According to Scientific American, 15% of people are left-handed, and males are twice as likely to be left-handed than females. Also, according to research conducted by Dr. Nick Cherbuin, lefites are better at handling large amounts of stimuli, making them naturally better at playing video games. With this in mind, it’s clear why Ubisoft decided to cater to this segment group by adding the option of switching the keybindings to left-handed.
Regretfully, their efforts are in vain. Their solution is to simply offer a streamlined option to remap the keys according to what they THINK southpaws require. This option utilizes the O, L, K and : keys, for UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, respectively. On the one hand (pun intended!) I applaud their efforts to make gaming easier for left-handed gamers, however I highly doubt that they actually conferred with and lefties in the process.
As a left-handed gamer myself, I made the decision early on to simply us the UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT keys located on the right hand side of the keyboard. Others lefties that I know adopted the standard W A S D layout. But why would you want to reinvent the wheel, and do it terribly?
Yes, I know, this is just an option to supposedly make my life easier and add some sort of semblance of streamlining, however the intentions are most assuredly misplaced. Giving gamers the option to change their standard right-handed layout to a left-handed layout without actually changing the character’s handedness is a slap in the face. When I first saw this option I was well impressed actually, I thought that a game designer has finally sorted it out and given me, a left-handed gamer the option of holding a virtual gun in my left hand. Looking over my character’s right shoulder just feels weird, but alas, this is the standard, and I have adapted.
Without having the actual character model hold the gun in his or her left hand this is a completely pointless option. Get your shit together, Ubisoft.
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