Based on an article posted back in February 2020 that caused a hot debate, a scientific study at the Visual Perception and Attention Lab at Brunel University is asking why a large minority of gamers not only choose to invert their controls but stand by it as "the only way to play."
In a previous article ran by The Guardian, writer Keith Stuart posed the same question, positing that choosing the option to invert controls could be a result of one of two subconscious choices: either the player grew up with games like Microsoft Flight Simulator, which had the Y-axis inverted as the default option, or it is based on how the player perceives their relationship with the avatar. Dr. Jen Corbett of Brunel University suggested that people who don't invert are "fully inhabiting" the player character's body while inverters control it more like a vehicle.
Following the huge response that The Guardian received after posting the article, complete with hot debates on whether or not inverting the Y-axis is the best way to navigate the in-game world, Dr. Corbett was inspired to look into the matter further with a full study. It's not the normal topic her team would study in their lab, she explains to The Guardian, but Covid-19 has forced many experiments to go online.
Employing the help of volunteer gamers between 18 and 35, the team will measure how fast and accurately the players can rotate shapes and "the extent to which they rely on different body and contextual cues" when making these instinctive decisions, Dr. Corbett explains.
With this study, Corbett hopes to gain insight as to how inverting controls affects the player's interactions with both real and virtual environments because, in the previous article, evidence suggested that those who prefer inverting were less immersed in the in-game world. Online commenters, however, felt very strongly that the case was the opposite. This is because, to look up, we tilt our heads back much like a gamer playing with inverted controls would tilt a joystick down to look upwards in-game.
Dr. Corbett believes that one possibility may indicate the extent that a person relies on "visual versus bodily context" to influence if they choose to invert the Y-axis on their controls. She also believes that understanding what drives human perception of environments is useful information when developing in-game worlds, but can also lead to a better understanding of real-world scenarios such as detecting weapons in baggage scans.
The study itself, according to The Guardian, looks to be underway. The article announces that in just a single day, Corbett's team received more than 500 applications world-wide for participants.
Source: The Guardian