Do you play using W,A,S,D, or do you use the arrow keys Up, Down, Left and Right?

[Cyan]

Since I had my first PC and games back in the late 90s, I used the directional keys of the keyboard to play a lot of games. From racing games to the typical fps, platforms, fighting even - making a hadouken was "easier" for me that way but slow.

I was doing relatively well that way even with the limitations of a keyboard for some genres.

It was around the mid 2003 to 2005 when the use of the keyboard started to change and many games started to use the W,A,S,D system? Or was it always that way and I am mistaken? It is true that it has some advantages, for certain commands, especially if you have a typical 2 button mouse, but other than that I don't get used to it.

Not much time ago I started to replay Doom 3 and it can be a tough game. Some bosses are impossible to dodge if I use the WASD. I don't have super super big fingers, but to me they are asymmetrical keys, they don't line up perfectly.

If I use the W,A,S,D system, it's horrible how difficult dodging -strafing- becomes for me. In fact, if I have no choice and must use WASD, switching to a gamepad is the only way for certain games to become viable for me.

I have remapped the directional and strafe keys to the directional keys, and I have master reis moments this way. Luckily with arrow keys I dodge with awesome cunning and evasiveness.

Then I set the jump (it's usually set to Space key) to Right Ctrl, running to Right Shift, and I don't miss the WASD system at all. The gaming mouse has 12 buttons and everything else works for me.

Even games like Gotham Knights that are meant for the gamepad play relatively fine with kb/m, with some limitations, although it also has advantages. I kinda feel weird with a gamepad in my hands.

Does anyone else play with arrow keys or is it just me?

 

[BRiT]

Controller.

 

[JoeJ]

I was very upset when the industry forced me to use shitty WASD keys instead cursor keys.
It's not ergonomical. Your hand comes from the left, but the W key is right above the S key. It hurts. Probably that's why my guitar skills have decreased. Knots in fingers.
But they broke my resistance. I gave up, being to lazy to configure.

Fine. But then this: They make 'gaming keyboards'. Costs more, with shiny leds, and colored WASD keys.
Awesome. Those keys really are hard to find while gazing at the screen, you know? But:
The fucking W key is still on the wrong side??? Do gamers really do so much typing that fixing this would be an issue?

Sigh. This industry is such a fallacy.
Don't get me started on console 'gamepads', as that's even worse. You can't make a proper 3D game with such controller. Even an iPhone does better than this crap.

Please give me a one handed thumb stick for the left hand. So we can move at gradual speed in any direction. We pay 2000 for a GPU. We can afford such controller. I beg you...

 

[Phantom88]

It was around the mid 2003 to 2005 when the use of the keyboard started to change and many games started to use the W,A,S,D system? Or was it always that way and I am mistaken?

It wasnt particularly standard in the 90s, but by Half Life i "discovered" it independently just because it was more confortable having your hand there. And if i remember right, it was Mafia 1 where i became confortable using my left hand and wsad to drive cars. I could never use my left hand for driving and wold always have to use the right hand on the arrows. But since in Mafia you drive so much, it got annoying changing all the time and adjusting my position. So i powered through driving with the left hand and wsad. Now im using wsad and left hand for car games like a pro.

 

[Cardassian Bob]

Controller. Mouse inputs mapped to controller through Steam as long as it's open. Never have to leave the couch.

 

[Theeoo]

Did you mean this?

 

[Theeoo]

Yes, I do play ASWD though, and I'm right-handed.

 

[arandomguy]

Maybe this is the product for you - https://www.razer.com/ca-en/gaming-keypads/razer-tartarus-pro

Inherently it's going to be a muscle memory issue and likely the longer you've played a certain way and the older you are the harder it's going to be to switch, if even possible.

Luckily for me Battlefield, due to needing the function keys for vehicle seat swapping, forced me to switch to WASD decades ago. Otherwise I was on the numpad during the Quake/UT era.

I also for instance have low acclimation to controllers and thumb focused controls in general. I've never for instance been able to even do basic QCF motions for fighting games but can play them fine on a keyboard.

If you're used to a certain way well -

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Cursor/Arrow keys - I have never been able to get on with WASD which in many games are augmented with Q+E as well. The worst are PC games which do not offer options to rebind keyboard controls, fortunately many utilities exist to do this on a per-application basis.

I am mostly playing 4X/RTS or simulator games on PC, any type or action game is going to be using a controller.

