I do sometimes in a third person game.

Also, this article states that Super Mario 64 used a free camera system, which is wrong. The game had a limited camera system which was locked to specific rotational angles that the player could cycle through. The game also had a limited first person view that allowed free angular movement, but it is not a free camera because it cannot move nor rotate beyond pre-specified angles.

I used to invert x and y. But at some point I realized that all modern games seem to support non-inverted, but only some support inverted on both axes, so I just learned to play non-inverted to save myself the hassle.

I definitely remember a lot of chatter about the cameras as I moved on from console to computer. The y inversion definitely stuck with me while the x did not. My earliest controller was a flight stick, which is still in my head as how I’m controlling stuff. Maybe the whole ‘buttons to turn’ the x axis is the reason that it didn’t stick around either.

I do know that it’s just a preference thing. I can mentally switch from y axis inverted to not in about a half hour of play, I just don’t like to.

Interesting! To me inverting the x-axis just makes sense in 3rd person games: you see the back of the head of the character so if the back of the head moves to the left your field of view should move to the right. Basically, the joystick controls the head of the character from your POV. Never thought that was uncommon!

GameCube controllers controlled the camera by using buttons and not two thumbsticks

Played a bit of GameCube a few months ago and that’s definitely wrong — the c-stick isn’t great but it’s very much used for camera controls — however the rest of the article seems pretty good. Thanks for sharing!

I’ve certainly been disoriented from different games doing horizontal aiming differently. Changing it in some games to fit the preference you formed playing other games seems reasonable.