Why do controllers have the "back" button?

[Dirty Hipsters]

Why do controllers insist on having a "back" button on them? I don't remember a single recent game that used that button as an actual "back" button in games. I most games it's either used to check the score, or for absolutely no purpose at all.

For that matter why do controllers have a "start" button? Since when has this button ever actually started the game? I mean, even as far back as the NES you could always press "A" to start the game.

Just seems kind of silly to call these the "back" and "start" buttons when they neither go back nor start anything.

PS: Anyone else think the new captchas are absolutely ridiculous? Could they get any more obnoxious with the advertisements?

 

[skywolfblue]

I don't know what would be a really good replacement for them.

The START could be replaced by MENU and that would work well. Most games use it pretty much exclusively to bring up the game menu.

But BACK? It gets used for everything from Inventory to Autosave to Map.

 

[CAPTCHA]

Well it used to be called select (select as in selective function), but they changed it for some reason. I'd say that the start button is hang over as well. It did used to be the button to press to start or join a game. eg. plug in second controller, press start, now you're playing coop ninja turtles.

 

[Nouw]

Back? Well for a start it brings up the scoreboard in many shooters. I'm sure there are other uses for it in other games.

 

[Windcaler]

In battlefield the back or select buttons are one of the most important ones you can use because if you press it while your sights are over someone you spot them. Allowing the rest of the people on your team to see that persons location. Its often the first thing people learn to do when they begin playing battlefield multiplayer because spotting people wins matches, plain and simple.

Likewise start has a ton of uses in a variety of games. In most of the ones I can think of its there to bring up a menu or inventory

I dont see what your issue is with them. Is it their names? Is it the fact they're rarely used? I dont get it

 

[DustyDrB]

I think of it as the "Wait" button. I like to think my Courier begs and pleads me to not press it every time I think about using it. Then I say, "Nay! You will wait a fortnight while ED-E gets upgraded!"

Note: It doesn't take that long really. I just wanted to use the word "fortnight".

 

[Esotera]

It brings up the map in Assassin's Creed, which is really useful. I can't think of any other uses off the top of my head, apart from being used to bring up the menu for films (on xbox). Basically it's just another button that seems to be used less than the others.

 

[Shocksplicer]

Most games use the the select button. And every game in the world uses the start button. As for why they're called that, what would you call them. Their purpose differs from game to game, so no one name would have relevance.

 

[Zeema]

i think its supposed to make it easier for people instead of assigning a button to something else. imagine trying to open your score on CoD and you accidentally shoot or jump or crouch or something.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Well it used to be called select (select as in selective function), but they changed it for some reason. I'd say that the start button is hang over as well. It did used to be the button to press to start or join a game. eg. plug in second controller, press start, now you're playing coop ninja turtles.

The select button isn't called "Select" anymore? When did that happen? *Checks 360 controller* I feel very out of the loop.

 

[Pat8u]

wait its called a back button I always thought it was select
and its useful

 

[GiantRaven]

Without the Start button, how would we pause the game?

 

[suitepee7]

it is an extra button, which can be used as a specific menu button, like the map, as opposed to going through the menu itself (see assassins creed).

it is also not always a back button, way to go showing a lack of awareness for other controllers, like, err, lets think, the wii and ps3 controllers?

it never has the exact same function in games, it is just named something so people know what it is.


also the start button often works for the title screen, where you press start to bring up the home menu

edit:

You mean 'Why does 1 type of controller have 1 button"

lol'd, but also ninjad.

 

[repeating integers]

I will forever remember it as "that button which throws the grenades in Mass Effect".

Loved those things. So useful.

 

[bluegate]

Microsoft needed something to match the Playstation controller's 16th button, instead of calling it the "Select" button, they went for a less appropriate "back" button.

Granted, it isn't used to "select" much in games, but "select" seems to be more versatile a word than "back".

As for the Start button, there are a lot of games which display the text "press start to play"...

 

[ultrabiome]

as far as i can tell, 'select' changed to 'back' only on the xbox controllers and probably as one more way to differentiate them from the nintendo and playstation controllers, which both use 'select' (for all of the playstation controllers, and all of the nintendo ones besides N64 and GC, which only had 'start'). actually sega controllers only had 'start' and as far as i can tell, never had a 'select/back' button.

i think of 'start' as the counterpart to 'pause', as in its the button to 'start' the game again after pausing. i've noticed in most of the games i've been playing recently, 'start' will either bring up the only menu screen (acting also as a pause), or others a 'complete' pause, where you bring up a PC like load/save/quit menu or just a pause screen (FFXIII comes to mind) while 'select' brings up the menu screen with map, inventory, etc. (DE:HR comes to mind).

whatever you call it, those buttons serve very important purposes: as the auxiliary buttons for (usually) non-action commands and pausing the game. and in modern games, the last thing i want to do in the middle of insane death combo or a crazy fire-fight is to accidentally bring up a menu because it was mapped to the button next to block or hide.

 

[redisforever]

The select button isn't called "Select" anymore? When did that happen? *Checks 360 controller* I feel very out of the loop.

It's still select on the PS3 controller.

Honestly, OP, I can't really see what the problem is. If it's just the names of the buttons, why is it an actual problem? Why is the X button called the X button? Why is the Y button a Y? Because that's how it's been for years.