Two-Click Interface - which way round?!

[CaptainD]

Maybe it just doesn't matter - I mean, you do pretty much get used to whatever interface you're using at the time - I even learned to live with that horrible verb coin in The Curse of Monkey Island... but:

Our dev team can't seem to agree on this.  Whilst I know a lot of games use the Right Mouse Button = Interact, LMB=Look, to me that has always felt the wrong way round - I MUCH prefer LMB=Interact, RMB=Look.

Does anyone else have a preference?  Do you actually care which way round it is?  I can't exactly explain why I favour one method so strongly over the other, but my mind will never accept RMB=Interact as being "right".

[dactylopus]

I agree with you, Left to Interact and Right to Look.

I feel that the Left mouse button is the standard click and that Interact is the standard action.  Looking is a secondary action, in my opinion.

[ThreeOhFour]

I always build any two click interface I make with the left mouse button walking/talking/using/selecting inventory/using inventory and the right mouse button looking/deselecting inventory. This is mostly because that's what feels right to me - in the Windows operating system, the left click is the click of action and the right click is the click of options/indecision. I do not want to be picking things up with indecision - therefore, the right click is for me to indecisively examine things and get a better idea about them, after which I can decisively execute my idea with a confident, enthusiastic interact click (a click which can only be done justice by the left mouse button, I feel).

[kconan]

I vote for LMB=Interact and RMB=Look.  If the question is seriously stressing out your team, maybe give the players the option to switch in the game options.

[Stupot]

I'm with you Cap'n.  In your normal computer usage the LMB is the 'main' button, the one that does all the immediate primary default tasks.  The RMB is if you want to do one of the other secondary tasks.  For me, in an adventure game 'interact' is the primary verb. It's the one that gets most of the tasks done, so it feels right to have on LMB.  'Look' to me is a secondary verb.  Nine times out of ten 'look' achieves nothing but a description of the item.  Of course it is sometimes necessary to 'look' at something in order to move the game forward, but nowhere near as often as in the case of 'interact'. So for me 'look' feels more natural on RMB.

[edit]  2 3 new (and more articulate) responses since I typed this

[qptain Nemo]

I agree. In that control scheme left mouse button for action is somewhat more intuitive.

[Snarky]

If you can't get the team to agree, make it a setting; easy enough to do and a nice configuration option to have anyway.

I do agree with everyone else that LMB = interact/walk/select and RMB = look/deselect is the more natural (and in my experience, the more common) arrangement, and I think that should be the default.

[AGA]

^
What they said

[Radiant]

In games with such an interface, I tend to forget that the right mouse button does anything. So the most important function should definitely be under the left button, and that means interacting.

Whilst I know a lot of games use the Right Mouse Button = Interact, LMB=Look,

I don't think I've ever seen a game that does it this way. Could you name some of those games you refer to?

[Crimson Wizard]

I vote for LMB=Interact and RMB=Look. If the question is seriously stressing out your team, maybe give the players the option to switch in the game options.

This.
Not difficult to make, really.

[Stupot]

Who are your team members?  I'd like to hear their opinions because the consensus here is that they are wrong wrong wrong (or just left handed).

[Khris]

This came up elsewhere some time ago, and I was really surprised to find out that it is actually Beneath a Steel Sky which uses LMB = Look, RMB = Interact.

But yes: LMB = Interact, but give the player a choice to reverse it. And it's GIF, not JIF.

Edit: The Secret Files games definitely use LMB = Interact, RMB = Look. It's depicted that way right on the mouse cursor.
Edit2: Lost Horizon, being by the same team, also uses LMB = Interact...

[CaptainD]

Whilst I know a lot of games use the Right Mouse Button = Interact, LMB=Look,

I don't think I've ever seen a game that does it this way. Could you name some of those games you refer to?

Off the top of my head I think Deep Silver's games - Secret Files, Lost Horizon - used that, and AstroLoco: Worst Contact.  I'm sure there are others - Ceville possibly, but I'd have to check.  I'll try to give you a proper list later, can't remember them all atm.

[Radiant]

Oh, I don't need a full list, my point is that LMB=look is relatively rare. So doing it like that "because lots of other games do" is not a strong argument here.

[CaptainD]

Oh, I don't need a full list, my point is that LMB=look is relatively rare. So doing it like that "because lots of other games do" is not a strong argument here.

Don't worry, I wouldn't have done it just because other games did anyway!

[arj0n]

LMB=Interact/walk/talk/any action, RMB=Look

Can't remember a game that switched those buttons as you said
Switching them would only and definitely confuse players imho, thus failure...

[Problem]

"Beneath a Steel Sky" had LMB=walk+look and RMB=interact
I had no problem with this setup, for me it felt right.

[dactylopus]

I was actually surprised that Beneath a Steel Sky had the buttons 'reversed.'  I mean, I figured it out, but at times I would accidentally use the wrong click, which got a bit frustrating.

It's just much more intuitive with Left Interact and Right Look.

[Radiant]

It's possible that, if the primary (left) button only looks at things, people are quickly inclined to use the second button for other things; whereas if the primary button does all the important things like interaction, people tend to forget the right button also has a (less important) function.   

[Gribbler]

I'm with CaptainD. RMB = look, LMB = interact. The other way round is against the laws of nature.