Why is WASD Preferred as Movement Keys in FPS Games?

[hyperlinked]

I've been wondering about this for a long time. Why does everyone use WASD as their movement keys in FPS games instead of ESDF? It seems to make more sense to me to keep the fingers in their natural keyboard position.

When I used to game and in the rare occasions that I get to game now, I always prefer the ESDF keys so that it's easier for me to type in the game when I need to. Also, I like having the A key free to bind to an action. It used to be my "turn on microphone" key because I could still move ok with my pinkie finger down on the A key.

[Mental Hobbit]

I suppose the "natural" finger position means very little to the vast majority of gamers, who have probably never heard of home row.

[tamasrepus]

AFAIK Half-Life 1 was the first mainstream game that popularized this, or was it Quake something?

[hyperlinked]

I'd say it's because of three things:
easier to find WASD by feeling...since A has caps lock beside it, you can find A by touch without having to look. once you find A you have all of them. the same could be said for the nub on the F key but it's far less pronounced than the half-cut-off capslock key.

The last reason might be it though I don't think most people have that half-rise caps keys these days. The ease of finding the keys may be the reason why I unconciously adopted the ESDF keys. I have an easier time getting my index finger on the F key than the D key.

There's only one real modifier key in the FPS games I'm familiar with and that's the shift key to crouch and it does seem that it's easier to hold down shift and use the WASD keys than the ESDF keys though I never had much problem with the extra reach for the Shift key. I have fairly large hands and straight fingers. If I had smaller hands and stubbier fingers, it would probably be a different story.

I'm not sure what benefit it would be to keep the arms farther apart. It wouldn't be any appreciable added distance anyway.

[lowpoly]

Left Shift is one key farther away on ISO keyboards.

[itlnstln]

I never preferred WSAD for gaming.  Nostromo, FTW.  Why occupy four fingers for movement when you could just use your thumb on the D-Pad and leave your other four fingers free for other stuff.  It's much better, IMO.

[hyperlinked]

Left Shift is one key farther away on ISO keyboards.

Hmmm! I didn't even consider ISO layouts as a factor. That must be the reason. That would totally make sense why WASD is the standard for the movement keys.

[AndrewZorn]

yeah, im pro at halo and WAY better with sticks than any of you are with those antique keyboards and mice.  id pwn you all ANY DAY (if they made halo 3 on PC, but they wont, cause PC is laaaaaaame)

[Rajagra]

I never preferred WSAD for gaming.  Nostromo, FTW.  Why occupy four fingers for movement when you could just use your thumb on the D-Pad and leave your other four fingers free for other stuff.  It's much better, IMO.

How do you jump while moving? You can't use your thumb on the D-pad and the big space button at the same time. This is the one really dumb thing about the Nostromo. Do you remap jump to a different key?

Back on topic, I think WASD evolved because of lack of n-key rollover on most modern keyboards. The only way to increase the likelihood of key combos working is to use modifier keys to do commonly used functions (run, crouch, etc) because all keyboard matrices are designed to use those in combination with other keys. This also ties in with the USB '6 keys plus modifiers' limit.

So if you are forced to use the Ctrl key, your hand is forced way over to the left of the keyboard, making WASD the most comfortable choice.

Personally, I use RDFG for movement. The number of keys within easy reach is huge. As a bonus you get the locator nub on the key under your middle finger. But I only did that because I map them to my Nostromo, lol. If I had tried to use that system on a non-n-key-rollover standard keyboard I would have had issues. Thankfully I now have NKRO boards so it won't be a problem.

[Kostamojen]

AFAIK Half-Life 1 was the first mainstream game that popularized this, or was it Quake something?

I'm pretty sure it dates back to the Doom and Duke Nukem era.  I first used it for Duke Nukem since that game required a mouse (Doom I was still using arrow keys and z/x for strafing).  

I think the "pro" Doom players from that era came up with WASD.  I actually came up with it on my own, then it started to become the standard layout for games after that.

As for gamepads vs. keyboard/mice combos...  I'll keep my keyboard/mice combo thank you very much.

The gameplay in a PC FPS vs. a console FPS is night and day.  Consoles have to use auto-aim and the players end up in a kind of "tunnel-vision" when running around, while on the PC the average gamer moves much more readily and fires much more accurately without the auto-aim assist.

