Slashdot Mirror
Left-Handed Gamers Getting Left Behind?
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."
...melborp emas eht sah...
...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.
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
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.
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.
Living With a Nerd
Surprising how? Developers did this to Mac users for years.
Constitutionally Correct
The joystick or joypad is on the left side, my non-dominant hand, ever since the NES days.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Nintendo should just update the BIOS with a config option that swaps the meaning of the d-pad and button array. Lefties can then use the X-B-Y-A instead of U-D-L-R.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
A lot of left handed people buy right-handed guitars when the guitar they want comes in left-handed. You can learn to play a damn game right handed if it's not possible. And what would they do for left-hand mode here anyway? Switch to left-aligned text? Mirror?
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I'm left handed and I'm accustomed to having to play some games that were made for right handers anyway. I mean, the location of the D-Pad on a NDS (as well as many other gaming controllers) is basically easier for a right hander to play. I still enjoy using / playing it.
I guess I've just adjusted to living in a (mostly) right-hander's world.
since handedness is significant when wielding a sword / pistol / tennis racket / ping pong paddle &c.
While Nintendo has been very good about providing the option to select handedness, other companies haven't been as acommodating --- Red Steel 2 in particular requires right-handed sword-wielding and some of the combinations seem to be difficult to enact (and visually confusing on-screen) when done left-handed.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
If the revenue from left handed market cost of developing for left handed people then it makes sense from a business perspective. Keep in mind that there's probably left-handed people who buy it and play it right-handed anyway if they really want it, so the market they're cutting out may not be as big as you'd first assume.
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
Someone had to be buying that shit. No surprise that it's the defective people doing it. Where's the story?
Everyone I know, including left-handed and ambidextrous people, use their mouse with the right hand. They use controllers as laid out. If anything, a stylus should be even more easy to use left handed.
The article makes no mention of how the controls are laid out, so that's it's difficult for left-handed people. All it says is that there's no left handed mode. If the person actually described a problem, I'd have some sympathy, but as it is, the article lays out absolutely no reason for even a complaint.
Does anyone understand WHY the writer of this article can't play the game left handed? I read through the FA multiple times (yes, I know - hard to believe), but I don't see any explanation of what specifically the game requires that cannot be done by a left handed user. Any further clarification would be welcome.
Unless you look for a generic unshaped mouse/trackball. You're out of luck.
I was forced to learn to use a right handed trackball, since I wanted a shaped one. It was easier to learn to use my right hand than try to find a left handed or one of the crappy ambidextrous ones.
Logitech out of all their trackballs, only makes one that is ambidextrous, and it's crap.
Design video games exclusively for southpaws. If they're anything like the rest of humanity, they'll be happy to pay a premium for the exclusivity.
I don't imagine keyboard gamers on the PC have this issue, it takes equal parts coordination to use the mouse and the keyboard simultaneously. Most Joysticks
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.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
I always knew left handers had no souls.
I read the whole article, and the author's main complaint seems to be that the game itself doesn't have an in game "left hand/right hand option." He didn't actually attempt to play the game, he just poked around in different menus trying to configure it. Maybe it was symmetrical enough that no option was needed? I don't have a DSi and I'm right handed, but if someone wants to convince me that a game is unplayable left handed, wouldn't you have to at least attempt to play it? Clarification would be nice.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Most controllers require a similar amount of dexterity from each hand. If the NES had put the buttons on the left and the d-pad on the right, we'd think that was "normal" and "right-handed" today. I think this is less about left-handed gamers and more about a guy who had personally become used to one control layout having to switch to another (and writing a rant about the harrowing ordeal).
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Sit upside down (or turn your TV upside down), and turn the controller upside down.
Voila! You are now holding the stylus with your dominant hand!
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
a game developer would overlook the simple fact that there is a large amount of gamers out there who are Southpaws.
It's roughly 15% of the population. It's far from the majority, but I guess it's up to the manufacturer whether or not they want to cater to this population. Certainly lefties are adaptable people and used to living in a right hand world... aren't they supposed to be the creative ones?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
It's hard for left handers because you hold the DS sideways and write on one of the screens. Since you have to write on the right screen, lefties can't see the left screen through their hand.
http://gofanboy.com/nds-reviews/407-art-style-base-10-review
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
I remember every gaming system that had a controller with a joystick having said joystick on the left side of the controller. Some also had joysticks on both sides. The DS is incredibly lefty-friendly and just because one game blows it doesn't mean the entire platform, no, the entire industry is biased towards right-handers. This article is nothing but FUD and I wish I could retract the click I gave TFA.
