This isn't a seriously serious concern, but it's something one of my communities has been discussing a little lately. We have a game that's fully multiplatform (PC/PS3/360) but the DLC episode for that game is only for console (PS3/360). The mustard race bois are hard at work trying to emulate it, and we've seemingly come to the agreement that when they do manage to get it right, runs on emulator will be a separate category. All is well as far as that goes.

The other possible situation, and it seems kinda remote, we're mainly discussing it as a strict hypothetical, is whether our M/K runners could use that control method for a console run. I actually tested it with my PS3 - though the console is capable of looking for a keyboard, and the lights on the keyboard light up when I plug it into the PS3, it can't control the game. Nothing happens when you press keys.

(Personally I'd defer to what seems to be the gold standard rule with emulation -- "can original hardware do it"/"is it equivalent to original hardware" -- but as I have less than zero interest emulating the game, the use of M/K on emulator won't really fuss me too much)

Presumably the question is about the use of something like this - https://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Mouse-Keyboard-Converter-Playstation-3/dp/B0040UAYI4

Is this something you'd allow in your games? I'm just looking for opinions here. I feel like my own, which you can probably glean from this post :D , is pretty mainstream, but if I'm off my rocker, that's always good to know too :P

This is really special, atleast imo.

Because you can just buy that thing to play with mouse and keyboard on PS3, i think it's "fair", as everyone could buy it. At the same time though, it costs money, and i think about to spend extra amounts to "stay competitive" isn't always a good thing (says the guy that spends way too much on UV setups for Boktai Kappa ).

I think the best solution, for now that is, would be to allow it, and maybe add a variable on runs, with "Keyboard / Mouse" and "Controller" as options. The variable would mostly be there to keep track of which runs uses what, for now it wouldn't do much, but i think in the future, if you have to change things again, it would be really helpful. On top of that you could use it to see what people uses the most on console, which, again, could be helpful in the long run.

Anyway, this thing costs about 20$ it seems, i think that's alright (though it's still a decent amount for "just one game"). I think if it costed more, like, say, 50+, it shouldn't be allowed, because clearly not everyone could afford spending that much just for running a game.

Don't we usually disallow stuff from, say, a $2 DLC though? :D

Would that thing actually be beneficial at all? If I'm understanding correctly it's just letting you use KB/M to effectively simulate a PS3 controller, so it wouldn't be anything like native keyboard and mouse support on the PC version. Depending on the game it might even be worse than just using a controller.

Would not recommend, but as for whether or not should it be allowed, main issue I see with this would be with a freescroll mouse (or just any half-decent scroll wheel I guess), in which case you now arguably have a turbo button on console (granted this same problem exists on PC, though in that case it's often a either supported use-case, or only requires a minor config edit).

Well maybe the product I found is giving the wrong idea, the question was really just about using M/K on a console game. Something that was definitely discussed, at least hypothetically. To me it feels like "well ok, you're bad at using a controller, I'm bad at <<x skip>>, can I just buy something to do it for me?" That's what something like this comes across as to me. Of course people can play (and even speedrun) games however they want, but it shouldn't be the leaderboard's responsibility to bend over backwards to accommodate. Especially if the reason is "lol i'll never use a controller lol" I feel like if that's how you feel, super, but it doesn't give you the right to a speedrun leaderboard for a game where that's the only native option. Isn't use of external things like this generally a huge no-no?

[quote=emeraldaly]the question was really just about using M/K on a console game[/quote]

No matter what you use to do that it's just gonna work by converting your inputs into controller inputs. The only way you could have proper mouse and keyboard support with a console game* is by modifying the game (I don't know if this has ever been done on an actual console, but I know some N64 games like Goldeneye can have mouse support injected on emulator), which obviously should not be allowed.

*some PS4/XB1 games actually have official native mouse and keyboard support, but that's beside the point.

[quote=emeraldaly]Isn't use of external things like this generally a huge no-no?[/quote]

In general yes, but I'm not sure that applies here. The way I see it, this is just a specialized 3rd-party controller. As far as I'm concerned you can use whatever kind of controller you want, whether its the official controller, a cheap knock-off, a Guitar Hero controller, whatever, as long as it does not give you an unfair advantage, like if it has macro or turbo buttons, or lets you use a mouse wheel in problematic ways.

In games where you have to aim, it's very beneficial, since aiming with a mouse will always be better, especially if the game has aim assist on console. I think it mainly just affects FPS games tho. I don't really see it being an issue with platformers/adventure games.

does it count as a pc run when I use a mouse and keyboard for this run, even though its runned on ps4/xbox? or do I have to make it look like I'm speedrunning it on pc?

a) No. A pc run is run on pc. Hence the name. b) Why would you ask this question on a dead thread?