Games designers deny existence of lefties

[Crisp_Rapper]

*sighs* bought a copy of Splinter Cell off Wazy, was waiting for me when i got home "****in' a!" i said to myself as i opened it all up and popped it into the machine.

scooted through the supposed 'controller options' to find the only things you can change on the ****ing thing is whether the pad vibrates or not and inverting the y axis.

why the hell do games makers do this? it really messes up my gaming, i'm left handed so of course it's the one i use for aiming, it's just more precise... Turok came out and it's standard controls were perfect so i played every other fps since then with the exact same controls, well all except a chosen few.

it can't be amazingly difficult to put in a option to swap which stick does what or am i completely wrong and it's the most difficult thing to do ever ever?

surely i can't be the only one having to sit out on playing games due to the controls being out and out 'wrong'?

[jassi singh]

judging by how many people have posted in here, seems like ntsc-uk deny the existence of lefties!

[i aint a lefty, i'm normal j/k]

[Super Stu]

I've never really considered it until you said, but it seems like such a simple thing to add, I've no idea why they don't have an option to swap sticks.

Just curious, would you find that an entirely mirrored pad help you at all, ie dpad on the right and buttons on the left?

[Mayhem]

I'm left handed... and I find using a pad the way it's designed perfectly fine. I always have the firing on the right side for any FPS, and given my performance against other people, it does me just right. Having said that, I am also perfectly comfortable using a stick in my right hand too. So perhaps I'm more ambidextrous overall

[Dache]

I'm left handed... and I find using a pad the way it's designed perfectly fine. I always have the firing on the right side for any FPS, and given my performance against other people, it does me just right. Having said that, I am also perfectly comfortable using a stick in my right hand too. So perhaps I'm more ambidextrous overall

I ditto this man. Strange, ain't it?

[Crisp_Rapper]

I've never really considered it until you said, but it seems like such a simple thing to add, I've no idea why they don't have an option to swap sticks.

Just curious, would you find that an entirely mirrored pad help you at all, ie dpad on the right and buttons on the left?

not really no, things like bashing buttons is ok, it's a thing you can learn to do with time in fact if anything Streetfighter was easier due to the amount of control i had over d-pad/stick movements... i know Goldeneye had an option for 'lefties' where you moved using the d-pad and aimed with the stick using your right thumb, this struck me as odd because i thought that right handed people had it more difficult not being as precise with aiming and things.

i think i've confused myself now

[mallet]

I always thought it was odd that I use a control pad with my left-hand, but a joystick with my right.

[Mayhem]

Exactly. I grew up using both my hands equally as much for controlling the joystick: left hand in the arcades and right hand when playing 2600 or C64. Nowadays though I'm ingrained with using left thumb for movement and right thumb for aiming in FPS that I don't think I can swop. But I'm still perfectly able to pick up a one-button stick and play my C64 games with equal ease.

I always considered lefties to have more of an advantage in the arcades because their stronger side was controlling the important bit (ie. movement) as opposed to just hitting the buttons. Certainly I do better than the average person at most retro arcade games as witnessed by my general performance in the Llamasoft Lleague contest.

But the right handedness not only came from the 2600/C64 side, it came obviously from school too. Back then, there was no consideration for lefties and you had to do stuff right handed or suffer. Hence today the only things I do left handed are write (though I'm not bad with my right), throw and catch. Everything else, such as using scissors, kicking a ball and the so on, I do with my right side, because that's how I had to do it.

Oh and even my writing has a right handed influence to it. I expect many people have seen the occasional left handed person write and witnessed the bizarre contortion of "around the loop" (like almost a whole circle) holding the pen and scribbling the words onto the paper. That's how I've seen almost every other left handed person write in my life. Except I don't do it that way. I write in the same way any normal right handed person would, straight up, holding the pen at a slight angle and going across the page. Why I have no idea... maybe I copied how everyone else was doing it with their right hand when I was young?

[probeater]

For some reason I can't remember anymore but didn't you have to use your left hand for aiming with the dc pad?

[Valken]

I'm left handed and I choose to look with the left stick, move with the right. Is this correct? It always seemed to suit me...

[Roost]

I'm also left handed and using the left stick to move and right to look is just natural...

But then my left handedness is strange. I write with my left hand, use scissors with my right hand. If i throw a ball underarm i use my right, but a cricket bowl i'd use my left.

Roost = freak.

[Crisp_Rapper]

I'm left handed and I choose to look with the left stick, move with the right. Is this correct? It always seemed to suit me...

it's the way i use it... seems more natural, as i said before your dominant hand is generally (how can i put this?) 'better' than your other one as you use it more, you can manipulate things more precisely, things like joysticks.

For some reason I can't remember anymore but didn't you have to use your left hand for aiming with the dc pad?

yep, you looked with the 3d stick/analogue/whatever you want to call it yet developers still ignore the fact that people like me are now used to using our left hands and force us to play backwards.

[Mayhem]

Hey Roost... ditto... but I will also add here... playing guitar = left handed, playing tennis/cricket = right handed

Yes, we're both freaks

[Roost]

I bowl overarm and bat with left hand but throw underarm with my right. But when i send a txt msg i use my right hand to enter the txt :S

[Staplehead]

I'm left handed and I always preferred walking with the c-buttons and aiming with the stick on Goldeneye. Similarly, on PC FPS I use the mouse with my left hand and the keyboard to move. It doesn't make so much of a difference these days with my shaky hands, though.

By the way, Mayhem, in case you were interested, the reason that most left-handers use the 'around the loop' method of writing (myself included) is partially to do with sitting opposite right-handers.

Apparently, a left-handed child sat opposite a right-hander will see the right-hander's pen pointing in a certain direction and try to hold their pen in the same direction. This leads to the strange 'around the loop' method of holding the pen and smudged ink for the rest of their lives. So it's all the right-handers fault, damn them. ft:

As for the way you write; well obviously you're just some sort of freak

Chris, who still can't be bothered finding all the tri-force pieces in Zelda TWW.