The majority of gamers are right handed and that's that way games have been developed for decades, that's right decades. Atari 2600, video arcade machines, the Jaguar, they were all designed for right handers. Not only that, they were all designed the same. Joystick on the left, buttons on the right. That is how most of us learned, and it took a bit to be able to do it all correctly. It's the learning curve that comes with picking up a new game or system. It's tradition, and a bit of economics.
I am confused no one has explained how it is impossible. No one has described how this affects left ganders.
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.
I once knew a guy who worked as a video game tester in Baltimore (for Absolute Quality). He had no right hand, just a stump. I'll never forget getting my arse completely stomped by him in any and every game we played together. The advent of the mini joystick (versus 8-way D-pad) on the N64 forward allowed him to play on the same level as anyone else.
... has long since learned to do various task right-handed. it's a right handed world. i seriously doubt there is any leftie that is completely inept with their right hand.
Here's why.
If you look, the game holds the DSI sideways. There are important values on the left, while picking numbers on the right. If you're playing, you're constantly covering the left screen with your left hand when using the stylus on the right side.
=================
Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
Why not just flip the whole game? Make each level or whatever a mirror image of the right handed version?
--
Open 6 zip file
I have lived in Japan three different times (during college and later for work) and all the students there are right handed, either naturally or by compulsion. This is due to the writing system in use. I guess they could also play games right handed as well with that training. Are there natural left handed people there? Sure but I never noticed anyone as being left handed. It is strange to point out this topic with a Japanese design as a subject...
...when looking at pr0n online.
yet one more way where pc gaming is better.
Most pc games let you remap keys and when the game does not there is 3rd party software that will let you.
Pinball also is not fixed to left or right hand play.
It's not *that* difficult to learn right-handedness, at least for video games. It might take a month or two, but keep at it, you'll get it. It's sort of like learning to touch-type, it's tedious work but pays off in the long run.
A fun dinner party trick I learned was left-handed chopsticks. When I moved to Asia, I had really never used chopsticks before, but it only took about two weeks to learn. Then, I learned that I had learned wrong. I had to re-learn the correct grip, and that was another two weeks of eating frustration. For a lark, I said how hard can this be, and taught myself how to use chopsticks left-handed, resulting in another two weeks of clumsiness and dropped food. Now, I have a fun trick. I'll change the dinner topic to left-handedness, because there is some superstition that lefties are more clever. I switch the chopsticks to my left hand, eat a few bites, and get a compliment. I follow this by challenging my hosts to use THEIR chopsticks left-handed, and hilarity ensues as nobody can do it. Ganbei!
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I'm bothered by the number of left-handers that take the adapt stance and do various task using right handed gear. It is my view that for our left handed brothers and sisters yet unborn we should instead demand (with our wallets and if necessary our generally unexpected left hooks to right handed peoples faces =p) left handed gear.
I don't see why Nintendo shouldn't hear about this it should have been simple enough to make a left hand mode for this game and there is no reason why I or other left-handed people should be forced to use the wrong hand to play it. Using our right hands is a imperfect solution it may be we can do it and do many things pretty good with our right hands but we god damned well shouldn't be forced to, It is my personal opinion that we shouldn't do it at all We are LEFT HANDED GOD DAMN IT and we want left handed supplies and video games and puppies...oh wait maybe not puppies but the other stuff.
Also right handed people keep your god damned watches off your right wrists it is "OUR THING" and it is annoying when you think you have found another of your people but it is just some right handed jackass.
RIGHTY IS GOING TO PAY!!!!!
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
Is it right for left handed gamer's rights to be left behind?
And rightfully so!
"Seems pretty silly for a game developer to just cut out a slice of their potential audience right from the start."
That depends on how much it costs (financially or in game play) to include that slice. One-size-fits-all also frequently means one-size-that-doesn't-quite-fit-anyone, and it's up to the designer and the bean counters to decide which works best.
As a lefty who has completed all stages on Base 10, I have to say I did not have an issue at all with this game. It was a bit surprising that the game did not have a lefty option as many vertically held DS games do (such as Brain Age, etc), but it was not a problem at all. 90% of the player's attention is placed on the touch screen anyway, and your stylus hand much more sits below the non-touch screen than blocks it.
I actually struggle a bit more with Wii games, particularly ones that require coordinated remote motion with the nunchuck. For example, in the No More Heroes games (where it is always assumed the right hand holds the remote), some wrestling moves require quickly moving both controllers outward, away from one another as prompted on screen, a motion that must be executed in the opposite fashion if holding the remote in your left hand.
