Why do PC Gamers Oppose Using a Controller?

[MrFalconfly]

Well as I see it, the whole point of using the PC for gaming is flexibility, and as such I don't have an aversion to using a controller. I just dislike being forced to use a control-input I'm uncomfortable with (a gamepad for Air Combat Games or FPS's, or a Keyboard for racing).

The reason the first Ace Combat game I bought was Assault Horizon was because it was available on PC and therefore available with a proper Flight Stick and not some fiddly gamepad.

 

[Mutant150]

PC gamers oppose using a controller? This is news to me. I use the best tool at hand for the job, whether it's my absurdly over-featured Roccat Kone for shooty games or my girlfriend's electric toothbrush for getting mould out of grouting. My xbox pad works best for driving games, arcade emulators and fighting games, and m+k is best for rpgs, fps and rts. Enough of this pc vs console nonsense - stop trying to stir the pot, nobody really gives a shit.

 

[In Search of Username]

I'm a PC gamer and I generally use a controller (hell, I even use Steam Big Picture too) on games that feel like they'd suit it better - driving games, third-person non-RPG action games and such. Then I use keyboard and mouse for FPSs, RTSs and RPGs. I guess some people just feel excessively loyal to the idea of PC gaming and don't want any association with what they consider to be a part of console gaming? Whatever, the advantages of PC for me are the better processing power and graphics, not the control scheme necessarily.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I use whatever works best for a given game, and I'm not sure why a person would adopt any other stance.

Dark Souls is objectively better with a controller - as are most other third person non-shooters. Racers are better with a controller assuming you don't invest in an expensive wheel. Fighters are better with a controller assuming you don't invest in an expensive arcade stick. Nearly all sports games are better with a controller. There are even some trade-offs with certain third person shooters that stress character movement as much as aiming.

Keyboard and mouse are superior for virtually all FPS and RTS games as well as probably a majority of third person shooters.

If you're sticking to one input scheme exclusively, you're either missing out on some great games or playing some great games very sub-optimally. Kind of ridiculous when you could shell out maybe $40-50 bucks and cover all your bases. It's not that hard to "get used" to both so long as you stick to the same genres with each one.

 

[Shraggler]

I guess I used to feel that keyboard+mouse was superior when I was 12 or 13.

To me, it's still the most precise way of controlling oneself in a virtual environment, but some games are designed around using a controller.

I've never been great at FPS's that use a controller (looking at you Halo) and I don't think that controllers will ever surpass the inherent comfort and level of control I personally feel with a KB+M combo in an FPS. Same thing, to a degree, with RTS games.

Games like Dark Souls, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the Assassin's Creed series, and others feel great with a controller and, to me, it feels more natural. Maybe it's because the aforementioned games are 3rd person (and it helps that they were mostly designed for consoles), and the necessity of precision 'aiming' isn't necessary in those games, but I find that it just works better. The intuitive feeling is there and makes the games a lot more fun.

But yes, I still have friends that basically refuse to use a controller, or play any games designed around a controller as the primary user input device. Fuck 'em. I'm having fun.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

I'm a PC gamer. Always have been. And yet I love using controller for absolutely everything. When I play shooters in single player, I still use controller, even though I know KB+M is better. I only switch when I play a but of multiplayer.
I really don't understand why a bunch of other PC gamers hate controllers. Maybe it's elitism, I have no clue.

 

[Bruce]

Periodically I see people taking about using a controller to play PC games. Sometimes I see people who prefer to use a controller but more often, I see people complaining about the fact that they need a controller to play in correctly. I never really understood why so many PC gamers have a problem with playing their games using a controller. I remember back in the early to mid 90s, when owning a joystick was practically a requirement for PC gaming. Owning a usb controller seems to be the modern day equivalent of a joystick, in the sense that so many games (mostly ports) require once for the best gaming experience. So why do you feel/think there's more opposition from PC gamers to using a controller, than there was to using a joystick?

With a lot of games it is just more precise using a mouse - and you get used to it in much the same way a console gamer gets used to using console controls. It is also a bit of a principle thing - if a game is ported to a system it should work on that system's default controls.

In other words you wouldn't want a console game that requires a keyboard and mouse.

 

[DiamondMX]

The OP is badly misrepresenting the opinions of others.

