eli5: how does calibrating your joysticks help with gameplay?

Question

All I’m finding is that it helps but what does it do to make playing a video game better?

In: 3

Answer 1

Calibration of the joystick does two things.

It makes sure that when the joystick isn’t being moved, there’s no movement being recorded, and that when you move the stick to its extremes, it registers predictable, symmetrical movements.

That’s a longer way of saying after calibrating, the sticks don’t perform unexpectedly.