The Daily Grind: Do controls make or break an MMO for you?

by Krystalle Voecks on Nov 26th 2008 8:00AM

Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind

With all the different options for controls in MMOs, some are devotedly tied to keyboards for movement - either the WASD crowd, the arrow keys, or occasionally the folks who use the numeric keypad. Other players we know who love PvP tend to be heavily mouse-driven, often with macros tied to different buttons on their mouse, able to unleash a devastating string of attacks with just a couple of clicks. In the Western market, we tend to see a combination of controls, offering users their choice. As we play through the Eastern free-to-play titles, we notice a great many that are click-to-move, offering limited keyboard/remapping support.

This of course started discussion on our end. Some of the team are dedicated keyboard fans, and really dislike playing click-to-move only type games. Others are very used to using their mice and the idea of being required to use keyboard for movement seems clunky and slow. What we thought we'd ask today is this - if you found a game you were interested in playing, but it locked you into a control for movement that you didn't like (such as click-to-move, or WASD only if you're an arrow-key fan) would it cause you to put down the game? Or would you try to get used to a completely foreign set of control/movement keys? Do control options (or the lack thereof if you can't change your keymap) make or break an MMO for you?

Tags: click-to-move, keyboard, keyboard-shortcuts, mmo, mmorpg, tdg, the-daily-grind, wasd

Reader Comments (18)

Big time! Controls have always been a stickler to me when playing games, even console games. If I can't intuitively play the game then I won't give it a second thought. I've stopped playing numerous Eastern games due to this philosophy. I even stopped major western games like Ultima Online and DAOC because of this one sided control scheme. Once SWG and WoW and WAR, and LOTRO made your choices quite optional I fell in love with every one of those games.

Only one exception to this rule has ever applied for me and that was due to the strength of the IP and game company. FFXI, the controls still rub me the wrong way with the PC version of that game, but I understand it was made for consoles, so I adapted. I'm glad I did, that game is still one of my favorite mmorpgs of all times, but probably becuase of the controls and lack of solo options, I stopped playing. I still have great and fond memories of that game though.

I can't play any of these click-to-move things for very long, not even if they have been half-assedly modified to support some sort of keyboard+mouse control (where you still can't jump and your character "sticks" on edges and moves like on a track). As gamer, ESDF (not WASD) is the way to go for me. Especially since with mouse+keyboard controls often comes increased freedom: You can decide to jump down a cliff, even if that may cause you to fall to your death, whereas in click-to-move games your character "sticks" to the ground and is unable to go places that aren't clearly defined as "walkable".

And it's not just the controls, the entire user-interface plays a big role too. It has to be fast, clean and responsive. I believe a UI that never lags, even when the graphics behind it do is one of the main ingredients of WoW's secret sauce. And extensibility, of course.

Controls will make or break ANY game. If you can't properly control the game, it just leads to frustration. There's no need to reinvent the wheel with every game. If it fits into the known standards of today, then go with that. Unless it's something truly new and unique, keep the controls simple and to what works and gamers are used to. I hate those who try to reinvent the control system, or worse, their controls are completely non-responsive and frustrating.

"Controls make or break ANY game."

Took the words right out of my mouth.

I was going to respond that I don't care, but then I remembered the carpal tunnel causing experience that Shadowbane's click-to-move movement became and I changed my mind.

Yeah, I have to agree.. The mechanics of your primary interaction to a game will make or break any game. I pretty much detest any game that is click to move. The only game I remotely have fun with that *is* click to move is Dungeon Runners, and even that I can't play for more than an hour.

Personally, if I look at a game and I see that I can't remap keys to my liking, or that there are no wasd controls, I summarily uninstall the game.

And then there are games like AoC where you feel like you are playing Dance Dance Revolution. That was a huge turnoff for me.

Tharkis

It's really about what the UI elements 'represent'.

As the mouse icon is present ON the screen and never travels diagonally (depth-wise) to the plane/axis of the screen, it represents interaction in the 2D-plane, parallel to the screen.
On account of that, it's somewhat counter-intuitive if a 2D-tool like the mouse icon transcends into the 3D environment.
On the other hand, if the environment is represented through an isometric, a birds eye or other fixed camera perspective, then movement is restricted in relation to the 2D-plane and using the mouse icon for control makes sense.

I bought the entire lineage II package online.

