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."
...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
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.
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.
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.