KB+M and gamepads for gaming. Why is there such an issue with either being switched?

[endtherapture]

"Because that's how it's supposed to be played".

If... if the game supports a gamepad, then... isn't that also how it's supposed to be played?

PC elitists kind of make me sick. I imagine their community is nothing more than a circlejerk laced with superiority complex. I can't tell you the number of times I've been in a conversation with such people where they oozed this sense of "I'm better than you" because I play on consoles (despite also playing on PC).

Personally, I grew up on consoles and handhelds, and continue to play on them primarily. So a controller feels much more natural to me than a keyboard. If I have the option on PC, I play the game with a controller (with a few exceptions).

It's all about what feels better.

No because some games support gamepads but are god awful on them.

I couldn't play Arkham Asylum with a gamepad, the keyboard/mouse controls are simply much easier and more precise, can't move the camera fast enough with a game pad.

Played through both arkham games with only a controller on the hardest difficulties. As did tens of thousands of other people.

If you had a problem with the controller input, it was entirely your own.

Honestly, how fast do you need to move the camera in that game? Your complaint is ridiculous.

It's personal preference, I just didn't find the turn move speed of the camera fast enough to target the right enemies I wanted and pressing the num buttons easier than remembering the combos for the gadgets. It's not a ridiculous complaint, it's perfectly valid, especially as I always have my mouse sensitivity set very high in almost all games I play.

Anyway another example is Deus Ex Human Revolution - it can be played with a gamepad but it's better playing with the M&K for aiming purposes.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Edit: This is the attitude that pisses me off most about the whole KB/M vs. Controller thing. PC players saying K/M is just flat out better because this one time they tried a game with a controller and it was so bad they couldn't do it. No, it's not the controller thats bad, it's you. No shit you're not as good with a controller as you are with KB/M, you play with a KB/M most of the time!

The only exception to this is, as others have said, competetive multiplayer games :- FPS and strategy games in favour of KB/M and fighting games in favour of controllers.

No PC player thinks that a kb+m is the be all and end all. Idiots who conform to PC elitism they do though, of course they do say stuff like that. It would be silly for them not to think that.

OT: Are you playing a game with a competitive focus using a sub optimal set up? If no they're idiots and you should ignore them. If you are well they're probably just ass hats. While Kb+M may be better for stuff like FPS games doesn't mean you have to use it. Same as while controllers may be better for 3d platformers/platformers with analog controls.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I personally far prefer mouse and keyboard for almost all games. This includes games that you would expect controller to be better, like Arkham Asylum or Tomb Raider (2013). The precision I get with the camera more than makes up for the digital movement input

Something I've noticed about when I've used controllers is that I get the reverse benefit: I can use the precision of the left analog stick to make up for the lack of precision of the right stick. I guess that's why some kb+m users have a hard time with controllers, they're so used to using only the mouse to center the camera

I agree with everyone's sentiments here, its just a matter of preference. I used kb+m when I first got my laptop and I got pretty good at it but eventually I figured out how to set up my ps3 controller with my laptop's bluetooth and I couldn't go back. I don't play competitive games so I've never had a reason to relearn kb+m and it's just easier to pick up a wireless controller and play with my laptop on my tv not to mention hammering keys makes my hand hurt. Plus I have short fingers so while most people say its easier to reach more buttons on a keyboard, its something that bugs me and I'm too cheap to buy 10 button mouse to make up the difference.

PC gamers who have to deal with the bullshit of a poorly made interface have my sympathy. After all, I know that feel too cause Microsoft are a bunch of lazy cunts who can't add simple xbox controller support for their own OS so I have to flop back and forth between the mouse and controller when switching games or use some kind of program to emulate keyboard and mouse controls (but of course then I can't emulate the 360 controller at the same time)

 

[rob_simple]

This isn't unique to the PC Master Race, I remember similar cries of heresy when it was revealed that Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid would be going multi-platform.

People (by which I mean idiots) for some reason saw it as some sort of betrayal; that a true Final Fantasy or MGS belonged on the Playstation and the Playstation alone, (more ironic, still, seeing that neither series had it's beginnings on a Sony machine).

At the end of the day, people (and again, I mean idiots) like to feel special by belonging to a unique group and, rather than be open and welcoming to people who do or would like to share that interest, many of them would rather brick up the clubhouse door and spend the rest of their days circle-jerking with people whom they've deemed worthy purely by virtue of being around longer than the new guys.

