Smartjoy FRAG

This is Friday's news, today.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/553/553...html?fromint=1


Anyways, a big change is a-coming with online FPS play. Most console FPS players (read as: Halo) are all up in arms over this. Calling for XBL to ban this product, or to allow servers to not allow this periph. etc. I understand where they are coming from, I would hate to play against a decent player using a KB/M if I was using a joypad. But, if I cared that much about my precious E-penis, I would buck up and spend 30 dollars to compete.

I think its great, because there are alot of people (me), who get frustrated with FPS controls on a console .. and this will make those games more enjoyable. So, theoretically, it should improve gameplay all across the board (more people, better competition, more high quality FPS's being ported, etc).


The cool thing is that they don't stick you with some crummy keyboard and mouse, you can plug in your own. I am surprised this adapter hasn't been made years ago.

I think just as many people are bewildered by mouse+keyboard controls on PC FPS... its not at all intuitive... its just intuitive because people are used to it. Kinda like how people talk about how the Mac OS X interface is confusing but its really just because its not XP.

And I think that MS should ban it from XBL. Keep everything level.

"I think just as many people are bewildered by mouse+keyboard controls on PC FPS... its not at all intuitive... "

I really doubt this. I obviously don't speak for everyone, but after playing old PC games with a gamepad, it literally took me all of 5 minutes to be far better than I was with the pad with a KB/M.

Good for you.

It's cool, but I can see why XBL fans would want it banned. If this thing works well, you'll almost have to use it to be competitive. There's no comfortable way for me to use a keyboard/mouse while sitting on the couch (and wearing a headset most likely), so either I lose the comfort of playing with a controller, or take a dive competitively. If I wanted to play with that setup, sitting in a chair at a table, well, hell, that's just like playing at a computer!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by toxic

...So, theoretically, it should improve gameplay all across the board (more people, better competition, more high quality FPS's being ported, etc).

---

I don't see it doing any of those things, except maybe improving competition. I don't know how it is on pc/mac, but it seems to me like mouse-play would break Halo 1. The pistol and sniper rifle would just become far too powerful, but maybe some of the Halo PC players here can fill us in.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by diffusionx

I think just as many people are bewildered by mouse+keyboard controls on PC FPS... its not at all intuitive... its just intuitive because people are used to it. Kinda like how people talk about how the Mac OS X interface is confusing but its really just because its not XP.

And I think that MS should ban it from XBL. Keep everything level.

---

.... What drugs have YOU been doing? KB/M gives a far greater degree of percision and control than ANY controller setup [for FPS]. More buttons, comfortable, and more accurate. How is this not intuitve. WASD for walking and all the hotkeys for grenades, teamcalls and whatnot all around those keys. If poeple can't figure out KB/M and seriously think a controller is better because it has less buttons..... they're fucking retarded.

I think you maybe underestimating the large amount of PC FPS players who hate playing with joypads on consoles .. and will shun FPS games in general.

So right there, that will attract more people. So if more people are attracted to a game, other developers will port their PC game to console because there is a larger audience.


I don't like banning people that are using a peripherial. It would be like banning someone playing Tekken Tag because they are using a joystick, and you are using a gamepad. A joystick is superior (in most cases), than a pad ... but the joystick user shouldn't be punished for it.

But maybe having *pure* (read as: joypad only) servers, would be the way to go on XBL.

Tekken Tag arcade units didn't have joypads.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gibbits

.... What drugs have YOU been doing? KB/M gives a far greater degree of percision and control than ANY controller setup [for FPS]. More buttons, comfortable, and more accurate. How is this not intuitve. WASD for walking and all the hotkeys for grenades, teamcalls and whatnot all around those keys. If poeple can't figure out KB/M and seriously think a controller is better because it has less buttons..... they're fucking retarded.

---

A lot of people have not played FPS games with m+k, but started playing on a pad, with a game like Halo, or Goldeneye, or whatever. For those people, using m+k can be unintuitive. Like I said, its all about what people tried first, usually. A lot of people think the Mac OS X interface is worse than the XP one but thats not the case, they just used the XP one first.

The NES pad felt unintuitive when I first played it. "Where's my damn joystick?!". Then once I adjusted to it, it was hard to go back to Atari style joysticks. Sometimes people need to be forced into a new way of playing things.

When I first played FPSs like Wolf3D it was with a gamepad but today I vastly prefer to play the genre with a mouse because it is an inherently superior method of control. I realize that using a mouse/keyboard combo on console can be cumbersome for many which is why I think console manufacturers should come up with a new type of controller that has the aiming accuracy of a mouse. The Xbox controller is the best yet but far from perfect. Not that I know how to make such a thing but I would like to think it's possible.