Xbox 360 Controller for World of Warcraft

[Northerner]

Originally Posted by Yukuri Fresh

It's already been mentioned by rukidding but to reiterate a controller is better for hand ergonomics than a mouse and keyboard setup. It's not perfect, but as we're on the tip of an RSI/Carpel Tunnel/Tendonitis explosion anything to alleviate that is welcome. That shit heals very slowly, if at all. Without taking months off work for rehabilitation there isn't a chance of recovery.
How many of our kids are going to have an overuse condition before they even enter the workforce, due to over playing games?
How many of us now have slightly aching hands after playing games, or even work? If you do, you're on your way to qualifying as disabled.

What a strange thing to say.

I've overworked (overtypyed? whatever I guess) and also played games a ton through the whole thing. I've personally had vicious carpal tunnel symptoms and I've had the same behavior produce no problems.

What do ya know? Perhaps not sitting on your ass eating cheetos has some effect?

It's all anecdotal on my end but I'll tell you this: the constant bullshit I used to have to put up with from my typing wrists went away (and yeah, it was years' worth with medical backing and all... which meant little as a contractor) when I paid some damn attention to it. I still use old keyboards, I still type at a high rate and I still have a horrid ergodynamic layout.

Oh well though, 30+ years of typing like shit and not whining about it seems to work.

[Yukuri Fresh]

A strange thing to say? Try pertinent Northerner. You "paid some damn attention to it and it went away", so thanks for proving my point; you did in fact have overuse problems. Is prevention not better than cure? Why should someone work, and live through years of pain when it could have been prevented? It is not a case of whining, it is about awareness, and that is better than blind ignorance or machismo towards ergonomics and overuse. The hours many put into online games equate or exceed the computer input of an additional office computer job each day. As this isn't the place to expound upon human biomechanics you may do some research into the effects of that for yourself if interested.
If you're lucky enough to naturally avoid problems, high five to you. Many people do not, and many do not recover fully. Though that can be due to poor effort, what if you're not in the financial position to take the time off, or to do less work? Less scorn for others will serve you well.

But yes, eating Cheetos on one's ass all day is part of the problem. Daily aerobic, with extensor-flexor muscle balance and endurance exercise will go a long way towards prevention, and rehabilitation for RSI.

[tikkus]

I think there was a thread either here or on another site a frequent a while back about a guy who wanted to exercise while playing WoW. He hooked himself up with an x-box 360 controller and biked the entire time he was playing. Ended up working really well for him.

[larseny316]

I've actually done this, using a different program (can't remember what, it was a couple hds ago) that let me configure the 360 controller to pretty much do whatever I required. Buttons worked a problem, because you can configure various combinations to do different things, and with the much easier access to many buttoms shifting pages etc allowed many more. Had the 4 Face buttons bound to my 4 favorite abilities, shoulder buttons allowed for combination presses with the 4 face buttons (total of 20 abilities at this point). Dpad shifted between loadouts, giving me access to 80 buttons all within 2 inputs (Dpad U, Rshoulder + x etc). The bitch was remembering where everything is, the interface wasn't efficient if I had to check all 3 dpads trying to find what I wanted etc.

Right Stick functioned as mousepointer, depressing the left a click. Left stick functioned as look (bad as a clicker here btw), and depressing left stick was right click. Select was autorun. The real problem came from using the right stick as mousepointer meant that everything I wanted to do, was the equivalent of a headshot in halo. Check the auction house? Headshot the item I want etc. But it was amazing the be able to sit on my bed and grind. Was it worth the 20+ hours I spent setting it up, getting it customized, etc etc etc? Not a chance. But I did level a 45 character exclusively with the controller. Not having a keyboard also sucked, but the new 360 controller with thumb keyboard would help that. It would also simplify the keybindings I imagine.