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[Miker]

As someone who's been gaming for a while, and loves using the Dualshock 4 (for PC gaming), I can't stand Sony's symbols. There's been very little consistency across games and across generations. Stuff like:

- In Japan, Circle is yes and X is no. And this is switched for the Western releases of Japanese games - but not all of them
- According to the one quote from the guy who came up w/ the shapes, Square is supposed to be the menu button - then why did a lot of PS1/2 RPGs use Triangle as the menu button? What games actually did use Square as menu?
- In the PS2 era (and some PS3 games, I think?), a lot of games used Triangle as back. Why. Good lord, why.
-- Now with the PS4, circle is back to being back. Well, okay then.
- Distinguishing between pink for square and orange-red for circle sucked on blurry-ass CRTs, and still kinda sucks in general when trying to decide which button to press. I still have to think for a split second when I first start a game and get used to controls.

If you grew up with Sony controllers and can use them well, that's good and all, and the shapes have become pretty iconic in their own right. That said, I don't see any practical advantages shapes offer over letters, and I hate that Sony has been so inconsistent with the controls across all these generations.

 

[Welfare]

Always called it "X" because of me playing Xbox first.

Spoiler

And because an X was used to cross out things, I'd just say "X-out

 

[CLEEK]

It's always been 'ex', not cross.

The designer who came up with the button design also refers to x as x, not cross.

http://www.1up.com/news/playstation-1-design

That explains how the controller got its look, but not how the buttons got their rather unique names. "That was also pretty tough," Goto revealed. "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."

 

[OneUh8]

Can't believe people call X "cross"... like wtf.

 

[the_champ]

I was a PS user on PS1 and 2 era. Since then an Xbox user, and STILL i call "square" to the X button.

 

[molnizzle]

People who say "cross" should be banned from playing videogames EVER AGAIN.

Goddamn right.

do you say gif or jif?

It's jif, heathen.

 

[Box]

Sony with their stupid shapes, who do they think they are?

 

[Jal]

It's GIF, not JIF.

Just because the inventor said it's pronounced JIF doesn't mean it's correct. You wouldn't pronounce GIRL; JIRL.
or
GUY;
JUY

Ridiculous.

It's like if Microsoft came out and said "It's actually Zzzbox".

How do you say George?

Spoiler

I agree it's GIF

 

[Mikhal]

It's cross, but I call it ecks anyways. I just assume that's how Japanese people call it. Like how an apostrophe is 'dash' over there

Street Fighter II' (aka Champion Edition)

K' (Kay Dash)

 

[Pinko Marx]

Only the nerdiest of the nerdy nerds call it a fhkn "Cross".

 

[Twilight Gap]

As someone who's been gaming for a while, and loves using the Dualshock 4 (for PC gaming), I can't stand Sony's symbols. There's been very little consistency across games and across generations. Stuff like:

- In Japan, Circle is yes and X is no. And this is switched for the Western releases of Japanese games - but not all of them
- According to the one quote from the guy who came up w/ the shapes, Square is supposed to be the menu button - then why did a lot of PS1/2 RPGs use Triangle as the menu button? What games actually did use Square as menu?
- In the PS2 era (and some PS3 games, I think?), a lot of games used Triangle as back. Why. Good lord, why.
-- Now with the PS4, circle is back to being back. Well, okay then.
- Distinguishing between pink for square and orange-red for circle sucked on blurry-ass CRTs, and still kinda sucks in general when trying to decide which button to press. I still have to think for a split second when I first start a game and get used to controls.

If you grew up with Sony controllers and can use them well, that's good and all, and the shapes have become pretty iconic in their own right. That said, I don't see any practical advantages shapes offer over letters, and I hate that Sony has been so inconsistent with the controls across all these generations.

Agree with this post

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

So was there a reason in America, they said.. "wait a minute, X should be OK now"

i mean.. why? up until that point, even nintendo had the button on the right as the OK button.

