Key Takeaways
- Some mechanics in VR can be challenging for left-handed people, resulting in awkward gameplay.
- Although some games offer accessibility settings, left-handed players still face challenges due to mechanics that were not designed with them in mind.
- Left-hand movement in VR can be cumbersome, especially when steering, and combat often favors right-handed players, affecting immersion.
I’ve been having a lot of fun with virtual reality ever since I finally got my hands on the Meta Quest 3S headset, and I’ve gotten more than my money’s worth out of it. But in my time playing games in reality, I’ve had a number of major problems when it comes to my left hand, which can hinder the experience.
1 Controls are not always friendly
No matter what you can do to adapt to a game’s reliance on right-handed control schemes, the truth is that most of them are still going to take some getting used to.
Some in-game items and weapons are still built with a right mind, making them a little harder to use correctly if you’re in the minority. A prime example is the first rifle you get into Resident evil 4 which you have to manually pull the bolt every time you shoot, located on the left side of the gun.
This causes a bit of anxiety at times as it means I either have to reach around and awkwardly pull the bolt to the other side, or use the weapon in my non-dominant right hand instead. Every time I equip it I have to pull it out and move it to my right hand, which not only wastes valuable time, but also makes aiming less accurate.
I would prefer a proper left hand option in the game control scheme to fix this for me.
2 Accessibility Features is not a perfect solution
VR offers a highly customizable way to play and often includes accessibility options to allow you to use objects in either hand. Whether it’s a build in the settings or the ability to manually move between hands, it’s nice to have, but it doesn’t always solve things.
Many vertical mechanics are not made with the left hand in mind and are impossible to change even with conditions that want to make it easier. Pulling switches and interacting with objects in the environment are often dropped to the right, requiring you to dispose of your items before you can progress.
Accessibility features for lefties like myself are nice to see but often feel like an afterthought, as the games simply aren’t made with us in mind. Some, like Gun Sky Man’s Sky, don’t even offer options for lefties at all, forcing you to aim and fire your weapons or use items with your right hand. This makes the game much clunkier to play.
3 Moving can be difficult
Analog controls using the VR headset’s thumbsticks are common for many games, which are great for accessibility, but some games have more complex controls, requiring head and hand movements to navigate.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, a widely praised VR exclusive, using a movement mechanic that relies on the left control stick to move your character around the world. The problem is, there are no options to change the handle you navigate with. Since it goes down to the left, it can make aiming a weapon while moving feel awkward.
This again leads to some confusion in action sections, as it is much more difficult to aim weapons correctly and move them with the right amount of force when in the “wrong” hand . It doesn’t help that your arm is automatically stored on your right hip as well, making it rather difficult to equip and aim in good time.
This is the kind of thing that wouldn’t be a problem with a few software changes, but I’m not likely to see it added in the future.
4 Even with Lefty Support, Immersive Issues abound
Even though the game has perfect reach and few issues when it comes to playing with your left hand, there are likely to be some quirks that could hurt your immersion. When it comes to main characters in games, most of them are right-handed by default, which means that cutscenes and scripted events may conflict with the way a lefty has experienced on the game.
In games without lefty settings, you have to manually switch things between hands all the time to make things more accessible, which can also pull you out of the story. Instead of accidentally grabbing objects and using them as intended, you’re left with an extra step that serves as a constant reminder that you’re in a video game, not a dynamic virtual world.
Games focused on adventure and puzzle solving often force you to perform actions with your right hand regardless of the situation, which leads to an asymmetry between gameplay and the dominant hand of the player character.
5 There are very few of us
When I did some research before writing this, I was only able to find a few threads that mentioned any of these issues, and many people just write it off as a non-issue. Since left-handed people make up only about 10% of the world’s population and since the audience for VR games is already quite small and limited to enthusiasts, it is rare that We are a priority for developers.
Creating scenarios that can be used with both hands in complex VR titles, in terms of development, requires the use of additional resources that most developers would prefer to avoid. Some ideas have started to appear, but they are usually relegated to bigger budget titles from AAA developers who have the money to implement them.
This is in stark contrast to the many options seen in non-VR “flat” experiences where the ability to change control schemes is now commonplace.
At the end of the day, most lefties are expected to just get used to using the wrong hand in their VR games instead of hoping for more reach. While this hardly makes things unplayable, it does lead to some annoyances that can turn an immersive virtual world into a rather clunky, incoherent mess.
Despite this slightly worse experience, I’m glad that the Meta Quest 3S finally sold me on VR.
#noticed #playing #games #Lefty