The best real-time-strategy players are like orchestra conducters—they lead multivalent campaigns for what can be hours without pause. But what happens when you change their best-loved instrument for conducting with a supposedly user-friendly arrangement? Reactions amount to a resounding “meh.” Engadget reports:

Almost as a dare, Shoryuken (SRK) challenged its fans to produce a fighting game-style controller forStarcraft II. Mauricio Romano took them up on that contest and won with a surprisingly polished arcade stick of his own. Its cornerstone is a heavily modified Ultrastik joystick that’s turned into an on-controller, two-button mouse.