I still want to see a platformer and a fighting game since the best mapping is a little unclear. (Though these a) won't be showstoppers and b) are likely to be workable.) Humans are adaptable and if this controller is reasonably usable in all the main gaming genres then very quickly you'll see people get really, really good at using it.
Remember that this guy played with the controller for a long time and his job is to make it look like as good as possible.
So yeah, the controller seems ABSOLUTELY fine for a controller (and probably more precise in some cases than a "regular" controller), but please, let's not fool ourselves, this is NOT a PC gaming experience - i.e. this is very far from the level of control a MOUSE provides.
It's better than any other couch-options, but the controls in Civ still looked frustrating instead of fun.
For example, my macbook track pad takes velocity into account. Something like that could make a big difference for covering large distances. I'm withholding judgment until I try one.
But then I play FPS with a trackball now, so it doesn't seem so alien to me.
I.e., if I move my finger across the whole steam controller right pad, then the sensitivity should be high enough to move across the whole screen in that motion while still allowing enough accuracy to click where I want.
Who really thought Valve making a controller would make an unusable one? This was never a concern. The concern here is that it might work well with FPS, RTS etc... (or good enough)... but might not work as good as button based controllers for other genres.
However, playing a FPS on anything but a Oculus Rift or equivalent is going to feel quaint in a few months.
If by ratcheting you mean the repeated movements to look around, that is very similar to moving a mouse with a low sensitivity settings.
It's intended to take the gaming pc (and by, extension steam) out of the man-cave and into the living room to compete with consoles. This requires providing people with an ability for people to play FPS and RTS decently with a controller, rather than a mouse, or they are going to stick with their man caves and mice.
Also I guess difficulty in singleplayer games would have to take the control scheme into account.
You might be interested in looking at Tommy Refenes thoughts on his testing of the steam controller prototype. He discusses using it to play his difficult platformer Super Meat Boy:
http://tommyrefenes.tumblr.com/post/62476523677/my-time-with...
If you were to ask me to choose between Steam Controller and a 360
controller, I would choose 360. Don’t take that as slight to the controller
though because it’s more about the comfort of familiarity over
functionality. I would choose a 360 controller because I have several
thousand hours experience using it, however if tomorrow all game controllers
were wiped off the earth and the only option was the Steam Controller, I
don’t think this would be a bad thing. In fact, I don’t think gaming would
miss a beat.2. Something as simple as putting one tiny raised dot at each of the 4 main positions would make a huge difference.
I couldn't watch the entire video because of my connection but note that he did say it was in "legacy" mode, i.e. the game has not been modified at all for the controller and the controller has likely not been changed from whatever it's default configuration is. If you use a mouse or trackpad on their default configuration things will generally be difficult if they're not what you're used to. I've gotten so accustomed to the acceleration on my trackpad that there are many things I can do on it without thinking that I would struggle with on my trackball or laser mouse. I agree that this particular set up as they've shown looks very awkward. What could make it great though– assuming no modification to the game– is to treat it like an inverted ThinkPad trackpoint. If it feels just right and the acceleration is either customizable or perfectly tuned, I think it could be a lot of fun and avoid the trackpad/mouspad-too-small issue.
> 2
I imagine this will come up during the beta and probably result in something close to what you suggest. Either a dot like on F/J keys or a small dimple.
As an exaggerated counterpoint: imagine operating a buttonless, flat "haptic" vibrating keyboard in a moving vehicle, and contrast with a conveniental keyboard.
Hmmm. You could do that yourself at home with a little Sugru...
I don't know. I've tried using two hands on a big trackpad once and it just gets confusing. Maybe with more practice but I felt like it was more a brain confused problem than a material one.
There is no reason a touch pad can't be as accurate and natural as at least a trackball, which could already probably let you play Civ from your couch.. or quake
Until I actually have the controller in my hand, I can't make that assumption at all.
Even talking about competitive FPSes or DOTA sort of gets it wrong. Among the few games Valve prominently displayed in their announcement were Europa Universalis and Football Manager, turn-based mouse-driven games. That is where this controller should shine. It allows you to sit back and relax while playing thoughtful games that would be impossible with the typical gamepad.
1. See how he always lift his right hand thumb to reproduce the same movement, sometimes three times, just to go through the screen (in Civ5).
2. Also the fact that buttons get mapped like a "pie chart" on the trackpads could have been a good idea, but we need buttons. We forget the luxury of having buttons with all those new tactile screens because we want more tactile surface, but for a controller we hold in our hands, we need some feedbacks bellow our fingers. This is really a bad idea...
3. I'll have to admit that it looks like a better alternative than joysticks for FPS games.
EDIT: As someone else pointed out, if you get two controllers : a valve one for FPS, RTS, games that works well with it, and a Xbox/PS4 controller for the rest, then it's a very good thing.