Control.
I actually sat down and used my Xbox 360 for its intended purpose the other night - playing games. Most of the time it sits there relaying videos from my computer to the big TV in the living room and streaming movies from Netflix, and nothing else.
Now, I do enjoy video games. When I was younger, I was a bona fide addict. It took 3 years working at a games company to break this addiction, and it’s remained broken ever since. This stint at a games company also coincided with the demise of the home computer games market, and the rise of consoles, which, in turn, coincided with the rise of the control pad, replacing the good ol’ trusty joystick. And not the type of yoke-style joystick that flight sim afficionados think of - I’m thinking of the classic, arcade-style stick that I grew up with. Specifically, the likes of the classic Competition Pro joystick.
And it’s the death of the joystick as a mainstream game control device that I must blame as one of my reasons for losing much of my interest in gaming. The little D-pads and analogue sticks on game control pads are imprecise, fiddly and utterly unsuitable for many types of games (in my experience). You just can’t play Street Fighter or Gradius with a control pad. They weren’t made for it. Granted, it’d be hard to pay Halo 3 with a proper joystick, but I’d love to try it. There’s something about having something to grab old of (oo-er), with clicky microswitches and positive feedback that makes the gaming experience better, for me.
I’m ordering one of those USB CompPros - it’ll make MAME and other emulator-based gaming so much better and more authentic. In the meantime, I guess I’ll muddle through Halo and Bioshock with the dull old control pad.