As is clearly shown in this thread, PC gamers do not have a problem with controller support.
They have a problem when a PC game does not fully support the basic PC input method of Keyboard & Mouse.

Much like a console gamer would have a problem if a console game required them to use KBM to play. This doesn't happen, because Sony/MS/Nintendo have standards which include the requirement for the game to support the default control method, some specialist peripherals notwithstanding.

If you're looking to understand why another group disagrees with you, try not framing them as unreasonable idiots in your question.

As a primary PC gamer myself, I prefer to use a controller (and indeed a console) for the games where that is the best input method - driving, flying, platforming, fighting games, ARPGs. And I prefer to use a KBM for the games where that is the best input method - FPS, RTS, TBS, MMO, NWN-style RPGs.

Use the right tool for the right job, and it's not unreasonable to get irritated when a company decides to force you to use the wrong tool, especially if you've got the right tool sitting between you and the monitor.

 

[Bertylicious]

For fucks sake; it has nothing to do with elitism or perceptions of inferiority. It is soley because people resent having to buy another peripheral. I remember being utterly miffed back in the 90s at having to buy a joystick to play X-Wing vs TIE Fighter.

I bought one anyway, couldn't hit anything for toffee with it and it broke after a week. Joysticks are rubbish.

 

[Kinitawowi]

I have an old Saitek P880 controller and a Microsoft Sidewinder joystick attached to my PC. I'll freely admit that they don't get used much; I bought the Saitek for a PS1 emulator and the Sidewinder for MAME.

The problem is that I grew up on keyboard. Not KB/M; keyboard. It took me ages to adjust to using KB/M for FPSs, because the first FPSs simply didn't need it. There was no up/down needed, it was just forward/back/left/right with a modifier for strafe, another for run, and fire and use buttons. Adjusting to KB/M around the time of Quake III was a *****. The main issue is keyboard's precision. The keys are separated and individually responsive, and there's no ambiguity. If you press left, you're going to go left. Analog sticks have always felt slightly... sloppy? in comparison. They're maybe useful for navigating in 3-space (because that's where the digital nature of the keyboard loses out - it's difficult to move at 30 degrees, say), but then the mouse whomps it for accuracy.

I mean, there are undeniably games which do feel somehow more "right" with a controller. I can imagine Bayonetta feeling like crap with KB/M, because that's just the type of game it is; and while you could undoubtedly do a Final Fantasy game with keys, I'm not sure I'd want to. Vice-versa, I've tried playing some of the console versions of Command And Conquer, and... no. Just no. It's simply a case of using the control mechanism that suits the game best, and most of the time, for the games that I play, on PCs, that means KB/M.

 

[Tilted_Logic]

For me it comes down to something very simple: aiming.

With a mouse and keyboard, I can pop off heads in succession like it's going out of style; give me a controller though, and I'm about 70% likely to shoot off my own foot.

There's just something about using a thumb stick to try and aim: I'm never precise, and it feels like it takes me forever to actually line up the shot. I was 'enticed' into buying MW3 (I know, I know /shame) for the ps3, and it was just brutal for the first few weeks. I was lucky to get 2 kills a match. But eventually it did get better, and the aiming gets easier, but it's still never ever been close to how much more accurate I feel on a PC. Shooters on consoles just frustrate me to no end because of how poorly I do. Heck, I had to play Bioshock on easy on the PS3 because of how poor my aim was, whereas usually I'm trucking through shooters on the hardest difficulty.

So yeah, for me it's just my inability to accurately and quickly aim with a stick. Had I grown up playing any shooters on consoles (yay for Donkey Kong and Adventure Beetle Racing), I'd probably be more accustomed to it, but spending my days using the PC means I'm just not accustomed to controllers, and it's frustrating.

 

[dvd_72]

It really does depend on the type of game you're playing. For shooters I preffer the responsivness of aiming with a mouse over a clunky controller, but for a fighter or a game like Dark Souls? Definitally prefer a controller.

Everything has a time and a place.

 

[FEichinger]

Thesis: "PC gamers oppose using a controller"

Replies in Study:
"I don't get it either, controllers are much better than K&M."
"Nah, I use a controller, because K&M doesn't work for genre X."
"I love M&K, but I have no issues with controllers."
"I use M&K all the time but controllers work nicely for genre Y."

