Actually, those rear buttons are unique. They are not the same triggers and buttons. They are highly useful in FPS games for functions like crouch.

The em dash? I always use it—love it—you’ll have to take it from cold, dead hands.

Yep, the key is to use mouse instead of joystick-mouse.

I admire the cut of your jib.

You’re not wrong that the market has changed.

I often tell people that the biggest innovations in PC gaming are not graphics but form factors and inputs.

That’s more of a killer feature for Linux in general.

And I can’t undersell how big of a deal that is. When Windows 10 dies, I’m switching my desktop to Linux simply because Proton makes me want to use Linux.

And yet, when I look at my library, only half of new games released within the past five years support X-input. They are still exclusively keyboard-and-mouse.

Granted, that’s way more than what was available 10 years ago, but it’s still a problem.

Or it would be if the Steam Deck didn’t make it trivially easy to adapt keyboard-and-mouse controls to a controller. Which happened because of the innovation first introduced with the Steam Controller.

It’s now at the point where keyboard-and-mouse is optional—just a preference if you want to use it.

Okay, but I didn’t want to buy a new console. Instead, I wanted to use my PC as a console replacement.

But also, there’s a surprising amount of games that never got a console release. For example, Blood and Septerra Core—never arrived on any console. I own those games, and the Steam controller let me play them on my TV very easily.

Hey, the Steam controller is good for one other kind of game I play quite often: Diablo-style hack-'n-slash RPGs that are mouse-driven.

That’s the key. If you’re wanting to play something like Street Fighter VI, the Steam controller probably won’t fly.

But because I wanted to play Dungeon Siege on my TV, it works far better than a traditional controller ever could.

For the Steam controller to work for you, you have to come in with the mentality of it replacing a keyboard-and-mouse.

I feel a right stick is more useful for games deliberately designed as twin stick shooters. Geometry Wars is a good example of this. Using a trackpad for aiming is fine, but that doesn’t really feel like an arcade experience.

Yes, that’s the other thing: the trackpad D-pad is not as good as a button D-pad.

Actually, my kid’s needs really are substantially different from others.

My daughter is autistic. She has trouble communicating verbally. But on Roblox, she finds it much easier to socialize.

She has never spent a cent on microtransactions but gets the opportunity to talk to other kids without being bullied.

I’m not taking that away from her just because strangers on the Internet can’t fathom different kids have different needs.

Dismissing? Nah.

Calling out groupthink when I see the same tired talking points—no research, no citations, just noise? Hell yeah, I’m gonna call that out.

I’ve never defended “corporate garbage.” I’ve said straight up: there are hundreds of thousands of mobile games, some you can buy outright—no microtransactions attached. More premium paid games on iOS alone than the entire NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube libraries combined.

Let me say it again: you don’t have to play gacha games. Plenty of premium mobile titles exist if you’re willing to look.

But here? Everyone ignores that fact, chooses groupthink instead, and barks the same tired lines.

And yeah, I know this won’t convince anyone here. They’re too busy flexing their Lemmy in-group credentials to entertain anything that breaks the echo chamber.

I’m saying it anyway, loud and clear.

There are literally people here insisting all mobile games are gacha. When I drop hard stats proving otherwise, instead of reconsidering, suddenly I’m a secret shill pushing for some stats company.

That’s the quality of convo I’m dealing with in this thread. And you? No different.

I think I know my kid better than you, a random Internet stranger who’s never met her before in her life. And consequently, has no understanding of what her actual needs are.

Ha! A “few” interactions…

Lemmy isn’t a big place. People who populate gaming threads are an even smaller fraction of the userbase. So to see the same handful of opinions, repeated again and again, upvoted ad infinitum – that’s a pretty good sample size.

I deliberately posted this thread as a contrarian take. And what do you know, it proved to be contrarian.

I didn’t say anything outrageous or mean-spirited. Everything has been quite reasonable. But judging by the responses – you all think every mobile game is a gacha game – I can safely say few of you have nearly as much experience with games as you believe you do.

By the way, this is why I generally put little stock into self-declared “gamers” opinions. Most of you are obsessed with playing things in a prescribed manner, in a particular way, regarding a specific canon. And you generally adhere to the same bland culture with little appreciation for diversity.

You seem to think your taste is more exceptional than people you deem as basic.

But how exactly did you arrive at your taste? Hype? Influencers? Marketing?

You compare games to beer and say Bud is “complete swill”. Fair enough. But almost everyone drinking IPA is doing so because some hipster said this is real beer – and everyone else just went along with it.

Personally, I’ve never read a James Patterson or Danielle Steel book in my life. But I’ve met plenty of people who claim up and down that Jack Kerouac and David Foster Wallace is top tier literature. How have so many people – who oddly seem to dress the same, have the same manners, operate with similar world views – seem to all be convinced those two authors are peak?

My personal standpoint is that nobody has taste unless they do the discovering themselves. That means no relying on marketers, gatekeepers, tastemakers, or algorithms. Go and dig for themselves.

If you’re willing to do that, form an opinion all on your own, kudos. But most people – even people who swear up and down that they have taste – won’t.

I’m skeptical that people here are as knowledgeable as they claim.

I know from several other threads that the majority of folks here stick to a few handfuls of games and sink 1,000s of hours into them. That might make them an expert at a specific MMO, but it certainly doesn’t make them experts in every game at a glance.

I have a more compelling suggestion: only judge games you play.