Why do some gamers invert their controls?

5 n1b0m 2 9/18/2025, 8:24:10 AM theguardian.com ↗

Comments (2)

mrkeen · 18m ago
Look at the ceiling. Now look at the floor.

Did your head go forward or backward?

theodric · 1h ago
Because I spent too much time as a kid playing flight simulators, I learned it that way, and I have no interest in relearning. I found the inverted flight controls bafflingly backward when I first encountered them, but I got used to them.

Now if you'll read the article, you'll discover that apparently some asshole in a lab knows my own mind better than I do despite never once meeting me, because:

> "In short, gamers think they are an inverter or a non-inverter because of how they were first exposed to game controls. Someone who played a lot of flight sims in the 1980s may have unconsciously taught themselves to invert and now they consider that their innate preference; alternatively a gamer who grew up in the 2000s, when non-inverted controls became prevalent may think they are naturally a non-inverter. However, cognitive tests suggest otherwise. It’s much more likely that you invert or don’t invert due to how your brain perceives objects in 3D space."

To this I say: prove it.

I detest this kind of smug journalism.