PC FPS gamers: WASD vs Arrows

[goofyballer]

Trackballs >>>> all mice. Why do with your wrist what you can do with your thumb?

[The once and future king]

ybal ftw.

[Dire]

I like WASD because of spatial distances between the mouse and keyboard. If I want to use the arrow keys, I'd have to scoot my keyboard all the way to the left of my desk to keep my hands a comfortable distance apart.

[strunks]

WASD gives you access to 11 other keys (2,3,q,e,r,caps,f,z,x,c,lshift) that are ALL closer than the closest key to the arrows. And then you have access to 11 more (`,1,4,5,tab,t,g,v,lctrl,lalt,space) that are roughly equidistant to the closest keys to the arrows. I never lose track of WASD because I always have at least one finger still resting on WASD while reaching for another key. If you need even more keys 6,y,h,n are still within stretching distance for most people. Any further and you might have to stray and risk missing keys.

Also, with WASD your thumb and pinky are naturally resting on SPACE and LSHIFT/LCTRL giving you access to 2 keys without even moving your main fingers away from WASD.

ESDF is about as good as WASD. You have access to a few more keys, but LCTRL is a stretch for the pinky so you might hit the windows key by accident sometimes which is very bad. WASD neatly tucks the deadly windows key into a difficult to reach spot under your middle knuckles so that's what I prefer.

[bluef0x]

Find a CS "pro" that uses a trackball.

ESDF > all.

[bluef0x]

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ESDF is about as good as WASD. You have access to a few more keys, but LCTRL is a stretch for the pinky so you might hit the windows key by accident sometimes which is very bad. WASD neatly tucks the deadly windows key into a difficult to reach spot under your middle knuckles so that's what I prefer.

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Why the hell would you use left control w/ESDF setup? If you are going from arrows to WASD, you wouldn't say "but keypad 0 is a mile apart and will require moving your entire hand away from the mvoement keys."

[g-bebe]

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but if you want to move forward while shooting, hold down both mouse buttons? just sounds really really awkward to me.

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What, is it hard to use two different fingers to hold down two mouse buttons at once? Is this not standard w/ mice?

Oh, and to add to my previous control weirdness, I also use a trackball.

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No, it's not hard, I just think it's awkward. Why try to split movement through two hands when the one hand on WASD/ESDF can do it just as well, if not better? I don't know about you guys but I'm rarely holding down both my mouse buttons at the same time in any game, let alone FPS.

With the exception of firing guns with the LMB, all my mouse functions perform utilities as opposed to movements.

[goofyballer]

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Find a CS "pro" that uses a trackball.

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I mean, what fraction of the general population uses trackballs anyway, like 2%? I don't care if a bunch of CS nerds fall into the 98% category as well [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] I don't have problems with response or accuracy when using a trackball, so it's certainly never hindered my ability to play games, and I like that trackballs are usable on any surface (since the mouse remains stationary) and it requires less work to move a ball with your thumb than an entire mouse with your hand.

[LeapFrog]

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Find a CS "pro" that uses a trackball.

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I mean, what fraction of the general population uses trackballs anyway, like 2%? I don't care if a bunch of CS nerds fall into the 98% category as well [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] I don't have problems with response or accuracy when using a trackball, so it's certainly never hindered my ability to play games...


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As long as you are having fun thats cool -- but if you are talking about skill then basically the trackball isn't in the picture. Can you do a 180 split second snapshot with a trackball?

[goofyballer]

wtf are you talking about, turning 180 degrees?

You'd have to have sensitivity pretty high to do that with a regular mouse, no? Plus you can kinda flick the wheel of a trackball and get some extra spin out of it if you want to turn faster.