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5[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/SteelBattalion https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steel_battalion_heavy_armor_for_kinect.png]]]]
6[[caption-width-right:350:'''Top:''' The HumongousMecha you'll get to control.\
7'''Bottom:''' The controller you'll have to use.]]
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9->'''Jason:''' To throw a basic punch, hold down the B, C, and X buttons, tap the Start button, use the arrow pad to indicate direction and release the C button when the force bar tops 80 percent.\
10'''Peter:''' That's a ''basic'' punch?!\
11'''Jason:''' Whoops. That was an uppercut. The basic punch doesn't use the X button.
12-->-- ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot''
13
14The control system is critical to any video game. No one is going to put up with a game where a [[EyeOfNewt bizarre magical rite]] is required on the player's part just to get the hero to attack.
15
16Sometimes though, the control system takes a while to get the hang of. While some games like to keep things simple--"hit B to attack, hit A to jump" for example--others will have a more complex method for combination attacks, high powered attacks and short cuts that bypass the Menu screen. Usually this involves hitting a combination of buttons in sequence or at the same time, which takes a while to master. On the odd occasion, the game appears to be asking you to perform a feat of dexterity that might land you in the hospital. It's generally accepted that this system suits experienced gamers rather than casual gamers, although even experienced gamers can occasionally find themselves hurling the controller against the wall in frustration.
17
18Other games may require a certain level of experience or skill because the input isn't as straightforward as hitting a button. Some systems may call for [[SymbolDrawingInterface drawing shapes]], shaking the controller at exactly the right time, or even yelling into a microphone, which can be a bit of a hit-and-miss affair. It might take a while to be able to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWmnehkzRCo draw exactly the right shape,]] and meanwhile you find your character doing everything other than what you wanted them to do. Or you might find yourself adopting a number of silly accents in an attempt to get the microphone to register your voice. An unintended consequence is that sometimes clumsy players end up blaming the control scheme over their own coordination/stability problems.
19
20Finally, there is a case where the controls are neither complex nor unergonomic, but they put more stress on timing. This is usually seen in the games aiming to portray action more realistically, taking into account such things as the time required to actually deliver an attack or proper synchronization of gears to avoid stalling.
21
22Usually, all cases are only a pain in the neck while you're still getting used to the game. By the the time you're familiar with the system, the game misinterprets your instructions less frequently and the rage headaches you've been suffering ("I said ''jump'' you stupid hero, not ''walk off the cliff''!") will subside.
23
24Of course, if the controls are near nigh impossible, the game could simply be said to have a "bad" control system, but where the line is drawn is highly subjective.
25
26Related to, and often crosses over with, DamnYouMuscleMemory, where remembering how ''other'' games are played adds to the headache of trying to control the current one.
27
28Can sometimes be an aspect of {{Waggle}}. Sometimes the result of having PressureSensitiveInterface as a built-in feature of the controllers.
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30If there are rewards for picking a more complicated control option, then it's DifficultButAwesome.
31
32The FightingGame genre as a whole has a reputation for falling under this trope.
33
34[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No, this is not about the "dexterity" stat in games with stat points,]] nor intentional {{Dexterity Challenge}}s in tabletop games.
35----
36!!Example subpage:
37
38[[index]]
39* SomeDexterityRequired/VideoGames
40[[/index]]
41
42!!Examples:
43[[foldercontrol]]
44[[folder:Text Editors]]
45* Yes, a text editor. The vi text editor allows for almost magical feats of editing in a text document with only a few strokes on a keyboard. Too bad the learning curve for vi is akin to a ten-story brick wall. For example,
46** ''gg=G'' will apply proper indenting to a source code file.
47** '':v/./,/./-j'' will compress multiple blank lines into one.
48** vi detractors love to say that it can do only two things: [[BeepingComputers beep,]] or destroy everything.[[note]] vi has two modes: an "insert" mode, where you enter the text, and a "normal" mode, where it can accept a one-key command and beeps when the command isn't what it expects. And if it's in the normal mode, it's ''very'' easy to throw the last hour or so of typing out of the window just due to a finger slipping, all the while you're trying to save it.[[/note]]
49** The one thing the more complicated commands do have going for them is that they're not at all time-sensitive, they're generally made of much simpler and easier to remember "primitives", and in many cases (for example, any command you start by pressing the colon key) you can even use the backspace key to back up and correct a mistake you made entering the command. Or maybe it's the delete key. But that's a separate issue.
50* On the other hand, vi's rival editor Emacs has equally opaque keyboard interface that requires sequences while holding down modifier keys. Often multiple ones at the same time, or ones that don't exist on a PC like 'meta' (use 'alt' to emulate). Sometimes followed by writing out an actual command name.
