[otterpro]

I got so used to the inverted-y that it's the first thing I change in the game setting as I just can't play on normal settings on any FPS. I wish that inverted-y was the default for all games. I don't know when I got used to the inverted y, perhaps while playing X-wing or maybe Quake.

[nkrisc]

For me it’s entirely context based. If it’s a flying game, I can only play it if Y is inverted. For an FPS, I can only play without inverted Y.

There’s no real difference between except the context. I just got used to playing FOS games one way, and flight sims the other, and now my brain is wired that way.

Even in games where you can frequently switch between FPS and flying, I can only do both if there’s a separate Y invert setting for each context.

[omnibrain]

It's exactly the same for me. With one exception: Freelancer. There "pointing" with the mouse just felt more natural because you control the guns at the same time and don't really control the ship but instead tell it where to fly.

[nkrisc]

Yeah, now that you mention it, is the same for me. I don’t think it’s an exception though since it’s really more like arming than flying, as you said.

[omnibrain]

I also think that's where they wanted to go to. I read some previews that they planned on having an even more indirect control scheme with you being able to buying better control computers that offer better maneuvers. But we all know how messy the development process of Freelancer was...

[Akronymus]

For me, I can't play with inverted y on mouse at all, can't with gamepad for ground based games, but for flight based games on gamepad, I can't play without inverted y.

It's quite frustrating at times.

[MetaWhirledPeas]

X-wing contributed, but so did any flight game really, like Star Fox for the SNES. It only made sense to play Duke Nukem, Quake, and Descent with the same controls.

[bigstrat2003]

I genuinely have no idea how people can stand inverted Y in an FPS. It makes no sense! You're controlling the way you look, not nudging the nose of a spacecraft. I'm very thankful that it's not the default.

[nuancebydefault]

If i remember correctly, inverted y used to be the default even for early FPS games. The option to turn it off (opt-out) was added later. The default was inverted (opt-in) even later.

[badsectoracula]

It wasn't a universal default, some games like Quake and Chasm did not have reversed Y by default while others like Duke3D and SkyNET had reversed Y by default. Though all of them had an option to reverse Y, i can't think of an FPS that did not have the option.

And TBH i'm not sure how much defaults played a role back then, they all pretty much had very weird defaults :-P.

[rux]

I recently came across my first game where not only is the non-inverted Y the default, there's also no way of setting inverted Y as an option! Consequently I can never play Genshin Impact. The lack of a setting is seemingly a long-running issue in forums, as the developers seem to be ignoring requests to implement it.