The official gamepad support in WoW: Forever is about as good as it could be, but it's still a square peg in a round hole

At BlizzCon, the developers of World of Warcraft: Forever — Blizzard's new, remixed and updated version of classic WoW — told Polygon that although Forever finally brings official gamepad support to WoW, that doesn't mean the MMO is coming to consoles. Which, on the face of it, is a bit odd. WoW either works to Blizzard's satisfaction on a gamepad, or it doesn't. If it does, why wouldn't Blizzard take the opportunity to bring one of the most-played games of all time to a whole new audience?

After playing the Forever beta using a gamepad, I think I know why. It's not that the gamepad support is bad — it's actually very good. It's a totally viable way to play the game. But you would never mistake it for a game that was meant to be played this way.

When it comes to playing WoW on a gamepad, I have biases that cut both ways. I generally prefer to play games with a controller and not at my desk. But World of Warcraft is the exception. I have been playing for 21 years and counting, and the mouse-and-keyboard controls are hardwired into my muscle memory. I can't even deal with switching away from the old-school WASD map — where A and D turn your character, rather than strafe — to the modern setup. I have autorun and movement skills mapped just where I want them on my mouse buttons.

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