Poll: WASD or Arrow Keys?

[viranimus]

For driving games I can easily see this being fine, I do it myself. But for shooters? Are you mad? The reason PC shooters use the mouse and keyboard by default is because it's better to aim with the mouse, you're intentionally handicapping yourself here.

Except for the fact its really not a handicap. Now I grant you that in games where the 360 gamepad is natively supported, the "look" stick is entirely too slow. However in those events you can remap via xpad to make the "look" more than fast enough to represent the motion of the mouse (even faster actually).

And it is also not a handicap in shooters, unless of course your basing that on the concept that shooters must be played in online multiplayer. Honestly, AI of a game is not difficult to deal with. It is humans that are fast and realistically thats the only instance when you might need the balance of speed + accuracy a mouse can generate. But then again I am not a real big FPS fan, I generally dont do a lot of online multiplayer, and when I do its typically going to be on a console anyway. Only real exception is on rare occasion I get a wild hair and will play L4D2 on PC. I have always played via the controller on the PC and I have yet to have a single person complain or even imply I wasnt carrying my weight. So really I dont see the hinderence, because I doubt anyone else could tell anyway.

Oh, and Yessir... I am quite mad indeed.

Spoiler

 

[feauxx]

depends on the game usually. i play wow double handed with arrow keys, barely touch my mouse.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

WASD here as well, although I used to be an alumni of the Arrow Keys school for a long, long time. I changed once I realized that my desk wasn't infinite in width and that squeezing both my hands in close proximity to one another was a sure-fire way to wake up with sore forearms the next day.

I still have problems when games map things to Q or E, though.

 

[Teckdeth]

WASD. Hotkeys.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

WASD, for most non-flash titles. I need the spacebar and shift key close, bro.

 

[Sandernista]

WASD.
Other hotkeys are closer, and plus, arrows keys puts my left hand too close to the mouse.

This essentially.

 

[NinjaDuckie]

WASD for directional, and any key within reach of my left hand for other things (jump, crouch, lean, use, reload etc), with my right hand on the six-button mouse for an extra way of doing everything just in case.

Unless it's Doom, like Soviet Heavy said. That's practically designed for the arrow keys.

 

[Starke]

What about ESDF?

I use the arrow keys normally, and WASD for anything that has a hotbar that is longer than 6.

ESDF? Eh, I've never seen it done, but it feels sort of awkward, just trying it out.

You get used to it. I used to use OKL; when I gamed on laptops, stuck my thumb on the trackpad and had a hand free for whatever I wanted.

 

[TheMann]

Way back in the days of yore (read that as 1996), when my main FPS was Quake, I used 8456 on the number pad with ENTER for jump, and 7 and 9 for a game with anything else. But most FPSs didn't require anything else back then, so I shoved my keyboard over and did that. When they became more complex, I shifted to WASD. When I rest my left hand on the keyboard, everything just naturally fits. For instance, this is my Half Life 2 setup:

WASD-movement
spacebar-jump
shift-crouch
control-sprint
E-use
F-light
R-reload
Q-switch to Gravity Gun
V-zoom

My fingers can find these quickly without much movement.

 

[BabyRaptor]

Arrow keys, if I can't use the mouse.

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

I'm left handed, so I've taken to the number pad and customizing my control scheme. So
num8, num2 = Move (Forward, Backward)\
num4, num6 = Sidestep
num1, num3 = Lean left, right
numINS, numDEL = reload, holster weapon. I'll sometimes double-map the "use" or "context" to numINS
num5 = iron sights / aim / scope (though not toggle)[footnote]An old scheme didn't account for sprint, in which case I'd use numSLASH for toggling the scope and num5 for use/context. Sprint has been making a return though, oft in the same games that have scope/ironsights in one place.[/footnote]
num7 = spamfire (taps the fire button every 1/10 second)
num9 = melee
numPLUS = jump
numENTER = crouch
numlock = toss grenade. If necessary, I'll get it to cue a grenade, and toss on release.
numSLASH = one-button sprint (why is sprint still chorded when it only works on move forward?)
numSTAR = flashlight
numDASH varies, either a secondary vision mode, or map, or the TAB screen or whatever.

Actual arrows and the island are either used for weapon selection (in a high-arsenal game) or squad commands. Sometimes I'll chord the arrows with others if I need more controls.
My giant DEL button summons health, when needed.
The row above the number pad is used for additional info screens. I'll integrated single- and double-tap code if there are too many.
Oh, and mouse1 (my RMB) = fire main, mouse2 = fire secondary (or melee), or bullet-time, in those rare cases I have such an ability, mouse3 = context/use or as per mouse2 when it's occupied by bullet-time or whatever over-arching power defines the game.

Yes, I've totally overthought this. It's because I like to be able to do anything with one or two buttons.

238U.

 

[averydeeadaccount]

depends. if it needs mouse i`ll use wasd and ill use my left hand for arrows and keys (jump, grenade etc.) and right for mouse. but if mouse isn`t needed it feels wierd only using one hand so i use right for arrow keys and left only for spacebar and hotkeys.

 

[GartarkMusik]

WASD. Mainly cause I'm right handed, and I need that for the mouse.

 

[Phlakes]

With WASD, you have Shift, Ctrl, the Space bar, Caps Lock, Tab, Alt, Q, E, R, F, C, V, G, X, and 1-5, and arguably more, all in easy reach with one hand. So yeah.

 

[Imper1um]

Well, old school was UDLR (Arrows), because a mouse...didn't exist at that point in time.

You had a keyboard, and when Windows and MacOS came out, we needed a directional pointing tool.

Now, I use WASD because it has access to lots of keys around it. It also leaves my pinky within a few mm of my function keys (which I can assign things to it).

 

[Aragatory]

People actually use their arrow keys over WASD? what!?

 

[Hexenwolf]

What about ESDF?

I use the arrow keys normally, and WASD for anything that has a hotbar that is longer than 6.

ESDF? Eh, I've never seen it done, but it feels sort of awkward, just trying it out.

The point of it is to have keys to the left of your hand as well as your right that are able to be easily reached as hotkeys.

 

[DeadXV]

I use FDSA for fps's and WASD for third persons. FDSA is F = Forward, D = Backward, S = Right and A = Left, Left Shift = Sprint (if there is one), R = Reload (thats pretty standard though), E = use, Z = Crouch and W = Torch/Flashlight and with the rest remaining default or getting changed if need be.

 

[efAston]

WSAD. Unless I'm playing a cheap port like Mirror's Edge, which can't understand the characters on that end of a Svorak layout, pushing me over to TGHF, and making me spend the tutorial trying to figure out what XBOX360 controller buttons they correspond to, so I can understand the instructions it's giving me.

 

[bakan]

As I'm a right hander, I generally use WASD, but for the MMOs I used to play I used EDSF or RDFG - I only use arrow keys if the game dictates to do so.