Another example is the new Metroid game (Other M) which requires quickly toggling between holding the remote NES style and then pointing it at the screen for first person view. Initially, this was pretty awkward for a lefty as you need to sort of rotate the controller in your hand to make the switch, but you get used to it after short time.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I always thought the N64 controller was an awesome lefty controller for FPS games (on consoles anyway, keyboard/mouse all the way otherwise) because it effectively mapped +mouse to the analog stick (with your left hand), and had a digital WASD type configuration for the right hand. Generally speaking, the N64 controller was great for accommodating all sorts of hand configurations.
That actually reminds me how much I hate default FPS controls on PC because WASD on a keyboard is pretty much impractical for a lefty (JKL; baby!).
At least in the middle ages they had the decency to burn lefties if they didn't do good enough job at acting right-handed. These days we've grown sloppy, and look what the result is. Lefties complaining about stuff like this.
Burn them all, I say!
The left part of the screen is obscured by the enormous chip on his shoulder.
Neither the Slashdot article nor the linked article makes it clear what's so asymmetrical about the game. Most video game controllers are on the symmetrical side.
Interestingly, the Airbus family of aircraft, which fly with sidesticks, put the right-seat sidestick in a right-handed position, and the left-seat sidestick on the left. The single set of throttles is in the middle. The comment from most pilots is that this is a non-issue. It's considered more annoying that the displays are reversed between the two seats.
and now this! You guys just can't catch a break.
cut out a slice of their potential audience right from the start. But this is better left alone...
Aren't these things manufactured in countries where left-handedness is extremely uncommon, severely frowned upon, or even punished?
I'm colourblind. Welcome to my world.
My hobby is nagging iDevice developers to include colourblind-friendly options in their colour matching games. Sometimes, like with the wonderful Marblenauts, the developer will actually work with you to sort the problem out. I like those kind of developers. The Trism guy also took steps to sort it out. Sadly, some developers don't care. (Face, meet this knife - it'll be cutting your nose off shortly, but the spite will be wonderful.)
The old skool Palms were probably the worst for hating on us lefties. Sure there were a few hacks (mind you this was a time where that word actually meant something) that let you place the scroll bars on the left side, but since they were a hack they only worked for the builtin Palm applications. It was very hard to use when your pinky kept clicking on crap... The new Palm OS is about as ambidextrous as it can possibly get though, and that's reason enough for me to want to stick with it.
Don't we just put those people in sexually segregated camps?
My other sig is extremely clever...
"... I been Ayn Randed, nearly branded Communist, 'cause I'm left-handed. That's the hand I use, well, never mind!"
A gaming device comes with a stylus? For real? Glad I bought an iPhone...
Most leftys are pretty used to adapting to right handed tools. I'm pretty much ambidextrous at this point because of limited tools.
Being left handed, I've had this happen all my life. There's nothing more frustrating than picking up a tool only to find the grip has been molded for a right hand. Or guns with cheek pads only on the left side. Fountain pens don't really work being pushed rather than being pulled. Left handed sports equipment is always more difficult to find.
You adapt at an early age. Yeah it sucks. Basically you have to learn to be halfway decent with your right hand just to get by.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist" -I guess I should leave then
I havent read TFA, but we saw how well something for left handed games worked out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx
While I generally browse Slashdot with my right-hand but there are other websites that are more conducive to browsing with your weaker hand. It takes some getting used to but some things in life are worth it.
Account -> Discussions -> Disable Sigs
Seems pretty silly for a game developer to just cut out a slice of their potential audience right from the start
If lefties are truly and underserved group in all of gaming then they may be going for a niche market. If you are a small enough company you can afford to go after this market and develop it.
"We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
I'm right handed and I use the mouse with my left hand just fine when watching po... nm.
It's a problem I had since I was a baby. I can't turn left.
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. Nor should it.
It may not be an issue for games with a large budget, or games developed by large companies, but consider a small developer with precisely one QA engineer. Should they double the size of the QA department to deal with lefties? Should they have cut out half of Samus' animations so they could have both left and right handed version?
I don't mean to pick on you, but I think you lack perspective. 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.
when they made link right handed for some unknown reason!
He's left handed before the twilight princess! LEFT!
Oh the humanity for us lefties!
Wondering what exactly was preventing him from playing with his left hand, i read TFA. As far as i can tell, he finds it impossible to play with his left hand because there was never a checkbox for him to use to signify he was a lefty. He never explains what was so hard about using it left handed, or why his right hand couldn't work.
I imagined one such scenario would be a game that requires you to write words and letters with your right hand while manipulating the dpad with your left. That does sound challenging. I checked out this video http://www.examiner.com/video-game-in-chicago/base10-the-dsi-and-lefties-left-out and the gameplay seems to consist of drawing horizontal and vertical lines through big squares. I fail to see how this couldn't be done left handed.
i couldn't watch the entire video.
