[quote]In regards to if it would be the same level of skill if you took away the skillful things in the game to compensate for a gamepad, then no. If using a gamepad would be more skillful then let it make the game have a higher skill gap. If you compensate it makes it easier for just anyone to pick up and play.[/quote] Let me rephrase my question. Suppose game A is constructed in such a way that it has a much larger skill gap than game B. Suppose someone comes along and slows down the movement in game A, and adds a bit of aim assist to it, which reduces the skill gap. Will game A now necessarily have a smaller skill gap than game B, and why? Why couldn't game A's skill gap not possibly still be a bit higher than, or the same as, game B's? [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Dr Syx What I meant before with the increased skill ceiling with the Mouse/Keyboard alone was that there was a great skill gap both ways. It's much easier for someone to pick up a controller and start playing than it is on a keyboard/mouse. The inherit difficulty of simply using these devices along with the reward once you're great at it is what makes the skill gap enormous. Not just the end result.[/quote] This argument seems to depend on the following (admittedly informally stated) proposition: [i]If something is easy to pick up the basics of (or get comfortable with, or whatever), the skill of users of that thing will not vary as as greatly as if that thing was not as easy to pick up.[/i] I can't accept this without justification, at least not in a general sense. It does not seem intuitively self-evident, and it suffers from some uncomfortable implications. For instance, it suggests that the much less general ("less general" since in colloquial use it is aimed primarily with learning curve, without consideration toward things such as talent) statement of "easy to learn, hard to master" cannot be accurately applied to anything. [quote]Limiting Formula One engines and limiting the amount of area a wet suit can cover are better suited analogies to not letting people use keybinds/macros. Making them use a controller instead of a keyboard/mouse would be the equivalent of telling them to use a metal ping-pong paddle instead of a Tennis racket while playing Tennis.[/quote] Nah. keybind/macro limitations are more akin to F1's traction control limitations. And there's nothing wrong with ping-pong paddles; people do play games akin to tennis with them. And how do they keep it reasonable? By using a smaller court, a court which the paddle sweeps out a proportionally greater area of. In a sense, it's not dissimilar from the use of assist or slower movement to make console shooters make sense.