Harrison: Non-gamers see controllers as live guns

[mike_intellivision]

If you are beyond a certain age or certain experience, the current state of controllers can be very challenging.

I have been playing games longer than some of the posters on this thread have been alive. So I remember when overly-complex controllers were not seen as good things (look at my avitar and my nick -- the Intellivision controller had 15 button input and 16 directions in a system that came out circa 1980).

But what is much more important is how they the controllers are used and how they feel. Some controllers feel good in the hand and the button layout makes sense. Others feel clunky and seem like they have a couple of extra buttons (Did PS2 really need L3/R3? Did Xbox really need Black and White? Remember how bad (cheap) the B button felt on the early Gamecube controllers? Did the C Directional buttons on the N64 confuse people?).

And as for hardcore vs. casuals -- casuals tend to like more obvious controllers. That's why Singstar and Buzz and DDR exist and will continue to exist.

Mike from Morgantown