Whenever I play first person games, from shooters to RPG's, every game character seems to be right handed. While I understand why that is the default setting for game characters, what I dont understand is why there can not be an option for characters to be left handed. I am sure it would not be all that hard to program (just flip it around), and it is really odd for me to see a character holding a sword in his right hand, so why not just have the option? I am fine with a couple of games not having it, but I just find it odd that you can not do that. Thoughts?
Poll: Why are game characters never given the ability to be left handed?
- Thread starter Rocking Thunder
- Start date
As a lefty from a family of lefty's...never given a flying fuck. Right handed people are just more common, the end.
I remember it was pretty cool in the original Black & White though that you could make your "God Hand" your left hand.
I remember it was pretty cool in the original Black & White though that you could make your "God Hand" your left hand.
In Red Dead Redemption you can switch views (when aiming your gun) from right to left by using the d-pad.bobtheorc said:
If that's what you mean...
I can see it really screwing up the animations, to be honest. Take two right (or left) handed combatants - the shield arm of each fighter faces the sword arm of their opponent, and combat animations look natural. But if a left handed fighter and a right handed fighter are in combat, both opponents shield arms are opposite each other, as are the sword arms. To use existing animations would look totally unnatural, and obviously developers have decided the cost of motion-capturing and rendering the new animations that would be needed is not worth the expense.
In skyrim it looks like you can assign anything you want to either hand. Also not technically a shooter but in InFamous you can make Cole left handed
Well I can see for like swordfighting games, but what about shooters, I mean I dont think it would screw up animations if your cod character was lefthanded
Link from LoZ was always lefthanded; they had to flip the controls for Twilight Princess because more people are right-handed and use the Wii remote as such...
the GC version is still lefthanded tho.
and mo-cap and whatnot is not that big of a deal. all animators have to do is flip everything
the GC version is still lefthanded tho.
and mo-cap and whatnot is not that big of a deal. all animators have to do is flip everything
You can change it to left handed in Counter-Strike but yeah that kinda thing isn't often done in games.
Probably because it takes more time to set up than just going with right handed and it doesn't really make much of a difference gameplay-wise.
Probably because it takes more time to set up than just going with right handed and it doesn't really make much of a difference gameplay-wise.
Counter-Strike had the option. Don't know about CS:S, though.
Also in Advent Rising you would equip weapons or powers to both hands using the left and right mouse buttons (I played the PC version) to activate the corresponding weapon/power, and since you usually fire with the left button in other games, the character ended up left-handed for the part of the game, where guns were relevant.
Also in Advent Rising you would equip weapons or powers to both hands using the left and right mouse buttons (I played the PC version) to activate the corresponding weapon/power, and since you usually fire with the left button in other games, the character ended up left-handed for the part of the game, where guns were relevant.
Some games do (CS comes to mind, though I may be wrong [having not played it for a while]) but a lot of the time it isn't really worth the effort. I'd feel safe saying that the majority of the gaming population is right handed, and out of those that are left handed, few would decide not to buy a game because of it.
Developers probably see the effort as being put to a better use by using it to improve other features. At least, thats what they like to think they do. Sometimes they just screw everything up instead.
Developers probably see the effort as being put to a better use by using it to improve other features. At least, thats what they like to think they do. Sometimes they just screw everything up instead.
Not saying it's the right attitude but I assume it's too much extra work for developers to include something most lefties don't care about anyway.