Comments on: WASD, Arrow Keys or HJKL?

by: Luke Maciak

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 23:43:02 +0000

@Alexander -actually, that’s a good idea. I never thought about using ESDF but it does give you more keys for mapping additional functions. I might need to try this out one day.

by: Alexander Heß

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 23:10:38 +0000

I use ESDF for gaming which has no option in your poll.

[b]Why ESDF and not WASD?[/b]

Easy: Using ESDF gives you a “circle” of other keys around your movement keys (RTGBVCXYAQW) which can be mapped for direct weapon selection or other actions.

by: Sprogz

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:42:32 +0000

I’m a gamin’ leftie and am driven insane by always having to map the multitude of keys needed by today’s FPS games. Forwards, backwards, left, right, jump, crouch, prone, reload, shoot, change weapons (quickly)…

I have the mouse in my left-hand but don’t re-map the buttons, LMB shoots (clicked with my left-hand middle finger) and RMB is usually zoom (like aiming down a sniper rifle scope, etc) pressed with my index finger.

Typically arrow keys to replace WASD, CTRL to run, shift to crouch. End (directly above up arrow on my keyboard) is USE (for any kind of in-game interaction, open doors, etc). Usually, any keys on the keypad I can reach with my right-hand pinky for switching weapons, flashlights, med-packs, et. al.

Return/enter to jump.

Call of Duty 2 (if I remember correctly) felt best for me as I was able to map changing stance up/down to the mouse wheel. Mouse wheel up went from prone to crouch to stand and mouse wheel down from stand to prone to crouch. It felt very natural.

I’ve tried mousing with my right hand and using WASD - it would sure make getting into a new game that much easier but I am just useless with that configuration.

My brother uses LMB/RMB for forwards/backwards like someone else here. It seems really weird NOT using the mouse to shoot but maybe it’s something else to try.

by: "Pingu" Tikka

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 11:00:28 +0000

Gaming - that’s not my stuff. But as for text editing - what’s wrong with ^b ^f ^p and ^n. That was not even an option on the poll.

by: Luke Maciak

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 05:18:40 +0000

I suspected that WASD will have a big lead over all the other choices because there are so many gamers out there. There are definitely more gamers out there than people who use HJKL with vi.

by: ExxonValdeez

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 05:04:58 +0000

I actually expected the HJKL keys to score higher because of the Vi users out there. Still going strong though. I don’t play many games anyway so the keys are used primarily for editing. There is a Firefox plugin for Vim keybindings but I don’t use it. Anyway, in the words of some famous Linux persona, “Give me Vi or give me death.”

by: Luke Maciak

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:51:02 +0000

Interesting. For me mouse shooting seems natural. Go figure.

by: Geoff

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:41:47 +0000

I’m left handed. I use the left mouse button for move forward and the right button for move back. a and s for strafing left and right, shift to fire, d to crouch, usually x for use and the other keys surrounding asdf for whatever else. I just can’t wrap my brain around using the mouse buttons to shoot (or do anything but move back or forth really).

by: Luke Maciak

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 06:24:32 +0000

Oh, I forgot about nethack. Though I distinctly remember using arrows for that game back in the day.

Actually, Nethack for WinCE was the killer app for my Dell Axim pocket pc. That and Pocket Gnu Go got me through all the boring gen-ed electives in college.

And yes, playing that game with a stylus was a bit weird at first, but you got used to it after a while.

by: jambarama

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:53:28 +0000

As must as I’d like to say I learned hjkl from Vi, honestly I think Nethack had more to do with it. Long live Nethack!