Left-handed FPS characters: Do they exist?

Every first-person shooter I can think of has a gun and the person's arms on the right side of the screen, indicating that this person is right-handed. About 8-10% of humanity is left handed, but this definitely isn't reflected in games. Does anyone know of the existence of such a game where the character is either left-handed, or you get an option to choose either left or right?

Counter Strike originall had left handed models as default and IIRC the characters were displayed left handed.

TF2 also has a left handed mode. Unreal Tournament and UT2004 have right, middle, and left views.

And before someone jokingly complains, yes there are games with ambidextrous characters.

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@somedelicook: Ah, that was not what I was expecting. I've never played or seen any of those games in great detail. Seems to be a trend among older games in a multiplayer setting. Funny that I couldn't find this info with a quick google search.

There are several third person shooters (I think there are modern ones too) where you're able to shift the camera so it's left handed. Unfortunately I don't remember which ones (possibly Uncharted has this feature but again I don't remember).

I think the Delta Force games had the option to play left handed, but again my memory sucks so I could be wrong.

I do remember playing games where left hand side/left handed is an option, though.

@gruebacca: I'm right handed, and yet I still will put the weapon either left handed or centered if given the option. Its amazing how switching it back and forth can throw off your perception for a few minutes.

Just as an anecdote, I'm left handed but every gun I have fired in real life has felt more natural in the right hand.

@somedelicook said:

Counter Strike originall had left handed models as default and IIRC the characters were displayed left handed.

TF2 also has a left handed mode. Unreal Tournament and UT2004 have right, middle, and left views.

And before someone jokingly complains, yes there are games with ambidextrous characters.

And this looks really weird to me, I would never do this.

Of all the annoyances that right-handed dominance brings to a left-handed person, I have never really noticed the ones related to video games. The fact that the 3DS isn't ambidextrous was off-putting, but I haven't come across a game that wants me to use the touch screen and the left-hand side of the screen at the same time.

Uncharted 1 and maybe 2 have mirror mode which make Drake left handed but it also flips all the text in the game and makes it illegible so don't do it on your first playthrough.

@corruptedevil: wot... No it doesn't. You could naturally switch between aiming down Nate's left or right side at will regardless. All mirror mode does is flip the environment so it's facing the opposite direction -- to which there was even an option that would have it flip every time you died.

The Doom marine holds his pistol with his left hand:

Pretty certain some of the Quake titles let you choose which side of the screen the gun appears on.

I'd also like to say that the side you hold a gun on doesn't necessarily imply handedness. I'm right handed, but shoot with my left because I am left eye dominant.

In Team Fortress 2 you can mirror weapon models so the show up on the left side of the screen. For being 10% of the population, being left-handed is heavily ignored in modern medias. More so than many other minorities. Check your jousting privilege.

In Clive Barker's Undying the pistol defaults to the left hand with magic in the right

@hayt: @hamst3r: Probably should've added that pistols don't count. I was thinking more about bigger guns that practically require the use of both hands.

dishonored puts the pistol in the players left hand, but that game really isnt a shooter and the pistol isnt your primary weapon.

@corruptedevil: @yummylee: @cornbredx: @slaegar: Switching the camera in those games doesn't make the character switch hands. That Counterstrike image above was what I was looking for. You can clearly see the right hand is holding the barrel. Also, mirror mode is dumb. Then, everybody is left-handed, and that's even more unrealistic!

@slaegar: It's not just in media. Real life puts left-handed people at a disadvantage. The life expectancy of a left-handed person is significantly lower on average because practically every product is designed for right-handed people, including the dangerous ones!

@gruebacca: I know, I myself wasn't actually using Uncharted as an example.

@yummylee: ah, ok. I just control-f'd the screen for 'mirror mode', and yours popped up. :)

...yes, and left-handed people have some slight advantages of their own, or are at least thought to.

Are you left-handed? As I mentioned above, there are some annoyances of being a lefty in a right-handed world but there's nothing that I would say puts me at a major disadvantage in life. Scissors are a pain in the ass to use. Notebooks and binders are a downright bitch to try and write neatly in. But I definitely do not believe that these annoyances are going to cause my life to be shorter than it would if I were right-handed.

Left-handed people have an advantage in most "duel sports" tennis, badminton etc. when you face right-handed people ca 90% of the time are you used to the asymmetry were as the right-handed people only face asymmetry ca 10% of the time.

And the studies proving left-handed peoples lower life expectancy have been discredited

On the subject of games I think Rainbow Six series let you switch but I'm not certain

cl_righthand 0 for life, yo. I'm right-handed and and cl_righthand 0 always felt way more comfortable to me for some reason.

Which side you hold a gun in is based on eye dominance only. You can't shoot where you're aiming properly otherwise (gotta keep both eyes open if not using a scope). For those of you who said pistols don't count you're crazy. You're using both hands on pistols too and you absolutely your eye dominate side's arm to be the straight one.

Funny enough, there are way more people left eye dominant than left hand dominate though so there you go.

