Gaming: WASD vs. ESDF?

[StealthNinja007]

...but then I got into Tribes 2, which defaulted to ESDF. It was clearly obvious why when you look at all the bindings: one key to throw grenades, another to throw mines, yet another to place beacons, one more for packs and another for medkits, so on and so forth. I hadn't switched back since, because the advantages were obvious and I tend to rebind controls manually first time I start up a game anyway. (For starters, gotta make every game reload via middle mouse click instead of R...)

Same! I really miss the mechanics of that game - my favorite game of all time.

A lot of games that hard code WASD? Most of these early access/beta games D:

I actually went back to WASD, then I went back to ESDF again for this reason: accidents while typing, especially in league of legends. When you have to shift your hands to type, then shift them back, the chance of failure and outbursts of cussing becomes incredibly high. I also use vim as my primary text editor, so keeping everything in home row is that much more intuitive for me.

Some tips for ESDF:
This is a personal opinion, but being a vim user - make every game's key layout YOURS. You can use the recommended layout as a guide, but I've learned not to.
ESDF: movement
A: crouch/stealth mode (i usually use those options a lot) or sometimes iron sights
Z: skill/power that I use a lot
X: pop-up circle options (often games bind this to middle mouse)
C: other skill.. often unused
V: use/activate
B: weapon option (like flashlight)
Q: med kits/favorites menu
W: primary weapon
R: secondary weapon
1/2/3/4/5: switch fire mode or knife or grenade, or other powers
T: reload
G/Y/H/N: various skills
shift/space: sprint/jump
I swap alt and control so i can hold control with my thumb, and I use my palm on alt fairly often
ctrl: iron sights or something I use often
alt: random power thing that I rarely use / stealth if it's a toggle, sometimes
I also rebind caps lock to F7, then I usually use that for voice chat
mouse1: fire
mouse2: melee
mouse3: scope/steel sight - disable scroll to pick weapon

well.. that was too long. anyways, it helps with understanding a game to know all the binds, and sometimes resolves issues other players run into... it can also create quite a few problems, lol

I use WASD because I'm not some hipster that insists on remapping every key for every game just to be different.

I'm not a hipster since I rarely come here. 
wait.. does that make me a hipster? lol

[Lord of Narwhals]

I've been using these binds for the last couple of months in CS:GO:

ESDF = movement
W = last used weapon (I double click W whenever I need to scope out)
T = reload (not really sure why I have reload on T, I think it's what I used in War Thunder)
V = use, pick up weapon
G = throw weapon
Space = crouch
ScrollDown = jump
A = "ShiftWalk"

I should bind the different grenades to different keys so that I don't have to spam 4 all the time.
I did try the strange quake layout (space=shoot, mouse one=forward, etc) a few weeks ago. It's much easier to one tap with the AK but because of the travel distance on the spacebar it's very hard to time your shots with your aim.

[Symmetry]

I've been experimenting with movement layouts lately. I use Vim for my text editing, and I play a lot of roguelikes, so I'm used to moving with hjkl - however, I've tried asdf out lately, and it works quite well. It's easier to switch between movement directions on the fly, for sure, since you have four directions laid out in a line. This gives you an absolute ton of easily accessed modifier keys, too, and they can be organized (qwer/zxcv/bgt/modifiers are all discrete groups, at least in my mind).

[smeggysmeg]

I'm a southpaw, so for years I actually centered my gameplay around the arrow keys - and I was pretty decent, too.

About a year ago, I switched to IJKL and haven't looked back. I can't believe that I used to use the arrow keys, they seem so awkward now.

[NoahBC]

I have always used WACD, using my thumb for back. It's the way my fingers naturally fall on the cluster, and I almost never have to move them when gaming. I don't even understand how people can use the back key in the middle of the cluster like that, do you move your middle finger down to go back? Seems incredibly unergonomic.

[Elavad]

For +15 years I have used WASD on staggered KBs in competitive gaming (Quake3/QuakeLive/Defrag - all FPS). I could reach any key on my small 60-65% KBs from WASD with a bit of streching. ESDF didn't feel right to me at the time (even though I was convinced by the logic of accessing more keys easily).

Last October I tried the Razer Orbweaver, but I found its thumb buttons way too sensitive. So in November I decided to take the plunge and order the TEK-207. I have always liked small KBs, because I tend to crash my mouse into their bigger brethren while gaming (40cm/360 no acceleration).

Because of the matrix layout I decided to use ESDF from that point onwards. I knew I was in for a bit of a challenge, but I hadn't expected it to be so hard to change muscle memory.

It took about 2 months of daily training before I got used to ESDF, and 3 months before I was back at competitive level.

Looking back, I would do it again without question; but I would prepare differently. Instead of just gaming a lot, I would try to train specific actions and make more use of the subconsious by using interval training (5min this, 5min nothing, 5min that, 5min nothing, 5min this again, etc.).

