Why Veteran FPS Gamers Use South Paw

Attention idiotic video game developers: read this, implement it, and sell more games.

There are many good video games these days. In fact, I don't think anyone would argue that games are at an all time high in capabilities and it's a trend that's continuing.

So why then don't all the FPS (first person shooters) include a small amount of code to help them sell more games? I'm talking about the South Paw control style. And most South Paw control users are NOT left handed.

I dare call myself a veteran gamer. I cut my teeth on systems that most people haven't even heard of like Intelevision, Colecovision, etc. I've played a LOT of games and have done so for 25 years at least. My personal favorite game style for the last few years are multiplayer FPS games. 

Many veteran gamers, like myself, started really getting into FPS games on the N64 - when multiplayer FPS with split screen started happening. We'd even use a 'Y' cable and two TV's and cover half of each so no one could screen peek (we called it Mitching - named after a guy that used to play with us named Mitch, that would always look at the opponent's screen to try to gain an advantage), which we consider cheating and generally loathsome behavior. Goldeneye was the game that started it all. 

Then Turok came out and in Turok the default control style used the left hand running the analog stick for aiming while the right had controlled the movement. We immediately saw this as an advantage because you could do precise aiming and switched our Goldeneye control style to do the same. Well, Goldeneye and Turok lasted us a few years and then the best N64 and arguably one of the best FPS games of all time came out - Perfect Dark. Perfect dark served us another couple years until Halo finally popped out with the launch of the XBOX. The guys at Bungie had done their homework and realized that a large percentage of players at that time were coming from older systems with FPS experience and that a lot of them would be using what would forever after be referred to as South Paw control style where the Left stick aims and the Right stick moves - just like it should be. At that point in time I'd stab that nearly a quarter of the console FPS gamers took advantage of South Paw. 

Well, most of you know what a hit Halo was - completely revolutionized the FPS world. As a side effect to the popularity of it, many people new to console FPS started playing. Mostly kids. This made the percentage of South Paw players much, much smaller than it used to be to the point that many game developers now either don't admit it exists, or they're just kids and want to try to "teach" us veterans a lesson. Currently approximately half of the existing FPS games do NOT even have the option of South Paw. Utterly ridiculous. Even more bizarre, a few that do support the proper control style for some reason thought that we would also like our triggers reversed! This really pissed off a lot of gamers that feel they were duped into buying the game (GRAW2) by it's report of supporting South Paw only to find out that the trigger doesn't fire now, it zooms and zoom fires.

Let me now take a moment and explain why South Paw is actually similar to real life and also mention why all games should default to "invert" on the vertical control.

Imagine yourself holding a machine gun (go ahead, put your hands into the proper position - I am). Now, move your machine gun left to right, then up and down. 

Hmm... notice how your LEFT hand controlled the aiming? Also notice how you lean FORWARD to look down and BACK to look up? I will go out on a limb here and say that anyone not using the proper control style (South Paw and Invert) is either playing improperly or is a child and simply doesn't know any better yet.

So it's simple. South Paw is the correct FPS control style and it is defined as:

LEFT stick aims.

RIGHT stick moves.

RIGHT trigger shoots (get it right morons!).

There are also a small percentage of South Paw players that use the Legacy variation. That is also a perfectly acceptable control style and, while not quite as intuitive as true South Paw for many of us, it still makes sense and is a good jump better than "default" child controls. Default was designed to be easier for KIDS to play. We're veterans here. We know how to play and have been doing so for so long that South Paw is hard wired into our brains at this point. It's impossible to change, and why should we? 

Developers will simply sell more FPS games if they include South Paw. Period. 

Xbox 360 - Resetting Family Settings Passcode

Note: If you're looking for a solution to the passcode reset, I posted mine in this this blog, but it's based on your serial number, so it may not work for you. I've put those things in bold as a courtesy to you so you can find them easier.