 

[Something Amyss]

... There are people who take issue with certain games being played with controllers on PC? Some pretentious assholes they are. -.-

Nailed it one.

I don't really know why; I think it has something to do with the fact that most PC (only) games have a lot of ingame features that can't translate to a gamepad or a need of utmost sensitivity.

Yeah, but it extends well beyond that. Hence the complaints that games designed for console are still optimised for controllers. It also doesn't hurt that a lot of these same PC gamers complaining are from the insecure part of the base who really can't seem to let anyone else have anything ever.

Myself, I'll stick to my wired 360 controller 80% of the time. There are few games where I really feel the need to use a K+M, so unless it's a game I really want and there's no native support (I just don't bother with Xpadder), I'm probably uing a controller. I'll leave the justifications to the less secure.

OT: Why don't they complain when a game "made" for a gamepad has K+M settngs? Congratulations: you've just discovered hypocrisy. It's a selective argument used to justify a specific desire and therefore is only at issue when that desire isn't met.

 

[FFP2]

Well I'd understand the hate if you wanted to play certain genres on a gamepad. FPSs, RTSs, games that require precision etc. PC controls are more suited to those games. And it may help in MP games.

If they hate on you for playing GTA IV on a gamepad however then they're just being your typical PC elitist. They have to find as many reasons as possible to justify their overpriced rigs.

Anyway another example is Deus Ex Human Revolution - it can be played with a gamepad but it's better playing with the M&K for aiming purposes.

You are so right. I played it using KB+M when it first came out and I'm currently replaying it using a gamepad. Difference is night and day. No hotbar and you can't even rebind the console keys so I'm stuck with the cover button being LT and iron sights being R3. So damn stupid.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

Edit: This is the attitude that pisses me off most about the whole KB/M vs. Controller thing. PC players saying K/M is just flat out better because this one time they tried a game with a controller and it was so bad they couldn't do it. No, it's not the controller thats bad, it's you. No shit you're not as good with a controller as you are with KB/M, you play with a KB/M most of the time!

The only exception to this is, as others have said, competetive multiplayer games :- FPS and strategy games in favour of KB/M and fighting games in favour of controllers.

No PC player thinks that a kb+m is the be all and end all. Idiots who conform to PC elitism they do though, of course they do say stuff like that. It would be silly for them not to think that.

OT: Are you playing a game with a competitive focus using a sub optimal set up? If no they're idiots and you should ignore them. If you are well they're probably just ass hats. While Kb+M may be better for stuff like FPS games doesn't mean you have to use it. Same as while controllers may be better for 3d platformers/platformers with analog controls.

I play competitive games with KB/M most of the time, but there are a few games where I hold my own very well, and even excel other players, when using a controller. And those games didn't even have any type of auto-aim or aim-assist in them. I played Planetside 2 with a gamepad perfectly fine for the longest time because my keyboard wasn't working right then.

 

[Something Amyss]

People (by which I mean idiots) for some reason saw it as some sort of betrayal; that a true Final Fantasy or MGS belonged on the Playstation and the Playstation alone, (more ironic, still, seeing that neither series had it's beginnings on a Sony machine).

I think it's a somewhat different issue here, though. I mean, the fanboy wars date back to a time when a lot of people could only afford one of the major consoles. Even more to the point, the same TITLE might not mean the same game. You could have radically different versions for a Nintendo, Sega, or PC game.

The differences are getting smaller and so are the exclusives (except PC), so people are clammoring harder to justify. Every lost game is a smaller justification for a the existence of a closed system in a time and place where you might actually be less able to afford one (inflation makes these consoles relatively cheap, but lower wages, less buying power and increased cost of living make them more expensive).

But to lose your mind over an input option seems to come from a wholly different place. platform fanboyism is mostly a case of insecurity in one's purchases. PC gaming has this...Trend. And I'm not saying everyone does it. Just that it's a trend. PC gamers have been whining about not getting literally everything their way, and it more or less reeks of entitlement. Possibly insecurity, too, but this seems like a much different trend.

In any case, the "PC gaming master race" mentality is alive unironically.

 

[BodomBeachChild]

My question is why do you care about their opinion? Some games are simply easier to use with a gamepad. Try driving in Just Cause 2 without a gamepad. It's just a matter of preference.