I haven't got the faintest idea, honestly. I remember reading someone somewhere postulating that American gamers think the button that's easiest to press (which is the button in the Sony X / Nintendo B position) should default to yes whereas in Japan people think it should default to no, but I don't know how much truth there is to that.

 

[WavekSra]

Crossbone

 

[MormaPope]

It's always been 'ex', not cross.

The designer who came up with the button design also refers to x as x, not cross.

http://www.1up.com/news/playstation-1-design

God is dead.

Long live X.

 

[CLEEK]

† is a cross
X is an X

I shed a tear when people complain that it's too hard to learn the symbols. It took me about 30 minutes for it to be second nature.

What about Naughts and Crosses?

Or ticks and crosses?

The X symbol when used to mean 'wrong' has always been known as cross.

 

[Thaumaturgic Tomato]

-

 

[Gorillaz]

It's X
It's always been X

who started this 'cross' thing

 

[baphomet]

I've always said X, but Sony has said many times its cross.

 

[LithiumSpade]

What the shit does the X in between those two even mean?? Versus? Multiplied by???

An X is a X people. #TeamECKS

This is all I could think of when I read your post.

Spoiler

But you're right.

In response to the OP, I actually can't remember. At the time I was going from SNES to PS1, and honestly I think I remembered the SNES buttons by position, so I doubt I struggled. I've never had problems switching between different controllers, likely didn't then. I know many of my friends still can't deal with it though!

 

[molnizzle]

I haven't got the faintest idea, honestly. I remember reading someone somewhere postulating that American gamers think the button that's easiest to press (which is the button in the Sony X / Nintendo B position) should default to yes whereas in Japan people think it should default to no, but I don't know how much truth there is to that.

Western languages are read left to right. Asian languages are read right to left.

That's literally all there is to it.

With that in mind, fuck Nintendo for continuing to force the Japanese scheme down my western throat. Backwards-ass shit.

 

[Thorakai]

LOL CROSS!

Master race X reporting in.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

Cross lol.

I bet it's those damned Americans that call it that. Bloody weirdos.

Also, worst first post in GAF history.

 

[Raonak]

I got used to it very easily, but it was my first console, so it's my default per-se.
Also, IIRC sony internally referres to X as cross, I remember seeing shirts at last E3 where it said Triangle, Square, Cross, Circle.
But yeah, I pronounce it as "eks". But circle as "circle" rather than "oh".

I actually got used to the xbox controller relatively easily because I used to play a lot of tekken, and in online guides and such, they referrer to the buttons based on the arcade buttons rather than PS buttons. So I got used to visualising them as numbers. Which made it easy to visualise xbox buttons.

1 = X = A
2 = O = B
3 = Sq = X
4 = Tr = Y

It is a cross, but you need god in your life if you say to other people "Yeah, jump is the cross button." Adjusting to controllers is easy peasy, but Sony's controllers using shapes instead of letters screams of being different for the sake of being different. I imagine during the PS1 days the controller designers said "fuck it, everybody does those random ass letters, lets use shapes motherfuckers."

Ended up being a good thing TBH, MS and Ninty both using letters is confusing.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

Western languages are read left to right. Asian languages are read right to left.

That's literally all there is to it.

With that in mind, fuck Nintendo for continuing to force the Japanese scheme down my western throat. Backwards-ass shit.

Yeah, that could well be it. Hadn't considered that since Japanese is sort of de facto left to right in a lot of domains at this point, including video games. But it's true that books and stuff are still largely right to left.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Is this another one of those regional things, like "SNEZ" vs "Ess-en-ee-ess"?

I've only ever heard "Ex" here, never "Cross". Here = Australia.

 

[Octavia]

Ped Crossing
or
Ped X-ing

Neither, I say ped-zing

 

[CLEEK]

Western languages are read left to right. Asian languages are read right to left.

That's literally all there is to it.

With that in mind, fuck Nintendo for continuing to force the Japanese scheme down my western throat. Backwards-ass shit.

