An open letter to all game development studios and console manufacturers regarding alternative control schemes.
As a software developer, a gamer, and someone who knows plenty of lefties (left-handed individuals) out there, I’m kind of at a loss to explain why modern video games are so inaccessible to a demographic that makes up 7 to 10% of our population. I really can’t comprehend why a game studio looking to put out a blockbuster game and sell millions of copies would choose to ignore that large a chunk of their target audience. If designing a game to work for lefties were such a big hurdle to overcome, that would be one thing, but it’s not. Programming a control scheme that caters to lefties is such a simple addition to a game that every studio out there should be doing it.
Some game studios are better than others, but most still fail miserably at implementing a control scheme for lefties. I’m even willing to bet there isn’t one single game studio executive out there that’s left handed. If there were, they would definitely be pushing all of their games to be lefty friendly. One of my gamer friends, whose Xbox Live gamertag is Dez1013, has this to say about lefty controls.
It’s frustrating, when I go to get a new game or just browse the shelves for something new I can’t buy it immediately. I usually have to check with friends or search online to see if a game has control customization, then go and either get the game or listen to my friends talk about how much fun it is while I sit in the party chat. If you think its easy, try switching to lefty and see how well it works for you. It’s quite frustrating, you can’t react as you normally would, and you have to think about every action before you do it.
I’m not sure if it’s flat out ignorance or deliberate prejudice against lefties that causes game studios to leave these options out of their games. It’s not as if most of these games don’t already have some alternative control schemes in them, but almost all of them are catered to changing a controller’s button preferences and not movement control schemes. Modern video game consoles and PC’s have some of the most advanced computer hardware on the market today. The ability to handle that minute little extra processing power it takes to interpret different control schemes is there. Game studios need to design their games to be usable for all gamers, not just the 90% of us that are right handed. To do otherwise is to lose potential sales and fans.
The problem doesn’t lie solely at the feet of game studios though. Personally, I would say most of the problem could be fixed by game console manufacturers. At first, I thought that the console could have default lefty controller mappings set on the console itself that each game could read in, but there are simply too many games out there with too many slight variations for any platform wide default to be feasible. No, the simple solution that console manufacturers could do is to put out alternative controllers.
This image was used as an April Fool's Day joke by one website a few years back.
Why can’t Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo put out alternative lefty controllers that are literally mirror images of their current controllers but have the hardware wired up so that to the console, the input is the same? All a controller does is send specific signals to the console telling it which button was pressed or what direction a thumbstick was moved. A mirrored controller would allow lefty gamers to enjoy every single game out there on that console without causing developers the time and effort (however little it may be) to implement alternative controller schemes.
I would like to issue a call for all game studios to implement controller schemes that cater to left handed gamers, until such time as the game console manufacturer decides to market the hardware that makes controller schemes unnecessary. Gaming is a past time that is meant to be enjoyed by all. Game designers and hardware manufacturers need to get on the ball and stop ignoring that segment of our population.
Edit (8/11/2010): I’m adding these diagrams for those who are not avid games and unfamiliar with the standard default layout, legacy, and southpaw layouts.
Legacy Layout - Sideways motions of thumbsticks swapped
Standard Layout - Left thumbstick controls motion, right thumbstick controls the direction you're looking.
Southpaw Layout - Thumbsticks are swapped from the standard layout
+1 for legacy controls. I have been playing that way my whole life and I refuse to change my controller style to play a game. If the developers do not take the time to put in a handful of alternate controller schemes, it is not worth my time to play the game. There are only a few things that separate the good games from the great ones, and southpaw and legacy are part of that edge. Look at the greats, they all have southpaw and legacy.
Why not just contact a third party accessory manufacturer and pitch the idea of a left hand controller to them? the major companies probably wont care that much simply because the way things are working is just fine for them.
That’s not a bad idea there. The issue isn’t really about who does what, but just that something needs to get done. Software developers could implement control schemes, console manufacturers could produce hardware for it, or even 3rd party vendors could provide the solution. And it’s not as if all software developers are failing at this. Some already provide great alternatives for gamers. It’d be nice though if they all did.
I’ve been a left-handed person for 42 years now, even had the lefty scissors in elementary school but all that did was made kids laugh and poke fun, (kids are mean). I’m proud of being left-handed (Only people in our right-minds), to many games have never had left-handed controls so i just gave up, and adapted the best i could.
Who knows, maybe i’d be a better gamer if the controls suited me but i won’t let that stop me playing.
My 2 Cents
7 to 10% of the population is a lot of people. Even if only a third of them bought a game it would lead to a 2 to 3% increase in sales. For example if Transformers:WFC would have featured lefty controls then their sales could have gone up 3% from 163,407 sold to 168,309. That is a difference of 4,902 copies. High Moon Studios, the developer of WFC, should ask themselves if they would have made more money by taking the time to include lefty controls and sell almost 5,000 more copies.
Sales figures taken from http://www.vgchartz.com/game.php?id=41903.
My 2 cents:
If you want devs to implement Legacy and Southpaw controls, explain what they are and include easy to read diagrams and explanations instead of just being mad about it. A Google search for Legacy and Southpaw Controls yields a whole lot of complaining, but not a single link on the front page explaining what exactly it is. The top link is Alt-Controls.com which contains a lot of venom, but doesn’t yield a shred of info about what they actually want to see implemented.
Expecting them to go out of their way to find information from a community that is vocal, but not forthcoming about their expectations is not a valid PR strategy. Clearly inform your audience. Make the information transparent and easy to digest. That’s how you get change implemented.
I can appreciate wanting to have more information as to what the layouts are. I’ve updated the post to include that information for you, but most gamers out there are already familiar with the layout options which is why I didn’t initially include them. As for what’s effective at getting changes to happen, there will be critics of any suggestions for change made, however it is done.