51** Indent lines: ''control-meta-<backslash>''
52** Compress multiple blank lines: ''control-x control-o''
53** One tongue-in-cheek {{backronym}} for Emacs[[note]]And there's ''[[IHaveManyNames a lot]]'' of them[[/note]] is Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift.
54** Emacs' loose precursor (which the earliest versions of Emacs were built on) was an ancient line editor named TECO, which evolved from a relatively simple "Tape Editor and Corrector" into one of the most powerful editors of its time, despite its command set having a notoriously terse, difficult to use and nigh-unprintable syntax that has often been compared to line noise. (In particular, the $ symbol that frequently appears in TECO documentation stands not for the dollar sign character but for Esc or the obsolete ASCII control character Alt Mode.)
55* The [[http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/space-cadet-keyboard.html space-cadet keyboard]] had seven shift keys, allowing for 8000 characters. For reference, there are as many possible combinations of shift keys on that keyboard as there are outputs on a normal keyboard (including capitals, function keys, etc.)
56** The Space Cadet Keyboard was ''the'' keyboard the aforementioned Emacs editor was developed ''on'' and ''for'', as both stemmed from the dedicated "LISP Machines" — a series of [[UsefulNotes/MainframesAndMinicomputers minicomputers]] that ran [[MediaNotes/ProgrammingLanguage LISP environments]] as their UsefulNotes/{{operating system}}s. That's the entire reason Emacs used so many modifier keys — because the Space Cadet keyboard ''had'' them.
57** Quoted from the above link, for 'Quadruple bucky':
58---> One accepted technique was to press the left-control and left-meta keys with your left hand, the right-control and right-meta keys with your right hand, and the fifth key with your nose.
59** Speaking of keyboards, try a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard chorded keyboard,]] where upon mastery can type up to an insane 200-300WPM with just eight actual keys.
60[[/folder]]
61
62[[folder:Non-Video Game Examples]]
63!!Film
64* ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'': After extended sequences depicting the reduction of space travel to mundane actions and everyday situations, Dr. Heywood Floyd encounters an enormously long set of instructions for operation of the "Space Toilet".
65!!Literature
66* Donald Norman's book ''The Design of Everyday Things'' is dedicated to helping designers and engineers avert this as much as possible.
67* The Creator/RoaldDahl short story "The Great Automatic Grammatizator" has an inventor build a (kind of) computer which can write stories. At first, you set the general parameters, like {{Settings}}, {{Genre}} and the main characters, during the writing process (which takes about fifteen minutes), you can pull registers for details, and have two foot pedals to add passion. The narrator compares using the machine to driving a car or flying plane and playing an organ at the same time.
68!!Live-Action TV
69* In ''Series/TheCrystalMaze'', this applies to some devices used by contestants. Remote controlled vehicles often have very sensitive controls, and one game featured a robot, where to operate each control, a gadget had to be guided through a maze to operate a command, such as "raise arm". The robot then moves very slowly and awkwardly.
70!! Tabletop Games
71* Rather than using dice, the tabletop RPG ''Dread'' uses a tower of Jenga blocks for conflict resolution. Whenever a character is in a dangerous situation, their player must pull and stack one or more blocks from the tower. Succeed, and the character lives; fail, and they die (or are otherwise removed from play, depending on the scenario). A player can refuse to pull and accept failure if the situation isn't a direct threat to their character, or deliberately knock over the tower to have their character make a HeroicSacrifice.
72!!Real Life
73* Any child safety device/tamper proof seal invokes this trope. Since children are still developing their motor skills, making something very complicated to operate is the surest way to prevent them from opening or using it.
74* Driving. Mundane and commonplace as it may be, it still requires multiple coordinated motions between feet, hands and sometimes separate fingers for steering, accelerating, braking, signaling and turning. Not to mention maintaining awareness of what is in front of you, what is behind you, and the likely movements of any of those objects that you're not directly observing at the minute. DrivingStick is even more difficult, as in addition to the usual motions, you also have to manage the gear the car is in. It's a simple matter of first depressing the clutch with your off foot, dropping one hand from the steering wheel to the gearstick, moving said stick into the new gear, all the while your main foot is setting either the throttle (when gearing up) or the brake (if gearing down) to get either the engine's [=RPM=] or the car's speed to something in the ballpark of correct[[note]]synchromeshes on modern gearboxes greatly simplify the process of shifting compared to older cars, but they can't do ''everything'' for you[[/note]], then smoothly coming off the clutch to reconnect the engine to the transmission without causing the engine to either stall, or get perilously close to redlining. Oh, and you may have to steer one handed at the same time, which can be tricky if you're cornering or on a roundabout. Oh, and remember your indicators if manoeuvring while shifting! [[CentipedesDilemma When you think about it]], it's remarkable that there aren't ''more'' car crashes...