Example (movement: ESDF, weapons: QWRTG12345XCVB)
- I would walk the 8-pattern and while doing this, I would switch to different weapons
- While pressing forward I would dodge (left-right-left-right-right-left-right-left-left-left-right-etc.) and switch weapons
- I would run around maps as fast as possible while issuing commands/switching weapons

I think I read that some people got used to ESDF more easily than I did. Do you consider yourself a competitive gamer? Did you use a specific method? I'm really interested to hear your ideas on this.

It was a revelation to read about SDFC and similar methods. I had never consider this before, so I will try that. Thank you!

[Skechup]

I would pick WASD over ESDF in a heartbeat. Considering that I have always gamed with WASD and I am really lazy when it comes to key binds so WASD is a perfect fit for me

[Korth]

Bah, WASD and ESDF are old school.  ASDF is where the leet gamers are at now!

It's a little counterintuitive, but - once you get used to it - said to be faster (because of reduced finger-travel time) and easier (because less overall wrist/arm movement is required since your hand remains positioned with fingers hovering above the ASDF keys) and more accurate (because, again, you are already touching all four movement keys, plus it's a little easier to hit 1-5 numbers and Shift/Ctrl/Alt and other nearby keys without moving your hand) and - some people say - more comfortable (less hand movement and "straining" of fingers to reach "awkward" keys).

I'd give it a shot.  Except that I'm constantly trying to find any pretense possible to justify using my SteelSeries Merc keyboard, lol.

[pyro]

So what do you do when you have to sprint (shift and up) with ASDF?

[davkol]

That's utter nonsense, because it doesn't take the anatomy of human hand into account… at all. Fingers don't move independently, pinkie is weak and short, middle finger is longer and stronger. I used jkl; *on a columnar layout* for a while, and it still sucked hard.

[jsbradley7]

I'm a true oddity: CGHJ.  Remap Q to P as numbers and 1 to = as F keys.

[IAmTheGuy]

I like wasd better because the big keys on the left side are easier to hit with my less dexterous fingers (ring, pinkie). 

[metal369]

WASD, Obviously.

[keshley]

I'm surprised about how many people complain about using CTRL in WASD. But then I started playing FPS games back in the Wolfenstein 3D era when CTRL was shoot, and you didn't use a mouse at all...

I'm so used to WASD, that I even re-position my fingers that way whenever I use an app with a lot of CTRL+ commands, like Photoshop. And this is after several years of using a gamepad (G13) and not using WASD at all in games. 20 years of muscle memory doing its work...

Before the G13, I compensated for years by using a 5-7 button mouse. Never needed more keys than offered by WASD with the extra buttons on the mouse. I like some aspects of ESDF, such as proper positioning for typing for chat, and in hindsight, it makes perfect sense.

[dav1k]

I've been using ESDF before WASD was even really popular.

Stupid Thresh 


Given CSGO:
ESDF -- movement
q -- knife
w -- primary
a -- secondary
r -- reload
t -- use
g -- drop
2-4 -- 'nades
z,x,c,v -- coms
space -- jump
shift -- crouch
ctrl -- walk


For FPS games, I really enjoy having individual hotkeys for weapons and such. ESDF helps with that tremendously.

Also, if anyone has tried out Star Citizen, using a ESDF centric layout does help due to the large volume of hotkeys that game employs.

[Korth]

Nobody else here likes to use the Numpad keys?  Hmm, nobody else here prefers left-handed mouse control?

I don't see much difference (or much reason to argue any difference) between crowding the WASD cluster or crowding the ESDF cluster ... whatever fits the shape and size of your hand/fingers will probably be better for you, lol.  (Assuming the keyboard hardware isn't "gaming optimized".)

[sami77]

for FPS   i use (IJKL) and bind everything else around it

in my opinion (theory) your Right hand (MOUSE) Should be closer to Movement hand!  you don't need that big gap seriously it helps aim !  Too much geek eh

[snarfarlarkus]

I can understand why ESDF is better than WASD but I just use WASD because its what ive been using all my life and I cannot be bothered to change it up tbh

[ajx]

WASD because its closer to tab, capslock, shift
Otherwise i wouldn't have much issue to switch on ESDF
I have also not typical key settings in game
For example, on L4D2

E: jump
A: best weapon
F: script, auto-reload shotgun
Space: duck
R: reload

I actually binded the rest of function on my mouse, left scroll wheel = use
right scroll wheel=light
middle scroll wheel = grenade/pipe bomb
I have G700 which has a lot of programmable buttons
I use those buttons, for weapon choices, binding teamsay ''tank is coming'' etc...
I prefer all those function on my mouse while i have less actions to do on keyboard

[Vozella]

I always used WASD because of the keys right next to it like Shift, Control, Caps Lock, and Tab.