 

[rob_simple]

People (by which I mean idiots) for some reason saw it as some sort of betrayal; that a true Final Fantasy or MGS belonged on the Playstation and the Playstation alone, (more ironic, still, seeing that neither series had it's beginnings on a Sony machine).

I think it's a somewhat different issue here, though. I mean, the fanboy wars date back to a time when a lot of people could only afford one of the major consoles. Even more to the point, the same TITLE might not mean the same game. You could have radically different versions for a Nintendo, Sega, or PC game.

The differences are getting smaller and so are the exclusives (except PC), so people are clammoring harder to justify. Every lost game is a smaller justification for a the existence of a closed system in a time and place where you might actually be less able to afford one (inflation makes these consoles relatively cheap, but lower wages, less buying power and increased cost of living make them more expensive).

But to lose your mind over an input option seems to come from a wholly different place. platform fanboyism is mostly a case of insecurity in one's purchases. PC gaming has this...Trend. And I'm not saying everyone does it. Just that it's a trend. PC gamers have been whining about not getting literally everything their way, and it more or less reeks of entitlement. Possibly insecurity, too, but this seems like a much different trend.

In any case, the "PC gaming master race" mentality is alive unironically.

See, I view both these things to exist under a similar mentality: that of what's 'traditional'. There are any number of practical benefits to controller over keyboard and mouse, but the purists will say it's wrong because it's not the way it's always been done; there are obvious benefits to an IP spreading itself across multiple platforms, but fanboys will get upset because the game 'doesn't belong on other systems'.

Maybe I am oversimplifying it, but I think these two camps do have a lot in common, mentally, even if their motivations aren't identical.

 

[Daygall65]

Ever since I've been in the PC gaming scene, there have been numerous times that I have been pretty much ridiculed for using a gamepad with pretty much any PC game compatible with one. I get rude remarks and treated as a moron when I ask if a game supports a gamepad, and I'm called "a dirty console peasant" by quite a few people. I even ask "Why does it matter to you what a person wants to use to play a game they pay for?" and the only answer is "Because that's how it's supposed to be played". But why is it that only the PC gaming community does this? Granted, it's just a portion of it, but it's quite a few, and I don't understand it.

For example, I never played the first "The Witcher", and saw it was on Steam. Before buying it, I recalled that the second game had full 360 controller support, and wondered if the first was the same (I had no idea that the combat and gameplay was VERY reliant on the point and click method of a mouse at the time, figuring it would have been similar to The Witcher 2 instead). The replies were as you could assume. A few "No it doesn't" replies, and also quite a few "No you fucking moron, you can't play it with a controller. Go back to your Xbox 360 you console peasant", or some variation of that. It was a simple question, and not even on a forum. This was asking through voice chat while playing an online game.

Now, why is it always PC games that get treated with the "It's how you're supposed to play" treatment, but when it's a game made for console first, and ported to PC second, there's no fuss about people using mouse and keyboard? GTA 4 was made for controller, but people used KB+M with no complaints. There are even game ON CONSOLE that support mouse and keyboard. No one thinks twice.

Why is it such an issue for some people that someone uses one or the other? I know KB+M (Well, it's just the mouse. For movement, controller has the advantage) has better precision, FPS games in particular, but for a single player, and even PC multiplayer games that let you use one, it shouldn't matter that someone does.

I do not lash out at people over their control choices.

That said my personal irk with a game that supports Controllers and KB+M is this.

Skyrim is my prime example, there are so many things I wish I could do in it that aren't an options because of the limitation of a controller. EG button mapping limitations.

I want to play as a Gandalf-esq character, which in Skyrim in all its forms including modded is so far impossible.

What I wish I could do is have my Staff and Sword in hand and it works base like dual wield but the staff has no power attack, holding blocks\deflects but push BOTH buttons and it's a combo swing like Gandalf did on the walls of Minas Tirth. With using the staffs ability *Fire ball, frost, lighting, etc* With a dedicated CAST button like Oblivion had for magick, but it's only for staff.

Above example, perfectly doable on KB+M, I'm not sure how they'd do it on a controller.

So for that reason, I cringe internally when I see a game say *Controller supported* Because the first thing that springs to my mind is simplified controls and lack of real options in gameplay.

But I'll never attack someone over it, that's just my personal pet peeve. The people that attacked you are... Unmentionables.

