Why are trackpad gamepads treated so differently?

[u/TheNewerFlisker]

A fightstick is a game controller and yet it is not judged by it's ability to play games that expects a d-pad and two joysticks

A sim racing wheel is a game controller and yet it is not judged by it's ability to play games that expects a d-pad and two joysticks

A flight stick is is a game controller and yet it is not judged by it's ability to play games that expects a d-pad and two joysticks
So why is it that when the first Steam Controller came out so many people insisted it was the lack of a d-pad and second Joystick somehow made the controller useless?

Why is it accepted to own any of the above in addition to a traditional gamepad but the Steam Controller didn't got that courtesy?

Why are other controllers allowed to have niches and yet trackpad game controllers are expected to do absolutely everything with no downsides

[u/figmentPez]

I agree with you. I love my OG SC, precisely because it's very good at filling a niche. I also love my new SC 2016, but it's not as good at FPS aiming, even though it's more flexible in what it can do.

The right tool for the right job. You don't criticize a food processor for not making a smoothie as well as a blender does, and you don't criticize a blender for not being as good at chopping onions as a food processor.

People accept that they'll own multiple pairs of shoes. Dress shoes, hiking boots, beachwear, athletic, etc. I don't see why it should be strange to own multiple controllers, each for it's own genre/purpose. I get that most people want to own one controller that they use for everything. I much prefer to have multiple controllers and use each controller for the specific games it excels at.

[u/mrRobertman]

I agree, this is the argument I've made before about why the SC1 was (and still is) a good controller. It had a specific purpose, which was that the trackpads allowed you to play games with a controller that couldn't otherwise be played on a controller. If you needed two sticks to play a game, just use a normal controller.

I think the issue is that it's called the "Steam Controller", so people assume it should be a full controller replacement. I thought it was really weird that I saw comments when the SC2 was announced where people said things like "they should just remove the trackpads" as if they aren't a major point of the controller. Some people just can't accept that something might not be for them.

[u/simracerman → u/mrRobertman]

I never owned OG SC, but for the SC2 because it’s an actual controller with trackpads. Rarely use the pads, but when I’m playing away from PC, they are amazing and truly replace that pesky problem with having to bring mouse and KB with me.

[u/ShibaPhan]

I blame the Steam Deck.

People thought this before with the original controller, but the Steam Deck popularized this narrative. It's the reason the Steam Frame controllers and Steam Controller 2 are just copies of the Steam Deck controls. The engineers that worked on the Steam Deck controls weren't the ones working on the original Steam Controller.

If Valve marketed towards mobile gamers, they would be familiar with using touch controls and gyro.

[u/shadowwolf212212 → u/ShibaPhan]

The steam deck didn’t exist for the og steam controller. I think it was too ahead of its time. Nowadays it would probably have had less scrutiny, heck I loved my og steam controller!

[u/MajorasShoe]

I do wish they made another variant of the steam controller more shaped like the SC1. The track pads are so much less usable now and I have no use for the right stick.

[u/Alenicia]

The other options you listed are kind of more specialized .. like you know that getting a fight stick means you're going to be playing some kind of fighting game or arcade game and the inputs usually would make sense (as in you're not going to have to dig in your menus and create customizable templates for your actions when it's right in front of you and your inputs/buttons are at least consistent). Like, you're not going to throw up Street Fighter and then try to figure out where the PlayStation's Touchpad needs to be imitated if you're using a fight stick that already translates those inputs (mine had a button on the back that was supposed to be the touchpad button anyways).

A sim racing wheel is similar, where you know that when you get it the sorts of games you're playing are going to be very heavily specialized towards .. sim racing or at least something that uses a steering wheel (or can use one). You can maybe play Dark Souls with it if you really wanted to, but in general we all know why you'd really want to get a wheel over just using a keyboard/mouse or another generic controller.

