Video game controller

A video game controller is an electronic input device used to control video games. Although the gamepad has become the general standard, over the years, video game controllers have been designed in a wide variety of shapes and sizes to fit the games for which they are used.

Personal

The first video game controller I used was the Atari 2600 Joystick in the mid 1980s. Over the years, I have owned a fair amount of video game controllers for video game consoles as well as for personal computers. One very important thing I have learned is to never buy a third-party controller for a popular system because they're almost always garbage, and whatever gimmick they use to push themselves above the default controller is most likely going to hinder your playing experience.

When I was a child, I liked to design my own controllers on paper. Looking back, they were ridiculously complex monstrosities because I had no understanding of ergonomics or aesthetics, and I thought what made a controller good was the amount of buttons you could cram on it. Now, I view a controller as well-designed if it fits comfortably in your hands, can be used for a long time without causing pain, and has as few buttons as possible to do what it needs to do. Of course, after seeing so many poorly-designed controllers over the years, it seems like a lot of professionals have more in common with my grade school approach!