WASD or Arrow Keys?

[pinkxzy]

A friend of mine claims that the Arrow Keys is a better way to play any game, and changes all games that have default WASD to Arrow Keys. I would like to prove him wrong. Please comment what you think is better, and please add in some points to why.

[pinkxzy]

Escrito originalmente por Larion.♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:

arrows are best and thats it. btw there are plenty of buttons around arrows keys

Hello 3 years after. Most keyboards do not have many buttons around the arrow keys. They usually have a little gap in between, and half of them are not usable for most games (Del, End, PgDn, Enter Keys for example).

I have bound some of these before for a game and it broke on the main menu navigation. And it did not have any mouse controls.

WASD has about 2 main unusable keys, Caps and Windows key. Tho I have seen Caps used a fair bit it gets annoying. However there are many more keys around it that are never split up on any keyboard.

The other thing is having to rebind everything everytime you play a new game. If you play one game like CS:GO (Competitive) I can see people using the arrow keys if they prefer it for some slight reason, but for general games you will always need to change your binds, and both are pretty similar except WASD does have better keys surrounding it.

So the point is, why use arrow keys if the WASD is just slightly better and takes -1 seconds to set up in a game? I mean both have the same general feel but WASD is more convenient.

Lastly, do whatever you like with your keys. I only made this thread originally because I was arguing with my friend (A friendly but competitive argument), if I was really arguing fairly with just about anyone else I wouldn't care much what you use. Tho I did want to write this all down after I got a notification after 3 years of this thread being dead.

[Crazy Tiger]

Escrito originalmente por Larion.♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:

arrows are best and thats it. btw there are plenty of buttons around arrows keys

None is best, it all depends on personal preference.

Personally I only use WASD. My hand is much more at rest and useful keys are easy to reach. Stuff like Space for jump, Shift for crouch, E for use, R for reload, Q for inventory, etc.

Heck, I automatically position my 5 fingers of the left hand on left Shift, A, W, D, and Space whenever I sit at the computer.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Escrito originalmente por Crazy Tiger:

Escrito originalmente por Larion.♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:

arrows are best and thats it. btw there are plenty of buttons around arrows keys

None is best, it all depends on personal preference.

Personally I only use WASD. My hand is much more at rest and useful keys are easy to reach. Stuff like Space for jump, Shift for crouch, E for use, R for reload, Q for inventory, etc.

Heck, I automatically position my 5 fingers of the left hand on left Shift, A, W, D, and Space whenever I sit at the computer. :lunar2019grinningpig:

On arrows your hand can literally lay down below it.
Try that with wasd .....

Anyway, best is to have the choice.

[Crazy Tiger]

Escrito originalmente por Muppet among Puppets:

Escrito originalmente por Crazy Tiger:

None is best, it all depends on personal preference.

Personally I only use WASD. My hand is much more at rest and useful keys are easy to reach. Stuff like Space for jump, Shift for crouch, E for use, R for reload, Q for inventory, etc.

Heck, I automatically position my 5 fingers of the left hand on left Shift, A, W, D, and Space whenever I sit at the computer.

On arrows your hand can literally lay down below it.
Try that with wasd .....

Anyway, best is to have the choice.

I don't know how you position your hands or how you sit at your desk, but I find that not comfortable at all.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Escrito originalmente por Crazy Tiger:

Escrito originalmente por Muppet among Puppets:

On arrows your hand can literally lay down below it.
Try that with wasd .....

Anyway, best is to have the choice.

I don't know how you position your hands or how you sit at your desk, but I find that not comfortable at all.

And that is the reason why choice is the key.
I could say the same about wasd.

The only downside, with sprint on num 0, i can not easily sprint to the right :D . But never missed that. Thumb is not used at all.

[Crazy Tiger]

Escrito originalmente por Muppet among Puppets:

Escrito originalmente por Crazy Tiger:

I don't know how you position your hands or how you sit at your desk, but I find that not comfortable at all.

