I just got my first fight stick - Madcatz TE :bgrin:
and was pondering that if most people are right handed then why would the stick be on the left side.
I’m pretty sure the stick requires more dexterity to use then the buttons?
Is there somewhere where the idea of making the stick on the left originated from and it just caught on for some reason and became the standard?
This doesn’t bother me personally since I am ambidextrous, but for people who never used an arcade stick before and are right handed; wouldn’t the person be more precise if the stick was on the right hand side?
This doesn’t just apply to arcade cabinets, but video game controllers in general.
Edit: And I’m going to go ahead and say it won’t make much of a difference, given what a simple task moving a joystick around really is. They probably just picked a side at random.
What tends to matter more is what side of the screen I’m on tbh. I always have a “strong” side regardless of what hand I play with. ie I have execution difficulties on the 1P side for some reason, but if I cross my hands (joystick held with right hand buttons with left) 1P side is much easier than 2P side. In fact I can only do Ryu’s FADC on the 1P side if I cross my hands. I guess it just feel unnatural for me to do motions toward my thumb.
On that note, maybe the whole joystick/button layout was selected to accommodate players that prefer doing 1P side “towards” motions?
But a lot of times now video games have a “south paw” option ( I think its called) at least addresses left handed users. The best someone who wants to use his right hand for an arcade stick is to cross arms or get a custom made one that is right handed.
The stick business, even if it is growing, is still very niche.
I don’t think its cost effective for the producers of mass market arcade sticks to change the template (and possibly the casing) around to accommodate a minority of players.
Exactly. I would be VERY surprised to see a commercial arcade stick marked for leftys. If cross-handed doesn’t do it for you then a custom builder should be able to help you out with a left-handed stick. I’ve seen them before.
Why with right handed guitars you using your right hand to pick, which is basically just going up and down with a plastic object, while your left hand is used to do all the fretting and moving around and all the complex stuff. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have it the other way around? Well, maybe.
See the left side of the brain controls all the logic that we deal with, and your right hand is controlled by the left side of the brain. So logic controls hitting the buttons. The right side of your brain is the creative side and controls your left hand, and hey you need to tbe creative with a joystick right?
IMO, hitting the buttons is a much more involved and requires more dexterity than moving the stick, especially when you factor in stuff link combos, links, kara-cancels, etc.
It mimics controllers.
Controllers have the d pad on the left, and, historically, the “player one” sticks have always been on the left side.
Personally though, I’d like to see someone make a stick for lefties.
It’s just the standard for all game input devices.
Even when we play fps, we control movement with left hand (wasd or arrows, with mouse on the right for aiming/shooting)
Only exception is the weird people who play other genres of computer games with arrows for movement and letters for buttons.
Arrows + numpad for life.
