{"id":201,"date":"2012-11-29T13:33:46","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T20:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/?p=201"},"modified":"2013-04-12T07:56:21","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T14:56:21","slug":"never-stand-next-to-a-door-interface-lessons-in-borderlands-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/?p=201","title":{"rendered":"Never linger in front of a door: Interface lessons in Borderlands 2<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing about glitches and less-consequential aberrations in video games is my way of rehabilitating bad play experiences through (hopefully) good analysis. Landing at present \u201csquarely\u201d in my sights (a pun in the making here; stay tuned) is the mapping of game actions in Borderlands 2<\/em> to the buttons of a PS3 gamepad.<\/p>\n

I find gamepad mappings fascinating, and I often examine them in detail to discover how a game\u2019s \u201cverbs\u201d\u2014the possible, meaningful actions in a game\u2014have been arrayed for interactive use. While detailed, printed instructions for playing video games have become relics, infographics of available gameplay action are still published within a video game\u2019s liner notes and tucked into \u201coption\u201d screens on the game\u2019s main menu. As a practical matter, these gamepad \u201cmaps\u201d communicate to the user an equivalent of \u201cYou are here\u201d for the thumbs and fingers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But in a larger sense, the map is a convention of\u2014and a concession to\u2014the human, biological, and fundamentally cultural component of the video game system\u2014a component that exists outside the game diegesis and the machine\u2019s computations. The interface is the human portal for agency in this world, and good mappings of that agency make use of metaphors both cultural (moving right analog stick=looking as if through a camera) and biomechanical (moving left analog stick forward=moving whole avatarial body forward). In short, the real estate axiom \u201cLocation, location, location\u201d also applies to the mapping of a fire button.<\/p>\n

In Borderlands 2<\/em>, here is a diagram of the standard default mapping for PS3:<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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Note that nine different default configurations, including a couple designed for lefties, can be found in the \u201ccontroller\u201d menu, along with various individual transpositions, such as inverting the Y axis (a common preference for \u201cflight simulator\u201d-type players). One notable difference between Borderlands 2<\/em> and its predecessor: the default controller layout now reverses the shoulder button assignments from the first Borderlands<\/em>\u2014a decision that brings the new version more in line with the Call of Duty<\/em> franchise and other current configurations, i.e., L 1=aim, R 1=fire.<\/p>\n

The default layout worked well for me, right up until I confronted The Warrior, the predictably genre-cliched, final big-baddie of the main mission. My second time facing the hulking beast (my first encounter promptly yielded a fiery death), I had my back to the wall, happily firing away from a semi-safe remove. Except it wasn\u2019t a wall behind me. It was a door\u2014one of those glowing portals in the game that connect semi-adjacent spaces (levels, essentially) in the landscape. When triggered they prompt a \u201ctime-out\u201d as a new environment\/level loads up and redeploys the player.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the space on the other side of the door is literally contiguous, sometimes not. But the even stranger thing about doors in Borderlands 2<\/em> (fascinating interfaces in their own right) is that the action for opening them\u2014a press of the square icon button on the PS3 gamepad\u2014is the same action as reloading a weapon\u2019s magazine. Mapping two actions to one button is rather common, and context for use should implicitly sort out whether the player is fleeing or fighting.\u00a0 Indeed, a non-diegetic \u201cTravel\u201d icon pops up on the screen when approaching a door as if to hail the player directly: \u201cOpen sesame?\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning to my battle with The Warrior, I discovered the door does not \u201cunderstand\u201d the difference between a player\u2019s front and back. So, as I backed up against the door, I reloaded my SMG by hitting the square button\u2014right at the very moment the door icon flashed on the screen. Seconds from victory and\u2026 wooosh\u2014I\u2019m suddenly deposited on a random cliff top, far from my ultimate reward. WTF? It took me a moment to realize what had happened, but I had plenty of time to think about the consequences: I spent the next half hour reclaiming terrain already hard won, running and gunning my way back to a rematch with a fully rejuvenated Warrior.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not surprised playtesting during game development didn\u2019t expose or elevate the interface problem with doors; by design, doors and waypoints are already set at a remove from engagement areas (and AI enemies tend to fall back from doors, though not always), thereby minimizing contextual ambiguity for the square button’s use. Nevertheless, perhaps weapon reloads and door handles should be remapped in the default configuration. Or, better still, doors should only operate when facing them\u2014you know, like an actual door (though one wonders what kind of collision detection this might require).<\/p>\n

The default interface mapping generally works so well in Borderlands 2<\/em> that it\u2019s a shock when it fails at the finish line. Chalk it up to another life lesson affirmed by gameplay: never linger in front of a door. Yes, it might hit you, but that could be the least of your problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing about glitches and less-consequential aberrations in video games is my way of rehabilitating bad play experiences through (hopefully) good analysis. Landing at present \u201csquarely\u201d in my sights (a pun in the making here; stay tuned) is the mapping of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erraticplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}