I am left-handed.
I have this game.
The reason I'm not having any trouble playing is that, unlike the writer of this article, I am not a fucking incompetent retard.
You can play it with the stylus between your damn teeth just fine.
Indeed, I'm ambidextrous, and the only thing which I have any trouble with is writing. The reason being that it's not like most other tasks where it's simply a matter of using the other hand and remapping the motions, writing with the other hand requires a rather drastic change to ones thought process. The process of writing with the other hand is very different, and I suspect that it's easier for a lefty to learn to write right handed than the reverse.
These days it's often times easier to catch things with my non-dominant hand.
While the left and right sides of the main surface contain 4 buttons each, the issue with swapping the D-pad and A-B-X-Y buttons is a physical one. The D-pad in nature doesn't have the same press/depress feel of the face buttons as it's designed to tilt from one side to the other, in addition to making button combinations awkward (A+B, Y+B, etc.) or outright impossible (A+Y or B+X). You also wouldn't have the same responsiveness with movements using face buttons as a d-pad, as the d-pad's design allows for rapid deviations in direction without having to release all buttons or remove your thumb from the D-pad (try moving your thumb in circles on the face buttons, then try it again on the D-pad. Huge difference.)
I'm left-handed and appalled at the general attitude of my fellow 10-percenters. I view being left-handed as a natural and entirely normally human behavior. There is no reason that we must adapt, but rather, we must refuse to be discriminated against. While it might sound silly to revolt about scissors, computer mice, knives, and other household items, it is a legitimate human rights concern. Left-handed children should not be denied an equal education because their school provides "ergonomic" mice or has not provided a method to easily change the mappings of buttons. Neither should those children need to learn how to use a mouse with their right hand, the way that their grandparents were forced to learn to write with their right hands, as that was seen as the "proper way". I see not why it is now frowned upon to force a left-handed child into right-handed writing, when forcing right-handed computing onto children is celebrated. I see not why proverbially left-handed Uncle Toms claim that left-handed people that assert themselves are stupid, that left-handed people should simply adapt. We need not adjust ourselves, we are but what we are, why need we change to the comfort of others, when we should be comfortable with ourselves? If had we in 1861 the technology to change one's color, would we encourage blacks to become white? Would that have been just? No, it would not have been just, but prejudiced and discriminatory. Why, then, do we expect left-handed people to become right-handed and call that an unprejudiced and indiscriminate act?
Left-handed people, if at work or school, there are no left-handed scissors and you must use right-handed scissors, use them -- in your left hand. Show the bruises to your teachers, to your employers, impress upon them the need for ambidextrous tools. Use that computer mouse in your left hand, switch the mouse buttons, and when a right-handed person attempts to use that workstation, ask, "How do you think *I* feel when I sit at your workstation?". Defend yourself, assert yourself, and introduce change.
This is the reason I cannot play any of the guitar-based games, yes, I know you can switch it for a left-handed player, but then we lose the ability to use the wammy bar; so what's the point of playing if you cannot play the game properly!
Michael
http://s1.sfgame.us/index.php?rec=58163
It's not *that* difficult to learn right-handedness, at least for video games.
I agree, it's not hard to learn to get a basic level of coordination down. It's also hardly frustrating when it's something you're doing voluntarily as a trick.
But it is incredibly difficult to master. And it stops being fun when time after time, you're put in a situation where your learning curve for a given activity is much higher because the native dexterity just isn't there in the wrongly assumed hand.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is all the yelling the lefties are doing in the comments of this post isn't actually about this game and this game only. The actual fuel to the aggravation you're seeing is from all the other times they've been put in a situation that says "you are not worth considering as a use-case scenario".
Hey, look! It's Bono's brother.
Game developers cutting tiny shares of their customers? What about linux users an PC games? What about colorblind users and those silly color matching oriented casual games?
The game developer probably decided it wasn't worth the effort to support the 10% of gamers who are left handed.
This great little store carries southpaw friendly versions of everything these days. I believe it's called the Leftorium...
On a bit of a tangent--
I recently took the GRE, a computer-based standardized test for graduate school. The workstations in the testing center were designed for right-handed people. The monitor and keyboard were angled so that a right-handed person would have the entire desk space for scratch paper and right-handed mousing. The degree of disadvantage for left-handed test-takers may be debatable, but, nevertheless, enough of a disadvantage exists to de-standardize the entire test on the basis of handedness. Taking into account the priority some universities give the GRE, I consider this a major lapse in methodological integrity by both the testing center (Prometric) and the creators of the GRE (Educational Testing Services).
