In the world of gaming, the nuances of control schemes can often lead to unexpected challenges, as experienced recently while diving into Grounded 2. The tutorial, designed to ease players into the game, felt more like an obstacle course than a helpful guide. With a sense of urgency, I navigated through the initial stages, confident in my prior experience with the first installment. Yet, the familiar mechanics were soon overshadowed by a new layout that demanded my attention.
Control Scheme Conundrums
As I maneuvered through the game, I encountered a series of conveniently placed debris that required me to crouch and crawl. However, the tutorial text flashed on the screen only briefly, leaving me to rely on instinct rather than instruction. A quick attempt to crouch using the Left Ctrl key revealed a minor hiccup in my execution—my pinky finger, it turns out, was not the most reliable source for such commands.
This moment of realization echoed a past revelation from colleague Wes Fenlon, who famously admitted to using his pinky finger to hit ‘A’ in the work Slack channel. It’s a small detail, yet it highlights the quirks of gaming habits that many of us share. Reflecting on my own gaming history, I can hardly recall a time before the WASD configuration became the standard. My early days on Toontown Online, where I relied on the arrow keys, seem like a distant memory.
Back in the early days of gaming, players experimented with various combinations like WADX or ASDX, each trying to find their own rhythm. Today, however, the landscape is more defined, yet the debate over control schemes persists. The struggle to agree on basic actions, such as crouching, continues to be a point of contention among gamers.
While I acknowledge that controller users face their own set of challenges—switching between buttons like Triangle and X for jumping can be a disorienting experience—keyboard users have their own frustrations. The option to customize keybindings is not universally available, leaving players at the mercy of a game’s default settings. The fear of being locked into an unconventional control scheme for the entirety of a game can be daunting.
Personally, I find it more intuitive to switch between sprinting and crouching with my pinky hovering over both Left Shift and Left Ctrl. This preference was echoed by Associate Editor Ted Litchfield, who firmly stated, “IT IS LEFT CTRL.” Such discussions reveal the universal language of keybinds that gamers have come to understand, yet deviations from the norm can still lead to confusion. Hitting ‘M’ for a map or ‘Tab’ for an inventory should be second nature, but when these expectations are not met, it can disrupt the flow of gameplay.
The excitement of starting a new game lies in establishing familiarity with its control scheme. However, even minor deviations can lead to moments of disorientation that linger longer than one might wish to admit. As I continue my journey in Grounded 2, I’ll begrudgingly adapt to the Left Alt key, but it’s clear that my preferences run deep, and I remain steadfast in my convictions about control schemes.