Conclusion: Stop assuming things. This cuts both ways. Console gamers whine about M&K being oh-so-shit just as much as the other way around.

 

[Quadocky]

I am not opposed to using a controller. The problem is, most games on the PC are either simply not designed for them or require specifically an Xbox360 Gamepad.

 

[mechalynx]

I've got an Xbox 360 wireless for PC that only gathers dust when I'm running around in Guild Wars och playing FPS.

But then I'm not exclusively PC.

 

[Lightknight]

There's a lot of console controllers that are used as pc controllers out there. It really depends on what you're doing. If we're talking RTS games, then most people would rather not play the game at all than use a controller. For FPS titles, the speed, control, and accuracy of a mouse is significantly better. Perhaps some FPS players use a controller on those titles but they're at a disadvantage if they do.

Just try this, move your mouse to the left, then move it back to the right. You can turn pretty far really fast and the moment you start going back to the right, the pointer is already moving to the right. There's a delay both ways on a controller. The first delay is in the pressure sensitive sticks that are the input. They move slow at first and then speed up. Then there's the other idea that you aren't turning back to the right until the joystick is on the right of center, so the entire time spent getting the stick back to center is wasted. That's a lot of wasted time over the life of a game and can be just enough to put you in an unfair position against individuals using a mouse.

But that's just speed. Precision and Accuracy are better. If you have both a controller and a mouse you can test this out. Just get the point in the bottom left-hand corner and evaulate how quickly and accurately you can get the point to another point on the screen. Most people will find the mouse is almost instantly whereas the controller does take longer to center on a specific point.

There's bascially no disadvantage to using keyboard/mouse (aside from ergonomics, perhaps)whereas there are some short comings for controllers. That's all. Controllers are still perfectly viable in most titles and as long as everyone else has the same input then the advantage isn't there. I wouldn't like to learn that other 360/ps3 COD players had a mouse and keyboard to play with, for example. They may, but I'm not aware of it. There's a non-trivial number of indie games that also recommend using the 360 controller.

 

[Weaver]

My only complaint is when a game doesn't even try to redo the controls for mouse and keyboard, which is the native control scheme for a PC environment. But instead does weird things, like map the joystick movement, with joystick acceleration, to the mouse and things like that. Dark souls comes to mind.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

For me it depends on the type of game. If it's FPS or RTS then I'll always prefer keyboard and mouse.

For platformers, driving games, fighting games, I'll always use a controller.

Different control schemes work better on different game genres.

Anyone who thinks a controller is better for FPS by the way... aim assist. Enough said.

I agree with this guy.
OT:
I'm in no way opposed to using a controller. I wouldn't own consoles if I was. But being forced to use a controller because the K+M controls are quite simply broken? That's really not gonna cheer me up.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

I just prefer mouse-and-keyboard controls for my favourite genres. A controller is worthless for playing RTS games (my mainstay) and I will take mouse-aiming over an analog stick for shooters any day. It is just a preference thing, I don't have some kind of grudge against controllers. I find that driving or flying is almost always more awkward with a mouse-and-keyboard setup, I just happen to not play games that require those two things very often.

I'm with you on this - With RTS games, it's just not possible for the required APM to happen in a meaningful and consistent manner with a gamepad-type controller. The precision of a properly set up mouse (I want my pointer to appear... here!) cannot be matched by analogue fiddly sticks (I want my pointer to slowly/quickly move in that direction!). With some training, the gamepad controller serves its purpose in an FPS, but I think it only works because all the players are all inconvenienced in the same manner.

I think Skyrim worked quite nicely with K&B, but Amalur or Dark Souls were borderline torture devices without a controller attached.

On the other hand, it has to be noted that the driving controls of Gran Turismo 5 are pretty solid for controllers, and are only annihilated by the steering wheel & pedals combo. Car driving or plane flying doesn't fly with I/O 0%/100% clickediclack input.

 

[Funyahns]

I am an exclusive PC gamer now I have not turned on my xbox for anyone but kids in months. I use a controller for certain games. I have an extender hooked up to the control, and pc is hooked up to big tv. So its nice to lean way back and play on the tv. People who look down on the practice are not worth listening to honestly.