ShankarJoysticks vs. Mice: A PC Gamers’ point of view...
February 2nd 2011 12:52
For generations in the game industry, there has been constant argument about the superior control system for a First Person Shooter. I’m talking about the age-old Mouse vs. Joystick battle. Each person/gamer seems to have his own take on which is superior and better, but looking at the general opinions I believe it can safely be said that most console owners think joysticks are the way to go where as almost all PC gamers believe and even a select few console owners believe that nothing can beat the mouse. Looking at it statistically, I think it can be assumed that about 70 out of a 100 people believe mice are superior.
Looking at both sides of the coin, it is interesting to note that the reason stated for mice being superior to the joystick is because it feels more realistic. While this explanation may sound dumb and incomprehensible (How can a plastic, clicking thingy with light coming out of its underside be called realistic?!?!), if you look at it logically you might quite understand why the mouse is so popular to control FPS games. Here is, what I believe to be, the reasoning behind this fact.
The computer mouse is one of the most brilliant inventions in the field of Human Computer Interaction that unfortunately was christened with a completely unrelated name (Why this happened, I don’t know. The inventor was probably drunk or something). The reason for its brilliance is simply because, it moves the cursor on screen exactly the same amount as the user moves his hand. This greatly improves hand-eye co-ordination for the user, resulting in a very comfortable environment. Now, you might ask: “We know this! What’s the big deal?!?!”
But, the “big deal” is not the movement; it’s the part after the movement that I believe is the secret of the mouse’s success. After you move your hand, you stop; and the mouse also stops; at the exact same place you stop! And that makes it Awesome!!
You see, in a joystick, to look left or right, you turn the analogue stick in the respective direction. But then to stop turning you need to take your hand off the stick or (in extreme cases) push the stick back to its original state. And believe it or not, both these actions take about 2 milliseconds of time to perform (When you’re depressing a stick it’s not very easy to take your finger off; I’ve tried it). While this may not seem like much on its own, imagine a 2ms delay every single time you want to turn ever so slightly to watch your six!
But with a mouse, you don’t need to take your fingers off. You just need to stop moving. That’s it! With a joystick there are three steps: Depress in direction, stop depressing and extract finger (and this last part is hard, because you’re finger moves upwards, which means it’s moving against gravity!) With a mouse it goes: Move in direction and stop moving. That’s why it’s so damn easy to use. Because every time you turn the mouse saves you those valuable 2 milliseconds of time! Add to that the earlier mentioned fact of the same amount of distance covered by the pointer as by the movement of the hand, and we have a winner!
Although, I’m not saying that joysticks suck; Honestly, I’d be lost without a joystick for racing games. Because racing games require continuous motion in one direction. In such scenarios joysticks can overpower a mouse, like a lion overpowers a rabbit (ok, that was a lame metaphor!).But when it comes to games that require quick fire response in all direction and constant twitchy movements, joysticks cannot equal a mouse. Because, the mouse was designed for exactly that purpose! Fragging noobs in Call of Duty!!
Looking at both sides of the coin, it is interesting to note that the reason stated for mice being superior to the joystick is because it feels more realistic. While this explanation may sound dumb and incomprehensible (How can a plastic, clicking thingy with light coming out of its underside be called realistic?!?!), if you look at it logically you might quite understand why the mouse is so popular to control FPS games. Here is, what I believe to be, the reasoning behind this fact.
The computer mouse is one of the most brilliant inventions in the field of Human Computer Interaction that unfortunately was christened with a completely unrelated name (Why this happened, I don’t know. The inventor was probably drunk or something). The reason for its brilliance is simply because, it moves the cursor on screen exactly the same amount as the user moves his hand. This greatly improves hand-eye co-ordination for the user, resulting in a very comfortable environment. Now, you might ask: “We know this! What’s the big deal?!?!”
But, the “big deal” is not the movement; it’s the part after the movement that I believe is the secret of the mouse’s success. After you move your hand, you stop; and the mouse also stops; at the exact same place you stop! And that makes it Awesome!!
You see, in a joystick, to look left or right, you turn the analogue stick in the respective direction. But then to stop turning you need to take your hand off the stick or (in extreme cases) push the stick back to its original state. And believe it or not, both these actions take about 2 milliseconds of time to perform (When you’re depressing a stick it’s not very easy to take your finger off; I’ve tried it). While this may not seem like much on its own, imagine a 2ms delay every single time you want to turn ever so slightly to watch your six!
But with a mouse, you don’t need to take your fingers off. You just need to stop moving. That’s it! With a joystick there are three steps: Depress in direction, stop depressing and extract finger (and this last part is hard, because you’re finger moves upwards, which means it’s moving against gravity!) With a mouse it goes: Move in direction and stop moving. That’s why it’s so damn easy to use. Because every time you turn the mouse saves you those valuable 2 milliseconds of time! Add to that the earlier mentioned fact of the same amount of distance covered by the pointer as by the movement of the hand, and we have a winner!
Although, I’m not saying that joysticks suck; Honestly, I’d be lost without a joystick for racing games. Because racing games require continuous motion in one direction. In such scenarios joysticks can overpower a mouse, like a lion overpowers a rabbit (ok, that was a lame metaphor!).But when it comes to games that require quick fire response in all direction and constant twitchy movements, joysticks cannot equal a mouse. Because, the mouse was designed for exactly that purpose! Fragging noobs in Call of Duty!!
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