Left Handed Gamers

EnzoSmithers

EnzoSmithers

EnzoSmithers

Associate
Joined
31 Jan 2004
Posts
365
Location
Newcastle UK
Morning all,

as a left handed gamer I get quite frustrated with hardware designed for right hands. Eventually i have found the Steel Series XAI mouse whic is ambidextrous and i am happy with that.

I am thinking of adding a keypad, say a G13 for MMOs etc, and was wondering what other left handed gamers do, equipment and keybinds wise.

I have tried using my right hand on WASD but cannot get away with it, so currently play using the arrow keys and binding what I can around those keys.

Be interesting to here from other 'South Paws' ;)
 
Us lefties are disadvantaged by many things in life and PC games are no different. I guess it offsets our superior intelligence :D

I have found that ambidextrous mice and a standard keyboard suit me fine. I always have to rebind all of the keys and is something I get used to. Some game tutorials don't cope well rebinding keys as they still tell you to press the defaults for certain actions (Skyrim in particular is quite bad for this).

I have always used IJKL for movement and bind nearby keys for actions (H for 'use', / for sprint, ; for walk, U and O to change weapons, N to crouch etc). The arrow keys are usually a poor choice because of the lack of nearby keys.

Gamepads are a luxury and are generally designed specifically for right handers. I would personally stick with a standard keyboard but move across and use IJKL or perhaps the numpad.
 
derv said:
Us lefties are disadvantaged by many things in life
Click to expand...

No we're not, get a grip on yourself man :D

Also, the number pad is custom made for lefties to use for movement and a host of other stuff. It's actually better than wasd because the keys are perfectly straight.
 
I get annoyed by right-hand only mice largely because it's often not even stated in reviews/product descriptions, and sometimes it's not easy to tell for certain from pictures whether they can be used equally well in the left hand. I have a very old Razer Deathadder, which suits me well but it's starting to act up a little and I don't know what to replace it with yet.

As for keys, I am firmly wedded to the arrow keys for movement, right ctrl for duck, num_0 for jump, num_. for reload, del/end/pg dn for leaning/use/interact/etc, return for melee/grenades/etc, right shift for run, number pad numbers for weapon/skill selection, ins/home/pg up if I need an extra row of function keys.

Works well in general, but I do find it a faff in games with a whole slew of necessary keys to bind. I don't really find ins/home/pg up easy to reach, and once I'm out of those, it's onto quite awkward ones like #, ], etc.

My little finger gets quite a workout in games with a lot of jumping or weapon or skill selecting...
 
Previously used Razer Diamondback, Copperhead and now a Steelseries Xai for mouse. Keyboard I use arrow keys, SHIFT for jump and CTRL for sprint. If I need anything else I use bottom two rows of numpad.
 
Yeah i just rebind my keys

so my main config is

O - Forward
L - Back
K - Left
; - Right

Then anything not that essential ill put on I or P or maybe Enter

I normally have space as a jump,right shift as a walk/run toggle if available... if not then crouch or something.

Then i can usually get away with the rest on my mouse which has extra buttons. ie for reload, action etc
 
my biggest gripe is how a lot of games wont let you bind to the numbpad.....

it makes more sense to use 4862 that the arrow kets for left handed gamers because they are surounded by other keys you can bind abilities or whatever to.

with arrow keys im basicly left with RIGHT SHIFT / RIGHT CONTRL and numpad0 (which a lot of games wont let you bind to)
 
I'm left handed but have always use the mouse in my right hand for gaming, i did try using it in my left hand before but it failed with it as i am too used to doing it right handed :p
 
OzzyUK87 said:
I'm left handed but have always use the mouse in my right hand for gaming, i did try using it in my left hand before but it failed with it as i am too used to doing it right handed :p
Click to expand...

Same here, i do everything else left handed but put a mouse in my left hand just feels so wrong.
 
Leftie here and I use the numpad keys 4,5,6,8 instead of the usual W,A,S,D :p

Some games have issues with rebinding stuff to the number pad which can be frustrating but something like Autohotkey gets around that. I'm using the left handed edition of the Razer DeathAdder at the moment. I'd like to see more choice but I guess that there is barely a market for us as most probably use mouse in right hand anyway. I have heard that Razer will be bringing out a leftie Naga next year so might give it a go if it does actually appear. :eek:
 
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How about a trackerball, I know someone who uses that instead or is that taking it too far
 
Diamondback, to Diamondback 3G, to Xai, to Xai (left click went on first one and they replaced it under warranty :D).

Xai is awesome, well worth the premium over the other ambidextrous options.

I can never be bothered to rebind keys for games so I just use WASD and move my keyboard thus:
ARFzy.png


Can get interesting if I'm in a discussion in game.
 
Ergonomically you want the hands much closer together like when you are touch typing, that kind of distance but large keyboards prevent this

Might be that something like this works better for anyone. I use a qwerty keyboard one handspan across

gP1q2.jpg.png

xoEi5.jpg
 
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