The troubles of a left handed gamer

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Why is it that most games still dont feature a proper Southpaw layout?
I got Assasins Creed & Bioshock for Xmas & both dont even have a controller option for southpaws which means that my hands get confused & me being **** for the 1st hr or so.
Then once my hands are somewhat accustomed to it (but never fully) when I go back & play my other games I have to relearn my original stick/button layout.
Those games that do feature the option to change to southpaw like COD2/3/4, GRAW 1/2 & most other genres tend to forget to swap the button layout with the D-Pad layout (which is simple enough to do) leaving me having to contort my fingers underneath/above my thumb on the same hand.

Why cant these developers take this into consideration when making their games or possibly have an option to configure all buttons to anywhere on the controller Quake III style, or have a southpaw download up on LIVE?

I'm sure is easy enough to put together. Isnt it?

[Hohum]

I ran into the same problem as you when I tried some FPS on the 360 a while back... I just cannot aim using the right stick, even though for PC gaming I use a mouse with my right hand (I'm left handed like you though). To answer your question, I guess it just boils down to laziness on the developer's part.

[Concrete donkey]

I?m left handed, but I?m not a natural left handed. As a kid I was ambidextrous but my teachers, annoyed with two different handwriting styles forced me to choose between my left or right hand to write with. Brilliant decision maker I am I choose to write with my left. With most other skills I?m either right handed inclined or can switch between the two.

Game wise I play all games right handed style except for Brain Training, where I?m a leftie. This means the most confusion I get is with the wii, where I say I?m left handed, but have almost immediately switch to being right. Wish I was a better decision maker as a child.

[Mayhem]

Hmmm, I'm pretty much the same Concrete, except I am a natural left hander. I just had to use my right hand for many things when growing up because of a lack of left sided assistance. So I write, throw, catch, play music instruments, use the stylus on the DS and the such with my left, but I use implements AND the Wii remote mostly with my right.

Growing up using the joystick in the left hand (in arcades, and now modern consoles) and in the right hand (2600, C64) meant I've got no problems swapping at will as need be. I was perfectly streamlined into aiming using the right side, in fact I can't aim with the left at all now it's so ingrained. I guess I'm the rogue leftie in the pack hah hah...

One thing though... because I grew up with Goldeneye so much, I can't do full aim on the right so well either, I need look up/down and strafe to be there and turn/move on the left. Most games don't offer that either! Timesplitters 2 did, and I utterly kicked everyone's arse on that that I ever played against, was a monster in that game. It took MP3 and having the remote in the right to full aim to break the jinx, it was just so natural to use it that way making the game so superb...

[SuperBeatBoy]

Im left handed, but i have no problems whatsoever.

The only problem i have is that i have to use the wii mote in my left hand, i cant use it in my right hand. Which shouldn't be a problem anyway, just looks odd in metroid prime 3.

[tom-nook]

I'm not a leftie so apologies if this is a bit naive.....

Would companies like MS making a left handed pad (analogue sticks switched over, d-pad on the right, face buttons moved to the left etc.) make life easier for you guys and do away with the reliance on devs getting their fingers out?

[hudson]

Slightly off-topic...

What makes you left handed? When you write with your left?

I write with my left, but punch and kick (Master Onion style) with my rights.

I don't have any probs gaming with default control layouts.

[JazzFunk]

Turok and Goldeneye on N64 messed it all up for me. Though I'm a right-hander, I'd use the joystick to look around, and the yellow arrow buttons on the right hand side to strafe. My 'looking' accuracy, using my left hand, was legendary, and I kicked my brother's arse all the time in multiplayer. When the PS2/Xbox came in, most games had the default 'look' position on the right stick, and I've never been able to be quite as accurate as I used to be using the left stick method. I've given in now, and playing the 'old way' doesn't feel right, yet I still feel somewhat gaming-disabled using the right. What's even weirder is that I draw loads, and my style is very intricate - and yet when I use the same hand in gaming, it feels all fudgy. Christ knows, eh?!!

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

I too am not fully left handed. I play Tennis, Guitar (Hero!), use a scissors all with my right & have sometimes started writing with my right hand only to suddenly remember that I'm left handed. I think thats down to my Mum being a lefty in school & being forced to write with her right & it must have been passed down to me.

I did have trouble in my C16/Speccy gaming days with Joysticks having the button on the left side of the base which meant that I had to contort my right hand around the stick to press it. I thought Goldeneye was fine for me because the N64 controller catered both for rightys & leftys with their 1 central stick & u could switch all the U,D,L,R yellow buttons onto the D-pad & vice versa. Good old Nintendo, always thinking ahead!

I do agree though that Timesplitters 2 had the perfect Southpaw layout.
I also remember that u could configure the pad for leftys pretty well on the MOH games for the PSone too.

Would companies like MS making a left handed pad (analogue sticks switched over, d-pad on the right, face buttons moved to the left etc.) make life easier for you guys and do away with the reliance on devs getting their fingers out?

It doesnt really need to be done tbh. The sticks are in the right spot (left stick higher making it feel like your head, right stick lower indicating legs) its just that they need to either allow u to configure all buttons like on DC Quake III, or as I've said better still move the button commands over to the D-Pad & the D-Pad commands over to the buttons as they are afterall just buttons. Its so simple & yet it isnt done.