[geeks] Videogame controls

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Fri, Dec 14, 2007 at 01:43:37AM -0500, der Mouse wrote:
> I think it's a question of a game being designed along with an
> interface or having the interface retrofitted on.

It's more a case of what YOU know. People learn to play games
on the device they have, as opposed to the device they don't.
I know that seems self evidendt or silly, but what happens, is
you get used to a particular UI or set of hardware and stick with
it. 

For example, look at the lengths that people on this list go to
to get keyboards that "feel right". I don't because I use so many
different ones, that I am used to a "bad" keyboard being the norm.

If you look at the current generation of handheld device users, 
you see an interesting pattern. People from my generation try
to type on them. If the keyboard is too small, we "hunt and peck".
The next generation prefers an alphabetic keyboard, but can work
with a their thumbs like a blackberry and the zillions of
similar devices.

Teenagers use their thumbs and prefer to use a telephone number pad.

Nadine said in a previous message, and so did others that they can 
not conceive of playing a particular game with a different set of
hardware than the one they are used to. 

If you asked around, you would find that people who "grew up" using
console controllers, won't play games without them. I recently saw
an X-BOX controller for the PC at a local store. My speculation
is that they are bought not by people who buy X-BOX games ported
to the PC, but by X-BOX owners who want the same interface on
their PC. 

> 
> I shudder at the idea of playing Tribes or Half-life with a console
> controller - but I equally shudder at the idea of playing Ratchet &
> Clank or DragonQuest VIII with a keyboard and mouse.  They probably
> could be done well, but it would take a complete ground-up interface
> redesign, which is rarely done in such cases.  (Good UI design is hard
> enough to do at all....)

It's a daunting task, and I've spent a lot of time on running PC
games on handheld devices without rewriting them or redsigning
the UI. It looks like I might just get to actually use that
knowledge.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
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