Hi Charles, Not necessarily. Each has advantages and disadvantages. A lot depends on the game in question and what features you are looking for in your controller.
One major advantage of joypads or gamepads is having multiple thumbsticks. This allows you to control the game's character with one stick while gaining weapons or controlling the point of view with the other stick. Although, I can't think of any accessible games that makes use of this feature I can easily see it being put to good use in a game like GMA's Tank Commander. You might be able to drive the tank with the left stick while use the right stick to turn the turret independent of the tank to fire. This has huge advantages over a mouse that can only control the direction of the character but not the weapons at the same time. Another advantage of gamepads is they generally come with quite a lot of programmable buttons. Typically 10 to 14 buttons. As many audio games have a lot of status commands and such that aren't available in mainstream video games the more buttons your controller has the better it is for assigning as much functionality to the gamepad as possible. A gaming mouse typically comes with only about 8 buttons which is serviceable for the average audio game, but you will still have to rely on your keyboard for the majority of status commands because those 8 buttons will undoubtedly get assigned to basic commands like walk, run, jump, crouch, etc leaving few left over for status commands. On the flip side gaming mice are more universal as far as game controllers goes. They can operate on a standard mouse driver meaning they are easy to install and setup on Windows or Linux, and don't really require any special software unless you get one with force feedback support etc. In most respects they will operate as a standard PC mouse meaning when not being used for games sighted family members can use it to point and click as usual in basic applications. So it has a duel purpose besides games where as your average joystick, gamepad, etc has no purpose beyond games. Cheers! On 8/9/14, Charles Rivard <[email protected]> wrote: > OK, now that you bring up the gaming mouse, which I haven't even heard of, > here's the question: Mouse? or game pad. Sounds like they would be almost > > the same from this brief post. Thanks. > > --- > Be positive! When it comes to being defeated, if you think you're finished, > > you! really! are! finished! --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