I doubt I missed an option to request a left-handed desk because I'm prone to RSI/carpal tunnel issues and would have requested an ambidextrous workstation given the opportunity.
Back to the post-- Yes, I've seen with my own eyes how some developers and administrators completely assume everybody is right-handed. That's sheer ignorance, plain and simple, and it must change.
Yeah, we have the right to play games the way we want. It's a corollary to our right to pay nothing for them, and our right to force developers to continue making them even in the absence of reward.
I'm a lefty. Have been all my life. However, I absolutely hate and detest products that are "made for left-handers", like left-handed corkscrews, pencil sharpeners, inkpen nibs, etc etc.
I have absolutely no problem using a standard pair of scissors with my left hand. Screwdrivers (in either direction), pencil sharpeners, italic nibs, corkscrews, too.
I can also write without curling my wrist round like some kind of $DEROGATORY_TERM_FOR_DISABLED.
I don't do ticks backward either.
I accept that some things are made to be used on a right hand, and I agree that this is poor design and a lack of thought. Cat-stroking gloves, for examples. And it's nice when a rifle manufacturer makes a rifle that can be used on either shoulder. (Though I find the right should more "left handed", as I control the aim more with the left hand.
For years, I used computer mice on the left-hand side, but did standard click with my middle finger, and right-click with my first finger. It's not that difficult.
The idea that left-handers are "special" and need to be pandered to, really gets my goat. We're not. We can do everything.
If I had my way, I'd set fire to all the Leftoria.
they had gathered a 'focus group' of left handers who *smoked, to see if they would end up inhaling the stylus while playing using their right hand. Only 1 in 20 made that mistake, but he was kind of bottom rung of the ladder so they tossed the study.
It's not very hard.
I'm right handed, and while I can do stuff with my left hand, just not as good.
but typing? Video games? please.
Tron You controlled him with your right hand.
don't recall people bitching about that.
There's been a ton of funky and non conformal arcade controls, and we've all managed.
Look at the gamepad.
You got controls and buttons all over the place. You telling me you can't move the right side stick as well as the left stick?
We aren't talking big movements here, we are talking small, little ones. Nothing hard, nothing that requires alot of dexterity really. if you type, you all ready have it.
The problem really is, you suck, and your blaming it on the tools.
Be seeing you...
I think I'll probably expand on this post for a blog entry later on, but I definitely need to weigh in on this subject. I'm a lefty that's tried for a long while to switch over, most recently having tried with a right-handed Logitech G500 mouse with many of the gaming bells and whistles. I spent about four months on it, and never could get my head in the right place for it. As a lefty, a whole host of things are more difficult than they're intended to be.
I spend a lot of my time gaming, usually on a PC. Console controls don't bother me with the left-right difference, but mousing is a real hassle a lot of the time. In the OS, I'm fine and can use a mouse in either hand, but in games - forget it. And it's only partially due to the mouse itself. A bigger contributor to my problems has been the need to use the arrow keys and home/end cluster for most gaming controls. I've gotten quite used to using that area of a standard keyboard layout for binding my keys, and my muscle memory is deeply ingrained for both hands.
Unfortunately, default keymaps are designed for right-handers, which means a lefty like me has to go through and rebind 2/3rds of the keys in a game to get to the point of having a functional experience. More recent, or more complex games are sometimes impossible to master just due to running out of places to put binds that your fingers can actually reach. Games where you can't rebind anything... well, those games don't get played.
My four month attempt to switch mousing hands pretty much ended with me being pissed off after four months of getting my ass handed to me in everything I played. I was constantly apologizing to teammates for shitty performance in Borderlands, taking far longer than anyone else to set up for an assault, and faster paced games like Team Fortress 2? Forget it. I spent a lot of time as an Engineer whacking a sentry with a wrench so it could do all the work.
I've tried the add-on keyboard controllers, the Logitech G13, the Belkin "SpeedPads", and a dozen mice over the last few years. Nothing seems able to shake my muscle memory out of the habits I've had with gaming since the Doom era when all you needed was weapon selection, movement and a fire button. The Logitech G13 game closest, but with its design quite heavily aimed at being used with a left hand due to a left-thumb positioned cluster of controls half of it is useless to me, and what's left doesn't feel quite _right_.
And even now that I'm sticking with a left-hand mouse/arrow keys keyboard configuration, I find myself still quite limited in options and controls. My mousing style is best described as a "fingertip" one, which works well with certain kinds of mouse design. With my keyboard needs, many of the current "ergonomic" models are simply useless.
