Controllers are Boring 

I am really excited for the future of this channel

I’m glad I was recommended this.

I..never thought about this....

Underrated channel

I think it would be pretty cool to see more interesting ways to play games. There's nothing wrong with trying to innovate

One simple change would be moving to six face buttons instead of four. A wand- or instrument-based system could be cool, too.

i'm definately curious why trackballs aren't an option more often

Even the standard controller isn't used to the fullest. Games still don't use gyro aim for everything game that you can aim, only 3 games uses Flick Stick and even tho you can rebind buttons, it's still not ideal. FF14 has the most incredible controls that I ever seen, the amount of commands and combinations that you can make is insane

I think there's an input device that's even more of a jack-of-all-trades than the gamepad: the humble keyboard. Damn near every piece of software on a computer is at least partially controlled with it, and has been for the entire existence of personal computers, and for a good 20 years before that, when the first multi-tasking computers for institutions came out. Sure it looks like it's designed for entering text, but it works at least decently well for anything else that can be expressed in terms of pressing buttons. The classic PC platformer control scheme of Arrow Keys + Ctrl/Alt/Shift/Space is the best one for the genre I've used. Gamepads are okay, but that classic one is better, and I think it's because you're using different fingers for each key (mostly), rather than trying to do it all with two thumbs. Hell, Spyro The Dragon for the PS1 was designed with a gamepad in mind, but I've always done better playing it in an emulator using the classic PC platformer scheme, or something similar to it. Go to play almost any game and you'll almost certainly find yourself using at least one of four jack-of-all-trades input devices: Keyboard, Mouse, Gamepad or Touchscreen.

find it weird u didn't talk about vr controllers

I love what Nintendo has done with their consoles, with the Wii having a split controller with motion capabilities and a very precise camera- based pointer able to accurately control a pointer on screen. This allowed lots of fun experimentation with pointer and motion- based mechanics in games, revealing the great potential for for instance motion- based aiming, which in recent years has been made a staple of any game on a Nintendo sydtem. It was really annoying though, that some developers (including Nintendo themselves in a few games) resorted to just having the player waggle the Wii remote, rather than actually having meaningful motion controls. The Wii U's second screen is a great tool for giving the player more information without having to clutter the screen with lots of ugly HUD elements. I also loved the uses where the second screen could be held up in front of the first one, and would give an x- ray glasses or telescoped view of the same scene. The Switch also has the joy cons, serving as a more modern successor to the Wii remote, but with a more conventional button scheme, allowing it to be used for both more conventional games like Breath of the Wild, and for more niche, motion based games like Switch sports and Skyward Sword. Sony has also done a few things I like, like having a touchpad on the controller that allows the use of swipe gestures and other trackpad uses. With the PS5, they begun experimentation with adaptive analog triggers, which I find is an amazing idea with a lot of potential, although I haven't played any PS5 games to test them out yet. I also love Sony's inclusion of gyroscopes in its controllers, and that they are even providing first- party support for gyro- aiming in some games, which I believe is the future of controller aiming. Personally, I don't know who to credit for improving rumble in the past few years, as Nintendo and Sony have recently both made strides to create much more immersive rumble use in their games, rather than the all or nothing controller vibration of the past. Steam has also launced a lot of cool products, and innovated with the "trackball" simulation in their steam controller, which is another trackpad use I really like. Microsoft meanwhile... have done absolutely nothing to innovate on the controller (at least that I am aware of). They have in fact actively tried stifling controller innovation by having 3rd party game developers sign contracts that they won't develop features into their cross-platform games that take advantage of the technology Xbox controllers don't have. This stings even more, since technology- wise, their controllers still use the exact same tech as they did 15 years ago, meaning we are stuck with tons of game developers that are simply not allowed to innovate with gameplay uses of modern controller technology. Honestly, fuck Microsoft. The other companies are not perfect either, but at least they aren't actively stifling innovation. I really hope these companies will keep innovating in controller design, and that game developers will do more to take advantage of all the options they have.