Quote Originally Posted by 'cepheus',index.php?page=Thread&postID=115059#post 115059
Personally, I took the time to learn how to move my char without using the infamous "wasd" or "esdf" for anyone who knows how to use a keyboard properly
I couldn't agree more.

( Anyone that could explain how "wasd" ever became a standard in gaming? I need to remap my keys in every game I play )
I can try.

In the beginning, there was Doom (the FPS game), which was the genesis of the mouse+keyboard First/Third PS genre, as I'm sure you know. As you might also know, in Doom there was no way to auto-run, so if you wanted to run (and every remotely serious player ALWAYS wanted to run), you had to hold down the shift key. This left us all constrained to using Z,X,C for some combination of "back", "strafe left", "strafe right".

Fast forward to Quake, and now you can just always run (don't need to hold shift anymore). You also have completely arbitrary key binds, and some of us figured out that it was faster to switch weapons (which was very important in that game, to play competitively) if they were bound to keys around the movement keys, rather than the number keys.

At this point, I immediately recognized that if I moved my hand up to home row, I could have more keybinds surrounding my fingers within easy reach. A lot of other people realized that a move "up" was better than still just using SHIFT, Z, X, C, but they failed to recognize that a shift one key to the right a) gives you access to 4 more keys in very close range, and b) is more natural for us because it puts our left hand where we are used to it for typing anyway.

So, a few early games adopted "wasd"; it, unfortunately, took hold, and here we are.

I understand why it happened, what I don't understand is why more people don't switch. Seriously, it's only win any way you look at it and takes like maybe 1-2 weeks to be comfortable with. /shrug