75* Later models of the squirrel-proof GSP birdfeeder come with a special latch over where the seed gets poured in called the "Rodney lock"[[labelnote:*:]]after the name by which a purchaser of the original model referred to a particularly cunning squirrel that had figured out how to open the seed intake[[/labelnote]]. This latch cannot be opened without opposable thumbs, which squirrels don't have.
76* Flying any aircraft more complex than a hang glider steps into this territory. Even guided by checklist, the sheer amount of different controls available ''and necessary'' to the pilot can be daunting. The ostensibly simple act of turning the plane requires simultaneous, coordinated inputs in all three rotational axes to keep the plane stable and headed in the right direction without exceeding its limits. Helicopters, however, take the cake. Even just hovering the thing requires simultaneous coordinated inputs on the cyclic (for lateral motion), collective (for total power), pedals (for countering the torque of the rotor, which changes with the power setting), and engine (for managing rotor RPM). Now imagine doing this while talking to air traffic control, watching for hazards, navigating, and all at the seat of a million-dollar piece of machinery with millions more in cargo in the back. There is a reason the bigger craft always have at least two pilots dividing the workload between them.
77** ...and ''landing'' any flying device safely. If a plane's engine fails, it's essentially a glider with much more weight and smaller wings. If a helicopter's engine fails, the pilot must autorotate it, which amounts to gliding on the spot with most of the same inputs as flying. ''Even'' the aforementioned hang glider. ''Or a parachute.'' Just one small wrong manoeuvre at the touchdown may maim or kill you. At least one video game developer has made a [[VideoGame/LandingSeries video game series dedicated to flight landings.]]
78!!!Musical Instruments Specifically
79* Speaking of organs (requiring both hands ''and'' both feet to play): pick a musical instrument, any musical instrument (yes, including drums). The first few years of learning to play involves extremely tedious, repetitive tasks just to build up the muscle memory it takes to make notes happen.
80** A sidestory in the Fanfic/TriptychContinuum fanfic series describes how [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic a pony]] would play a piano. Older models (such as the one in the story ''100% Move = 50% Fire'') involve the pony using her hooves. ''Side'' hooves.
81--->'' Some curling up and stretching can be required to get at all the octaves: it took a long time before double-jointedness stopped being the secondary requirement for expert skill. The style looks incredibly awkward, feels worse during long performances (especially since padded benches didn't arrive for seven centuries, mostly because previous generations of piano teachers refused to let any student be more comfortable than they'd been), and sounds beautiful -- if done properly.''
82* Continuing on musical instruments, particularly wind instruments. Music is rarely written with consideration for the fingering required to play the notes. This can lead to situations where the score requires rapidly trilling between two notes which use awkward fingers very difficult to move between. Luckily there exist alternate fingerings for most notes, but students are rarely, if ever, taught these and they must be learned from outside sources should the need arise.
83* One more example from musical instruments is the Japanese ''shamisen'' (particularly the ''nagauta shamisen'' used in kabuki theatre). Similar to a banjo if it had 3 silk strings rather than 4-6 steel ones, a smaller, square-ish body rather than a round one and was played with a large fishtail-shaped piece of wood (called a ''bachi'') instead of a plectrum, the ''shamisen'' is an incredibly fiddly instrument. For one thing, the tuning pegs are ''very'' prone to slipping, meaning a shamisen player will regularly be forced to retune their instrument in mid-song without stopping, and even if their instrument doesn't come accidentally untuned they may have to do this ''anyway'' as a lot of shamisen music requires the performer to ''change their instrument's tuning on the fly'' between movements (the ''shamisen'' doesn't have a single state of being "in tune", with the three strings being set to different pitches depending on the key and, if accompanying a vocalist, the pitch of the singer's voice). Finally, there are a ''lot'' of fiddly playing techniques required to master the full range of sounds the instrument is capable of producing, such as pressing the ''bachi'' down against the strings, finding a note with the left index finger and then plucking the shortened string with the left ring finger to produce an extremely high-pitched note. It's an instrument that takes an ''extraordinary'' amount of practice and discipline to completely master.
84* Ever wonder why the French Horn is played with a hand jammed into the bell? It's for more than just holding the thing up - back before valves were added to the design, the horn could only play certain notes, but the player could move the hand around inside the bell to produce additional ones. Modern horns can still be played this way by a sufficiently skilled player, or more commonly, the hand can be used to subtly adjust the pitch on the fly for tuning.
85[[/folder]]
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