Poll: Southpaws: The Curse of Left-Handed Gaming

[Slackenerny]

I'm right handed. But in the late 90's after working as a young developer at a place with very poor ergonomic practices and me having no clue about keyboard placement, chair height, hyper-extension, etc., I found myself with bad RSI in my right mousing hand which left me permanently damaged. It doesn't really cause me any problems as long as I don't make any mouse-like movements for any period of time with it. However, it did put a serious crimp on my gaming habits (I think I was playing Thief: The Dark Project at the time which probably didn't help).

So I swapped hands. It took me about four weeks to become completely proficient using the mouse in my left hand for software development work and maybe another few months to come right up to speed on FPS style games. Nowadays, while I can work with either hand for development work, I can play a FPS right-handed slightly better than my three year old daughter can. Suffice to so say for all intents and purposes I'm a left-handed gamer.

This has all sorts of implications for gaming:

One of the most obvious impacts is the selection of gaming mice is dramatically reduced. A lot of mice are ergonomically shaped now which is good for the majority but a pain for me.

When I have some friends over to play some games, keyboard remapping is required when swapping players unless profiles are supported. I'm pretty quick to doing the remap dance now, but it's still an annoyance.

As I normally play using the keypad on my G15 (the blue one of course), some games keymap much better than others. Games which rely on a large number of quick swaps of the number and function keys (e.g. the Diablo series, Mass Effect, RTSs) can be difficult to rework comfortably. This is presuming that the developers have been decent enough to allow full remapping at all. There was a period in the early 2000's where a number of games couldn't be remapped completely (especially the function keys for some reason).

I've just started playing Mass Effect on PC (I live in Australia and had to wait until Steam listed it cheaply rather than pay the AUD 89.00 (around USD 65.00) we get gouged for out here. I found that that key system was so heavily orientated to right-hand players that it was easier to shift my keyboard to the right and play the standard WASD configuration back-to-front.

I'm interested in other people's experiences relating to this issue.

Are you a southpaw gamer? What's your experience with it?
Are you left-handed but play with a right-handed mouse configuration?
Do you have a physical impairment which has forced you to get creative with your control system?
Have you abandoned the standard keyboard all together and opted for a gaming keypad?

 

[zebrin]

humm. you are right, but a lot of that has to do with the way the keyboards are set up themselves. you can only stretch a control function so far because keyboards and other input hardware are not mirrored perfectly. It is difficult to get it right, and you ARE right that remapping is a pain in the arse, but unless someone builds a lefty keyboard, not much can be done to fix the entire problem.

 

[Ursus Astrorum]

I play left-handed every once in a while, if only to do the following at some point.

"You're very good... But there's something you need to know."

"What?"

"I.... Am not left-handed!"

 

[Slackenerny]

I play left-handed every once in a while, if only to do the following at some point.

"You're very good... But there's something you need to know."
"What?"
"I.... Am not left-handed!"

Good point! I've never considered applying Princess Bride philosophy to my keyboard usage.

 

[Slackenerny]

I have a metal plate in my left arm when I got hit by a van when I was in high school and had to learn to rely on my right arm even moreso. To play games during this time I actually used my fingers to control the D-pad on my controller and have the controller sit on a flat surface. Worked out pretty well.

I find it really interesting to see the differnt ways people adjust their input mechanisms to their bodies. Did you find it affected your play style?

In my case, different keybinds I think allow a difference emphasis in play. For example, my right thumb sits on the arrow keys in a resting position so it's a little harder for me to jump (compared to the space bar position) as I bind jump to 0 on the numpad, but I use my thumb far more than a standard WASD player. It allows me to continue move with all my primary movement keys while performing other actions.

EDIT: Clarifications

 

[ellimist337]

I'm a lefty, so I use my left hand on the mouse and my right for the keyboard. More precision with the cursor that way.

 

[Erana]

I can't mouse period. But in general, the only remapping I do for games is put, "Jump" on one of the triggers/ right beside WASD.
An old Morrowind habit.

 

[Ophiuchus]

I'm a lefty but it always felt awkward using the mouse in my left hand so I've always done it the other way round. It's annoying on games that use the arrow keys, but WASD is perfect.

 

[LoopyDood]

If you're finding the need to constantly remap games annoying, take a look at this.
http://www.ideazon.com/us/products/fanggamepad.asp

I have a Merc, which is exactly the same thing except the gamepad is built into the left side of a keyboard. (Right handed) It comes with an excellent piece of software that lets you map the controls and use macros.

 

[shadow skill]

Left handed I have always used the mouse in my left hand, I am old enough to remember when Mice were not contoured so when I was younger I did not have problems holding the mouse in my left hand. I did use a right hand contoured Logitech Bluetooth mouse in my left hand for a long time though, I eventually realized that this was the source of the pain in my left hand I got an MX610 left handed mouse and then a Kensington trackball.

I either map wasd to the numpad or use ijkl for movement. I tend to put reload, jump and flashlight buttons onto the mouse.

 

[SquirrelPants]

I'm a lefty, but over the years, since schools for some reason are so focused on everyone being right-handed, I've learned to do the majority of my actions right-handed. Things like computers were the first, then I always used default controls for video games back then(and usually still do), which were usually built for right-handed people.
I also play the bass guitar, which I've been done right-handed from the beginning. It's funny how things work out, because I still do things like using my fork, writing, etc. with my left hand.

EDIT: Oh, almost forgot. Playing the DS is a pain when you're left handed.

 

[bor_gamewiz]

I am left handed but I use right hand configurations also no impairments or gamepad keyboard.

 

[Abedeus]

Right handed, tried learning to use left hand for more things.

Currently, the only reason to use left hand over right is becaues I punch harder with it. Dunno why.

 

[Slackenerny]

If you're finding the need to constantly remap games annoying, take a look at this.
http://www.ideazon.com/us/products/fanggamepad.asp

I have a Merc, which is exactly the same thing except the gamepad is built into the left side of a keyboard. (Right handed) It comes with an excellent piece of software that lets you map the controls and use macros.

I've considered a separate gamepad, but I'm not sure if I have the desk real-estate to handle it. What's your experience been like with a gamepad type interface?

 

[Slackenerny]

I either map wasd to the numpad or use ijkl for movement. I tend to put reload, jump and flashlight buttons onto the mouse.

I haven't used ijkl since playing Stellar 7 on the Apple IIe! That flashed me right back. I'm going to have to set up the key mappings just to take me back. Maybe bring up a Loderunner map.

I find it interesting that you map jump to the mouse. Reload and flashlight I can understand but is a mouse button easy to handle for jumping? What mouse and mouse button do you use?

 

[Slackenerny]

Oh, almost forgot. Playing the DS is a pain when you're left handed.

What makes the DS so awkward as a lefty?

 

[WeedWorm]

3 of my friends who game are left-handed, only one is southpaw though. Im right-handed and play as such.