Ive got three different usb game controllers -- one is a Game Elements Wireless Wave controller, one is a RadioShack Playstation/Playstation 2 to USB adapter allowing me to use any ps/ps2 controller via USB, and a wired Nyko AirFlo controller. none of these devices do anything when plugged in, no programs detect it, etc. any ideas?

Yes, read the forum guidelines
What version of what distro on what kernel on what hardware??
Ok
Your hardware is more than likely being detected, open a terminal and run "dmesg", this will give you messages on what happening in the system.
"tail -f /var/log/messages" will give you the same thing but as it happens. run this and plug it your sticks, you should see a message telling you what it is and what the system has done with it.
"lsusb" will tell you what usb devices are on your system, a small program which is very usefull is "usbview" which will give you more info and updates its self.
What desktop are you using?
"jscalibrator" and "joystick" are usefull, if you are using kde there is a section in kcontrol (quite basic) for setting up joysticks. I think gnome has something similar too.
Joystick support for linux is good but not 100% yet, you may need to set device nodes by hand. Your sticks should show up as /dev/js* or /dev/input/js*, you may have to set up links to these either by hand or with udev, see how you get on before going into that.
Also, search the forum for questions to do with joysticks, this question has been asked and answered quite a few times and it is more than likely all you need is already there.
cheers