• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

PS Paddle Keys: Triangle, Square, Circle, and Perp-Lines

I hate how in the west O and X are switched.
It gets even worse with the PS3 since it's tied to the system menu. If you play a game that isn't the same region as the console, confirm/cancel are switched between the game menu and the save menu. So confusing...

Why not put in the system menu an option to define which button to confirm? It's pretty damn simple.
I didn't buy a PS4 yet but like the Vita, I will get a Japanese version to at avoid 90% of the hassle when I play a localized game.
Why SONY? Why...

I think the original reason was related to the fact that a circle is used to denote something as correct in Japan and false in America as related to school work in particular.
 
xqSxWXL.jpg
TprbfL2.jpg

One is a letter. The other is a shape. Can you tell the difference?
 
Yeah, one syllable vs...uh, one syllable. And it looks like an X so...

I didn't mean simplicity as in number of syllables. Not that one thing is directly related to the other anyway.

People call it an X because Cross is weird, complicated or doesn't sound good or whatever. But why would the controller mix in a letter with shapes/symbols in its face buttons. It is completely arbitrary and makes no sense, imo.
 
With the expression "X marks the spot," is the X technically a shape or a letter?

Think of an X drawn on a treasure map or something. In that instance it's more of a symbol or shape than a letter, and it's pronounced eks.

I'm only using this as an example of how the eks pronunciation isn't technically limited to the alphabetical symbol. While cross might be more accurate with regard to the name of the geometric symbol, eks just sounds better and isn't inherently wrong either.
 
I think the original reason was related to the fact that a circle is used to denote something as correct in Japan and false in America as related to school work in particular.

While it's true, it remains questionable since at the time most of players who bought a Playstation were used to the SNES controller which has the A button (confirm) at the same position as the O in the PS controller.

That said, they could solve this issue by implementing an option in the system menu that forces all games to use the same button to confirm and be consistent.
Drag-On Dragoon 3 has even a glitch regarding the buttons since they switched O and X but forgot to adapt the visuals as well (it says press O but it's actually X) when you play it on a US/EUR PS3.
 
I'm not American, but since when does O mean false in any part of western culture?

When grading papers in America the teacher circles incorrect answers.

While it's true, it remains questionable since at the time most of players who bought a Playstation were used to the SNES controller which has the A button (confirm) at the same position as the O in the PS controller.

That said, they could solve this issue by implementing an option in the system menu that forces all games to use the same button to confirm and be consistent.
Drag-On Dragoon 3 has even a glitch regarding the buttons since they switched O and X but forgot to adapt the visuals as well (it says press O but it's actually X) when you play it on a US/EUR PS3.

I personally don't agree with the choice at all. They probably think they are in too deep now to ever universalize it though which is unfortunate.
 
I mean, this is probably the first time I've ever seen anyone refer to two intersecting lines as a "shape," too, so that argument doesn't even make sense to me.
 
For those of you who are arguing that it's "cross" in this thread, I just want to know one thing. Do you actually call it that when you're referring to it verbally?

All logical arguments aside, I'm betting that you don't. The PlayStation brand has been around for 20 years now, and I've never once heard a single soul call that button a cross.
 
This whole thread is full of trolls, there's no way anyone honestly calls the x button "cross".

That would just be ridiculous.
 
I guess people are really bored today huh?

X, Rye-oo, GIF. It's crazy the amount of energy people spend defending and arguing about the "correct" pronunciation of things. Why even care so much?

I will always call it X, no matter what, because it flows off the tongue easier, and is much more identifiable to when I tell it to another person.
 
I guess people are really bored today huh?

X, Rye-oo, GIF. It's crazy the amount of energy people spend defending and arguing about the "correct" pronunciation of things. Why even care so much?

I will always call it X, no matter what, because it flows off the tongue easier, and is much more identifiable to when I tell it to another person.

I know "rye-oo" is wrong, I just don't care. I'm not about to start saying ree-oo.
 
To me, it basically boils down to what people call it when they say it out loud. I have never in my life heard anyone call it Cross out loud. It might be documented that way in code, but people generally call it X, because it looks exactly like an X. I would imagine if I said to my friends, hey press the cross button, they'd say, "you mean X?"
 
It's so handy in swedish, because we have two words for cross, one meaning a diagonal-line cross and one is the "christian cross"-kind. The words are "kryss" and "kors", respectively. We also have "ecks", which is the same word "ecks".
 
It's so handy in swedish, because we have two words for cross, one meaning a diagonal-line cross and one is the "christian cross"-kind. The words are "kryss" and "kors", respectively. We also have "ecks", which is the same word "ecks".

criss cross
 
Will never get used to these buttons.

When I was playing Destiny, I managed to play the game by just pretending I was holding an Xbox controller and not looking down.
 
