paragonpro
Banned
At this point the majority of my gaming since 2006 has been on Xbox so I'm just used to that layout, I did have a ps1, 2, and 3 and 4 briefly, I've since switched to Xbox one last August. So really, either one works for me.
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Does anyone prefer PS button controller symbols over A/B/X/Y or 1/2/3/4?
- Thread starter JinjoUnchained
- Start date
DarkJedi24
Member
Easily among the most intuitive and universal of nomenclatures. Not to mention how iconic
the symbols are in representing PlayStation.
no pun intended
HawksWinStanley
Member
To be honest the only reason I DON'T prefer the shapes is for this reason. Forums.
I don't want to type out or even have to read long words for button inputs when I can get the same info with something as easy as 1,2,3,4 or A,B,X,Y. I guess the same could be said for chatting in game. When someone asks for a button it's easier to just throw out "Y" instead of saying "triange". Especially when it comes to longer inputs like fighting game combos. Reading, writing or saying them is just more of a pain than a letter or number.
It doesn't ruin my world or anything but that's literally the only reason why I'd prefer numbers or letters over shapes.
I'm another that has become so used to the PS symbols that I find other systems too confusing.
It's a particular issue on my 3DS as when it asks me to press X my first instinct is to go for the bottom face button. Then on top of that problem I feel the buttons are both placed and mapped wrongly in Mario games, they just don't feel right.
Don't get my started on what the hell triggers and bumpers are.
It's a particular issue on my 3DS as when it asks me to press X my first instinct is to go for the bottom face button. Then on top of that problem I feel the buttons are both placed and mapped wrongly in Mario games, they just don't feel right.
Don't get my started on what the hell triggers and bumpers are.
Silent Chief
Member
It's consistent. I like that. Not everybody uses A, B, C, D.
indubitably
Member
Multiple syllable button names are annoying, for that reason alone I think they are Inferior.
I have always connected any 'A' button to the word "accept" and any 'B' button to the word "back" and I think using those comparisons helps new gamers learn basic game navigation quickly.
I have always connected any 'A' button to the word "accept" and any 'B' button to the word "back" and I think using those comparisons helps new gamers learn basic game navigation quickly.
J
Jotamide
Unconfirmed Member
Yep, that's me as well.
Doctor_Thomas
Member
Too good.
Even without any additional context, you know what that is.
Letters or Numbers wouldn't mean anything, but the PS symbols are iconic.
PaulBizkit
Member
I played on nintendo consoles from age 3 to 16, then playstation all the way to last year (25) with the 3ds.
Only three times in my life have i used an xbox 360 controller and was confused as fuck. One time I was at a friend's house playing halo and he always said "ok you throw a grenade with square, reload with circle and shoot with R2". Made it very easy to learn the controls.
Only three times in my life have i used an xbox 360 controller and was confused as fuck. One time I was at a friend's house playing halo and he always said "ok you throw a grenade with square, reload with circle and shoot with R2". Made it very easy to learn the controls.
Omega Kirby
Member
Love the PS symbols
But abxy is amazing when done right
Look at that big A, it's just screaming to be touched.
And that bright red B, and those kidney shaped x and y
But abxy is amazing when done right
Look at that big A, it's just screaming to be touched.
And that bright red B, and those kidney shaped x and y
cyberheater
PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4
I prefer the Xbox Controller scheme. The colours are very easy to identify on screen.
I'm fine with either.
I don't think it matters too much in the grand scheme of things. Cognitively, our brains will recode whatever the meaning is for the button representation for that specific context. So, a Cross is no longer a cross, its a button cross, likewise A doesn't mean A, its a Button A. Then we map that to our physical environment which is where it confuses a lot of people going from Xbox to Nintendo or vice versa. When you switch systems like that, you have to relearn the your cognitive button mapping.
Edit: I hate ZR and ZL on the Pro Controller and Gamepad. I feel like they could have named that something else to get the point across but I guess they wanted to include Z somewhere due to its presence in past systems.