 

[Cyan]

I was very upset when the industry forced me to use shitty WASD keys instead cursor keys.
It's not ergonomical. Your hand comes from the left, but the W key is right above the S key. It hurts. Probably that's why my guitar skills have decreased. Knots in fingers.
But they broke my resistance. I gave up, being to lazy to configure.

Fine. But then this: They make 'gaming keyboards'. Costs more, with shiny leds, and colored WASD keys.
Awesome. Those keys really are hard to find while gazing at the screen, you know? But:
The fucking W key is still on the wrong side??? Do gamers really do so much typing that fixing this would be an issue?

Sigh. This industry is such a fallacy.
Don't get me started on console 'gamepads', as that's even worse. You can't make a proper 3D game with such controller. Even an iPhone does better than this crap.

Please give me a one handed thumb stick for the left hand. So we can move at gradual speed in any direction. We pay 2000 for a GPU. We can afford such controller. I beg you...

Reconfiguring is a chore sometimes. However, some gaming mice come with up to 12 or more buttons and it becomes very mechanical, also you can map the most common extra WASD controls in your mouse -E, F, G, Q, R, Z, X, C, V, M-.

There are keyboards like the mechanical keyboard, which I have (lovely keyboard, it feels and sounds great), the Mars Gaming MKCLOUD that lets you use the default keyboard WASD controls and you can automatically switch the WASD keys to the arrow keys. I don't use that keyboard to play, but wish my main mechanical keyboard had that feature tbh.

@BRiT the controller is something I use in a few genres like racing games a la F-Zero or in games where k/m aren't as efficient nor practical. I try to avoid those kind of games, 'cos I don't like getting used to the controller, then returning to the k/m takes some time if you only use a controller, and I feel kinda weird with gamepads in my hand, dunno why.

 

[Malo]

I've no idea how anyone could use arrow keys without having Ctrl and shift, number keys and function keys so readily available.

 

[Cyan]

It wasnt particularly standard in the 90s, but by Half Life i "discovered" it independently just because it was more confortable having your hand there. And if i remember right, it was Mafia 1 where i became confortable using my left hand and wsad to drive cars. I could never use my left hand for driving and wold always have to use the right hand on the arrows. But since in Mafia you drive so much, it got annoying changing all the time and adjusting my position. So i powered through driving with the left hand and wsad. Now im using wsad and left hand for car games like a pro.

he is a pioneer! Iirc back then all games were meant to be played with the directional keys. As I said, I even played fighting games like Battle Arena Toshinden with the keyboard, or Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. I am right-handed but I am fine with using the directional keys with my left hand.

Controller. Mouse inputs mapped to controller through Steam as long as it's open. Never have to leave the couch.

guess you have a PC just for playing games on a TV? My PC is configured like that, just W11 and a couple of programs, everything else is games. A little optimization, launch Steam, pc gamepass, or whatever and you are just good to go.

Now that TVs can do 120Hz I prefer to play on a TV because of IQ -usually better-, but now that I have a decent TV, in the future I might go with a monitor again, 4K or 8K or whatever and with high framerates.

 

[Jawed]

I hate WASD and games that force it are a real pain. I played The Witcher with WASD and sort of got used to it. Witcher 2 I've customised.

I use middle mouse button for forwards, right mouse button for backwards. Then keys along the bottom row for strafe, e.g. B and N in Witcher 2. No point going into other gory details.

Games like Operation Flashpoint and Arma series have key bindings that cover the entire keyboard (many keys have multiple mappings and double-tap mappings, too), so arrow keys are not a good starting point for games with that complexity.

I've been using the mouse like this since Quake 3 Arena...

 

[Cyan]

Yes, I do play ASWD though, and I'm right-handed.

also right handed, in the end I barely use any key from the left side of the key board, you can map a lot of buttons in the numpad, above the arrow keys and by their left side, next to them.

 

[Cyan]

Maybe this is the product for you - https://www.razer.com/ca-en/gaming-keypads/razer-tartarus-pro

Inherently it's going to be a muscle memory issue and likely the longer you've played a certain way and the older you are the harder it's going to be to switch, if even possible.

Luckily for me Battlefield, due to needing the function keys for vehicle seat swapping, forced me to switch to WASD decades ago. Otherwise I was on the numpad during the Quake/UT era.

I also for instance have low acclimation to controllers and thumb focused controls in general. I've never for instance been able to even do basic QCF motions for fighting games but can play them fine on a keyboard.

