Controllers suck. I've played everything from a magnavox Odyssey to a Neo Geo. The Odyssey is probably the best example of the worst control scheme ever designed. It had 3 knobs so it will only work well if you have 3 hands. The Neo Geo Joystick wasn't the best but compared to an Atari 2600 joystick it's a technical marvel. Saitek makes some decent controllers. My Atari 5200 tried to make a better controller by using X and Y potentiometers instead of switches. Great idea except for the centering drift problem and the fact that the sticks were not spring loaded and just flopped over when you let go. I made a digital joystick for it and I am probably still the only person in the world who has a digital stick for an Atari 5200.
The point is I know a bit about controllers and they all suck. We don't know it because we don't have anything good to compare to. It's like if you have only driven a yugo and never driven a corvette, you have no idea how good a car can be.
That may be about to change. Even though I know that current gamepads from sony and MS leave a LOT of room for improvement, it looks like Valve has gone another route and is trying to improve the control method. Their so-called haptic controller could be the beginning of a long delayed revolution in controller design and quality. If their controller works and is better than current gamepads, manufacturers may be forced to improve their designs and it's overdue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24304272
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