I don't think it matters too much in the grand scheme of things. Cognitively, our brains will recode whatever the meaning is for the button representation for that specific context. So, a Cross is no longer a cross, its a button cross, likewise A doesn't mean A, its a Button A. Then we map that to our physical environment which is where it confuses a lot of people going from Xbox to Nintendo or vice versa. When you switch systems like that, you have to relearn the your cognitive button mapping.
Edit: I hate ZR and ZL on the Pro Controller and Gamepad. I feel like they could have named that something else to get the point across but I guess they wanted to include Z somewhere due to its presence in past systems.
Shuggananas
Banned
letters are best because they're shorter to pronounce
and can spell out words, even if that's not really used, well except for CT I guess
and can spell out words, even if that's not really used, well except for CT I guess
Revolutionary
Member
I prefer PS buttons, because the Xbox button prompts in-game are incredibly gaudy.
Steve Youngblood
Member
I have almost zero preference and am used to all the layouts by now that I barely notice. However, when I had a DS4 configured for Xinput (i.e. you're getting Xbox prompts) on PC to play The Witcher 3 and my wife was playing, the thought hit me that I kind of wish this stuff was just standardized. I honestly couldn't care less what standard everyone decided on, but I do think it's kind of silly that they're all different.
boiled goose
good with gravy
Hateit.
Tri an gle
Cir cle
Too long. My brain doesn't map it as easily. Have to do it by location.
That said, I always forget which is x and which is y.
Tri an gle
Cir cle
Too long. My brain doesn't map it as easily. Have to do it by location.
That said, I always forget which is x and which is y.
Darth Karja
Member
Last time I owned a playstation was ps1 when it first came out. Ive had an xbox and xbox 360 and use a 360 controller for pc. I always call the button on top triangle.
ABXY makes far more sense than a bunch of random symbols. It is way more intuitive.
The naming of the buttons gives the user some awareness of where the actual buttons will be located. A button will be next to the B button. Since we read from left to right, the B button will logically be to the right of the A button. Same logic with the XY configuration. One row will be A&B buttons, the other row will be X&Y buttons.
Sony's layout is just nonsensical -- different for the sake of being different. I don't see what the point is in having icons instead of letters. "More universal"? Do people using Cyrillic or Arabic or Asian alphabets really have a hard time with our alphabet? It's only more universal in the sense that the button configuration is now universally confusing to people of every culture.
The naming of the buttons gives the user some awareness of where the actual buttons will be located. A button will be next to the B button. Since we read from left to right, the B button will logically be to the right of the A button. Same logic with the XY configuration. One row will be A&B buttons, the other row will be X&Y buttons.
Sony's layout is just nonsensical -- different for the sake of being different. I don't see what the point is in having icons instead of letters. "More universal"? Do people using Cyrillic or Arabic or Asian alphabets really have a hard time with our alphabet? It's only more universal in the sense that the button configuration is now universally confusing to people of every culture.
The Abominable Snowman
Member
ABC/XYZ but AB/XY is acceptable. Everyone else uses AB/XY, and I don't even have a problem switching from Wii CC/U/Dreamcast to Xbox 360/One. I only have problems when I have to 'think' about which button to hit in a QTE on the PS3/4 (And Gamecube).
And when there are voice cues in games like "Hit Triangle" my little brother has to look at the buttons to see which one is triangle whereas it's less thought involved on Xbox One.
And when there are voice cues in games like "Hit Triangle" my little brother has to look at the buttons to see which one is triangle whereas it's less thought involved on Xbox One.
Mass Effect
Member
Yeah, I agree with you. From a usability standpoint, the symbols are a poor choice.
Oh, and we're about to get burned at the stake now.
I was going to say no (simply because it is easier to just say ABXY), but honestly I always know where Triangle is. You tell me press Y and I still have a millisecond of confusion from how often i swap between microsoft (or sometimes dreamcast which has the same letter layout) and nintendo controllers. Sony controllers are unique and consistent, so if youve been using them for a while it becomes second nature.
The Mango Sentinel
Member
Fuck them all
Hyperzephyrian
Banned
North
South
West
East
I don't know why nobody's ever done that. You'd never forget it.
South
West
East
I don't know why nobody's ever done that. You'd never forget it.