It is X, because Cross just sounds really, really dumb

I have never heard someone call the X button the "cross button" out loud. It really does sound stupid.

Who gives a shit if the other buttons are simple shapes? Letters of the alphabets are shapes, as well. Anything can be a fucking shape.
 
What !!!?

I'm french canadian and I've never even heard "rond" for the O. I've even worked in a gaming shop for 2 years. None of that "croix" either.

Really, from pretty much everyone french I've encountered (many as I worked in the equivalent of a GameStop), it has always been like this :

X = X (and not ECKS as it is prononciated by our fellow english americans)
Square = Carré
O = Cercle ( Circle in english)
Triangle = Triangle.

I've never heard "Cercle". Never. That's weird. I'm gonna ask on a french board ^^.
 
They wanted to call it a "Batsu". Which they do, in Japan. In the west the closest analog to that would be a cross, not an X.

So it's settled, it's Triangle, Circle, Square and Batsu.
i'm fine with that.

Press Batsu to Jason

i just looked it up, so Batsu loosely translated means "wrong"? - now that'd make for some funny QTEs "Press the WRONG button to dodge" :O
 
Different for the sake of being different. Never liked it. Still can't remember where the [] and where the O are on the controller without looking down. /\ and X are easy enough to remember.
 
Never owned a PS1 or PS2, but I didn't have any problem adapting to the PS3. But when friends are playing sometimes I'll say "hit the A button" instead of "hit the X button" which normally just confuses them.
 
For those of you who are arguing that it's "cross" in this thread, I just want to know one thing. Do you actually call it that when you're referring to it verbally?
Yes, all the time.

I guess people are really bored today huh?

X, Rye-oo, GIF. It's crazy the amount of energy people spend defending and arguing about the "correct" pronunciation of things. Why even care so much?
I think you're misunderstanding the levels of seriousness here. Just because it's "not important" doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be talked about. Lighten up, the world becomes more fun.
 
† 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.

In Japan "X" is pronounced as "Cross" for some reason. That's why you see it in so many titles, apparently.

For Example: The Cross-over game "Namco X Capcom" should be read as "Namco Cross Capcom."
 
One of my friends calls square box. I don't know what sort of mind sees the square and thinks box. An intriguing one.

I call X cross, but intentionally because I think it sounds cooler than X.

Inside I know it's X.
 
I bet people who say "cross" also pronounce the Super Nintendo as "Sness." I didn't even know that was a real thing until gaf.
 
In Sweden, morons call it "ecks/X", but it's really called "kryss" (meaning cross, or "check", as Google translate puts it). Though a "kryss" is a type of cross, a cross is not a "kryss", and "kryss" should be used when the lines in a cross isn't perfectly horizontal and diagonal, as in ×.

So it's "triangel"/triangle, "cirkel"/circle, "kryss", and "fyrkant/kvadrat"/square.

In the end, english is just a poor fit for the Playstation gamepad. X is wrong and cross is slightly less wrong, but not perfect.

Maybe if you had a proper word for the Playstation gamepad symbol you could all be as peaceful as Sweden.
 
Different for the sake of being different. Never liked it. Still can't remember where the [] and where the O are on the controller without looking down. /\ and X are easy enough to remember.

and this is why i actually prefer A B X Y buttons.

writing up codes / input combinations in electronic form is so annoying with playstation because square and triangle have no easy to reach / type (!) representation in ascii. (especially on german mac keyboards. - [] is option+5 option+6 - and the bracket's not even printed onto the keycap while backslash is option+shift+7 ... jesus christ!)

i don't like RT/LT vs RB/LB on the xbox controller either, though. i much prefer L1 L2 R1 R2
especially because they still call the clicky analog stick "L3" and "R3", don't they?

seems like no manufacturer does everything right.

In Sweden, morons call it "ecks/X", but it's really called "kryss" (meaning cross, or "check", as Google translate puts it). Though a "kryss" is a type of cross, a cross is not a "kryss", and "kryss" should be used when the lines in a cross isn't perfectly horizontal and diagonal, as in ×.
kryss-cross will make you jump-jump, indeed
 
I went from NES->PSX->PS2 for most of my gaming life so I had those memorized pretty easily. It's the various ABXY formats that I have so much trouble with.

Street Fighter † Tekken

When I was younger I made a game called Bible Fighters which was a fighting game with Biblical characters, it had a story mode where you play as Jesus through his life, the final boss was when he descended into hell and you had to beat the devil with 3 different forms (for the 3 days) and finally when you won you went up to heaven. I wish I still had that lol.
 
Imru’ al-Qays;118110749 said:
O represents 1
X represents 2
triangle represents 3
square represents 4

They're arranged in the traditional Super Nintendo ABXY pattern.

You mean ABCrossY pattern.

Cross? Wtf is wrong with you people.

You people being people who say cross.
 
Top Bottom