How do you WASD

strumpusplunket · 19 Jul 2018 at 18:43

I've just been reading this article in PC Gamer.

There've been a few discussions on here about which key set-up people use, but it hadn't occurred to me that when some people were saying they went for WASD that they did it in the way this guy did - with little finger on A and ring finger moving between W and S for forward and backward movement. I've tried it and it feels incredibly uncomfortable to me.

I'm a lefty and it would be equivalent of me having my little finger on the right arrow key and using my right-hand ring finger for forward and backwards - weird and wrong!

Then I saw people talking about using all four fingers on WASD at once in some of strange vertical claw. That feels even worse to me.

If was a righty I'd have my little finger resting on left shift. As it is I have my resting position as: thumb on right control; index on left arrow; middle on up arrow, ring on right arrow, little on num_pad 0. This feels so natural to me after 20 years or so that I can't comfortably play any other way (I sometimes need to use Auto Hotkey to remap in games that don't allow use of the number keys or Del, End, Pg Dn). My hand just defaults that way often even if I just sit at a keyboard without gaming in mind.

I don't think my set-up is weird, but this has made me reflect on how much our muscle memory instils a certain natural resting position in our hands that just makes us think other ones are unnatural.

Any other unorthodox finger positions? (I'd be interested to hear how other lefties rest their hands on the board).

Minusorange · 19 Jul 2018 at 18:46

I used ESDF so I get access to more keys

Middle finger on E & D (W&S) 2nd from left on S (A) index finger on F (D)

leaves my little pinky for shift and the other keys and thumb on space

manic111 · 19 Jul 2018 at 18:52

Obviously ring finger on A, middle finger for W and S, and index on D. Using your pinky is madness!

arc@css · 19 Jul 2018 at 18:58

strumpusplunket · 19 Jul 2018 at 18:59

arc@css said:

I'm with you! Little finger on num_pad 0, right? Thumb on right ctrl? Weapon swap/skill select with little finger num_pad 1-9?

Edit: I'd assumed you were a fellow lefty, but given reply below now I'm not so sure...

IainR · 19 Jul 2018 at 19:00

arc@css said:

Snap.
Sometimes wished I had learned WASD back in the day, but im 20 years in now haha

strumpusplunket · 19 Jul 2018 at 19:02

IainR said:
Snap.
Sometimes wished I had learned WASD back in the day, but im 20 years in now haha

Hang on - you're a righty who uses arrow keys to move? How does that work? Surely you can't reach all the num pad keys with your thumb?

IainR · 19 Jul 2018 at 19:05

I use a mouse with tonnes of buttons including sidescroll and use ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn for a lot of stuff. mainly use num pad 1/4 for nades and stuff. Convoluted I know, but it works for me!

strumpusplunket · 19 Jul 2018 at 19:10

IainR said:
I use a mouse with tonnes of buttons including sidescroll and use ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn for a lot of stuff. mainly use num pad 1/4 for nades and stuff. Convoluted I know, but it works for me!

Yeah, it's amazing how we get so used to such different set-ups. I've just tried your set-up with my right-hand and I swear I can't even reach 3 or 4 on the pad comfortably and keep my fingers on the arrow keys! Yet I've got a twitch reaction down whereby my little finger can flick out all the way up to num_pad - in the blink of an eye (I don't even have very long fingers).

There's a load of shade being thrown on the author's Twitter feed - and some even more out-there finger contortion set-ups!

arc@css · 19 Jul 2018 at 19:44

strumpusplunket said:
Edit: I'd assumed you were a fellow lefty, but given reply below now I'm not so sure...

I'm also right-handed.

Digital X · 19 Jul 2018 at 19:44

Middle finger on W/S
Ring finger on A
Index Finger on D

tamzzy · 19 Jul 2018 at 19:58

Minusorange said:
I used ESDF so I get access to more keys

Middle finger on E & D (W&S) 2nd from left on S (A) index finger on F (D)

leaves my little pinky for shift and the other keys and thumb on space

this

IronWarrior · 19 Jul 2018 at 20:22

How can you even use the arrow keys, like games with lean? How do you lean and move at the same time as well as gain access to grenades and other stuff, like flashlight and god know what else.

ESDF sounds pretty smart, might try that.

strumpusplunket · 19 Jul 2018 at 20:49

IronWarrior said:
How can you even use the arrow keys, like games with lean? How do you lean and move at the same time as well as gain access to grenades and other stuff, like flashlight and god know what else.

ESDF sounds pretty smart, might try that.

For games with lean, I map them to Del and Pg Dn. Index finger on Del to lean left, and thumb comes across to cover left arrow; ring finger on Pg Dn to lean right and thumb comes across to right arrow to cover (this is a bit awkward, but I'm so used to it that it actually feels quite natural to me - and it's not like you spend much time leaning anyway).

Depending on what other keys I need, flashlight can be End, Ins, Home or Pg Up - or one of the num_pad keys if I don't need them all. In really crowded set-ups I use #.

Nades are usually on the num_pad, sometimes Enter if I don't need that for anything else (often that's melee attack). Depending on how many weapons/skills I need mapped, they might be - or + on the pad, but I'm so used to flashing my little finger across to those keys it's second-nature. The only times I've had problems are games where I've ended up needing to spam nades on these keys (the Batman vs Clayface fight in whatever game that was was probably the worst I've experienced). In these situations my little finger can get quite fatigued. These situations are quite rare, though, really.

But yeah, this seems completely natural to me, and yet I could not get to grips with the right-hand orientation on the arrow keys at all. Muscle memory is a powerful thing!

PieEater · 19 Jul 2018 at 21:14

Razer Orbweaver, every key right where you want it.

strumpusplunket · 19 Jul 2018 at 21:24

PieEater said:
Razer Orbweaver, every key right where you want it.

I've had a look at this and similar controllers over the years, but a couple of things put me off:

1. There don't seem to be enough keys. I see 15 keys apart from WASD and whatever the thumb wheel is. I can very easily access 19 on my keyboard, and stretch to 25 without too much extra effort if I need to.

2. They all seem to discriminate against us lefties by being right-handed layout only!

IainR · 19 Jul 2018 at 21:56

IronWarrior said:
How can you even use the arrow keys, like games with lean? How do you lean and move at the same time as well as gain access to grenades and other stuff, like flashlight and god know what else.

ESDF sounds pretty smart, might try that.

Mouse wheel left and right. I always go for a mouse with a wheel that does this. limits my choice a lot, but I like logitech anyway!

strumpusplunket · 19 Jul 2018 at 21:57

IainR said:
Mouse wheel left and right. I always go for a mouse with a wheel that does this. limits my choice a lot, but I like logitech anyway!

That's an option I'd not considered, but how do you lean and fire/zoom/alternate fire if one of your fingers is nudging the mouse wheel?

IainR · 19 Jul 2018 at 21:59

If games allow toggle lean, it helps a lot. If not, then muddle by. I'm not a big leaner in most games

strumpusplunket · 19 Jul 2018 at 22:04

IainR said:
If games allow toggle lean, it helps a lot. If not, then muddle by. I'm not a big leaner in most games

Yeah, toggle is easier in some instances and I do sometimes select that option depending on the game (wouldn't work in more twitch games, for examples, but fine for most stealth games). But, yeah, who spends large portions of the game leaning and moving? You lean to peek around a corner and then move, don't you? Never found this a problem with my key set-up anyway. (I'm getting defensive of my set-up now!

)