My First Controller
I've always been a mouse and keyboard player. For one reason and another, gaming with a controller passed me by. But, after a rather humiliating encounter at the Norwich Gaming Festival, in which I completed an entire Mario Kart track, broadcast on the Jumbotron, backwards, because I couldn't figure out how to work even a damn Wiimote, it became obvious that, for pride and sanity, I should probably learn.
The Setup: An Xbox 360 controller. A gaming PC. And a copy of WatchDogs 2. I picked it because it's an open-world game with an absurdly low level of challenge, so I could wander about and make mistakes without feeling like my ineptitude was spoiling the game experience.
Initial Thoughts It was SO frustrating! Going from a keyboard, where I intuitively know where the majority of the buttons are and can customise the set-up to my preferences to conform to my own Personal Standard, to an entirely new input device, is jarring. There were a lot of tantrums and running headlong into walls whilst yelling at my partner to google on my behalf where the crouch button was. Or the reload button. Or the Nethack ability. I had to put all my upgrades into stealth oriented abilities because I couldn't figure out how to aim and shoot. And the worst part, because you need both hands on the controller see where you are going when you want to go there, I couldn't snack whilst I played. Which sucked.
Casual Gamers Don't Have Time For This Shit Figuring out how even basic interactions worked was a challenge. It's only because I know I would be enjoying the game if I was keyboardin' it up that I persevered at all. I can see why new gamers are put off by the learning curve of input devices. If you are a casual gamer, the incentive to put in the time and effort to learning to play with a controller is very low! Casual gamer don't/don't perceive themselves as being Time Rich. Gaming for them is a guilty treat activity they snatch a few minutes of whilst on the bus or queueing for the post office. Even though they do play games - often actually considerably more hours than a self-identified gamer when taken cumulatively - investing intellectual energy in learning to play would be considered to be an indulgence and a waste of time. This refusal to acknowledge their own play has always intrigued me. Casual gamers tend to overwhelmingly be women, and, from my view at the coalface, it seems to be a gender roles issue. Women don't like to admit to being entertained by games. I suspect this is a guilt behaviour: "I have more important responsibilities, e.g. cooking, cleaning and childcare, than playing. Play is a luxury, and I am surrounded by tasks of necessity. I do not have time to play; I have work to do." I don't really have a solution to this other than that I think it's a damn shame.
No Pain, Yet Gain I spent a lot of time playing the Driver: San Francisco game embedded in Watch Dogs 2, learning to coordinate movement and camera separately, before I started doing Side and then Main missions. It only took two evenings for me to get pretty competent in the majority of actions. And surprisingly, my hands didn't hurt. I abandoned my PS Vita many moons ago because my tiny lady hands couldn't reach around it without forcing the sides of the unit deep into the bones at the base of my fingers. Which HURT. I couldn't span the length of the thing, leaving an untouchable strip down the centre of both the front and back panels, making it useless for any game involving a touch screen. Hence, I was expecting mega palm and thumb ache, but the 360 controller turned out to be pleasingly ergonomic. The only thing that hurt was my ears from Watch Dogs 2's execrable soundtrack. Within a weekend I went from a fumbling swearing mess to a half-way competent player. I had expected it to take weeks to learn!
So Far, 'S a'ight I'm not a convert. I prefer the mouse and keyboard still. Being closer to the screen, having a higher degree of control and thus faster reactions, macro keys and mouse buttons make me feel much more "in" the game. There is something pleasing about the clack of the spacebar and a visceral sensation of skill as you learn to flick your fingers through complex and perfectly timed executions of moves. Thumbsticks still feel a bit...waggly and imprecise. Playing on keyboard is a very physical thing to me. I truly get into Flow when using a keyboard, especially in games like Mirror's Edge or vintage Tomb Raider, where a series of perfectly timed moves flow from your fingers with the ease and speed of a typist - the smack of the [JUMP!] space bar providing the the punctuation to the prose of the [WASD] movement keys. I miss that rhythm in my play. I also miss the satisfaction of headshot kills, which are rather more elusive on the controller than they are with the precision aiming afforded by even a low-spec gaming mouse. But, most seriously, sitting back from the screen may be saving my eyesight, but it makes it hard to feel quite so involved in the events of the game's narrative when your washing and last night's takeaway are now in eyeline, reminding you you are a bad adult.
