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Controller suggestion? Hand is locking up.
Hey, so I've used an XBone controller for... God knows how long. I've been playing Mina the Hollower and realized that it's causing some pain along the muscles going from the top of my left middle and ring finger past my wrist; I've got piano fingers and kinda grip the analog pretty hard, so my fingers are going past 90° holding the thing and I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be doing this anymore.
I think if I had a bigger controller I'd be fine? I'm trying my arcade stick, but it's not great for fine motion like the analog. Does anyone have any experience with having to move out of their usual controller due to pain, and what did you do?
I did a lot of research into this last year, and honestly the best one I have ever used and came to buy was the 8BitDo Ultimate 2, so much so that I rarely ever use my keyboard for gaming anymore. It's just so nice feeling and got rid of the pain in my hand.
Since you're talking about accuracy, the TMR sensors in it will give you an incredible amount of accuracy and they are quite smooth. Even better than hall effect.
Edit: Looks like on Amazon you can buy a perfect condition "used" (returned) version for about $40 which is pretty great.
I have one too, it's a lovely controller but OP is looking for larger and the 8bitdo is a little on the smaller side.
Since I'm going to be utterly worthless on the front of the actual question about the controller, I'll ask about the root problem itself. Have you considered seeing a physical therapist about your wrists? There's honestly probably some stretches and exercises you could be doing to help alleviate the pain. I know I do a bunch of different ones regularly, because for me it's my shoulders that are carrying all the tension that radiates down to my wrists and fingers.
Edit: rot -> root
I second this, in my case it was also shoulder causing hand pain. I got some exercises from a physio (free where I live) which were so ridiculous i didn't think they were worth anything, but I did them and they worked like magic. I also swapped from mouse to trackpad mostly to remove the need for me to repeatedly push a thing around.
I swapped to a Logitech MX Ergo for a long time until it gave up the ghost, then swapped to a Logitech M575. I’ve used various cheap third parties in between, but I’ll never go back to a regular mouse. At the very least I’ll use a Logitech Lift.
As someone with huge hands, I feel this.
The Hyperkin Duke is the biggest and most comfortable controller I’ve used.
If anything, I want something even bigger. Give me double the size. I unironically want a controller that’s as large as a stack of dinner plates.
Anyway, downsides to it:
No rumble(either I misremembered or they added it to the Anniversary Edition)Even in spite of all of these, I still love(d) it and would recommend it.
At first I was doubtful. Then I held a stack of dinner plates and realized that's about what I would need to have my main fingers not cramping around the controller or touching.
Maybe I'll take a stab at 3d printing something. I'd call it The Oriza.
So I've got an OG Xbox, and ironically I haven't used it for much besides Steel Battalion - but I'm gonna give an OG-USB adapter a try with one of my controllers to see how it goes. Thank you!
I'm sorry to hear that -- RSI really, really sucks. Especially if the game's engrossing enough that one doesn't notice early warning signs, and blows waaay past the point of needing a multi day break 😅
I unfortunately have the opposite problem, and my hands are a little too small to comfortably fit most gamepads -- had you a similar issue, I'd note that joy cons are fantastic for this (especially since you can keep your shoulders apart too).
May I ask if using the keyboard is an option? I can't recall how I played the Mina the Hollower demo way back when, but from some comments online it sounds like it only supports 8-way input anyhow (but I can't tell for certain). As a more outlandish suggestion, perhaps -- if you're handy with a 3d printer (or have a tonne of air dry clay) -- you could add a grip to your preferred gamepad?
I hope you're able to figure something out!
Putting controllers down for several weeks should definitely be step one. A rice bucket or other appropriate physical therapy should be step two. Finding a better fitting controller or input method should be step three.
I have hands that are about as averagely sized as hands could be and the Xbone controller got to me eventually, too. Never had an issue with the 360 controller or the Series controller.
I don't know, Mina is pretty good. :^)
(Will definitely consider asking my doctor about RSI options, though.)
Let's see, looks like there are grips you can add to your controller, off the shelf and stuff like these, though off the shelf seems a bit sparse.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6760351
https://www.printables.com/model/991889-xbox-controller-extension-for-big-hands
There's also the Xbox adaptive controller built for accessibility, though this may be a step further than you want
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/accessories/controllers/xbox-adaptive-controller
I don't like suggesting this for an accessibility option, but folks do build controllers themselves, especially fight sticks. I don't have resources for this as I haven't done it myself.