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Does anyone prefer PS button controller symbols over A/B/X/Y or 1/2/3/4?

Anko said:
PS buttons all the way. I still can't remember the xbox/nintendo buttons to this day. Thanks Microsoft. How nice of you to swap it around.
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It's very easy to remember that's for sure. I'm with you on the xbox/nintendo button naming. I still don't know it well. The playstation one is very easy to remember.
 
I prefer the PlayStation ones but probably because I've grown accustomed to them over the years. I remember that on my PS1 I had to look at my controller a lot at first.

Also I like how they are now connected to the PlayStation brand in their own way.
 
I grew up on Playstation buttons but I can pick up a Nintendo controller just fine. The few times I've played on a Xbox, it has been the most confusing shit to me.
 
I'm fine with any button set-up except for numbers. Something about NUMBERS on my face-buttons is annoying as *. Symbols, Letters, or a mix, they're all good. But no numbers.

R1, L2, and so on are fine, they're not face buttons.

Maybe it's because I associate numbered buttons to cheap third-party controllers that always broke on me as a kid.
 
JinjoUnchained said:
Or is it more that you've grown accustomed to them over time?

I'm more a Nintendo gamer, but I've always had a Sony console as a secondary option, usually one generation behind. So it's not like I can't use a DualShock or have trouble with Square/X/Triangle/Circle.

It's more that I don't see the point of using those symbols. You rest your hand over the PS controller in the same way as the others: thumb hovering over the leftmost buttons so you can hold the top one while pressing the bottom one. The right buttons are usually secondary inputs since you'd have to move your thumb from the default position. So in that way, the PS controller has the same general "feel" as the others.

It's fine once you get the base controls down, but what about fighting games, sports sims, or other games with more dynamic inputs? On a Nintendo or MS controller, all I have to do is memorize the input and I'm good. With a DualShock, I have to memorize the input AND translate the symbol to a particular button. In theory, you'd have to do the same with A/B/X/Y, but at least for me and others I know, that process is automatic with letters/numbers, but noticeably slower with abstract symbols.

Is there some benefit to using symbols that I'm missing? My research indicates that the symbols originally had more distinct meanings (eg square for menus), but it's clear that this was never enforced or used consistently. So I'm stumped on this one.
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After awhile it really didn't matter. The absolute only struggle I ever had was remember Dreamcast was SNES in reverse, and it really wasn't that bad.

As far as the story behind the symbols, I saw this quote, seems to make sense.

Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color. The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent 'yes' or 'no' decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that's what I wanted.
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I didn't understand the square, but if I never knew the button layout and had to put each symbol in a certain spot I wouldn't change a thing. I don't prefer the button layout over anything, but I don't remember it being that tough to get used to, but it's been a long time.
 
I love X/square/triangle/O, and Nintendo positioned A/B/X/Y.

I really don't like Xbox's A/B/X/Y because the positions are different from Nintendo's A/B/X/Y.

Over 2 decades of muscle memory from SNES dictate that if I have to react to an A/B/X/Y QTE, I will definitely press the button that corresponds to Nintendo's setup.
 
I definitely prefer them. It drives me crazy that most PC games don't offer them as an option. There really isn't an excuse not to.

I could see myself buying MGS5 on PS4 over PC because of it.
 
I'm probably just used to the PlayStation layout, but I do prefer them. I like that they can be vague and multipurpose shapes, as opposed to merely letters or numbers: cold data points. I recognise that it's such a minor point that it's hardly worth mentioning, but that's what I base my preference on.
 
Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color. The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent 'yes' or 'no' decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that's what I wanted.
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It is odd that O is red and X is blue, since O is originally "yes" and X is "no" in Japanese thinking. You'd think red would be "no".

The colors make more sense in the reversed meaning of how those buttons are used in the West. X being "yes" and O being a red "no".

Maybe the designers wanted symbols that made sense for the Japanese usage, but colors that worked with the Western usage.
 