:EDIT FOR CLAIRITY:

That was just one example mind you, I'll use my controller and love every minuet of it in stuff like NFS, Driver SF, and Flight Sims... KB+M on anything that is simulating an analog input is... Unpleasant to say the least.

 

[thejackyl]

The main issue is that some games control better on M+KB, such as First Person Shooters and Strategy games. And some games control better with a controller, like racing games, platformers, most third person games.

I play most of my games on PC, but I plug in my controller for over half of my games, because it feels more natural for me. Of course in my above examples I will use M+KB on games where pointing and clicking are key elements of play.

More me at least, it's a matter of what is easier or more advantageous to use. The keyboard controls for some games (Dark Souls, for example) are horrid, so it's better (for me) to use a controller, but if I was playing Starcraft or Diablo, I'm using M+KB.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

I play exclusively on PC (laptop, to be specific, because mobility), and I use a 360 controller whenever possible. Hell, when games available for both console and PC don't have controller support on the PC version, I take note of that as a negative (looking at you, mass effect >.>). Some PC gamers can be dickish yes, but the rest of us PC gamers who are actually decent human beings (shocker!) disown them quite readily.
Also, the controller issue goes beyond PC vs Consoles. I've had a situation where I was discussing xbox and playstaion with some guy, and while we mostly agreed on prefering the PS at the end of the day, when I said that for me personally the xbox controller is more comfortable, he almost knifed me on the spot.
Just ignore the elitists, controllers are great for anything except RTS, in my opinion.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I bought a gamepad exclusively for playing Dark Souls when the Prepare to Die edition was released. This was a few days later and before the K&M fix was implemented. It was impossible to play at release, but I barely managed to progress a bit through it until I caved and bought a gamepad.

I've been PC gaming for 15+ years so I am used and quite prefer K&M over anything else. I have tried to play with gamepad Action/Adventure games I couldn't handle the slow camera movement with the right analog stick.

The only games I play now with controller are exclusively platforming games.

 

[Foolery]

Pfft. Play your games however you want. That's the beauty of PC, you can hook up all kinds of snazzy peripherals. I use gamepads for beat'em ups, platformers, fighters, Darksiders, The Witcher 2, and so on. KB&M aren't the be-all, end-all on PC. Anyone who says otherwise is foolish. Actually I kind of miss my flight stick and Wing Commander.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I think the problem is when games a ported to pc without proper care given to the keyboard and mouse controls ie. the default input method. Likely console gamers would feel the same if games where ported without proper care given to the gamepad controls. It doesn't bother me either way I'll use a controller on my pc when it feels more natural to use it. Plus sometimes I just want to lounge in my chair instead of hunched over the keyboard

 

[Callate]

Probably at least in part because many developers seem be at great pains to convert a keyboard-and-mouse system to efficiently work with a gamepad, but hardly bother when it comes time to do the reverse. A lot of which comes down to time-and-expense vs. return, as ever. To the extent that most games are created on hardware that uses a keyboard and mouse, though, this understandably comes off as somewhat ridiculous.

I don't particularly have issues with which someone chooses to use, though I think gamepad users are definitely missing out in certain genres (Real Time Strategy comes to mind), whereas I've never felt particularly handicapped by a properly implemented keyboard-and-mouse interface. A good deal of it comes down to what you're used to.

 

[WickedFire]

Find it quite ironic how elitist some of the anti-KB/M people are sounding.

As for the question at hand, I find KB+M to be better for FPS, RTS and RPGs where having hotkeys is of particular use. I also have a gamepad sat next to me for driving games and others that are better suited to sticks. As has been said, its all down to personal preference, and people how get angry about it, on either side of the fence, must have pretty sad lives.

 

[Doom972]

I've been a PC gamer since the the early 90s and I have used controllers with my PC since then. Not only is it more comfortable with certain genres (especially those requiring a lot of button mashing), but it's great for local co-op (although admittedly, not many PC games have that option anymore).

There are programs that allow you to map keys to controller buttons, and some controllers (like ones made by Logitech) come with their own software for that purpose.

In my experience, games that aren't made with a controller in mind (like The Witcher), won't allow you for the most comfortable playing experience possible when using a controller, so in some cases you might want to give the mouse and keyboard a try.

Just use whatever you feel comfortable with and ignore people like the ones you mentioned.