I don't know much about guns, but aren't a bunch of them designed to eject the empty casing to the right. I might be completely wrong here, but surely if you hold that gun left handed you will have hot casings flying at you as you fire the gun, which wouldn't be ideal.

If I recall correctly, Adam Jensen switches hands when switching shoulders in third person view (when under cover). It's not in first-person so it doesn't count, I guess. I could only think of that, Counter Strike, and Zelda (definitely not FPS).

@amatureidiot: I'm pretty sure bull pup guns do this, so if you tried to use it left handed you would have casings being ejected into your face.

Right Handed people are always trying to keep us Lefties down. Time to rise up and fight to oppression.

What about games with ambisinister characters?

It was already mentioned, but Counter Strike was the first game that came to mind, if I recall because the main author of the mod was left handed. I actually played that game with left handed models as a righty for years (I only switched to right-handed models when Global Offensive came out).

fuck right or left handed. Quake and UT let you be no handed

Lack of representation in videogames is a small price to pay to be a member of the world's elite.

Amen brother, Amen.

cg_drawgun 0.

The model just gets in the way.

There's this "gem" http://www.giantbomb.com/die-hard-nakatomi-plaza/3030-827/

I like some of you here am left handed. I have heard positives and negatives about being left handed. Something like the 70% or so of the all the Presidents of the USA have been left handed so thats neat i guess but man did I hate those desk in school that were attached to the chair. My arm would just hang off until someone walked by and hit it, oh the pain! Also, writing left handed is annoying (my lefty brethren know why).

Also, I could not think of any particular character that used a gun left handed, unless you count dual wield? Im just a simply left handed man folks.

Left handed people are disgusting. Why would you want left handed people in your games? Gross....

Indeed. Some guns have left-handed versions made just for this problem. Other guns avoid handedness all together by ejecting downwards.

@clonedzero: Link is traditionally a lefty (well pre Wii-mote Zelda games.) Is Link disgusting? Also, Jeff's a lefty too.

In terms of guns I fire them right handed, I guess it's just the norm for left handed people to adapt to tools made with right handed people in mind. Every left handed person knows what I'm talking about especially when I bring up your first encounter with a pair of scissors.

The amazing shooter Die Hard: Vendetta for the GameCube allowed you to switch between right and left-handed shooting. You could rewrite everything you ever thought you knew about John McClane!

UT 2004 had a left hand mode. I think all of em look hella weird, and I shoot left handed in real life.

Also, when it comes to guns it's eye-dominancy, not hand-dominancy.

Pistols are so much harder to shoot when you aren't a lefty shooter, why they wouldn't count is beyond me. especially one handed? Fuck that. A rifle you can pretty easily train to be ambi with, but one handed pistol shooting is a completely different ballgame, and I'm pretty sure the Doom Marine isn't practicing modern handgun handling.

A lot of MP shooters have options for left vs right. Usually not by default but plenty of games had at least an option there.

Heh, yeah some of the early ones were pretty awful to lefty shooters. They've mostly figured out ways to make that less of an issue, either by expending the shells away from the face regardless of side, or by using a channel to prevent traditional ejections.

Pistols are so much harder to shoot when you aren't a lefty shooter, why they wouldn't count is beyond me. especially one handed? Fuck that. A rifle you can pretty easily train to be ambi with, but one handed pistol shooting is a completely different ballgame, and I'm pretty sure the Doom Marine isn't practicing modern handgun handling.

A lot of MP shooters have options for left vs right. Usually not by default but plenty of games had at least an option there.

My copy of No One Lives Forever has an ad for this game on the back of the jewel case. Never played it, but I was going to post it.

It's been said above but games aside most modern firearms operate by kicking spent shell casings out of....... the right side. Shooting most handguns in a one handed grip left handed is an invitation to hot brass to smack you in the face. Hot brass is hot.

http://terminallance.com/2012/10/23/terminal-lance-231-the-dance-of-our-people/

I can't vouch for the entire military but the Marine Corps specifically and to the exclusion of any left handed methods taught right handed shooting.

You do some things left handed? We don't care you are going to shoot right handed..... The way Chesty Puller would have done it!

Perhaps some games view putting right handed shooters in games as realistic?

Just out of curiosity how many hear have a eye dominance that does not match their hand dominance? I am a righty for both.

A way to test eye dominance it to find something a moderate distance away and point at it so your finger is pointing to the middle of the object (a poster with writing works well), keeping the finger centered close one eye at a time. With one your finger will still appear centered, with the other it will not. The one that stays centered is your dominant eye. Eye dominance is frequently the same as handedness.

@overnow: I am right handed and left-eye dominant. I thought about working to change my eye-dominancy, but I shoot just fine, so whatever.

@itwongo: yeah. I think it would actually be easier to learn how to use the opposite hand than to change your eye-dominancy. Learning a motor skill is easier because you can choose to do things with that opposite hand, you cannot simply choose to change your eye-dominance.