Lefty Controller PLEASE

[StonedPhilosopher]

Dear Valve,
Please make a lefty version of the Steam Controller. If the mouse pad was one the left side you will have revolutionized my gameplaying ability and I swear I'll spend money on games and stuff.
Sincerely, a despereate southpaw gamer

[thenevernow]

Not sure what your exact concern is, but there's a touchpad on the left, too and you're free to invert the two pad's functions in each and every game. I'm also a lefty but personally I don't use southpaw configurations (I despise WASD, though :D).

[lagamemnon]

You can configure the left trackpad to be the mouse, but then you'll need to configure the right trackpad to be joystick.

Then you've got to decide whether the joystick or the button pad acts like a d-pad. I use the joystick as a d-pad because I'm used to the XB360 layout, but you could swap them. It'll just be awkward using the joystick as if it were buttons.

[StonedPhilosopher]

I actually think i got a solid idea of how im gunna use it. Thanks guys, will be ordering soon!

[lagamemnon]

A question for left-handed people:

Is converting a layout to southpaw a simple matter of rearranging which physical controls do what?

For example, for FPS games:

• Move aim functions (usually right touchpad) to left touchpad.
  
• Move d-pad functions to joystick.
  
• Move walk/run functions (usually joystck or left touchpad) to right touchpad.

That seems like something Valve or the Steam Controller Database[www.steamcontrollerdb.com] could make happen.

[•]

I liked the initial idea of SC engineers to make symmetrical controller and was very disappointed when Valve released assymetrical version of it Shame on you valves!

I'm southpaw too (welcome to the club? :) ), but had not any problems with anything like that, cuz of my dancing classes maybe (improved my body control a lot since then).

[lagamemnon]

The joystick and button pad are mounted to the controller's circuit board. If they were attached by wires, someone could use the 3D CAD files to design and print a faceplate that swapped them.

[thenevernow]

Originally posted by lagamemnon:

A question for left-handed people:

Is converting a layout to southpaw a simple matter of rearranging which physical controls do what?

[...]

Yes, exactly. You can remap every single input on the SC and the game you're playing won't even know about it. The only boundary in matching your personal preferences is the physical position of the thumbstick and ABXY buttons, of course. :)

[cammelspit]

I dunno, I played for 4-6 hours in a southpaw arrangement in Witcher:Enhanced and it was fine. Took about 30 minutes to really get the hang of it. I did this just to prove a point for a guy who refused to accept that there is no "left-handed" steam controller and insisted that it was impossible to use for and that there was some kind of huge right-hand dominant conspiracy to mess with the southpaws.

I quote the left handed because there is no such thing as a right or left handed controller. This is not a pair of scissors where it is explicitly molded to work with one hand and only one hand. When I was young, there was an arbitrary decision made to make the left hand control the DPad, joystick or analog stick for movement and the right to control the face buttons. This was completely arbitrary and there is no reason to have it this way or the reversed. If we had decided to make the right-hand control movement and the left control the face buttons the left-handed people would still be asking for a reversed controller.

I can say this because my wife and probably my son are left handed. Think of when Nintendo made the decision to make the dpad on the left. Japan has more than 40% of their total population left handed. If could be argued that the tradition designs of movement on the left and actions on the right IS a left handed design because you require more precision with the left hand to play NES games.

Just sayin'...

[Porta1980]

Originally posted by cammelspit:

I dunno, I played for 4-6 hours in a southpaw arrangement in Witcher:Enhanced and it was fine. Took about 30 minutes to really get the hang of it. I did this just to prove a point for a guy who refused to accept that there is no "left-handed" steam controller and insisted that it was impossible to use for and that there was some kind of huge right-hand dominant conspiracy to mess with the southpaws.

I quote the left handed because there is no such thing as a right or left handed controller. This is not a pair of scissors where it is explicitly molded to work with one hand and only one hand. When I was young, there was an arbitrary decision made to make the left hand control the DPad, joystick or analog stick for movement and the right to control the face buttons. This was completely arbitrary and there is no reason to have it this way or the reversed. If we had decided to make the right-hand control movement and the left control the face buttons the left-handed people would still be asking for a reversed controller.

