Controllers and handedness

[moozooh]

Trying to see if there is any correlation between controllability and handedness. My hypothesis is that shmupping performance should be potentially higher with a dominant hand on movement controls due to inherently better dexterity in moving the character around. Should probably be reversed or at all irrelevant in fighting games, but that's another topic.

I know that for most people including myself it would mean comparing completely different controllers between each other, but still, it might be worth to check even if statistics won't be pure by default.

For the record, I'm right-handed and my controller of choice is keyboard where arrows are used for movement. Thus my option is "Right-handed, movement on right hand".

(Please don't turn this into a "which controller is better" discussion.)

[clp]

Im right handed but play stick with left hand , as it just how sticks are i just played until i adapted .

[spongdangly]

I'm right handed but do the movement with the left. I've been playing this way ever since I was around 5 and got a NES. I can't see making movements with my right hand since on all controllers the d-pad/joystick is on the left ( I know you can swap the movement to the face buttons in some games but t just seems weird to me).

[LtC]

I'm right-handed and my controller of choice is keyboard where arrows are used for movement. Thus my option is "Right-handed, movement on right hand".

This for me as well.

I find it very hard to adapt using d-pad for shmups because it's been too many years since I've played a game that dominately uses d-pad for movement.

Now if I just had a right handed keyboardstick... *drool

[krokodil_final]

Right-handed here and i use the left stick as well for movement.

[ebarrett]

Handedness is a matter of practice.

edit: I use whatever is available, no preference.

[MathU]

I'm right-handed and I can't stand it when PC shooters refuse to give me an option to remap my keys and they're stuck in that awful ZXCV and arrow key configuration. I force myself to play cross-armed just so I can keep movement on my left hand. I beat Cho Ren Sha 68K (both loops without continuing) like that once and I'll never attempt it again until I get an actual controller.

[moozooh]

Handedness is a matter of practice.

Actually handedness is rather a matter of neurophysiology. :) Even ambidextrous people (who are usually left-handed initially but raised and trained as right-handed) can't match their performance on any task to 100%. They can exceed their performance with a non-dominant hand if they train it more or less exclusively, otherwise the dominant one will always get more "skill points" for training.

[emphatic]

Although being a right handed person, I've chosen to control movement with my left hand, as all the arcades in Sweden has been like that. I played some Quake II for a while going to school, and tried to use the mouse with my left hand (as I figured that it would work better in a game setting thinking back to the "arcade days") but I had to resort to right hand for mouse, as the fluid motion of it made more sense to use your "writing hand". For digital controls though, my left hand is a must, as I can't mash buttons with it, and so on. As MAME appeared and I got back into playing games FOR REAL again, I never had any issues picking up my old ways of left hand controls.

Isn't this also related to the different use we have for the halves of our brains? Is it at all common for "lefties" to control joysticks with their right hand?

[xris]

I think this is a decent question to ask. I'm right handed, but all game movement has been hardwired into my left hand by now. Whenever I play Mrs. Pac Man in a bar, I play with my left hand just "cause I can control my movement better.

[moozooh]

Isn't this also related to the different use we have for the halves of our brains? Is it at all common for "lefties" to control joysticks with their right hand?

In my experience the dominant hand is always better at precise control, which in case with shmups is movement (shooting per se rarely needs precision, and in most cases amounts to holding/tapping one button 95% of the time and pressing one or two other once in a while). But it's hard for me to check it directly because I've never used a controller (aside from the keyboard) that had motion controls on the right and still enabled me to press buttons with the left… Guess a wiimote + nunchuck could be used that way, but I don't have a Wii nor shmups to play on it.

So it might as well be that right-handed players who have used regular sticks and d-pads are re-trained the same way left-handed people are re-trained to write with their right hand. Which might mean that they aren't using their fine motor skills to their full potential. Then again it might not.

[Battletoad]

I´m right-handed, but got used to D-pads on the left side ever since my childhood, so no problem there. However for a keyboard (which I use most of the time in MAME meanwhile), I definitely prefer having the movement on the right hand. I think this may be due to the more "complex" controls because you have to handle quick actions with various fingers. On a pad you just need to use your thumb which is/was far easier to get used to with the left hand. I haven´t ever used a stick so far (will be soon though), but I assume I´d also rather have my left hand for movement there because it´s quite comparable with a pad.

[dannnnn]

Interesting question. I'd imagine I'm in the vast majority being right-handed but using my left hand for control. Your reasoning makes sense to me, but I've been playing like this since I was a child and attempting to play the opposite way feels completely unnatural. Oddly enough though the same can't be said for mouse control because I could never use my left hand for that, it would be like trying to write left-handed or something...