At this point, the best companies I have to work with are Razer and Logitech. Razer may have a few dogs on the market, but they also have a capable midrange gaming mouse in the DeathAdder that comes in a lefty ergonomic design. Logitech may not be as nice to lefties with regards to mice, but the G-series keyboards haven't screwed with the fundamental 104 key layout. What those of us who can't adapt have been left with, is a pretty weak number of choices.
I have to give crazy amounts of credit to Razer, however. For a company whose products I once shot the hell out of in protest of a poor warranty situation - which they resolved, publicly and thoroughly - they really did step up. And in the case of the left-handed mouse, they claimed on launch that the left-handed DeathAdder may even be a money-loser but they still felt it was something important to do. Now, if only they'll step up the left-hand option to something like the Lachesis or Mamba.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
Oh how I've waited for the day that this article and these comments showed up. Watched and waited, twirling my mustache and sharpening my band saw with my left hand, ready to give you right-handed monsters (Yes, monsters. Right-biased, racist, Nazi-loving monsters) a quick chop to see how you adapt to my left-hand world. I remember the day I bought my 1st guitar: "You know," said the salesman, "since you're left-handed you should actually play a right-handed guitar instead for better fret control." And with my left-hand I stabbed him in the face, shouting "then why the fuck don't you play left-handed you goddamn idiot?!". To this day I love nothing better than to walk into Guitar Center with a huge wad of bills, casting my eyes across 500 right-handed guitars searching for the rare lefty. And when I find it? Same. Fucking. Guitar. I. Already. Own. Didn't we learn anything from the Holocaust? If this discrimination is still so rampant, it's as if 3 million of my people died for nothing.
In conclusion: I hate you all, and if I could find a left-handed book of matches I would burn you all alive.
"Once in Hawaii I had sex with a 102 year old male turtle. It is difficult to argue that it was consensual." - Steve Ma
I ain't going to learn to use a stylus in my right hand. I'll just avoid games where things I need to see are obscured by my lefty curl.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
What an utter non-starter for an opening sentence.
a percentage you say? What would that percentage be? You don't want to tell us.
That must mean it's low.
if it was high, he'd certainly tell us.
or if he knew.
So it's either very low or he has no clue.
Either way it shows that this article is written by someone who doesn't care or about a segment of the population that is insignificant. Thanks for letting me know I could stop reading.
I've often wondered about the fact that we really use the left thumb in dominate analog controls like looking and piloting and the right hand is throttle, strafe and buttons. So whats up with that? We just dump out right hand dominance when needed? I think we are all ambidextrous. I'm right handed but (in video games) I can left thumb pilot a jet under a bridge at mach 2 and headshot with a pistol st 50 yards. Hummmm.
Idiot completely failed to say in a page and a half what half the comments now say in one or two sentences.
The game is played with DSi on it's side, with the touch screen is to the right.
His left hand obscures the important left screen, when he's reaching over it to use the right screen.
Send his wage to someone who needs it and punch him in the face for wasting our time.
:)
I'm sort of surprised Base 10 is used as the example here. Since it's DSiWare, I guess I'm a little more lenient as I figure they have a smaller budget and might not be able to be accommodating due to monetary reasons.
To me, one of the more egregious examples of this is Bookworm. It started as a DSiWare game that had no left-handed functionality, but then they released it as a full game which did the same. I bought the game, and was extremely frustrated to find out the only way I could play the game was to have my left-hand resting on the top screen (as the DS is held vertically while playing), which was not good for the hinges. Not only that, but I was covering up half the game by doing so. It was so annoying to me, that I ended up sending Popcap a complaint (and getting a useless, canned response). It's not like Popcap is some small, struggling studio. Really, how much time would it have taken them to reverse the image to make the game capable for southpaws?
From my experience, most DS games are certain to keep it in mind that there are left-handed gamers who require different controls, but every so often, there's a game that slips through. It's just frustrating that there usually isn't any indication that it won't be a game I can play.
I'm going on some very rough estimates, but they are informed estimates nonetheless (also, the data is heavily biased towards trends in the US). Please bear with me here...
Approximately 19% of Americans play video games on a gaming console (source here). Approximately 10% of the population is left handed. Rounding the U.S. population to 300 million, we have roughly 57 million Americans playing videogames on something other than a PC (this is important because PCs are primarily mouse and keyboard driven thus I can safely rule this population segment out). If we apply the 10% left-handedness rate to that number, we get 5.7 million left-handed people who play videogames on a game console (a DS is, in this case, a game console). Approximately 105 million current-gen game consoles have been sold in the U.S. as of December 2009 (source - here). Not counting previous generation consoles, that gives us an almost 2:1 game console to console gamer ratio (1.84:1 to be a little more precise). Also, 43% of the consoles sold were Nintendo DS's. Now, here I have a choice: I can either do some fancy statistical analysis (which I don't want to do) or I can assume that 43% of left-handed console owners have a DS. Doing that, I get approximately 2.45 million left-handed Nintendo DS owners.