I'll always prefer the PlayStation button naming conventions, that's for sure. They're just burned into my cerebral cortex ha-ha. I don't necessarily get confused with Xbox style button names, being that I am forced to see them as prompts on a lot of PC games, but I will always have to think about it instead of it just coming natural. In my mind I'm thinking "OK red button (B), that means circle"
 
Regulus Tera said:
I hate how I have to type Square and Triangle when discussing the buttons online. So XABY wins on that alone.
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That reminds me

TbdeLtS.png
 
Anko said:
PS buttons all the way. I still can't remember the xbox/nintendo buttons to this day. Thanks Microsoft. How nice of you to swap it around.
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Agreed. I have no idea what is going on with those nintendo and xbox controllers. PlayStation has always been the same and it just works. I wish Valve would have used them for their Steam Controller.
 
I don't mind it, other than I often get Circle/Square mixed up

The mismatch between Nintendo and MS is really annoying though. Does Nintendo have a patent or something that forced MS to switch the letters around?
 
I hate the symbols because they reverse the X and O for baka westerners which annoys me endlessly when trying to play Japanese games.
 
I've never found anyone that has this problem like I do but my brain is more color-oriented than object-oriented (that's the best way I'm able to explain it) so it gets confused when I have to press Square or Circle (Pink vs. Red) because the colors are so similar. PSX was my second console as a kid and to this day I still have to think twice about which is which. It makes fast quick-time actions that involve pressing Square or Circle really confusing and aggravating.

So I prefer A/B/X/Y or even Red/Blue/Green/Yellow.
 
I can use any of them, but I definitely prefer ABXY. And despite being a huge Nintendo fan and the fact that I currently don't own any Xbox, I actually kinda prefer the Xbox ABXY layout.
 
I'm happy with either really. In the PS1 days it did take me a while to get used to the symbols though. Its only Nintendo's reverse alphabetical order buttons that still confuse me now. Also I much prefer L1/L2 over LB/LT, I never called those buttons bumpers.

What I really miss is pads with 6 face buttons though, ABC/XYZ all the way.
 
iMax said:
I really like A/B/X/Y but I've really come to love ⃞/◯/△/╳, especially how it basically transcends all languages, regardless of their characters. I'd argue it's hands down the PlayStation's best feature.
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Lol. What the hell is this? You must really hate the Playstation consoles if the symbols on the controllers are their best features.
 
I didn't like them when I first used them either. I also thought the other way was easier to remember.

Now I have no issue with them. Only thing I have to remember is x on other controllers is not the same as x on PS (it's not the select button).
 
Firemind said:
Not in a million years. Triangle? Square? Circle? Who remembers these things?
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Anyone who's cleared a stage or two of Parappa.

Sony really ought to include the Chop Chop Master Onion stage into all their systems, on an OS level. It'd be a fun, effective tutorial to acclimate new users to the PS button layout.
 
Magikoopa.jpg

maxresdefault.jpg
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I cannot get these out of my head when I think of PS buttons. I think Microsoft was wise to copy Nintendo. The ABC combo of Sega Genesis was okay too, as are standard arcade stick layouts.

Maybe it is because the letters are a part of language and are therefore already in our active memory in most cases. If we used Triangle Square and Circle as letters there might not be a difference anymore. They are all symbols after all.
 
So, here's my anecdote. There's a minigame in Yoshi's Island for the SNES that has you pressing buttons that are displayed over Yoshi's head. I was TERRIBLE at it. Just wretched. However, years later I was playing the game emulated, and discovered I was quite good at it - And playing the PAL version, where the buttons were colored, instead of purple/light purple.

I have a hard time differentiating letters, I think. My handwriting bears this out a bit. Anyway, the point is, the symbols of a PS controller make my brain HAPPY. Despite growing up on nintendo systems, I defaulted to PS symbols mentally right away. I still sometimes confuse square and circle (Wish they had chosen slightly more different colors, or maybe made X red and circle blue), but I'll never forget that feeling of blank panic when I forgot if Y was the button on the top or the left.
 
I actually find the PS button shapes more intuitive than ABXY. I never associated the shapes with any particular thing before but the alphabet already had many previous associations embedded in my mind.

I also LOVE the fact that the PS buttons are assigned colors. So it's not just the shapes, the colors make remembering the buttons better. This is a God-send for fast rhythm games.
 
I prefer playstation symbols over abxy or 1234 mostly because i've been playing on sony consoles for a long time and although i've owned other platforms i just know the symbols and colors associated with them and their placement on the controller instinctively
 
RowdyReverb said:
I think it was Sega's fault since the Dreamcast was the first to swap the SNES's ABXY buttons AFAIK and the Xbox was sort of like the DC's spiritual successor.
Dreamcast_controller_(lit_from_left).jpg
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And this can be explained because the DC controller is just an evolution of the Saturn analog controller which has 6 face buttons. DC just chopped of the C and Z buttons.

