HiPhish: The main problem is that in order to do anything, like attacking a monster or picking up an item you need the mouse cursor. It might be possible to use some tool to map the analog stick of a gamepad to mouse positioning and clicking for movement and use the other stick to move the cursor, but it would be very awkward when you need the cursor for any sort of interaction. The best control scheme aside from the mouse would be something like the WiiRemote with the nunchuck extension: you use the stick in one hand for moving and the pointer in the other hand for clicking things. I remember when I first played Diablo (the spiritual predecessor to Torchlight) I found it quite awkward to walk and attack with the same input.
It is kinda awkward, that's why my kids were a bit thrown off.
A Wii remote for a PC? I don't know if they make those! Haha
That would be pretty neat though.
But it's all good. Thankfully, we're use to the PC controls by now.
Thanks for your suggestions, I appreciate all the help on this topic.
Now, how do we close a thread? :P