Another day at the farm, or is it zoo? Actually it's my house with 4 kids 8 and under. One of them decided to mess around with the XBox 360 and turn on some kind of crazy parental lock. Aptly named, because I, the parent, can't unlock the damn thing. Of course, the oldest is really the only one that has a shot at knowingly changing the settings and he's changed a few things lately, including an incredible annoyingly named profile that auto loads named BAAAD BOY. Nice. I, being the deductive parent that I am, naturally blame him. He very adamantly denies that it was him. Maybe he's right, but I keep the pressure on hoping he'll cave. A few tears later I'm convinced that he really didn't do it, but I keep him thinking that I suspect him, just in case.

In reality, it's probably one of the younger ones that did it and that means there's no chance whatsoever that they'll be able to duplicate or remember the passcode.

Well, I'm sure it's easy to reset, so I get in there and try a few passcodes, try the "Reset Question", etc. In truth I'm not positive it wasn't me at this point, so I try all the things I would have used. Now I'm pretty sure it wasn't me. What a relief. Especially after the fierce stare down I gave my son trying to get the answers out of him.

So I jump on the computer and my wife's logged in. She uses Flock as a browser. Although it's Firefox based, a few things are broken with it like searching via Yahoo instead of Google. Anyway, after I fight my way through a couple Yahoo searches and come up empty keyboarded, I actually type in the url for Google. Quick search and I see the answers I didn't expect - call Microsoft, it's the only way.

At this point, I proceed to waste a half hour trying as many combinations of passcodes as possible - probably 150 plus trying the Reset answers. No avail.

Now let me be clear, this isn't a parental lock to block 'naughty' content. This whole situation was brought to my attention when my wife popped Fever Pitch (yes, that TERRIBLE Drew Barrymore movie). That movie's probably PG, tops. There's no chance I'll be able to watch anything decent.

I've been too busy with this P90X thing and all, so it took me a few days to get back to the problem at hand. I decide there's no choice left but to call Microsoft. I asked my wife to do it.

I get home from work and seems that even though she's the one that really wants to watch movies on my Box, I'm the one that needs to call. Understood. I know my place.

Well, I've never called Microsoft about an XBox before, so I'm thinking this should be quick - probably happens all the time.

10 minutes after calling I'm finally on the phone with somebody. Luckily for me they speak English pretty well. After spelling my name no less than 4 times (and my name is spelled just like it sounds - no silent letters or any of that French BS) I finally get to ask her how to solve my problem. She repeats my problem after I explain it in a way that even a baby could understand (probably giving even a baby time to talk, too). I'm thinking that this should be a go now. No way.

She needs my serial number. I know it's in the XBox dashboard somewhere, so I make the mistake of asking the support person instead of just letting her wait as I find it myself. She, of course, wants me to look on the back of my box. Not happening. I'm not in the mood.

Should have just done that. I ask where to find the serial in the XBox dash and she asks me to hold a moment. About 30 seconds after she puts me on hold I find it under Console Settings, then System Info. After about 2 more minutes of holding I start debating whether I should just call back and hope for somebody smarter. After 4 minutes of holding I'm definitely ready to hang up. I decide I'll give 5 minutes. About 4 minutes and 50 seconds later she's back. She has the answer. I have to interrupt her to tell her I've already found it.

Now she proceeds to look for my account with them (which I don't have) and makes me do the slow run through of my address and phone number. Once that's complete I get to hold again. This time only about 4 minutes. She tells me what to try, it doesn't work, and she puts me on hold again. She's very confused that it didn't work (she actually wasn't telling the whole set of instructions). She comes back. I'll summarize the instructions to spare you the agony.

I cannot be responsible for anybody losing their data or damaging their box!!!

1) Remove your hard drive, discs, and memory cards.
2) Go to Console Settings, System Info.
3) Press the following sequence: Left Trigger, Right Trigger, X, Y, Left Bumper, Right Bumper (that much is always the same, it seems, regardless of serial), then Y, DPad Left, Up, Y (those last four seem to vary by serial).
4) When prompted say okay to resetting everything.

After that fix, everything worked, but that's not the end of the call! I then had to wait for her to summarize what we did! After that, I had to wait for some crazy ticket number. Wow. I should have just hung up the second it worked.

Maybe that will help someone, but probably it's just allowing me to vent.