Left-Handed Gamers Getting Left Behind? 426
An anonymous reader writes "As the stylus becomes a contemporary equal with the controller and joystick, it is a bit surprising to notice a game developer overlooking the simple fact that there are a lot of southpaw gamers out there. But the creators of Base 10, a mini-game on the DSi, did just that, making it impossible for the game to be played by anyone who isn't right-handed. Seems pretty silly for a game developer to just cut out a slice of their potential audience right from the start."
Impossible? (Score:5, Insightful)
...making it impossible for the game to be played for anyone who isn't right-handed.
That seems like a bizarre definition of the word impossible. It may be impossible for someone who doesn't have a right hand, but it is possible to build dexterity in your off hand. Just hold the thing like a right handed person. It might take some time to get used to, but it's still possible.
For instance, the current holder of the last 3 tennis grand slams is naturally right-handed but plays as a lefty. He built the muscle memory necessary be good at it and now it's not a problem for him. I see no reason why tennis would be easier to master with your off hand than a video game would be.
I'm confused (Score:5, Insightful)
How do you play Base10 and why does not having a left handed mode ruin it?
Even Rock Band/Guitar Hero was operable with Lefties before they added Lefty mode, you simply needed to associate colours to positions instead of directional left and right.
lulwut? (Score:5, Insightful)
I find it odd that TFA focuses on the Nintendo DS...which is possibly the most left-handed friendly system out there, aside from the Nintendo Wii. Most DS games that require one hand on the stylus and one hand on the system either duplicate the controls on both sides, or allow you to swap controls from one side to the other.
You would think more focus would have been on shaped gaming mice, which are almost exclusively made for righties.
Re:Impossible? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Idiot. (Score:1, Insightful)
A lot of left handed people buy right-handed guitars when the guitar they want comes in left-handed.
That's because a guitar is primarily controlled by the left hand (on the fretboard) anyway. So it makes little sense to switch to a left-handed guitar (even though they do exist) when a regular guitar is already suitable to left-handed people.
Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
Not a useful article at all (Score:3, Insightful)
So I spent the time to read that overly long article, and the author doesn't even say why he can't play the game with his left hand? I understand he looked through the menus for an option and didn't find one, but what specifically is going on in the game that makes it impossible to play with his left hand? This seems like the central point of the whole story, and yet it is left unexplained.
Re:Impossible? (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, if it is anything like baseball it can catch the opponent off-guard. I imagine that most tennis players don't practice as much returning left-handed serves/etc. In baseball the right-fielder usually is stronger than the left-fielder, so a left-handed batter can hit the ball towards a less proficient opponent. Switch hitters are particularly prized since they make it even more difficult for the defense to react. Left-handed pitchers have similar advantages.
Basically, your opponent has spent thousands of hours practicing one particular scenario. If you can force them to react to a scenario that perhaps they've only spent hundreds of hours reacting to, that can give you an advantage - in any sport.
Re:Idiot. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'm confused (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Impossible? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mouse with my left hand at work, and my right while playing games or surfing the web at home. I've been doing this for almost eight years, now that I think about it. I found that NOT swapping the buttons, but merely changing which hand I hold the mouse with, works beautifully. May I ask what problems you are having with learning to mouse with a different hand?
For me, it started when I was playing Counter-strike enough to make my wrists hurt. So, at work, I started using a pen tablet with my right (dominant) hand. However, some thing just seemed to work better with a mouse, so I kept my mosue on the left side of the keyboard. Eventually, I just kept using it that way. It helps that I don't think of using the mouse in terms of which finger I press, but rather which side the button is on.
Re:Impossible? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, but he was just being pedantic. I agree with him that it was a completely inappropriate use of the word "impossible." It's like when people say, "I literally exploded into a fit of rage" when in fact they mean that they figuratively exploded.
While I agree it was quite an oversight on the developer's part, I also think this is a non-story. A mini-game for the DSi doesn't have the production value to expect them to take every little thing into consideration. There were probably like 2-3 developers, if that, and they were all right handed. And then some left-handed journalist found out about it and tried to make a big deal about it. Lefties have a tendency to believe they're being discriminated against when they're really just occasionally not taken into consideration on accident.
From the beginning of the DS, high-revenue games have all taken lefties into consideration. Just because ONE mini-game neglected the left-handed minority doesn't mean that "left-handed gamers are being left behind."
pretty lame (Score:5, Insightful)
As if left handed people didn't already have to deal with can openers, measuring cups, drill presses, soup ladles, catcher's mitts, rulers, spiral bound notebooks, pens with slow drying ink, and countless other devices that are made for use by right handed people.
Get a clue, we deal with these things. We CAN do stuff right handed.
Re:Impossible? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Impossible? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Impossible? (Score:2, Insightful)
Lefties have a tendency to believe they're being discriminated against when they're really just occasionally not taken into consideration on accident.
Wow, that sounds like most people who don't get what they want anymore...
Re:lulwut? (Score:1, Insightful)
Nintendo, the company that put the joystick/pad on the left side and the buttons on the right?
Isn't that the definition of a lefthanded controller? Which hand should be moving the joystick, the one with fine control or the hand most people only use for coarse manipulation(like button mashing)?
Most modern gamepads are inherently left-handed and righties just adapted.
That said, this game is one of the few that actually make left handed playing a pain, because your arm might block the playfield while tapping.
