A Quick Thought On Camera Controls

Over the years, a standard has emerged for how a player controls a camera in a 3D game. How the camera frames the player's perspective is crucial to both interfacing, and for providing information. 

Most camera-in-the-sky games (city-builders, RTS, strategy, etc.) use either the middle-mouse, or right-mouse button click-and-hold style to orbit, and edge-scrolling, or the keyboard arrow keys to pan. 

Since the left-click is almost universally used for primary actions (mostly selection), the right-click is designated for opening context menus or setting target positions. Mouse-wheel scrolling typically controls camera zoom, or, less obviously, camera forward position.

The importance of the distinction between right- and middle-mouse click-and-drag cannot be overstated. Many laptops do not have an obvious middle-mouse button at all. To zoom, you'd use a 'gesture' (usually multiple fingers moving up or down on the pad) emulate scrolling. So, if you want a "gaming" laptop, you'll almost always end up also using a mouse to play those types of games.

For consoles, you also don't have a mouse, but you do have controllers, which have thumbsticks, buttons, and triggers. You just don't get the fine control that a mouse provides. That's the biggest reason RTS and city-building games were never entirely popular on consoles: players don't have the ability to quickly select, pan, and designate targets with controllers.

Any time a game strays from what is now the standard for orbit-style camera controls, I find it difficult to adapt. For instance, let's say a game uses the left-mouse click-and-drag for controlling camera orbit. I may go from attempting to select something to completely changing my perspective all of the sudden. Similarly true for a game that might attempt to have both a left click-and-drag for selecting multiple objects and, say, a shift-button-and-drag mouse for controlling camera orbit.

Some finely edited games take out these kinds of camera controls entirely. Some of them only let you pan, and maybe have one or two levels of zoom. Others have orbit controls, but then limit the arc to only allow a limited change of perspective. Others still limit the orbit to only happen on one axis; a kind world rotation.

Regardless of how designers and developers implement camera controls, I do feel it is important to point out the ubiquity of the keyboard-and-mouse setup. Fewer moving parts may be cheaper to mass-produce, but the resolution of control one gets from moving a mouse across a flat surface is going to be really difficult to beat.