WASD is just superior. You have access to so many more buttons around you than on the arrow keys. How you manage to play complex games these days with the arrow keys is beyond me. Please tell me you don't use the arrows to turn as well, but to slide/sidestep?

It is easy to see for instance in Quake that the game was designed around arrows and no mouselook. Activate WASD and mouselook and you can pwn on much higher difficulty level. There is also an episode of Computer Chronicles from 1996 with online Quake players. They play with either arrow keys or just the mouse! A part of me wants to go back in time playing WASD in online deathmatch and pwn like hell.

There is a new WASD nowadays called ESDF. Provides more available buttons on the left side. I don't use it myself as of yet as I have a mouse with plenty of buttons. ESDF is mostly useful for MMO's like WoW anyway.

Yeah I use them to sidestep... and I actually do use the mouse 🤣 but I really remember playing Doom, Duke3D etc. in 1998 all with arrow keys only and I think space bar was for opening doors if I'm correct, those controls are indeed brutal from today's standpoint...

Using the arrow keys today is feasible when the game doesn't require too many buttons 😉 I usually have all the keys in their vicinity mapped to something...

In the early days of computer gaming I... used neither. I used the numeric keypad! :D

Yeah, I was strange like that. Nowadays, I've pretty much adapated to AWDS for everything. (I spell it that way because it's easier for me.) However, with old DOS games that don't have mouse support I still often go back to using the numeric keypad if I can or the arrow keys if not.

Nowadays, the choice of using AWDS, the arrow keys, or the numeric keypad is largely going to be dictated by which hand someone uses for their mouse control. Left-handed mouse users will likely use the numeric keypad while right-handed mouse users will likely use AWDS.

...I don't think a lot of people touch the arrow keys at all with modern games anymore. :P

I have used the arrow keys, then switched to the numeric keypad and nowadays I use WASD.

I find WASD to be the most usefull due to the sheer number of other keys closeby.

All the keys you are going to need are Q A I O P SPACE. 😁

Arrows!

I'm using arrows in racing games only and WASD in all other games

Depends on game type.
A game with out mouse is definitely arrows, but FPS games like CS definitely cant be played with out WASD 😀

I started on arrow keys exclusively thanks to wolf3d, blake stone and doom, but after Quake came out I read an article in PC Powerplay (austalian gaming mag) about tips for playing quake and they basically said 'learn to use the mouse and WASD' and after that I haven't looked back.

It helps that WASD is default for many games but some of my friends have different preferences. One used ESDF and another even used M,./ for some reason.

Gemini000 wrote:

In the early days of computer gaming I... used neither. I used the numeric keypad! 😁

Me too, but I pretty much had to because there were no arrows

I still prefer the numpad over the arrows, especially if you can map the non-directional keys to useful stuff... iirc for vanilla Doom I used 1 and 3 for strafing left and right.
Of course, if a mouse is involved it's WASD all the way.

W S Q E

In the early days, when there were no configurable keys, I just use the arrow keys, and spacebar. And not to mention those odd games implementing O-P for left-right, and A-Z for up and down respectively.

For platform, action and arcade games, I still tend to use the arrow keys and the Ctrl-Alt-Shift keys for action, whichever supported.

If the keys are configurable, for action/arcade/platform games, I prefer to use the arrow keys and assign the "shoot" key to TAB. (GODS for instance.)

When it comes to 3D FPS games, I stick to the WSAD and with mouse whenever possible. I can't remember which game made me change my methods in these games, but I don't think it was Quake. For 3D FPS, WSAD+Mouse combination is so good, that I have started using the same even in DOOM and Wolf3D.

vetz wrote:

WASD is just superior. You have access to so many more buttons around you than on the arrow keys. How you manage to play complex games these days with the arrow keys is beyond me. Please tell me you don't use the arrows to turn as well, but to slide/sidestep?

Being left-handed, I tried to adopt a reverse scheme. Left hand on the mouse, right hand on the numpad. Probably superior to WASD but I'm just too used to right-hand clicking.

With Quake and anything more recent with a mouselook, WASD. With DOOM, and earlier, not quite fully 3D games, whatever the game uses, typically the arrow keys.

I could never quite get used to using the mouse in DOOM when it can only be used for one axis.

Great Hierophant wrote:

With Quake and anything more recent with a mouselook, WASD. With DOOM, and earlier, not quite fully 3D games, whatever the game uses, typically the arrow keys.

I could never quite get used to using the mouse in DOOM when it can only be used for one axis.

The more annoying part is that they thought it would be a great idea to have the vertical axis for moving back and forward. I wonder if anybody seriously used it for that back in the day?

I use WASD on some games but for the majority of them I use Numeric Pad.

WASD. Too used to it now. I change all the configs in every game to what I'm familiar with most.

I use WASD for FPSs and third person games with freelook cameras, but I use the arrow keys or occasionally the numeric keypad for everything else.

Not being left hand proficient, I have always found WASD somewhat awkward to use compared to the arrow keys.