4008887657_d1d754edb6_z.jpg


Also simply Sega stuck with alphabetical order since the ABC of the Mega Drive,
 
Shapes are more universal, different cultures have different letters and numbers.

That means 1000 years from now, Aliens from Andromeda would be picking up Playstation over all other consoles.
 
Chaos2Frozen said:
Shapes are more universal, different cultures have different letters and numbers.

That means 1000 years from now, Aliens from Andromeda would be picking up Playstation over all other consoles.
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Yo, I think Stephen Hawking is paying out $100 million for proof of extraterrestrial life. If you know where they are, you could make a killing.
 
xenorevlis said:
While I didn't mind A/B X/Y (and ABC / XYZ) from Sega days, I think the PS symbols make the most sense globally.
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Silent Chief said:
It's consistent. I like that. Not everybody uses A, B, C, D.
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This does make sense. I started gaming on an Atari 2600 so there was only 1 button to worry about. Simpler times....

Joey Ravn said:
I never liked the way Sony implemented their button labels. Nintendo's BAYX is the best solution, IMO.

Then again, I never liked Sony much anyway, so maybe my opinion responds to other reasons as well...
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Thanks for being honest...lol.

Collingwood said:
As an English speaking person, Microsoft's layout is clearly the best. Any other native English speaker saying otherwise is either lying or crazy. Its using the order of the alphabet. You don't have to memorise what letter us where, its alphabetical. With PlayStation you have to actually go out of your way to remember which symbol is where.

Having said that, not everyone in the world speaks English. Shapes/Symbols are universal. So I could see how PlayStations combo is more popular outside English speaking countries.

Nintendo's layout is just dumb. Could literally never understand why they went backwards with A and B.

A comes before B in the alphabet
A for Accept
B for Back

Its just insane to go the other way. Unless that was just some sort of Japanese/English mistranslation thing that happened back in the 80's?
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I'm a liar and crazy cuz I dont think its the best. I do agree Sony's way is more universal. But the way you described looking at MS's way...seems off. I look at the setup like a clock face. Wouldnt it make even more sense for A to be at the top if were were to read the buttons like reading a book? A, B, X, Y starting from the top? Or A, B, X, Y with A starting on the left, B at the top, etc? Either way if reading it like a book AB would be over XY. EDIT: lol..looking at my Sega post...I think I see where you are coming from with the reading like a book. The orientation of the letters on MS controllers just makes it look off.

agiantenemycrab said:
Bah, you people are using the wrong names for the PS symbols.

tumblr_ndbgrs3B531r20whwo1_540.png
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Nice, I like it.

ZhugeEX said:
I like my custom made, exclusive, Dynasty Warriors Edition controller.

DWLE_zpsp8x22ax1.jpg
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Get out.

Chaos2Frozen said:
Shapes are more universal, different cultures have different letters and numbers.

That means 1000 years from now, Aliens from Andromeda would be picking up Playstation over all other consoles.
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We can wrap it up.....PS way is the best... I didnt believe it before but now I do.
 
I don't like how a,b,x,y are opposite on Xbox and Nintendo.

I've grown up with Sony mostly so I do prefer the shapes, but the shapes does have a natural feel to it.
 
I liked the Sega consoles that did A,B,C - X,Y,Z also.

Looking at the way the letters are oriented on those buttons...it looks like reading from left to right. For that I can agree it looks like reading.
 
I prefer THESE symbols over all else.

ps-vita-review-04.jpg


Vita means life.

But seriously, those face buttons are amongst the best ever made, in my view. Nice and clicky and just the right size for a handheld.
 
I thought circle=1, X=2, triangle=3, and square=4. So if you like the symbols you have to like the number setup at well. The lines are counted for each shape.
 
I bought a PS3 so I could play RE5. I used to mess up every QTE because i had to literally look down at the controller to figure out what button to press. As far as one layout being better than another, I don't think it matters and I have gotten used to it. PS controllers might be easier to read if they used colored buttons though, but they wouldn't look as sleek.
 
Playing the NES and SNES before Sony jumped in the game, I prefer B/A/Y/X above all.

But I've had every Playstation so I'm used to their set-up.
 
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