And that is the reason why choice is the key.
I could say the same about wasd.

The only downside, with sprint on num 0, i can not easily sprint to the right :D . But never missed that. Thumb is not used at all.

I'm always up for choice, personal preference is different for everyone. And why rebinding keys should be a standard feature of any game.

[The Rock God]

Wait. People still use keyboards to play games?
Nostromo n52 is the way to go.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

I use arrow keys for stuff that doesn't require mouse.

With mouse, I've ended up learning to use WASD.

Escrito originalmente por 𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐:

Escrito originalmente por Larion.♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:

arrows are best and thats it. btw there are plenty of buttons around arrows keys

Hello 3 years after. Most keyboards do not have many buttons around the arrow keys. They usually have a little gap in between, and half of them are not usable for most games (Del, End, PgDn, Enter Keys for example).

I have bound some of these before for a game and it broke on the main menu navigation. And it did not have any mouse controls.

WASD has about 2 main unusable keys, Caps and Windows key. Tho I have seen Caps used a fair bit it gets annoying. However there are many more keys around it that are never split up on any keyboard.

To be fair, Shift and Fn and Ctrl and Alt can sometimes get eaten for other purposes. People who haven't disabled Sticky Keys would be reminded to do so upon pressing Shift five times in a row, while Alt+Tab swaps window, and so on.

But yeah, there are simply more keys around WASD, period.

(I guess someone could use ESDF controls...?)

Escrito originalmente por 𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐:

The other thing is having to rebind everything everytime you play a new game. If you play one game like CS:GO (Competitive) I can see people using the arrow keys if they prefer it for some slight reason, but for general games you will always need to change your binds, and both are pretty similar except WASD does have better keys surrounding it.

So the point is, why use arrow keys if the WASD is just slightly better and takes -1 seconds to set up in a game? I mean both have the same general feel but WASD is more convenient.

I mostly don't play FPS games or other games where WASD controls would be used alongside the mouse, but instead tend to play games that use movement controls along with some number of face buttons. For these latter games, I've used arrow keys + left hand face button keys for years -- Ctrl/Alt for DOS platformers, then ZXCVASDF in various combinations for games that run natively in Windows rather than DOS.

I've tried a few times to bind WASD controls to arrow keys on a game that requires mouse, but it's not really a great idea, in part because:
1. I can't mouse competently with the left hand. I wish I could though.
2. This means both my hands are on the right side of the screen/table, which is kind of annoying.

So instead I just sucked it up and learned to WASD.

I still prefer arrow keys and left hand face buttons for things that don't require mouse aim though.

[kipiekie]

Depends on the game, really. If the game uses a mouse for input, it'd be really stupid to use the arrow keys (assuming you're right handed)

[pinkxzy]

Escrito originalmente por kipiekie:

Depends on the game, really. If the game uses a mouse for input, it'd be really stupid to use the arrow keys (assuming you're right handed)

I didn't make it clear when I think about it. I was talking about mouse input games when I made this thread. 3 years ago. Welp. I agree tho ^

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Escrito originalmente por 𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐:

Escrito originalmente por kipiekie:

Depends on the game, really. If the game uses a mouse for input, it'd be really stupid to use the arrow keys (assuming you're right handed)

I didn't make it clear when I think about it. I was talking about mouse input games when I made this thread. 3 years ago. Welp. I agree tho ^

Badly-worded posts on the internet are forever~

[Muppet among Puppets]

What is a mouse input game?

And why is it stupid to use arrows with it instead of wasd?

[Aachen]

Southpaw-for-mouse. I only use a few of the arrows for auxiliary bindings, as my default configuration is keypad-for-movement.

[(HELL)WTFMAN]

I used to use the arrow keys back in high school days but now use wasd

[HarleyIsntReal]

I'm used to WASD, but school game activities use arrowkeys and it pisses me off so much