Re: The tiny roguelike scene

On Apr 10, 4:07 pm, David Damerell <damer...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Quoting R. Dan Henry <danhe...@xxxxxxxxxxx>:

<torespondisfut...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
HCI studies claim to have proved that mice are faster, by wall clock
time, than keyboard short cuts.

Faster for *whom*?

It seems utterly remarkable to me - and does not match what I know of HCI
research,

I first encountered this claim when someone referred me to this:

http://www.asktog.com/TOI/toi06KeyboardVMouse1.html

I was quite skeptical at first, but in the ensuing years of trying to
watch myself (always difficult!) and others I can't help but see the
point.

or the simple fact that I can type a vi rune faster than I can
move my hand to the mouse let alone back...

Typing the rune is fast, composing it? Hard to tell from one's own
subjective experience. Also note that if editing text (rather than
typing), the mouse user likely already has their hand on the mouse
just like you have your hand on the keyboard.

In any case, I think people are protesting a bit too vehemently when
my argument is that what matters isn't the actual speed but the
perceived fun. An interface that is fun to use is better than one
that is boring, IMO.

And, in the question of games where fun is the goal, it is
particularly irrelevant how fast the interface is - if the slower
interface is more fun it is the right interface.
--
Jeff Lait
(POWDER: http://www.zincland.com/powder)

.

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