Do trackballs have any place in video games? In any genre?

oh shit, Appearances really are deceiving.

This is exactly what I wanted for my PS3 when Dust was online. The right analog stick is awful for the sort of long-distance high-precision shooting done. A trackball replacing the right analog stick would be godly for shooters.
Why on Earth would you want a keyboard + mouse over a good controller?

you might want a keyboard and mouse over a good controller if you aren't a braindead mongoloid. A bad keyboard and mouse is miles ahead of a good controller.

It's crazy that nobody seems to make them, it seems like a no brainer for a company to provide that kind of "multi-package" kind of deal for suckers who want variety, or are on the fence about buying a trackball. I guess I'll have to make onenever ever.

Didn't mean to sage.

3 punch combo

They've made them for the Xbox 360. No idea how it performed, but aside from custom jobs, they were never available commercially. Consolefags tend not to take very good care of their peripherals, and between the regular maintenance it would require and the very high likelihood of retards losing the ball after a week until their toddlers and pets find them under the couch and choke to death on them means that you probably will never see them with any kind of official support.

Trackballs are good if you have limited space or can't be doing those low sensitivity arm movements (Bad rotator cuff/tendonitis in my shoulder wombo combo), especially once youg et the feel for "Throwing" the cursor.

Some arcade games used them. Only one I can remember is Centipede
I use a trackball on PC. The only problem with them is that since they aren't as common you'll be paying more than you would for a mouse. Also the difference between a shit trackball and a good one is huge.

pretty much just this

Temple Run arcade is the only "modern" example i've seen that uses trackball.
I never played it so i dunno how it works.

I used to love trackballs, but for gaming, I ran into a major problem. They either had a nice design, but terrible hardware (Trackman Marble has like 300CPI). Or, they would have awesome hardware (2,000 CPI) and terrible design, like forcing your wrist into a 45° upward angle. I just gave up and got a larger-sized mouse.

Biggest problem I had with cheaper trackballs is that if you spin the ball too fast the cursor goes back on itself. Also a cheaper trackball is roughly the same price as a good mouse, or entry level gaming mouse.
My solution was to throw more money at it and get a high-end trackball. It's amazing but I could have bought a used Thinkpad for the price.

that's shitty
I guess the demand for quality hasn't shown itself enough for somebody to step in and make reasonably priced trackballs.

What about trackrolls (or whatever they're called) that some people have as their mouse on their keyboards? Have you ever seen one? I don't understand how people can use them. It's like a wide roll that you can spin and click. I see many people at work using these, it drives me crazy.

If anyone even knows what these are called in English, please share. I'm going insane trying to find a pic for an example.

Sounds like embed related.
If it is, I don't think they'd be good for FPS vidya at least. You wouldn't be able to turn once you hit the edge. Could work for other genres, and top-down games. If you mapped it right it could do nicely as a Pong machine, or for scrolling shooters.

...

It's like that, but at the lower part of the keyboard under Space and much slimmer. Fucking weird I tell ya. Only seen women use it too.

It's not exactly the same but the trackpad on Steam controllers is definitely a lot better than a right analogue stick.

A low sensitive motion control on top of whatever you use really helps, though.

if you could have high-quality mouse-tier hardware in it. Shitty sensors would stop you from being able to flick movement because of max-tracking speed and too much friction would do the same thing.