Smash Wii U Health Warning: Avoid perfect pivoting on the Wii U Gamepad

[NalsXR]

Just throwing this out there. Noticed that the placement of the joysticks aren't ergonomic enough to support the motion your thumb and wrists have to make in order to do this without injury. On more traditional controllers you can use more of your fingers to assist and you aren't forcing your thumb out as much.

I have had tingling and pain in my wrists since a particularly pivot-heavy session on my Wii U Gamepad. If you do this tech often, Stay Away!

 

[Deleted member 269706]

If you don't have proof that this is bad for your hands, no one is going to listen. Myself included.

 

[NalsXR]

If you don't have proof that this is bad for your hands, no one is going to listen. Myself included.

Ok dude.

I don't have proof. I do however have anecdotal evidence that when I incorporate pivoting into my game for extended periods of time on my gamecube controller, like I've been doing since early 2012 on Melee, there have been no problems, my hands or wrists have never shown these symptoms. Nothing like this has ever happened before I got this game a month ago and began playing on the gamepad. I invite you to attempt the maneuver yourself on both and see which feels better. I should have known.

That said, I really hate to fear monger and I think that's what your responding to. I don't mean to alarm anyone by making this post, It's important, however, to tell people about hazards in the road, even if it turns out to not be a big deal to a lot of people

If you're reading this and want to learn more about what smashers are doing to prevent injury and improve their health, I recommend checking out this thread: http://smashboards.com/threads/staying-healthy-a-guide-to-playing-melee-better-and-longer.332355/

 

[Deleted member 269706]

Alright, I came off as a bit of an ass...can you confirm whether or not this tech is safe to use on the Pro or Gamecube controller? And why is this tech unsafe, but regular play isn't? (or is it?)

 

[NalsXR]

Alright, I came off as a bit of an ***...can you confirm whether or not this tech is safe to use on the Pro or Gamecube controller? And why is this tech unsafe, but regular play isn't? (or is it?)

In my opinion the tech should be fine on a Gamecube controller. As long as you are able to grip the controller tightly (not death-grip tight) with your right hand, you should be able to prevent your thumb from going too far out from your wrist during the motion and causing problems.
I don't own a Wii U Pro controller, but as long as you can get the same kind of tight grip with your pinky and ring finger as you move the control stick back and forth, it should be fine. I cannot say for sure, of course. I am not a doctor. If you have any doubts about any of this, trust your gut.

I feel Perfect pivoting is unsafe on the Wii U Gamepad because it's consistently pretty intense on the thumbs compared to normal play. Even the most impassioned smash attacks don't require that you flick your thumb all the way across the diameter of the control stick. There's more that can go wrong in the motion and the gamepad simply doesn't provide the same level of support for the hands that other controllers do. Normal play on the gamepad is NOT unsafe, but high APM will screw up anyone's hands on any controller if they don't take care of themselves.

If the reader is worried about it, Look up some hand stretches (such as the ones in the Staying Healthy thread I linked to earlier), and make sure you do them before you play for long periods. Remember to take regular breaks as well, and stretch again after the session is over. You'll be fine.

 

[visvim]

I feel like the odds of someone repetitively perfect pivoting (a tech that isn't all that widely used in competitive play at the moment), on a Wii U gamepad (a controller that is almost never used in competitive play), and under the exact same conditions (i.e., having the same hand/finger size, moving their thumb across the stick in the same way, holding and gripping the pad in the exact same manner, etc.) are extremely low...

You're totally doing a good thing by looking out for your fellow smashers, but I don't think this kind of injury is gonna become a serially problematic thing (unlike what can happen to competitive Melee players).

 

[Roukiske]

While I don't have evidence, I'm not surprised by this. PP's need a lot of twitch motion and if you are holding a controller weird (any controller) you could pop something (I forget what that is sorry guys, but for now I'll say *vein*). My example for it? I did hear of one of the Contra speedrunners popping a *vein* due to how much spamming he had to do when doing multiple runs of the game. Personally, every time I have to short hop with Melee Fox I do a very sudden twitch motion myself.

It will happen to some, it won't happen to some, I'll probably say the people it does happen too is a small minority.

Remember though, playing games for long periods of time without breaks is also not a very good thing. Think of MMO players with their carpel tunnel and other things like that. May not happen to you, but its a possibility.

 

[16bit]

The Wii U Gamepad has a very stiff and hard to move stick, at least from my experience. This doesn't shock me, you would do fine with another controller.

 

[BasedRosie]

If you don't have proof that this is bad for your hands, no one is going to listen. Myself included.

Good news guys: I just finished up my paper on this EXACT topic. It's under peer-review right now, but it's going to be published in the next issue of Nature !

Lol come on dude. If you think repetitive motions like that aren't going to contribute to carpal tunnel and a variety of other possible issues (depending on your genetics), then you're lying to yourself. Consider this an anecdotal account of something that can happen and take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Deleted member 269706]

Good news guys: I just finished up my paper on this EXACT topic. It's under peer-review right now, but it's going to be published in the next issue of Nature !

Lol come on dude. If you think repetitive motions like that aren't going to contribute to carpal tunnel and a variety of other possible issues (depending on your genetics), then you're lying to yourself. Consider this an anecdotal account of something that can happen and take it with a grain of salt.

Just because something can happen doesn't mean that it will. The reason my comment is there in the first place is because several of us have been gaming for years. I remember back when I was playing the gamecube as a child, and then the Wii and PS2/3/4 later on. All of the controls for such had an anolog stick on the left side of the controller that was to be utilized by the left thumb. But now, suddenly, I'm being told that this specific control is bad for my health from someone on an online message board with no medical certification? Of course, too much of anything is bad for one's health, but in this case, without a proper study, I'm not willing to accept what he says as a fact. I'll take it as a word of advice, but nothing more.

 

[Raijinken]

It's all bad for you, but yes, the Gamepad is particularly bad for utterly lacking ergonomic design.

This shouldn't come as a shock. Also, all the other gamepads are bad for you too, when used for very quick repetitive motions for a long period of time. It's just that doing so on one of the least ergonomic controllers on the market will exacerbate the problem more quickly.