I have not played any FPS with keyboard and mouse for years. I have never been very PC, to tell the truth, and although I started to play with a computer, they were other times. The times of the MSX -which was the one I had-, the Spectrum, the C64 and others. Nothing to do with current computers.
With MSX, the crosshead that my HitBit brought and the space bar was enough. Or better yet: a good joystick ideal for playing some good games like 'Nemesis', to which I dedicated many afternoons when I returned from school.
When I jumped into the game of consoles, first with a Vectrex and then with a Master System, I stayed there. I have not touched a PC again to play except in the case of the occasional graphic adventure or a strategy title. If someone puts me in front of the latest FPS in fashion and gives me a keyboard and mouse to play with, the laughs are guaranteed.
Blizzard does not like the use of mouse and keyboard on console
Before continuing, what is all this about now? Because there are players complaining that those who occupy the highest positions in the ranking of 'Overwatch' on console are playing with keyboard and mouse. Given that Jeff Kaplan, game director, has said the following about it in the official forums:
The Overwatch team opposes the use of a keyboard and mouse on the console.
We have contacted the two console manufacturers to express our concern about the use of keyboard and mouse and input conversion devices.
We have and will continue to pressure console manufacturers to:
Do not allow the use of mouse, keyboard and input conversion devices
O WELL
Offer simple and open keyboard and mouse support for ALL gamers.
We encourage you to reach out to the console manufacturers to express your concerns (but please do so in a productive and respectful way).
Perhaps the best option, given what has been seen, is the second: to offer console players the ability to use a pad or keyboard and mouse to play in all games officially and easily. In fact, Sony has a PS4 and PS3 compatible keyboard and mouse combo, the TAC Pro made by Hori, and Microsoft will end up offering this option on Xbox One sooner rather than later. Especially taking into account its strategy of bringing consoles and PCs together within the Xbox ecosystem with functionalities such as Play Anywhere, for example, which allows you to buy a video game on a platform and play it on PC or Xbox One.
That is to say: it seems impossible that Microsoft and Sony are going to prohibit the use of keyboard and mouse on their consoles. Rather the complete opposite.
Are these players cheating?
The subject has more chicha than it seems at first. It is difficult to know with total certainty if all those who occupy the first positions of the ranking of 'Overwatch' on console they play with keyboard and mouse, but this is the message that led to Kaplan's response:
Dear Blizzard, I love the game, thank you for your work.
I would appreciate a statement about the use of mouse and keyboard in the console editions of your game.
Having played many hours on the console (over 1.000), it is clear that most high-level gamers are using a mouse and keyboard on the console. I know this because I have discussed it with several of them.
I think it is unfair, but I would like to ask you for an official statement on this matter.
I have given up and switched to PC.
Finally, if you consider that using a keyboard and mouse on the console is cheating, what has been done to protect console players using a controller?
If it cannot be detected, a solution could be to run console tournaments, I am sure we would see a big drop in the so-called “elite players”.
Diving in the many answers that the thread is giving in the forums, we can find all kinds of opinions. Some say that obviously playing with keyboard and mouse on console is cheating, despite the fact that as we have seen on PS4 it is something that Sony itself offers. Others assure that it is not so bad either, since if one dominates the game well, one can counteract those who play with a keyboard and mouse with a controller.
The developers can't do anything about it without the collaboration of the console manufacturers
Obviously there are also comparisons in the thread: if playing with a keyboard and mouse on the console at an FPS is cheating because it gives an advantage over the control thanks to greater precision and speed of movements, is it also playing with a steering wheel and pedals on a driving game? I think we all have a clear answer to the second question and some doubts, as we are seeing, with the first.
What is apparent from Kaplan's message (and this one) is that developers can't do anything about it without collaboration from console makers. Or what is the same: if there was a simple way to detect the players who are using mouse and keyboard to do something about it, they would have already implemented it in the game.
So am I going to have to learn to play with a mouse and keyboard?
Maybe sooner or later I should get down to business. For now it does not seem urgent to me, I think that until there is a real change in the majority way of playing on the console that makes me think “it is impossible to play this with a controller because everyone has a mouse and keyboard and they slaughter me and I am not having fun and I am going to burn the game and its servers "I will not go over to the mouse keyboard, but having seen what I have seen, it does not seem like an option to discard without further ado.
My big question right now is whether, with my age, I'm going to learn to play at any FPS using a mouse and keyboard with enough ease and speed to do it better than with a controller.
