why is the arrow part of a controller called...

a d-pad?

yes.

digital pad, you're either pressing a direction or you arent, i.e two states, on or off. an analog stick can be pushed different amounts, so it has more than two states, therefore it is not digital.

Directional Pad, is more commonly used. Because you can have Digital Dpads (the vast majority) where each direction button only has two states On or Off. But you can also have Analog Dpads, which I believe the Dual Shock 2 and 3 controllers have. They have pressure sensitive buttons that allow the console to tell how hard you are pressing the directional button.

oh ok

Creating this thread means you havent played alot have you??

it doesent mean that its just that most people call it that and i never looked it up

Replying to #7

Correct.I never knew why it was called a dpad, and when I thought D meant directional I assumed this was the name.

Wikipedia says the D stands for directional, not digital.