If you're used to a certain way well -

I am not sure that device would work for me, maybe it would, I never tried tbh, but after spending money on mechanical keyboards and mouses for gaming, I don't feel like trying, just in case it's not my thing -happened to me with certain mouses-. The Logitech 604 Lightspeed is one hell of a mouse btw, quite valid for overall gaming and MOBAs alike. So is the Sharkoon Drakonia.

Besides that, the Logitech 604 got the advantage of having Logitech G HUB, where you can transform those 15 buttons into 28 buttons. I really like it tbh, my favourite mouse.

As for QCF games, I could never play Street Fighter 2 with a gamepad and performing a ha-dou-ken, until my best childhood friend, who was always a console gamer -he purchased a gaming laptop a year ago though-, taught me how to "draw" a semi-moon with my thumb.

The guy of the photo.... has to be unique. I've never seen anything like that, to each its own.

 

[Cyan]

Cursor/Arrow keys - I have never been able to get on with WASD which in many games are augmented with Q+E as well. The worst are PC games which do not offer options to rebind keyboard controls, fortunately many utilities exist to do this on a per-application basis.

I am mostly playing 4X/RTS or simulator games on PC, any type or action game is going to be using a controller.

in that sense, a game that lost a couple of points for me is Metro Exodus. If has two grave faults. You can remap the keys, although instead of having two sets of possible key combinations, you just have one -this is an important flaw of the game.

If the game only has a single set of keys to map, it sounds fine, but in this game, it breaks the gameplay 'cos I always change W,A,S,D to up, down, left, right BUT IN THIS GAME for certain choices during the story they don't remap WASD to your keys of choice, so you get completely stuck 'cos you have like a wheel of choices and they only work with WASD.

So you are forced to go to the keyboard mapping options and map the arrow keys back to WASD, then WASD back to arrow keys.

I've no idea how anyone could use arrow keys without having Ctrl and shift, number keys and function keys so readily available.

for me it works because of the space between the arrow keys and the numpad plus the Ins, Del, Pag Up/Down, etc.

Also one of the main issues I have with Control and Shift is that they are below the WASD keys, and to the left and sometimes I have a hard time running or crouching or whatever 'cos I mix them up.

Additionally, the arrow keys can be easily felt to the touch, as they don't have any other key in the proximity. With WASD I can't discern sometimes which key I am pressing once I move one of my fingers to a different key.

That's just me maybe, but the fact that the Control Right and Shift Right keys are at the same level than the arrow keys make them a lot easier for me to use,since I place the pinkie finger there.

With the arrow keys I am just usually pressing a single key except if I want to strafe. You press up and turn around with the mouse. Those are the reasons why it works well for me.

 

[Cyan]

I hate WASD and games that force it are a real pain. I played The Witcher with WASD and sort of got used to it. Witcher 2 I've customised.

I use middle mouse button for forwards, right mouse button for backwards. Then keys along the bottom row for strafe, e.g. B and N in Witcher 2. No point going into other gory details.

Games like Operation Flashpoint and Arma series have key bindings that cover the entire keyboard (many keys have multiple mappings and double-tap mappings, too), so arrow keys are not a good starting point for games with that complexity.

I've been using the mouse like this since Quake 3 Arena...

wish I could get used to that kind of setup, but for whatever reason I never could. Maybe it's just the left hand's thumb that's not sensitive enough in my case because of a cut suffered time ago.

If WASD weren't for you, I think a MOBA like mouse with many buttons and Logitech G HUB would work wonders for you in games like ARMA. As for the gory details , yeah I do wonder how do you cope. Certain controls are not for every human.

 

[Globalisateur]

When I was playing Warcraft a lot I actually removed the down key and was playing using E, S, F (in order to have more available keys on the left side).

 

[Cyan]

When I was playing Warcraft a lot I actually removed the down key and was playing using E, S, F (in order to have more available keys on the left side).

that might well be the least key ever used. On most games I barely use the down key, 'cos you actually turn around with the mouse.

The most radical thing I ever did was using 2 keyboards for situations in games where you had to press a given key as fast as possible. Even if you almost pressed each space -or whatever- key at the same time, it registered as two key presses. It's like cheating.

I did the same with a Logitech keyboard with a touchpad and a regular mouse in similar circumstances. It works.

 

[orangpelupa]

Btw how to use arrow keys while using mouse on right hand?

Keyboard moved to far left?