're inferior simply because you're locking out accessibility to many gamers, which means you're LOSING MONEY. Why would you want to lose money in this day and age when making a gamepad input option does NOT require you to cripple the keyboard/mouse input? (I've heard devs use that excuse for leaving out gamepad support before, and it's nothing more than an excuse for being lazy - there is no reason you have to compromise one to benefit the other in a modern game)
Now I'm sure some of you will point out that console gamers tend to get their asses kicked by PC gamers in any sort of cross-platform experiment, and that my gamepad-preferring friends are anomalies. Whether or not my friends are anomalies is beside the point; The fact of the matter is the superiority/inferiority of the hardware has nothing to do with what's going on.
The modern world gears us towards the keyboard/mouse even outside of gaming. It's something most of us use every day whether we game or not. As a result, it comes naturally to many people. The gamepad with it's analog sticks is not something we get the external influence towards and it requires a dedicated effort to get used to it. Console gamers are wired to associate the gamepad with gaming and the keyboard with work. Others, like me, who have no real preference between console and PC, simply can't process the usage of two separate inputs.
Additionally, PC gamers are generally more "Serious" than console gamers. They put more effort into becoming experts at the game. Grab an identically-sized group of random PC and console gamers, you'll find a much higher average gameplay time amongst the PC crowd than the console crowd.
And that's the key detail: The bag of flesh at the control has a far, FAR bigger impact on the effectiveness of the controller used than the controller itself can possibly have.
And with all the above said, I still have to admit that there is indeed one exception to the above: The Real-Time Strategy game. The only genre of game where so many inputs are required that you can't map them all to a controller. (Ctrl, Alt, and Shift keys only expand the gamepad's buttons so far)
The fact of the matter is that the only ACTUAL difference a keyboard/mouse gives you is a wide range of customization options. Everything -literally EVERYTHING- else is a matter of personal preference, or developers being idiots/lazy. A mouse may be capable of more precise actions than a gamepad, but BOTH are more accurate than HUMANS ARE CAPABLE OF BEING. As far as the human capabiltiy for accuracy is concerned, there is not difference between the two.
I use a gamepad for gaming on PC as well as consoles. Why? Because the mouse is too jerky for me, and using two separate inputs does not come naturally to me. Give me a gamepad, I'm a decent player. Give me a keyboard+mouse, and I'm completely hopeless.
The reason for this rant is because in seeking help for solving a problem I had, I received no help whatsoever. I only saw a desperate insistence that it is impossible to map the important functions of an MMORPG to a gamepad that didn't go away even after his argument was completely eviscerated.
I can map any MMORPG to a gamepad using a program called XPadder. The only exception are ones where the devs lock out such programs. Challenge me on that if you want - any aspect of the gameplay I can address.
In the end, locking out gamepads is a stupid idea even if you believe they're inferior simply because you're locking out accessibility to many gamers, which means you're LOSING MONEY. Why would you want to lose money in this day and age when making a gamepad input option does NOT require you to cripple the keyboard/mouse input? (I've heard devs use that excuse for leaving out gamepad support before, and it's nothing more than an excuse for being lazy - there is no reason you have to compromise one to benefit the other in a modern game)
Now I'm sure some of you will point out that console gamers tend to get their asses kicked by PC gamers in any sort of cross-platform experiment, and that my gamepad-preferring friends are anomalies. Whether or not my friends are anomalies is beside the point; The fact of the matter is the superiority/inferiority of the hardware has nothing to do with what's going on.
The modern world gears us towards the keyboard/mouse even outside of gaming. It's something most of us use every day whether we game or not. As a result, it comes naturally to many people. The gamepad with it's analog sticks is not something we get the external influence towards and it requires a dedicated effort to get used to it. Console gamers are wired to associate the gamepad with gaming and the keyboard with work. Others, like me, who have no real preference between console and PC, simply can't process the usage of two separate inputs.
Additionally, PC gamers are generally more "Serious" than console gamers. They put more effort into becoming experts at the game. Grab an identically-sized group of random PC and console gamers, you'll find a much higher average gameplay time amongst the PC crowd than the console crowd.
And that's the key detail: The bag of flesh at the control has a far, FAR bigger impact on the effectiveness of the controller used than the controller itself can possibly have.
And with all the above said, I still have to admit that there is indeed one exception to the above: The Real-Time Strategy game. The only genre of game where so many inputs are required that you can't map them all to a controller. (Ctrl, Alt, and Shift keys only expand the gamepad's buttons so far)
You just stated it's your personal preference. I focused on MMOs for my rant because that's what triggered it, but it applies equally to every genre(save RTS, as I mentioned at the end) - personal preference is a greater influence than the inputs themselves.
But yeah, that early arrow key movement has actually shaped a lot of my preferences as well. It's a lot more like using a gamepad than today's setups, which is one of the reasons I work so much better with gamepads - I transitioned between PC to console much more effectively in those days.
My favorite game back then was Rise of the Triad. Looking VERY forward to the upcoming remake of it.