I can say this because my wife and probably my son are left handed. Think of when Nintendo made the decision to make the dpad on the left. Japan has more than 40% of their total population left handed. If could be argued that the tradition designs of movement on the left and actions on the right IS a left handed design because you require more precision with the left hand to play NES games.

Just sayin'...

Acually all controllers are right handed. its just that most left handed people just get used to things. Right handed people would actually be surprised the number of things that are right handed. Even something as simple as a ruler is actually righthanded and there are left handed versions.

[thenevernow]

Originally posted by porta1980:

Acually all controllers are right handed. its just that most left handed people just get used to things. Right handed people would actually be surprised the number of things that are right handed. Even something as simple as a ruler is actually righthanded and there are left handed versions.

I'm not sure about this. The main action in games is almost always movement and it's mapped to us lefties' dominant hand. It might be that the D-Pad (and later thumbsticks) ended up on the left by chance and no one dares to change this convention (while people obviously got used to it).

[Porta1980]

Originally posted by thenevernow:

Originally posted by porta1980:

Acually all controllers are right handed. its just that most left handed people just get used to things. Right handed people would actually be surprised the number of things that are right handed. Even something as simple as a ruler is actually righthanded and there are left handed versions.

I'm not sure about this. The main action in games is almost always movement and it's mapped to us lefties' dominant hand. It might be that the D-Pad (and later thumbsticks) ended up on the left by chance and no one dares to change this convention (while people obviously got used to it).

The main thing that you need accuracy for in most modern games is the right stick. most left handers are at a disadvantage in pvp multiplayer games due to this. i am left handed so using my right hand to control my aiming does have a huge effect. i may have this view, however, im so used to it that i find southpaw impossible to control. to make things harder for myself i'm also an inverter lol

[thenevernow]

Well, that depends. You're right about FPS games, of course, and some others. But think of Super Mario Bros, think of the NES. That's when joypads were introduced to the masses.

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by porta1980:

Originally posted by thenevernow:

I'm not sure about this. The main action in games is almost always movement and it's mapped to us lefties' dominant hand. It might be that the D-Pad (and later thumbsticks) ended up on the left by chance and no one dares to change this convention (while people obviously got used to it).

The main thing that you need accuracy for in most modern games is the right stick. most left handers are at a disadvantage in pvp multiplayer games due to this. i am left handed so using my right hand to control my aiming does have a huge effect. i may have this view, however, im so used to it that i find southpaw impossible to control. to make things harder for myself i'm also an inverter lol

Left-handers have no disadvantage because the choice, again, was arbitrary. If it were chosen to have movement on the right hand and actions on the left hand then lefties would be complaining they wanted it reversed just like they do right now. The Atari and many older systems were actually designed in exactly this way. If the item is not explicitly designed to be molded and held in one specific hand, then there is no reason to do anything else.

Think of a guitar... The left hand is what requires the most dexterity since it is the one that decides the notes and such. But of course, lefties think they need to reverse it for no real reason. There are right handed people who bat left handed. Hand dominance only applies to what you are likely to first grab an item with as a child. If I grab the crayon with my right hand I will attempt to use it with that hand and will get used to using it for writing, that's it.

Another thing to note is that there actually isn't such a thing as being neurologically left handed. There is such a thing as right-handed and the "left-handed" people actually have no hard wired hand dominance. This NEED for southpaws to latch onto the idea that they have to reverse everything is simply silly. I would be willing to bet that of the 90% of the world population that is right handed, another 10% are probably neurologically non-dominant and are only using their right hand because that is what they see others doing around them and grew up doing it that way.

Also, one of my brother, my wife and my son are all lefties so I am not saying this out of some discriminatory thing here. We just need a little perspective on things.

