A hotly contested topic, people have made strong arguments on both sides of this debate. Spend enough time using either, and it is completely understandable to develop strong feelings for or against the other. I always like to try to see an argument from both sides before making any sort of a judgment because that judgment is usually much more realistic as a result. I’ve had significant experience using both game controllers and a mouse and keyboard for use with their respective gaming platforms, so I had to really think about which method I preferred.

I started young, playing games like Midnight Rescue and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on the PC (yes, my parents tricked me into learning while having fun *shakes fist*), Q*bert, 1942, and Donkey Kong on Coleco Vision, and the Super Mario Brothers series on the NES. I’ve always loved gaming, I would play games whenever possible; drug wars on my graphing calculator, EverQuest when I was home sick (or was I?), Snake when I got my first cell phone, Counter-Strike for headshot goodness, etc. So when I started working here, I had to test my new loyalty with my job against my  traditional loyalty to my enjoyment of gaming. I had to ask myself truthfully which method I preferred, because, how could I represent a company that asks people to play their favorite PC games with a controller if I don’t do that myself?

Lucky for me (and my habit of buying stuff, including essentials, like food), I found that I can honestly say I prefer gaming with a controller. It’s just a better experience. I hate spending long periods of time hunched over a keyboard, clutching and constantly re-orienting my mouse, it’s just kind of stressful. Why would I want to deal with that when I can lean back and just have fun?