The Steam Controller with trackpads, at least to me, is treated differently because it's supposed to be another option alongside the common generic options (Xbox/PlayStation/Nintendo controllers) and for a lot of people who are super-used to that kind of thing and haven't explored any niches (or have any experience with it), the customizable options, the ability to change things to make it how you want it to be, and the fact that it's "more" than a normal controller is often too much trouble and hassle for people who literally want to sit down in their living room, pick up a controller, and just start gaming. If you're someone who's already used to fighting games you probably have a sense of how a fightstick or a hitbox is supposed to feel and work and can at least pick up a controller and adapt it to be similar. But with something like trackpads, it's relatively "new" territory for traditional console gamers and for a lot of those people new and different things are often very bad, taboo, or are too scary to even consider.

The problem, I feel, really boils down to the fact that you have the people who can supposedly sense that they're sleeping on a mattress with a pea and the Steam Controller can't clear that gap because there are no controllers that can outside of the one that people supposedly settled with. The Steam Controller is easily one of my favorites for everything you can do with it .. but I don't think you're going to be able to convince someone who loves Xbox controllers why the Steam Controller is worth it .. and then it's a harder sell with PlayStation because of the difference in build quality and the features offered even though they're close. As it is, the Steam Controller being new, different, and unusual is exactly why so many people are treating it differently. The people who really like it .. really like it .. and the people who are indifferent or even against it .. aren't willing to budge either but they still want their two cents thrown in the mix.

[u/Jackoberto01]

I don't know I never used the OG Steam Controller. But for the new Steam Controller I basically just use it as a regular controller with the trackpads for mouse input sometimes.

I think the new Steam Controller is so good as a regular controller that the trackpads can just be a bonus and it's still great. I love being able to play mouse and keyboard games or just controller games with the same controller. So for me having a controller with just trackpads would feel unnecessary.

[u/lostalaska]

I bought an First gen SteamController when they were selling them for like $10 on steam to get rid of the stock. It wasn't bad, the A/B/X/Y buttons were a little small and almost too close together, but I got used to it after some usage. Nearly two decades of using twin analog controllers really just came down to having to re-learn something that was "muscle memory" and it felt a little off for FPS and such. I played the hell out of Cities Skylines on an old (at the time) hand-me-down gaming laptop with the SteamController and for laying out roads and other grids it was incredible.

It also had the small indented cross (was it both trackpads or only the right one?) that with a little bit of experience kept you centered on the trackpads. I really wanted to like the controller, but I kept going back to my Xbox 360 controllers and Xbox 360 USB dongle for my PC so we could do multiplayer as I also lived with roommates at that time and we could all plug in our headsets to the controllers when playing multiplayer games online since the headphone jack worked with all the Xbox game pads connected which was super handy for online multiplayer when you were also partial couch-coop.

[u/SegataSanshiro]

People got used to arcade controls for half a decade before the first fight stick released. Hundreds of games have been designed specifically for arcade cabinets.

0 have been designed specifically for trackpads.

Same deal with racing wheels, they're based on controls that had been around for 88 years by the time the first racing wheel for home consoles came around. Thousands of car models use steering wheels, are you surprised that people expect to use them when driving cars?

[u/TheLocalHentai]

Because the layout was counterintuitive out of the box and even though it had the potential to be amazing, people couldn't just plug it in and play like they can do now. On top of Steam Input still kinda being meh and its support for the Steam wasn't what it is now. Without those options, the pads and gyro were just fighting for the KBM space, and we know which is superior, but with how Steam Input is now, it's actually made its own niche and that's a huge reason why people are fond of theirs (I have three).

You also have to remember the landscape for controllers back then was absolutely abysmal, it was all xinput and wrappers, ds3 support was unheard of, even if it was the objectively superior choice for powerusers (so many options due to the touchpad plus the back button upgrade).

As for why the others aren't under as much scrutiny, it's because miscellaneous peripherals aren't just to add extra controls but they also bring other things to the table, like action-based feedback, immersion, and precision and the first SC brought little but had a lot of glaring omissions.

[u/figmentPez → u/TheLocalHentai]

and we know which is superior,

Touchpad and gyro. I haven't played an FPS with mouse in over 7 years.

[u/Blackwind121]

Every single one of those have a dedicated niche except for the original Steam Controller. It was intended for general use, and it falls short on that in a significant number of games.

PERSONALLY I loved it and the Steam Link box that paired with it.