The entire catalog. The whole deal with every last expansion.

Then I played through less than 1 hour of painful click-to-move experience, and immediately uninstalled the whole thing, and nevery looked back.

Sure, you can call it bad research on my part, but then Diablo II has always been a favorite of mine, and that uses click-to-move as well.
- But it has non-stop-action, at least.

I think in the MMORPG genre, with all the travelling time where nothing happens, it's insane to force people to click all the time.

WASD & especially NumLock FTW.

Just the game I was thinking of when I saw this.
A mate of mine got me to try this out once and I just couldn't take it... the game seemed decent but yes the controls ruined everything.

The one thing I did take away from Lineage 2 is I wish other MMO's would implement their MSN compatibility... I often miss messages cause I'm playing something full screen.... back on topic: click to move sucks big time.

It doesn't matter so much to me. Proficiency with controls, despite being an initial burden, comes pretty quickly in most games if the movement system is well designed.

I don't understand the mentality of some posters here. Controls don't make or break a game insofar as the mechanic is not as important as the actual delivery of it. There are games that work well with click to move and games that work well with WASD - it's all in the game design. It's a modern fickle Western mentality that we have to have everything the way we are used to - we miss out on a lot of innovation and new experiences that way.

Anyway, obviously, it's best when games have good and highly customisable controls.

If a game doesn't offer WASD and some ability to remap keys to some degree, then I'll lose interest fast. I also find it very annoying if the game doesn't allow me to jump. I played Guild Wars for a long time, and even though I do think it's a great game, the inability to jump drove me insane every time I played.

To me it doesn't really matter. I am adaptable and have the capability of figuring out and using most game controls.
I like RTS games which are more or less point and clickers, I enjoy FPS which are kinda of a mix, and MMO's which are mainly wasd. I've can't say point and click bothers me at all but there are not to many MMO's that use point and click that are worth the time. I played L2 for awhile and it didn't bother me whatso ever.
Controls are just controls. Either you have the ability to adapt and figure them out or you don't.
I admit some games have easier controls to use then others and for the most part I find point and click mode is good for low intensity gaming. Guild Wars and EVE come to mind. Lots of pointing and clicking there but nothing all that exciting going on usually. Both good games but pretty slow paced.

Absolutely!

The only game I've enduring using click to move is EVE Online, and we all know that's a different kind of experience.

Yes, if a game doesn't have WASD movement, I won't play it. I really don't like the click to move system.

WASD + R for my auto-run. When I finally get a mouse with more than 2 buttons + wheel I'll be able to use my mouse to move, but until then I'm usin' those. Click to move makes Hulk ANGRY.

Looking through these comments it seems that nobody likes click to move. I don't either, but until the question was posed I didn't think anybody did. I was under the assumption that click to move was simply the technically simpler method of implementing movement for an mmo. It simplifies the number and types of interactions that the server has to deal with. I had thought that it was actually provably worse. Are there people who like click to move?

I don't think wasd is the ultimate movement control though. Again, it is provably less functional than say, an analog stick on a controller. I just don't think there's a feasible alternative yet. WASD vs click to move though, wasd all the way.

i actually liked click to move in lineage2

i have been playing l2 for 4 years bevore starting aoc and later war and i noticed that click to move left me a lot more time to chat when running since you could click in the distance and then type to chat.

even now after a few month of conan & war sometimes a wwwww lands in the middle of my text

I hate using a mouse in video games. Period.

I understand a lot of people like it.. but I don't. I find it inexcusable not to offer an alternative. A mouse offers 2 dimensions of analog tracking.. so does a controller analog stick. WTF is the problem?

The only thing that makes me more mad is when a game claims to offer the option of mapping a controller, only to tell you that it accepts Xbox360 controllers only. Any developer who does this should be shot and pissed on.

The Daily Grind: Do controls make or break an MMO for you?

Reader Comments (18)

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 8:44AM MMOaddict said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 8:50AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 8:54AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 9:19AM Sunlover said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 9:16AM Rollins said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 9:29AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 1:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 9:43AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 6:44PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 10:31AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 10:54AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 12:33PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 11:22AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 12:21PM Mr A said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 12:43PM nomoredroids said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 2:17PM aboutblank77 said

Posted: Nov 26th 2008 2:45PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 27th 2008 10:30AM koehler83 said

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