That's a decent sized number; let's break it down further.
Taking into account the information provided by CmdrTaco, we are specifically talking about the DSi and a game called Base 10. 300,000 DSi's were sold as of December 2009. That gives us 0.7% of all Nintendo DS's sold are capable of playing this game. That whittles our 2.45 million left-handed DS owners down to 172,000 left-handed DSi owners. I couldn't find any sales numbers for Base 10; I'm not even going to attempt a guess there. That's an okay market size in and of itself, but it would be foolish to assume that 100% of that target market would buy that game. I'm pretty sure not even New Super Mario Bros. has that kind of attachment rate.
In summary, the answer is 42.
This "research" took me all of about thirty minutes so be kind.
http://www.bynarystudio.com
It's not like this is anything new... Gamepads have always had d-pad left, buttons right. Atari 2600 joysticks were hold the base of the controller in the left hand, fire with left thumb, joystick right. They never made a left-handed power glove either.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I experienced an injury in my teens that caused nerve damage to my left [forearm and] hand. I have gross motor skills with it but lack the ability to use my fingers individually or to distinctly feel what/where I'm touching.
I have adjusted to this over the years in ways like switching to the Dvorak right-hand keyboard layout, which works very well [though I have no comment on the normal Dvorak layout].
I've been a PC gamer for years and have rarely had issues using various controllers because most PC games have fully programmable controls.
Console games, on the other hand [and regardless of platform] usually don't offer any better than a couple of layouts which all make the presumption that you're not only right-handed but have two fully functioning hands.
Given that fact, I basically gave up any hope of over being able to play console games with standard gamepads because the controls are nearly always laid out in a way that makes using them next to impossible for me [not that any other kind of control is any better with them].
I've never understood the lack of programmable controls on gaming consoles [the only reason I have ever come up with is laziness on the part of programmers], considering how simple the addition would be. This would not only make it possible for people like me to create layouts that are at least playable [if not optimal] but would also help lefties.
As Mr. Andrew Galbraith says "Purchasing a DSi...." I think he found the real root of the problem.
Most of the posters here are completely missing the point. The real issue is that the original post is complaining that developers only write code that best fits their own perceptions. You can be sure if a game developer was left-handed, they'd have included that as an option. This is no different for the some 8% of males who are red-green color blind. I'm one and am constantly pointing out to developers that using a red or green to indicate status (which they love to do) will be completely and utterly missed by someone who is red-green color blind. And, after having it being pointed out to them, even then they may or may not fix it. And invariably, the next time around on some other product, the cycle will repeat itself. This is a never-ending cycle because developers rarely consider the needs of others.
Regarding scissors, pick up a pair and examine how things move when you open and close them. In your right hand, you're not only rotating around the pivot vertically (opening and closing it) but also horizontally, pushing one blade against the other. Try it in your left hand, and the same action is pulling the blades slightly apart, meaning they don't cut properly.
Doesn't matter if you flip it around, you need to re-arrange the blades so the top handle corresponds to the right blade, as opposed to the top handle corresponding to the left blade with right-handed scissors.
This is of course why left-handed scissors exist, with the blade configuration switched. They're not necessarily easy to find, but if you're left-handed and doing something that requires really accurate scissoring that you can't do with your right hand, you're probably also looking at high-end scissors and those are more likely to have left-handed options.
I'm not left-handed, but I do some things left-handed and am somewhat ambidextrous with other things. I too struggled with scissors in the left hand until I figured out how the lever action worked on them to produce a good cut. At that point I also realized why some scissors I'd tried as a kid on one memorable occasion (why I remember stuff like that and not other things I don't know, but that's another story) didn't work - they were left-handed scissors.
Lefties learned to be ambidextrous ages ago. Where are those damn green scissors.
While I can't game on a PC using a mouse in my right hand, regular joystick/joypad gaming has always been a perfect for me as a leftie.
I'd grab a stick/pad with my left hand since that's the most natural thing in the world for me (just like when I use a pen, fork or anything else where it matters which hand you use). Using a fire button is easy using my right hand, since that's not something that requires a lot of fine control to the same extent as controlling a character on-screen.
