It’s 2023 and games still don’t meet this basic need – things need to change

HARDCORE gamers, the ones who spend all their free time on the hobby, all have their own preferences.

Some specialise in a single game for hundreds of hours, while others like to experience a diverse gaming library.

Whichever category you fall into, it’s likely that you want to be able to control the way that you play.

And that decision comes down to the basics, the tools that you use to transfer what you’re thinking onto the TV.

This of course means controllers, and these have advanced over the years to become better and better.

There are more buttons, they are in more intuitive positions, and it’s easier than ever to remember where you need to be pressing at crucial moments.

However, each game decides what each button means. Some games like you to shoot with the right trigger, while others will have you pressing X, or A, or B.

This is best exemplified by the Japanese vs Western control scheme.

In Japan the right face button is ‘yes’ and the down face button is ‘no’, in the West, it’s the exact opposite.

However, this means that the Nintendo Switch, a Japanese console, has it the Japanese way, while Xbox, an American console, is the opposite.

This is confusing enough on its own, but usually this only applies to menus, which you can just change again.

However, when it comes to heat of the moment decision making, you have to know what to press intuitively.

The industry has come a long way in this respect, with most games allowing players to change the control scheme to what feels comfortable to them.

But many still don’t, and this can become a significant issue, and barrier, to those who want to play.

This barrier becomes even larger when you factor in people with disabilities, such as those who don’t have full sensitivity in their hands.

Being able to change the control scheme might seem like a minor thing, but it can make a big difference to a huge percentage of players.

Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.