A good way to see this is to compare Modern Warfare 2 on PC and Console via gameplay videos.  Its amazing the difference in the pace of the action.

[hyperlinked]

Well... as a fan of keyboard/mice gaming, I'll say one thing about controller sticks... I probably would still be gaming if I did my gaming on sticks. I don't have time to game anymore so it's not as big of an issue, but if I do find myself with time to kill I'm tempted to try some sort of stick combo.

I can't see how anyone can aim in instagib style games that I like with a joystick though so I'm real dubious about that aspect of using a controller.

[Mr.6502]

I have been using WASD for movement for a long time but I leave my hands in typing position.  My little finger can tap out Left more than adequately, and that leaves my index finger free to use the RTFGCV keys for other game functions.  

Also, with fighting games when a match can be a long series of very intense keyboard presses, it feels more comfortable and easier to sustain with my hands in the home position.  I use UIOJKL for attacks.  

If you can get used to it, keyboard is an amazing controller for fighting games.  Its so incredibly precise and fast and you have an incredible level of control.

[InSanCen]

In UT99 I started using the mouse in addition to the keyboard. Even though I am right-handed with the mouse, I preferred to use the arrow keys. Recently though, the space I have available for my setup has decreased to "normal" levels. It is far easier to use WASD now.

I would however, go back to using the arrow keys in a heartbeat should I get more space available. Sadly, that is as likely as me buying every single keyboard I want in one go, it will only happen with a lottery win.

[itlnstln]

How do you jump while moving? You can't use your thumb on the D-pad and the big space button at the same time. This is the one really dumb thing about the Nostromo. Do you remap jump to a different key?

Remap to a different key (usually one right under my index finger). I never really used the key next to the D-pad, especially when I upgraded to the N52. There were plenty of keys, so I didn't need it.

[Arc'xer]

The first game to use WASD was the 1992 first person role playing game Ultima Underworld, which used the elaborate WASDX2 default control setup (with X as backpedal and 2 as run), but the scheme wasn't popularized until competitive play in Quake and subsequently QuakeWorld made clear its advantages over the older arrow key configurations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasd#WASD_keys

 No set way though ESDF is more touch type still felt kinda weird using it. Though maybe I should use it after all, felt kinda weird the lack of the larger CTRL key. Most of the reasons for the keyboard is the number of keys available. But I gotta admit, when I used to play consoles I felt more accurate using the analog thumbstick rather than the digital of the keyboard keys.

 One thing I've been wanting to do but can't seem to find any real good information. No real personal stories or comparisons, plus most people seem to become aghast at the idea.

 Is the Joy/Mouse users, Joystick/Mouse. Instead of using the keyboard for movement the keyboard is left to the side and the joystick and in a few cases a HOTAS(Hands On Throttle-And-Stick) used for movement, jumping, leaning, weapon switching etc.etc.

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/unions/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24918124&union_id=537

http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=364606

Unfortunately seems on the first link the pictures timed out due to inactivity.

 Basically, the idea of joystick/HOTAS with mouse. Is to combine the analog capability of the console with the aiming of the mouse. The consoles have a capability to control more directions as well as vectoring speed through the angle of the stick.

 One thing I can see being a problem is the movement of quick actions(jumping around or ledge jumping and whatnot) being that your fingers are able to actuate a key faster than your arm can move side to side. Though I guess it's just a matter of learning.

[DreymaR]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasd#WASD_keys

You know, I call BS on that! Ultima Underworld (both I and II) had an awkward mouse-based control system and no WASD key in sight. You had to move your mouse cursor the way you wanted to go/turn, then left-click to move forward. I even remember that my wrists didn't like it much after playing a lot!

If you want quick-response control hardware, I don't think that much can beat the arcade sticks. The usual PC joysticks are flight-simulator type sticks that make for smooth yet responsive movement, but in the fighter games the players actually operate on a 60 fps basis (and the good players seem to have the frame-by-frame down with astonishing accuracy too!), which means up to 3600 actions per minute (APM) and that's a lot. A 200 WPM typist has 1000 APM ... which is a lot more complex actions since a great many of the fighter's frames will be spent doing nothing so I'm not making a competition but merely illustrating how fast and accurate the arcade stick input can be. You're not moving your whole arm most of the time, but flicking hands/fingers with speed and precision while not using those weak fingers that give you RSI.