Since the move from two buttons side-by-side, to four face buttons in cardinal positions, the default buttons based on comfort and excusably are Y/B (Nintendo) and Square/X (Sony). You can press both with the same thumb.

It annoys the hell out of me when you get games that just use two buttons and go with A/B or X/O.

 

[staticneuron]

† is a cross
X is an X

Here's the thing about crosses:

The axes are pointing in the cardinal directions.

Now look at the PS controller button:

That shit is an X!

Wow, where did some members go to school?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross

A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run obliquely, the design is technically termed a saltire, although the arms of a saltire need not meet at right angles.

A saltire is still considered a diagonal cross.

 

[Delt31]

its X people. stop the nonsense.

 

[PTG]

 

[DoubleTake]

If im asked I say "ecks" but its definitely Cross

 

[LithiumSpade]

All things considered, this isn't an argument worth having when you consider...

...what in the shit do you refer to these as?

 

[DoubleTake]

All things considered, this isn't an argument worth having when you consider...



...what in the shit do you refer to these as?

Circle, Waves, Three Lane Road, and Crowd of People.

 

[HoodWinked]

too bad they didnt just put the circle at the bottom.

made for such a fucking headache in ps1/ps2 where they would make the cancel and accept button a complete guessing game every time.

360 controller becoming the standard really improved controller language in a single generation.

 

[C4Lukins]

Parappa taught me how to use it.

 

[CLEEK]

All things considered, this isn't an argument worth having when you consider...

...what in the shit do you refer to these as?

Circle, Bacon, Wolverine, Google Apps

 

[Gorillaz]

those shirts are "non-canon" imo

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

Took me quite some time to adjust. Also because at the time I was a more of a Sega gamer.

I get the universal reasoning behind having shapes as opposed to letters, but being that English is my first language, I found a b x y super easy.

Going to Nintendo consoles always fucks me up though. No idea why they have b a y x

 

[Twilight Gap]

All things considered, this isn't an argument worth having when you consider...



...what in the shit do you refer to these as?

Moon
Water
Earth
Stars

lol at wolverine above

 

[Gangxxter]

Since I grew up with the PlayStation and the original digital PlayStation Controller was the first controller I've ever played with, this was no issue for me.

Took me a while though to get used to the ABXY layout of the 360 controller since I only play on PC these days and I own a 360 pad for only 3 years or so.

 

[HoodWinked]

Circle, Bacon, Wolverine, Google Apps

lol

 

[Syrus]

....is it really cross? .....my childhood has been destroyed

 

[PTG]

All things considered, this isn't an argument worth having when you consider...



...what in the shit do you refer to these as?

Circle, bunch of circles, vertical lines, approximately equal.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

....is it really cross? .....my childhood has been destroyed

Haha of course it isn't. It's just some people are weird, and stubborn.

 

[Robot Pants]

It's 100% X.
Not cross

 

[Hero Prinny]

I have never met anyone in real life or seen in any video of people referring to the x button as cross, its always been x, to me and every single person I know. besides the argument is silly.

also on topic, I had nintendo systems only till I turned 12 which was when I got a ps2, it took me 10 minutes give or take to get used to the layout.

 

[CLEEK]

XMB = Cross Media Bar = X = Cross ???

It's actually XrossMediaBar.

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/basicoperations/xmb.html

 

[Oreoleo]

Wow, where did some members go to school?

To a Catholic school where all the crosses looked like T's and not X'es!

wtf does wikipedia know anyway *grumble*grumble*

 

[TheRook]

Japanese games and Konami games have Circle has the accept button while alot of western games the cross was the accept button. At first it was lightweight annoying to back out of menu's when you press cross but I got used to it.

I remember this happening alot in MGS1 and ZOE, also playing imports like Gundam and such.

 

[Hollow]

I can't believe there's a debate over the X button...

Spoiler

This is the first I've ever heard it called "cross." Every game tutorial and designer has called it the X button. Myself and everyone who has ever played a Playstation console has called it the X button. You guys are weird.