THE HUB

OMG!!!

FEATURED GAME

FEATURED MEMBER

elementxstyle

elementxstyle

GP Design shop.

QUICK POLL

What's the next big game coming this year?

ASK THE PROS

THE GAMEPROS

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Sign up now to receive weekly or daily updates on your favorite games, stories, and more!



International | Feature

Feature: Five easy ways to fix complicated controllers

Feature by Blake Snow | 05/01/2008 | 10:56:11 AM PST

Developers agree: video game controllers are too complicated! Here are five easy ways to simplify them.

You don't have to own a Wii to appreciate the fact that traditional controllers have become unnecessarily complex. Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamepads have 17 depressible buttons. Yes, you read that right - 17 buttons.* Having been a gamer for 23 years now, even I have to momentarily pause sometimes to keep them all straight. As a result of the controller clutter, unseasoned players are thrown to the wolves, something many respected game designers are obviously concerned with.

"You hand somebody a game controller and it's like you've handed them a live gun or a grenade with the pin taken out," said former PlayStation boss Phil Harrison, at the 2008 Game Developers Conference. Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski agrees. "I've always felt that video game controllers have too many buttons," he said in a February interview with Game Trailers. "Expecting a person to figure out how to use a [traditional] controller is like saying, 'Hey, you need to learn Spanish before you can enjoy this game.'"

You hand somebody a game controller and it's like you've handed them a grenade with the pin taken out," Phil Harrison, former Sony executive

It's obvious there's a problem, and the root of it traces back to the era of parachute pants and oversized sunglasses: the early 90's. In 1991, Nintendo released the lovable SNES gamepad with six dedicated action buttons...a big jump from the NES's minimalist two buttons. Granted, the SNES's six-button layout allowed for an arcade-perfect port of the red-hot Street Fighter II (which would have been just as fun with only two kicks and two punch buttons, btw), but it also triggered a "more is more" philosophy that lives on today. Future hardware makers jam-packed their controllers with more shoulder buttons, clickable analog sticks, and menu buttons with no mind to the consequences of complexity.

And here we are today: Nintendo deciding on motion input as a solution to the issue (and being handsomely rewarded for it), while Microsoft and Sony are left wondering where to go while staying true to their audience. The interim quick-fix for the latter two would be to use only half of their available buttons, something Peter Molyneux claims to be doing for the upcoming Fable 2 (Xbox 360). But as long as the complex appearance of modern controllers remain, intimidation and confusion will persist -- particularly among the lucrative casual gaming sector.

Which brings us to the future, and five feasible ways to reform complicated controllers -- all of which take into consideration the principles of Universal Design:

Continue reading... (page 2/2)

*Four face buttons, four shoulder buttons, two thumb-stick clicks, start button, select button, menu button, and four clicks of the D-pad = 17


More International Articles