[Porta1980]

Originally posted by cammelspit:

Originally posted by porta1980:

The main thing that you need accuracy for in most modern games is the right stick. most left handers are at a disadvantage in pvp multiplayer games due to this. i am left handed so using my right hand to control my aiming does have a huge effect. i may have this view, however, im so used to it that i find southpaw impossible to control. to make things harder for myself i'm also an inverter lol

Left-handers have no disadvantage because the choice, again, was arbitrary. If it were chosen to have movement on the right hand and actions on the left hand then lefties would be complaining they wanted it reversed just like they do right now. The Atari and many older systems were actually designed in exactly this way. If the item is not explicitly designed to be molded and held in one specific hand, then there is no reason to do anything else.

Think of a guitar... The left hand is what requires the most dexterity since it is the one that decides the notes and such. But of course, lefties think they need to reverse it for no real reason. There are right handed people who bat left handed. Hand dominance only applies to what you are likely to first grab an item with as a child. If I grab the crayon with my right hand I will attempt to use it with that hand and will get used to using it for writing, that's it.

Another thing to note is that there actually isn't such a thing as being neurologically left handed. There is such a thing as right-handed and the "left-handed" people actually have no hard wired hand dominance. This NEED for southpaws to latch onto the idea that they have to reverse everything is simply silly. I would be willing to bet that of the 90% of the world population that is right handed, another 10% are probably neurologically non-dominant and are only using their right hand because that is what they see others doing around them and grew up doing it that way.

Also, one of my brother, my wife and my son are all lefties so I am not saying this out of some discriminatory thing here. We just need a little perspective on things.

Spoken like a right handed person. Also "lefties is pretty offensive. you also stereo typed all l"lefties" saying we demand things to be left handed. I don't own a signle left handed item and have never bought one or complained i just use what i have.

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by porta1980:

Originally posted by cammelspit:

Left-handers have no disadvantage because the choice, again, was arbitrary. If it were chosen to have movement on the right hand and actions on the left hand then lefties would be complaining they wanted it reversed just like they do right now. The Atari and many older systems were actually designed in exactly this way. If the item is not explicitly designed to be molded and held in one specific hand, then there is no reason to do anything else.

Think of a guitar... The left hand is what requires the most dexterity since it is the one that decides the notes and such. But of course, lefties think they need to reverse it for no real reason. There are right handed people who bat left handed. Hand dominance only applies to what you are likely to first grab an item with as a child. If I grab the crayon with my right hand I will attempt to use it with that hand and will get used to using it for writing, that's it.

Another thing to note is that there actually isn't such a thing as being neurologically left handed. There is such a thing as right-handed and the "left-handed" people actually have no hard wired hand dominance. This NEED for southpaws to latch onto the idea that they have to reverse everything is simply silly. I would be willing to bet that of the 90% of the world population that is right handed, another 10% are probably neurologically non-dominant and are only using their right hand because that is what they see others doing around them and grew up doing it that way.

Also, one of my brother, my wife and my son are all lefties so I am not saying this out of some discriminatory thing here. We just need a little perspective on things.

Spoken like a right handed person. Also "lefties is pretty offensive. you also stereo typed all l"lefties" saying we demand things to be left handed. I don't own a signle left handed item and have never bought one or complained i just use what i have.

My intent was not to be offensive but to put some perspective on the real life mechanics of the thing. Plus the fact that even if a leftie controller was mandatory for one to use it properly, it would also still be very unlikely to ever happen. 10% of the population worldwide is a much smaller market than all the countries that the SC isn't available in in the first place.

If you personally are not among the "lefties" that do the demanding, then please, don't take offense. Like I said, I have family who are left-handed and I harbor no ill will. It is just with threads like this, seems to get to me for some reason because it is my belief it is unnecessary at best to even ask for this or entertain the idea.

I think I have said my peace and end with again, reaffirming I mean no insult to you or anyone in particular and it was only an observation of a general attitude I have seen more often than I feel is reasonable. No hard feelings?