Come to think of it, why is it that if most people are right-handed, d-pads and joysticks have always been placed on the left side since day one? Why did that become the norm? I'm sure if I'd grown up using the right side for control I'd be equally as comfortable (if not more so) playing like that, but I couldn't switch now after all this time.

[CptRansom]

I'm right-handed, but I use my left hand for movement with controllers/sticks. On keyboard, though, it gets a little weird. For STGs, I use the arrow keys with my right hand. For everything else, I use WASD with my left. I don't know WHY, but it just works for me.

[gameoverDude]

I'm left-handed and use the stick on the left side. I make exceptions for flight sticks and trackball mice (in the first case, the left hand goes to work the throttle if there is one).

[captpain]

Since 99% of all controllers have directions left/buttons right, I'm used to that.

[moozooh]

Come to think of it, why is it that if most people are right-handed, d-pads and joysticks have always been placed on the left side since day one?

Might be because the role of buttons was more prominent at the dawn of videogames where movement was very simple or at all one-dimensional (Pong, Space Invaders). Also to be considered: flight sticks are usually held in right hand.

[Aisha]

I have thought about this before. I'm right-handed and when playing shmups, I prefer movement to be delegated to that hand; as such, the keyboard is my favorite method of control, with movement being assigned to the arrow keys. However, I did start out seriously playing shmups on the PC, with doujins and MAME, so it could just be that I'm used to it. Had I started out playing shmups on consoles or in arcades (probably like most people here), would I prefer my left hand instead? I once tried using a pad for shmups, but I immediately hated it. I don't think that was due to handedness though, but rather due to not having enough dexterity in my thumb. I did grow up with consoles though, and don't have any issue using my left hand via pad for movement in other games. I also prefer WASD movement in first-person perspective games on the PC. I use a stick for console shmups now, and even though I like it quite a lot, I'm sometimes left wondering what it would be like to have the lever on the right side and the buttons on the left.

[chempop]

Stick: Lefty
Pad: Lefty
Keyboard: Righty
Touchscreen: Righty

I'm right handed

[EPS21]

I think that for whatever inherent advantage handedness has on happening to use the d-input that matches that hand, can be offset tenfold by just practicing more. Shmups aren't all about dexterity anyways.

Maybe for a lefty who just started out you might have a slight advantage over rightys in our left-hand dominated control input of pads and sticks, but ultimately it just comes down to who practices more, in general.

Lefty here, preference for sticks and pads but can play on kb+arrow keys just as well.

[Davey]

Since 99% of all controllers have directions left/buttons right, I'm used to that.

This.

Also, FWIW, I'm right-handed, but I find the WASD setup just as unusable as the arrow keys. I could never get used to playing games with a keyboard.

[njiska]

Interesting topic. I always just assumed everyone was used to Stick-Left/Buttons-Right until I got into a conversation with my roommate about it. He grew up in the old days when arcade cabs had one stick and buttons on either side. Tends to use his right hand because of this.

[emphatic]

Is it possible that the eye-hand coordination is better with the left hand and for dexterity is more important to use the hand you prefer (i.e. right handed folks use the right)?

I could possibly learn how to use a stick with my right hand, but to be able to mash with my left or press the correct button at the right time, that feels all kinds of impossible. Playing ESPGALUDA for example, where you have to use Kakusei or Barrier at the correct moment, that would be headache inducing.

My daughters have different handedness, so I'll try to get them to play on my cabs IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE, whatever their mom says.

I'm still a rightie.

[Ed Oscuro]

Joystick / controller = left hand move, right hand buttons or other things
Keyboard = right hand move, left hand buttons or other things

[Edwards80]

Right Handed - Left hand for movement.

I think most UK folks will go for this one as we rarely got dedicated arcade cabs over here and most Jamma cabs were laid out with the buttons on the right.

[Ruldra]

I'm right-handed and frankly I have no problems using either hand for movement. I can do just fine using WASD or arrow keys on the keyboard.

[linko9]

I'm left handed, and I usually use a stick, which I obviously operate with my left hand. However, when I use a keyboard, which I do somewhat frequently, I definitely prefer to use the arrow keys with my right hand.

[ROBOTRON]

Joystick / controller = left hand move, right hand buttons or other things
Keyboard = right hand move, left hand buttons or other things

Ditto

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Stick: Lefty
Pad: Lefty
Keyboard: Righty
Touchscreen: Righty

I'm right handed

Same here.

I remember when i started playing the guitar for the first week or so i held it the other way around using my left hand to strum and right to fret as it felt more natural to me at the time. My lefty friend play right handed aswell as that how he learnt to play. Imo for anyone who has got years invested in doing something a certain way might aswell continue doing so as i hate having to get used to a new contro9ller after my old breaks let alone having to totally change my handedness.