Many simulation fans rejoiced upon hearing of Chris
Roberts’ return to the gaming scene with “The Best Damn
Space Sim Ever,” Star Citizen.
Naturally, hardcore flight and space-sim fans are eager to
put their trusty joysticks and HOTAS (hands on throttleand-stick) setups to good use. Every diehard sim-head has
their preference for control methods, and many are quite
vocal with their opinions. But what if Chris Roberts and
co. at Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) manufactured a piece
of hardware geared specifically towards the Star Citizen
community?
A SPECIAL STICK FOR
CITIZENS
BY LUKE
If you frequent any major community sites centered
around Star Citizen, such as the RSI forums or the Star
Citizen subreddit, you’ve probably witnessed your fair
share of arguments and discussions regarding potential
input methods for Star Citizen.
Some of the most
vocal participants in
these discussions are
either strong advocates
of joystick use or
keyboard-and-mouse
use. Star Citizen fan
and forum moderator
Slavik says “Keyboard &
mouse is my preference
by far - did perfectly
ok with them with
freelancer :P”.
On January 23rd, CIG posted a poll titled Star Citizen Poll:
What’s Your Joystick? The questions covered subjects
such as preferred input methods (gamepad, keyboard
and mouse, joystick, etc.), interest level, preferred brands,
and more. It also asked the community for opinions on a
potential peripheral designed by CIG to enhance the game
experience.
The response to the poll was overwhelmingly in favour of
a Star Citizen input device. As of the writing of this article,
78% of participants responded that they were “Completely
interested!” in a hardware setup made exclusively for Star
Citizen.
Star Citizen fan Mister_Carrot wrote on the forums “Totally
interested in a SC specific joystick/HOTAS - Make it
happen!”
However, not everyone is quite so eager to shell out the
cash for new gear. According to the poll, about a fifth of
participants would rather use
their own equipment than
spend the money on a new
joystick.
Tech News
-10-
CIG addressed this
in the poll by asking
questions about
preferred input devices
to find out what kind of
hardware fans would be
most interested in.
The poll also touched on the question of hardware
exclusivity, asking if players would want a joystick than can
only be used for Star Citizen, or one that could be used to
play other simulation games as well. A possible benefit of
a game-exclusive piece of hardware would be the potential
for extreme specialization.
The team would be able to design the joystick solely
around the mechanics and intricacies of Star Citizen, and
optimize it to be the best, most viable method of input
for the game. As great as that sounds, most people are
not so eager to cough up the cash for a controller that
can only be used for a single game. If cash was an issue
before, a Star Citizen specific device seems to be a much
less appealing investment, with only 36% of respondents
replying that they would be interested.
Star Citizen is, no doubt, quite an ambitious and unique
project. A special peripheral could afford fans a way to
experience the game in the best way possible. We can
expect more information on Star Citizen hardware in the
near future, once Cloud Imperium has reflected on the
results of this poll.