Players have been debating whether to invert the Y axis on their controllers, but following days worth of discussion, they remain stuck at an impasse when it comes to which way is up. And down.
The heart of the issue is how players prefer to set up their controllers. While the normal inputs have players pressing down to look down and pressing up to look up, the Y axis can often be inverted so that pressing down looks up and pressing up looks down.
The news comes from an ongoing poll on Resetera. “It's time to get another snapshot on this most pressing question,” the original poster, Oni-link, said. “Is up, up or is up, down? Personally, I'm inverted for life. If I want to look down, I will always press the stick up. I was just born this way. Shoutout to games that start by asking you to look up or down and then invert your controller automatically if you press an inverted direction on the stick.”
Possible answers to the poll include “up is down and down is up” and “up is up and down is down” in addition to “I'm a coward and refuse to answer.” As of this writing, 760 players have responded “up is down and down is up,” 814 players have responded “up is up and down is down,” and 15 players have conceded that “I'm a coward and refuse to answer." In other words, the question is largely still up for debate.
Players have unsurprisingly been split in their opinions on the matter. The first comment on the poll was “inversion is perversion.” Oni-link later noted how “the real sickos are the people that invert the X axis,” courting even further controversy.
Some have been speculating that age might just be the deciding factor in things. The user known as Triggerhappytel said that “personally, I think inversion is based on age. Older people will probably be inverted because that's how most games used to be and there were fewer options to change it, while I think younger people would skew towards not inverted.” Triggerhappytel added that “by the way, I'm nearly 40 and inverted forever.” The user going by the name of Cursed Knowledge quickly shot back that “if you use inverted controls, I'm already assuming that you're over 35 (also known as old).” This journalist happens to be 32 and plays inverted.
Several users remarked how they only invert flight controls. “Only for flight games,” the user calling themselves Thaquoth said. “If I'm not in some kind of flying vehicle situation, up is up.” The sentiment was echoed by numerous other users.
The discussion remains ongoing despite having already raged for days. The upshot is that players may in fact never come to a consensus on the question of which way is up and which way is down.