WASD prejudice

[shaithis]

WASD I find the best by far....the only trouble I have with it is reaching the 1-5 keys reliably sometimes.

[Disturbedguy]

Nooo! I always have to change console port layouts because the developer thinks that c is easier to reach than ctrl to crouch with. I always have crouch as Ctrl (even when there's a prone option). I find sharing my index finger with d and c is annoying if you want to poke round a corner whilst crouching.

Aha well I do have control used to crouch, but only use that if I need to get down quick, otherwise toggle is fine for me, quick hands you see.

Although my spacebar randomly broke while playing SC2 the other day (literally one minute it was fine, looked down the next and its snapped on one side) so jumping in the likes of CoD4 is a pain especially if the key gets stuck.

Waiting till payday to buy the QPAD MK-80 or whatever its called :/

[wasabi]

I was a QWES person for a long time but eventually converted over a as I got bored resetting every game, especially as it got more convoluted to remap leaning and other actions..

[Mutley]

I'm with you! And out of 27 votes, I'm the only one who uses ESDF.

Why do I use ESDF? Partly habit, a bit like how I inverse the mouse control vertically for FPS games. I've been doing this for many years. Partly because it makes sense to me. Using WASD means you have no key real-estate to the left of those keys. Using ESDF means W & Q can be used for other things, and A. Z is more accessible too. I have big hands, so this may be a factor too. using WASD I find the left shift and ctrl keys are fiddly to get to.

In a typical FPS, my control scheme would be laid out thus:
ESDF - fwd, left, back, right.
A - crouch
G - jump
R - reload
W- switch weapon
etc.

[scaryjim]

Q/A O/P + Space

Freak! Everyone knows it's zx.;

What I'd really like is a joystick/thumbstick (or maybe trackball) for the left hand - much more intuitive. But then I hardly ever play FPS anyway, much prefering third person click-and-destroy RPGs (Diablo, Torchlight, and to a lesser extent NWN). Having to use four keys with one hand to move just feels really unnatural whichever layout you choose...

[DavidM]

Only for two player keyboard games

[Pob255]

Z X . ; was the standard BBCmicro game layout with up to 3 fire buttons, space ' return
Left/right on the left hand up/down/fire on the right hand

I do agree, however WSAD is planer movement, so to me it works, rotational movement on the right hand, planer movement on the left.
But that also make sense to my joystick right hand and throttle left hand that I used to use.

I could never get used to the doom way of having forward movement on the mouse
I used to try to play doom purely on the keyboard, I cannot remember what got me onto WSAD (I've always called it that as forward, back, left, right makes more sense to me) but before that I used to use the number pad with mouse on some games, mechwarrior2, heavygears, Earthsiege (I miss good mech games)

Must admit RFDG makes good sense to me as F is normally a marked key, so it should be easy to keep your hand in the correct place

One thing I've seen recently is minimising keys rather than increasing the number of keys needed, in part the influence of consoles and in part the bloated cancerous growth of quick time events.

[Hicks12]

WASD is the best combo tbh, grown up with arrow keys but in the past 5 years i moved to wasd and the best move ever. So easy and its perfect position, shift is key in alot of games and is easy to reach in this position.

I dont see how esdf is a good combo, your moving further away from ctrl and shift, you also move closer to windows key which can be an issue for some .

[blueball]

As for you, Blueball 'I use right mouse button for forwards' - Seriously? that's a first, never heard of anyone using that method before...

Yay, I'm unique

[Steve]

Q,W,O and P

[KeyboardDemon]

Q/A O/P + Space

I used to play Chuckie Egg on the BBC Micro using that combination, with space for jump.

Freak! Everyone knows it's zx.;

For some reason I always found games with up and down movements easier to play when operating the controls with my left hand.

I do agree, however WSAD is planer movement, so to me it works, rotational movement on the right hand, planer movement on the left.

It makes sense to me too, I tend to use this as I can pick up and start playing most games without needing to look at the controls or remap them, which is great when I'm playing on someone elses PC or just taking a quick look at a new game.

[Iron Sights]

a well known battlefield player sgt. enigma has a wierd layout, seems all he uses are the keys in the num pad.
If he presses num lock he is screwed lol

[Pleiades]

Q,W,O and P

Freakin' hilarious! Can't get above minus numbers LOL

I recommend every1 try it... And good luck keyboard athletes!

[Pob255]

Freakin' hilarious! Can't get above minus numbers LOL

I recommend every1 try it... And good luck keyboard athletes!

I've managed 2.1 meters after about 10 attempts

I do agree, however WSAD is planer movement, so to me it works, rotational movement on the right hand, planer movement on the left.

It makes sense to me too, I tend to use this as I can pick up and start playing most games without needing to look at the controls or remap them, which is great when I'm playing on someone elses PC or just taking a quick look at a new game.

What I was getting at is that in an fps forward,back,strafe left and right all movements along a single plane, so it works having them all on the same hand, doesn't have to be WSAD the number pad works well, as would almost any other inverted T key layout.
I think that's why I could never get on with the mouse controlling forward movement because that would be my other hand.

Thinking about it one major issue with number pad is the proximity to the mouse on most peoples desk layout, I seem to remember having to push the keyboard to the side when I used to use it, I couldn't do that any more due to my current desk.

[KeyboardDemon]

I was just thinking about the title of this thread, I don't think it is a prejudice, I think it is more a convention or standard.

[Pleiades]

I was just thinking about the title of this thread, I don't think it is a prejudice, I think it is more a convention or standard.

Yeah it was tongue-in-cheek really. But keyboard makers DO presume (prejudge) that everyone uses WASD, and I was just pointing out that that's not true.

Diversity in the keyboard-place is what I say!