Dark Gray, Clear, Light Gray and Clear
by K. Michael Alexander
So the Xbox 360 has a new controller. If you’re one of the few people who haven’t seen it you can see a video of it here. Not a ton has changed the analog sticks are different and the D-Pad is now a hybrid D-Pad/Disc control something I look forward to messing around with at PAX Prime. The biggest change I noticed was the lack of color, the previous Blue, Yellow, Red, Green color system has been reworked and once color coded buttons have faded into a monochromatic color system of grays.
There hasn’t been an explanation as to why such a drastic change. I suppose it looks slicker… sorta, but it really presents a problem to previous games and game UI which utilized the color scheme inherit in the controller for on screen instructions. Instead of memorizing X, B and Y locations and player could remember a color. A color is much easier for new players to wrap their head around than arbitrary button names, likewise it’s easier to show on screen than small letters that can be hard to read. All however is not lost. Xbox Live’s Major Nelson tweeted earlier:
FYI the grey ABXY buttons are just for this one new controller. It’s not the de facto standard from now on
So this isn’t a sweeping change for all Xbox controllers, it is however, a challenge developers. Now Microsoft has introduced multiple input devices. Where before a developer dealt with one control scheme Microsoft has gone and introduced two. Blue, Yellow, Red and Green are now on the same playing field as Dark Gray, Clear, Light Gray and Clear. (Seriously how does that color scheme even make sense? How would you ever unlock a crate in the original Mass Effect? These are the questions that’ll keep me up at night.)
Take into account, the previous system wasn’t entirely without fault. To a colorblind player the colored control scheme was another monochromatic jumble of yellows. [Seen here] I see two possible directions Microsoft could have gone. The first is a color system that takes into consideration colorblind accessibility and is enforced by Microsoft. The second direction would have introduce LED lights that gave the developers the power to choose their own colors and ultimately be responsible for the accessibility of their own game (and the learning curve introduced by allowing developers to mix up color schemes.) I am more keen on Microsoft being the gatekeeper, it’s better for the players and easier on the developers in the long run and ultimately it makes more sense for player usability, a lot more sense than adding Dark Gray, Clear, Light Gray and Clear into the mix.
Comments
Love this article so much that I linked to it on our blog. My first impression after seeing the photo was that it would be difficult for people to play games when they’re used to colours. When my friends come over, it’s much easier for me to say “the red button melees” instead of “the b button”.
Now, it’s “hit the gray button to melee – no, the DARKER gray button”.
“Instead of memorizing X, B and Y locations and player could remember a color. A color is much easier for new players to wrap their head around than arbitrary button names…”
Do you have any evidence of this? My gut tells me the colours are only useful in reinforcing the letter/symbol and are completely worthless on their own. People know what it means to press A or triangle. We never say “press the green button”. Did you (or do most people) even know the triangle on a PS3 controller is green? People don’t associate colours with PS3 controller symbols and I’m not sure that it’s any more difficult to learn or use for quick-time events.
Oh, read the above comment and apparently we do sometimes say “press the red button”. That is really odd. It’s kind of a terrible way to teach someone because they constantly have to look down at the controller. If someone knows where A is then they know B is the next one over, it’s the next letter. They also then know the other two buttons are and Y, with Y coming after, to the right of, X. This is all because I know A is the bottom button. If I know Green is the bottom button and someone tells me to press Blue or X or B I have absolutely no idea where they might be without looking.
Great to see you comment on this, and I’m really surprised I haven’t seen more uproar about this — I thought the same thing you did when I saw the controller. We specifically color-coded the skills in Monday Night Combat to match the buttons on the controller, and that really impacts how quickly the player can grasp that relationship. Very surprised and disappointed to see MS make this change.