In defence of the controller over the mouse for online FPS

[John Stalvern]

You forgot some:

The more comfortable and easier access to different buttons.
The analog sticks superiority over the WASD movement control.

Really? I can move and hit any control at the same time. Try aiming and hitting 'a' simultaneously, and then get back to me. I'll give you the second one, and incidentally, the only advantage of a gamepad at all.

I actually do this all the time. Swapping your index finger with your middle one is easy compared to, say, playing a few chords on a guitar.

 

[DeadlyFred]

But looking behind you and assessing the situation takes precious time you don't have, no matter how quickly/easily you can start the process. Knowing layouts and formulating plans before hand is none the less beneficial to survival.

Knife-fights in most PC FPS games can also get pretty ridiculous.

 

[DeadlyFred]

Yeah, I still think its a pretty asinine comparison.

 

[DeadlyFred]

How is it "more" beneficial? Knowing there is a tree behind you is knowing there's a tree behind you, regardless of how fast you can turn around and look at it.

 

[DeadlyFred]

Someone go get me an electron microscope so I can see these grains of sand you are laboriously pouring over. Seriously.

 

[DeadlyFred]

That's what I'm trying to say here.

 

[DeadlyFred]

Who uses covering fire in MP gaming? Covering, or suppressing, an enemy means pointing in their general direction and unloading as steady as possible. All covering fire in a FPS is going to get you is shot in the head when the person you're shooting at realizes you just shot your entire magazine into a wall and pops out from behind said wall to shoot you in the face.

The fact that aiming is so precise in a PC FPS is pretty much enough to make someone keep their head down if they think there is someone drawing a bead on them.

 

[RenegadeRed]

Your argument essentially states that controlling games with the controller is shitty but it's equally shitty for everyone. Oh and thanks to said controller there's limits on how good you can get. It's kind of like saying basketball in wheelchairs is better because it makes everyone the same height.

No, it's more like saying that basketball with ten-foot hight rims is better than basketball with five-foot high rims because it transforms the game from one where the only test of skill is whether you can get close enough to dunk into a game where skills like jump shots and rebounding come into play.

In other words, here's what I think is the heart of what the OP is trying to say: a controller is better than a mouse because it puts an upper limit on how reliably anyone can aim perfectly. This upper limit on perfect aiming makes other skills *relatively* more important than they would be if the game was played with a mouse. That makes controllers better because an FPS is a lot more fun if it's a test of all those other skills *in addition to* aiming than when skill in aiming can trump all other skills as it does when using a mouse.

Here's what you're saying: if everyone had more crappy aiming controls then games would be better. WHAT?!?! Are you insane? You're ASKING for worse controls? Aren't there already enough bad games with poor control schemes?

Also your little facetious analogy is incorrect. Whether you use mouse or controller, the actual rules of the game itself are NOT transformed at all (but in your analogy, the rules of basketball are changed by changing the preset elevation of the rim).

As previously said, the only difference between the two control schemes is that the mouse users have the capacity to increase their aiming skills more than the controller users can, which is what rossatdi is crying about. In other words, the original analogy made by Decoy was logically more correct,

"It's kind of like saying basketball in wheelchairs is better because it makes everyone the same height." (Even though wheelchairs don't necessarily make people the exact same height, they at least lower the difference in height.)

People who start advocating the controller over the mouse (to replace an accurate tool with a LESS accurate tool) essentially want to put everyone in wheelchairs. They want to lower the level of the game, dumb down all the competition, gradually chip away at the differences between players, until there is no point in your striving to get better because you'll always be on the same level and will almost never be able increase your skill. By contrast, the whole POINT of an online game is that some people have more skill than others, whether it be skill with a mouse or knowing the map or whatever.

rossatdi is just pissed off because he has several good FPS skills, but is lacking in other skills (namely, mouse reflex). So he comes here on the forums saying how only the skills HE'S good at should be kept in the game, but all skills which he SUCKS at should be thrown out because they don't let him have 'fun'. Wow, how utterly SELFISH.

Of course, playing using a mouse is not nearly as hard as playing basketball. If you can't learn to maneuver a small, round object on your desk the size of a rodent then there is something wrong with YOU, not with the mouse.