I want to go to Birmingham, but here I am at Crewe

[venta]

This weekend, among other things, I have been playing Portal on the Xbox 360. This may surprise people who know my computer-game playing habits (or, rather, the lack of them).

It's a fun game, it's a fun concept. I like the puzzle-solving aspects of it. I'm amused by the strange, sing-song, deadpan commentary from the test supervisor. I like cake.

What I don't like, however, is actually having to play it. If, like me, you haven't significantly played any games since pixellated graphics went out of fashion, you'll be completely bewildered by the concept of two analogue sticks. One controls the way you're moving, one controls the way you're looking; apparently this is pretty standard in this day and age.

I've never got on well with FPSs. I remember, many years ago, watching failmaster playing Quake and wondering how on earth he didn't get dizzy with the wildly scrolling background. I've still never quite got over this. In Portal (where "up" is a slightly fluid concept) I'm continually disorientated.

Fortunately Portal has no timer, so I can move very slowly and sedately and look about me carefully. At least, some of the time I can. The rest of the time I accidentally walk left when I meant to look left and fall off a platform and die. No, this doesn't get any better. I'm up to level 14 and I'm still walking into walls and falling off things.

To make things worse, the camera view works backwards the entire time. Apparently this is a well-documented problem with up/down: some people think that pulling the stick down should make you look up, some people think that pulling the stick up should make you look up. Accordingly, there are two modes: you can set the up/down to work either way. My problem is similar, but with left/right. Apparently this is not a well-documented problem, and pulling the stick left makes you non-negotiably look left. (Irrelevantly, perusing the configurable bits there is also a "Duck Mode". This is very disappointing if you're me.)

So, a typical few minues of me playing Portal will feature me blundering around, walking sideways a lot, looking up when I meant to look down, turning all the way around a bit, flailing about, and falling to my death. There have been several occasions where I've solved the puzzle, but the difficult part has been actually getting through the portal I've placed. I'm sure that's not meant to be the difficult part.

I'm looking forward to the cake, though :)

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

There are two problems contributing to your woes here:

1) Portal was done by Valve^[1], whose heads live firmly in FPS-space. They doubtless saw no need to improve on the controls.

2) Portal is really a PC game. Using mouse to control look direction feels a lot more natural.

Apparently this is a well-documented problem with up/down: some people think that pulling the stick down should make you look up, some people think that pulling the stick up should make you look up.

Basing it on psychology is a bit of a stretch. What it's really about is aircraft controls. Pull back on a flight stick and your plane goes "up". Push forward for "down". But left and right roll you "left" and "right" respectively (which, barring aerobatics, is how you would turn left or right). This is likely why there's no left/right reverse option.

Ultimately most games with complex real-time controls work the same way, though: you either give up in frustration or you get to the point where you can control your character directly without thinking about what you're doing with the physical controller.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

[1] The footnote is a lie.

[pm215]

Which reminds me, presumably your 'in-joke' icon is itself an in-joke?

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed.

The top half is a yak, which is a reference to the "sod this, I'm off to Guatemala to become a yak herder" line seen from time to time on various LJs (esp. lanfykins) in response to 'interesting' times.

The bottom half is an Uruk-Hai. It's a reference to two_nukes's offhand remark that he actually found them quite fanciable. (But that entertaining 10000 of them might be quite tiring.)

The icon as a whole reads "yak slash uruk" (in the "slash fiction" sense). It was a verbal shorthand that got used in an LJ comment (probably by me, but I forget) as an approximate synonym for "obscure in-joke nobody will get". At which point I decided it needed to be an icon.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think you're right in general, but I've never flown an aircraft or played an aircraft sim. I just expect the background to scroll in the direction I move the stick - so moving it left will cause me to look right. I have no justification at all for this, as the way it does work seems sensible enough. It's just not instinctive.

Whether I'll persevere or not remains to be seen :)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

In which case I'm more convinced you have a point than you are!

First rule of UI design: the way the user tries to use your system is the way it should work.

[zandev.livejournal.com]

The problem with left-right, is that it really isn't obvious which is correct for a third-person case.

If you consider that the camera control moves where you are looking, then left should look you to the left. However, if you consider that it should be moving the camera, then moving the camera to the right makes you look left.

[hjalfi.livejournal.com]

I have no justification at all for this, as the way it does work seems sensible enough. It's just not instinctive.

Nah, it's quite simple; the designers are assuming that moving the mouse moves the character's head, while you're assuming that moving the mouse moves the world. I'm sure this says something deeply psychological about someone or other.

Do persevere; it's awesome. I particularly like level 19. Do pay careful attention to the warning signs, though.