PC-Engine said:
Your gaming environment must look like a trash dump.
I usually don't leave everything hooked up, but as anyone who keeps four controllers plugged in knows--there's a lot people keep plugged in. ...and yet they usually wrap their controllers up and store them in a shelf underneath, or off to the side, or whatever... It's business as usual, except it can also be "business as usual" with a few extra hot-swappable devices as well. (Plugging in your MP3 player, using a USB key for saved games that you can get/modify from your PC as well...)
The move to wireless is nice, but it's not necessarily an expense everyone is going to be comfortable with, care about, etc. (And other reasons people may not care for wireless, since as not bothering with charging/batteries, having interference issues, etc.) As well, third parties could certainly keep on with good wired controllers, especially since USB would allow them to be universally shared between all the consoles and PC, and so have a more universal appeal--especially since wireless controllers are unlikely to be as universally supported. (Not to mention cost savings for the consumer.) Some regular controllers could also be assumed to occupy USB slots, then, and four ports is already the accepted standard.
Do you honestly understand how much of an ass you sound like? ALL of the time?
(Wait, I'm forgetting the obsessive emoticons:
)
I already covered the grounds, and "4 ports" is considered a simple standard at this point. (Two, as I recall, is grounds for much complaint, despite 4-player local multiplayer games still being in the vast minority of overall console games.) So what makes the new "two above standard" become LOL WHY SONEE GIV U SICKS PORTS LOLZ DUMASES!!
?
Your particular brand of obsession and insanity is distinctly unamusing. Please, if you can, keep it in your pants.
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Meanwhile, on to saner topics: the keyboard/mouse "thang".
It does, IMHO, provide HUGE benefits in certain games--and yes--I can imagine it and other devices letting people cream those who use only a gamepad--but I'm not one to want to see limitations on imput devices; I want to see all options supported.
This is especially important going into next generation, as the lines are getting further blurred--as much as I'd rather sit on a couch and play console games now, next gen's consoles may not line up as well with my TV. There's quality to be had, and good HDTV's are still pretty expensive, while the consoles themselves will be out soon--and able to be played on monitors right out of the box, by most accounts. As well, the PC is the device that sits closest to your networking equipment, and at this point online multiplayer is more likely to go on than locally (and local play is more likely to involve two people--who don't have space issues even around a computer desk--or LANning with easily-portable LCD monitors as opposed to split-screen woes, and that means "sitting at tables" by and large...), so all of this points toward removing certain stigmas associated with console gaming. In a way, they'll start making better partners for your PC and its' equipment than by a living room toy until the living room actually catches up. (For now, HDTV's are way less prevalent than capable monitors, living rooms are less likely to be near a networking source or have other equipment that cares about being networked.) And while this situation will change as we go along, it's kind of ironic to me that the perceived "fight for the living room" will for many people actually move the machine OUT of the living room for a while.
At any rate, what this means for keyboards, mice, et al is simply that I'm far more likely to have them at hand--and a simple USB switchbox could let me use whatever I want, easily, for console and PC alike. I don't give a rat's ass about FPSes for console currently (as well as RTSes [which hardly exist anyway, so that doesn't matter], flight games [as w/o a stick I'm just going to be frustrated and/or bored], and MMO's [where I need to chat]) but that situation instantly changes if I have what I need at hand. And since I also
want to see PC and console gaming communities able to play and compete on the same server, it will also let anyone equalize whatever "input device unbalance" factors they want to.
I'm certainly fine with developers also letting "gamepad only" servers exist and keep "level playing grounds" for everyone at the skill level they want to sit at--but in the end I want gamers of all stripes able to play with each other if they want and not feel like as many "exclusive communities" must exist. Convergence will still move along on its merry way, and keeping that in mind, the more options we have now and continue to have as we move along, the better off we can make it for everyone.