Arcade cabinets were perfect for me as a leftie. Same goes for all controllers for consoles. A few digital joysticks were awkward due to placement of fire buttons (back when we had real joysticks, remember?) but most analogue joysticks were impossible to use, as they were physically shaped to be held by a right hand.
As long as things aren't shaped explicitly for right-handed people, I think most lefties can easily keep up.
Then again YMMV, since I personally don't see how left-handed people can use a left-handed guitar. I want my strongest hand on the fretboard, so I use right-hand guitars.
Against the grain
They aren't being left behind
They are right behind.
I note with glee that the bullshit of "Left handed people CAN'T". Bullshit. Adapt.
.
Voting up, Voting down - If I really gave a fuck about your approval or not, I'd come and ask you.
12 paragraphs practically explaining this guy's life story and nowhere does it say WHY it's "impossible" for left handed people to play, and of course it's not impossible. This taken from another article that actually has a shred of detail on the problem -
That’s right, unlike many other popular games for the Nintendo DS that involve holding the DS in a book-like style, Art Style: BASE 10 does not feature an option to switch screens. The feature, which allows left-handed players to use the touchscreen with ease, has been left out of the game in a ridiculous oversight that may result in many a cramped wrist.
Mina Harris, of Nintendo America has defended this oversight saying things such as "it is unlikely that this will cause any issues." and "this game was tested extensively by left-handed testers before its release, and there were no issues reported."
The above mentioned wrist cramps would be a result of her undoubtedly well thought-out solution to the problem, which is recommending that left-handed players "hold the Nintendo DSi with their right hand, while controlling the stylus with their left hand. Keeping their left wrist towards the bottom of the system will ensure that the touch screen isn’t blocked during gameplay."
So the problem is that you need to use the right hand screen, which will require a left handed user to hold their hand in a slightly more uncomfortable position to avoid blocking the left hand screen. Nintendo should fix it, but to say that it's impossible to play just isn't true. How did this dumbed down clap-trap get posted to slashdot anyway?
call me a troll and reduce my karma, I DONT CARE
this is one of the HUGE pet peeves for me.
grrrrr!!!!!
Thre are a lot of free MMO's kreeping up that make mapping of the up down left right keys static to something else but MOVE!
AS a lefty, i move with these keyes, leaving my other hand free to control the character actions with the mouse
ATTN Gamemakers: You instantly loose a customer here if you dont provide for left handed gamers. I can tolarate the righty formed mice and joysticks, blah, i dont care but this is a serious issue
And for something totally off topic: I recently heard on a special program about the toilet that most third world countries did and may still not have toilet paper readily available everywhere. People use the left hand to wipe, so that's why everyone in those areas shake hands with their right hand. They also use their right hand for just about everything else, even if they were born left-handed... If people in poor countries can learn to use their right hand for just about everything because they have to wipe their ass with their left hand, certainly left-handed people in rich countries can learn to play a GAME with their right hand. It's not like we are asking you to wipe your ass with your left hand!
I'm left-handed and I cannot use a mouse with my left hand... You learn to adapt to a right-handed world just like the blind adapt to a sighted world and the deaf adapt to a world full of sound.
Left-handedness, like red hair, is a genetic mistake and an abomination. Left handedness is not normal, nor was it intended to run rampant by the One True God. It is our responsibility as a moral society to cure these poor souls through prayer and the power of Christ. I applaud game developers who have not given into Satan and have chosen the path of riotousness. They do God's work. And I am not interested in the devil worshiper pointing out that if God is infallible there could be no genetic mistake. I am not interested in the satanist pointing out that maybe these genetic mutations are intentional and no more moral or immoral than length of a toe or the shape of an ear. Those are heretical positions and you have no business combining logic and empathy in a faith-based society.
If this was in Canada, they would have filed a human rights complaint.
I'm left-handed, and part of being a lefty in this society means that you learn to do a lot of things in a right-handed fashion. Since I was a kid, I've learned to Bowl, play guitar, drums, swing a baseball bat (both ways), and do countless other things right-handed just because it was convenient, as well as play video games. Really, most left-handed people wind up becoming ambidextrous out of necessity, so in the long run I'd say it's more of an advantage than a disadvantage :-D
I am right handed but most gamepads seem to be designed for left handed people.
Back in the 80s when I had a joystick with one button I always gripped the stick with my right hand and the base/fire button with the left. It made sense since controlling movement requires more precision than pressing a button. Then Nintendo came out with the NES and put the d-pad on the left. With two buttons on the right. Apparently I need my preferred hand to push two buttons.
Even arcade joysticks seem to have gone this way, but at least most flight sticks allow you to use them right-handed.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC