Yeah, and how many games use the left stick as the primary control method these days? Pretty much all of them. With the right stick, you are having to bend your thumb in a bit to use it, but it would be more awkward if you had to bend your thumb in a bit to use the 4 face buttons. For shooters, the Wii-U Pro controller is best. For games that use the left stick and face buttons, the 360 controller is best. For games that use the D-pad and face buttons, the Dual Shock is best. And by "best", I mean that your thumbs fall naturally on the controls.
I'm not sure I buy the "fall naturally" argument, as I don't know if it means anything, but let's go with that for a sec.
The way I see it... and I'm not militant on this point, as I mentioned, I switch between them all the time and have no real big issue with either apart from the Xbox's mushy dpad... but I would like to understand why there is a vocal contingent that thinks symmetry is an outright mistake.
Shooters, or any 3D game with camera control - primarily both thumbs on sticks, fingers on shoulder buttons. Point for symmetry.
Racers - primarily left analog + shoulder buttons. Point for symmetry.
Platformers - primarily either left analog or dpad interchangeably, and face buttons. A wash. Arguably better on 360 controller if you never use the dpad. Arguably better on dual shock if you prefer dpad for platformers.
Fighter - dpad + face buttons. Point for symmetry.
You see where I'm going with this. Again I don't think it's a big deal to do the little reach, but if I had to analyze the most-used control mechanisms in games, I can't escape the fact that if there's 3D camera control, you are in fact using both sticks most of the time, and that just feels more intuitive to put them side by side. No one ever built an offset RC controller or steering wheel, it's just odd. So I think MS basically borrowed the Dreamcast's scheme (in that window of time when we were just getting used to one analog stick) and stuck with that.
Sheroking said:
3D camera control is dogshit with symmetrical sticks.
Maybe
you will be the one to actually try and explain why you think this is...?
abadguy said:
I find movement and aiming with that set up easier personally. When i first bought my PS3 slim and KZ2 with it, i found it uncomfortable to be honest and ended up getting the S6 controller the next day. Also i have never really been a huge fan of "d-pads" at all, for anything other than maybe controlling a menu or something but not so much for any sort of gameplay.
Thanks for the answer. I mean all you said was "it feels better", so ok, but I'm still not sure exactly why, other than you haven't spent any real time with a dual shock maybe? I readily admit that after using that shape for 10+ years, I probably have a lot of muscle memory for that controller, but it still didn't stop me from using the xbox controller.