Re:Impossible? (Score:3, Insightful)
The difficulty is not in pressing the right buttons. I'm left handed but I can use a mouse with either hand without even thinking about it, and like you I never swap the buttons.
However, in a game you need to be both fast and precise. I can't pull that off with a mouse in my right hand. Some left handed people can (for various reason, including perhaps that they got used to use a mouse in their right hand form the beginning), but it doesn't mean everyone can.
I generally don't have much issues with games though, except for one thing: in most PC games I must spend a good half hour to swap the keys around so I can play with my mouse in my left hand. It's very irritating because before having even played the game I have no idea which actions are important and need to be reachable quickly and which are useless or nearly so. It wouldn't kill developpers to provide a reasonable left handed preset.
Re:Impossible? (Score:3, Insightful)
My point is, despite being left handed I don't find any disadvantage in switching to my right hand for any of these things, even though I can't for the life of me write with my right hand for example.
I can mouse around with my right hand just fine, and frequently do when I'm at someone else's desk. But I can't possibly play an FPS or RTS with my right hand on the mouse competitively where I need fast precise movement.
I'm sure with practice I could improve further but:
a) I'd be at a considerable disadvantage for some time.
b) I might never reach the same level of competency.
c) Why exactly should I?
I think if people actually tried to get used to using their right hand rather than simply complain they can't, they'd soon find it's not really a problem.
So if the IT guys at work are left handed, and unconsciously set up all the work stations with the mouse/mousepad on the left -- should all the righties just 'get used to it'?
What if they do something perverse like swap the buttons in windows, or order left-handed ergo mice? Just get used to it?
Re:Impossible? (Score:2, Insightful)
The mouse is an unnatural interface and its 100% learned. The button order doesn't matter.
Don't know about you, but my index finger is both stronger and more dexterous than my middle finger, so it makes sense to use it the most, hence the "left" click.
Re:Impossible? (Score:3, Insightful)
They'd be correct about the controls being lousy, because it would in effect be broken for 90% of the population.
Fascinating that you consider them 'broken'. If you tried them, you'd get used to them and cope just fine, right? So how does that make them broken?
Remember, they only -seem- awkward because you aren't "used to them", once you've put in some time, it'll be completely natural. So they aren't inherently bad or defective at all.
That was the argument you made for lefties... why exactly doesn't apply to right handed people?
Re:Money (Score:4, Insightful)
When the cost to identify and resolve those not so trivial issues exceeds the revenue expected from whatever subset of the ~7% of the population that is left handed that can not or will not adapt to right handed controls it just won't be done.
Yes I know that.
Nor should it.
Yes I agree with that. (Bet you didn't see that coming)
However as a corollary. when the cost to identify and resolve those issues does not exceed the revenue expected it should be done. In most cases resolving the issues is trivial. Many games need no adjustment. Many more games need only to allow users to customize the controls (which benefits everyone).
Games with motion mapping, need a little bit more. When I punch with my left fist, my avatar should punch with his left fist too. But a mirror geometry transform on the model -or- a mirror mapping on the control input is usually all that's needed. (and this is trivial -- no more complicated than the invert-mouse setting in FPS that satisfies the flight-sim people who want mouse-up to be look down, and mouse-down to be look-up.
If the developer is cognizant of the issues during design and implementation its TRIVIAL to support.
Should they double the size of the QA department to deal with lefties?
If this were realistic no. In the event that this is realistic than no. However its not realistic in almost any title you could name.
The reason they don't get resolved is that people forgot to even ask the question of whether or not it was an issue, or what it would take to resolve it along the way. Its not because its a hard problem in the vast majority of situations.
Should they have cut out half of Samus' animations so they could have both left and right handed version?
a) Samus is first person. The only change would be a mirror transform on the center axis. They don't need a new model. The transform is inexpensive, and can be done in realtime trivially with all the other geometry rendering. Seriously, this is trivial.
b) The only samus "animations" are in cutscenes. While it would be slick to have a left or right handed samus in the cut-scenes, that may not be easy or worth it. But it would be a perfectly reasonable solution to have her be right handed in the cut scenes. Gameplay is unaffected.
I don't mean to pick on you, but I think you lack perspective.
Not at all. Your assuming I expect a lot more than I really am.
Cognitive and sensory minorities should absolutely be considered in game development (and everything else), but keep in mind that it's not always possible or practical. If we insist that it must, it won't bring those games to the minorities, it will just keep them from being produced at all.
Except that if they do *consider it* in development it won't be a problem. The problem arises in the vast majority of cases not because its too costly to do, but because it wasn't thought of in the first place.
Re:Impossible? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Everything from doors to driving are aimed at prominence being in the right hand."
No.
Right-hand drive cars have the gear stick, radio and so on on the left, simply because it needs to be in the center, and other controls are not laid out with handedness as a consideration. Doors come both left and right-moving, depending on the floor layout, with no consideration of the handedness of their users, with handles that make no difference for handedness.
So, excellent examples of how common objects are not optimized for handedness.
Re:Impossible? (Score:3, Insightful)
Having flat feet is no longer the impediment it once was. Being bad at math is now more of a hindrance than it used to be.
Is it? I was under the impression that people who are good at math tend to have a harder time reproducing than people who are bad at it.
(Everything else you said was spot on, though.)