GeordieMark
Member
I have absolutely no preference. I'm used to both.
pinkurocket
Member
I don't play PS that often. However I still get confused over circle/square and often have to look which is left and which is right. I do prefer letters. More than anything, I did love the GC controller with each button having a distinct shape.
PS buttons have made for great promotional material, so if we're talking looks then yeah sure.
PS buttons have made for great promotional material, so if we're talking looks then yeah sure.
Pokemaniac
Member
As someone who primarily plays on Nintendo systems, I'm not a huge fan of the PS layout, but I don't have any particular malice for it either. I like Nintendo's layout better, because I think the names of the PS buttons don't map nearly as well to their function (confirm being X and cancel being circle makes no sense at all), but the PS layout isn't a huge hinderance to me using the controller.
The Microsoft layout, on the other hand, is absolutely terrible, because they chose to use the same names as Nintendo, but put them in separate places. This layout actually hinders my ability to use the controller. It also makes properly configuring the button mappings when I use my Wii U Pro controller to play PC games a nightmare.
The Microsoft layout, on the other hand, is absolutely terrible, because they chose to use the same names as Nintendo, but put them in separate places. This layout actually hinders my ability to use the controller. It also makes properly configuring the button mappings when I use my Wii U Pro controller to play PC games a nightmare.
Dreamgazer
Member
Yes.
1. ABXY can get really confusing when you also happen to play both Nintendo and Xbox consoles.
2. The playstation symbols adds to a certain degree of charm on games that uses them, particularly games like patapon, gitarooman, Miku Diva F, etc. I cannot imagine playing those games with ABXY as the prompts and having a generic circles would have killed the charm.
(ex: Hatsune Miku Project Mirai feels much more generic with the ABXY button prompts.)
1. ABXY can get really confusing when you also happen to play both Nintendo and Xbox consoles.
2. The playstation symbols adds to a certain degree of charm on games that uses them, particularly games like patapon, gitarooman, Miku Diva F, etc. I cannot imagine playing those games with ABXY as the prompts and having a generic circles would have killed the charm.
(ex: Hatsune Miku Project Mirai feels much more generic with the ABXY button prompts.)
Shpeshal Nick
aka Collingwood
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?
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?
protomouse
Member
No. The letters are far more classic. They're also easier to communicate verbally. Everyone has their own terms for the symbols. For X it's usually "Ecks", "Kryss" or "Kors". O is usually called "Ooh", "Cirkel" or "Ring". It clashes mentally when I try to explain controls to other people. The L1/L2 naming is great though.
JinjoUnchained
Member
I believe the reason that NES went with BA instead of AB is that in most games, A was the primary button while B was the secondary button. In Mario, Mega Man, Adventure Island, and countless other platformers, you'd hold B to run with the point of your thumb and and tap A with the bottom of the thumb. But A was the "action" button, so it came first. Nintendo even made it that much more obvious with the big ass red A button on the GameCube controller.
This dynamic completely changed when the SNES introduced the two additional face buttons, but by then everyone already knew BA. The default changed to Y for run and B for jump, with X and A in supporting roles.
My theory anyway.
I've never gotten used to the PlayStation setup. Square, Circle and Triangle make no sense to me. If I'm playing a game on one (rare) I will make note eventually of which button does what, but the screen telling me to press Triangle will just confuse me. I also loved the GameCube controller where you didn't even need to know where which button was where by visual identification, but through the physical shapes of each.
A-B, X-Y is perfect for me.
A-B, X-Y is perfect for me.
kingwingin
Member
I mainly game on my ps4 and I always mess up when playing on xbox and it says "press x" I end up hitting A.
Your hand is on the right so it makes sense for A (confirm) to be on the right. You're not supposed to read the buttons like a book.
Lionel Richie
Member
Love the PS symbols
But abxy is amazing when done right
Look at that big A, it's just screaming to be touched.
And that bright red B, and those kidney shaped x and y
There's the GOAT right there. Back then when it came out I didn't think too much on it, but it's amazing how this motherfucker is downright perfect when you hold it. Plus, don't forget those sexy analog triggers.
Kurt Angle
Member
if you say cross
you dont deserve video games
you dont deserve video games