Why people accepted WASD as the standard?

[Anonymous No.10693105]

I know Quake history behind it, yet his reasoning doesn't make any sense.
He is saying his fingers were short.
So what?
It's still easier to press 1, Q, A, Z compared to Tilde, Tab, Capslock, Shift and Ctrl.
What did he gained with WASD?

What I can't understand is, ASDF is the intended resting position of hand.
ESDF is the natural evolution of arrows to it.
WASD doesn't have any advantages to it other than ergonomical keyboards which weren't really popular, and MMORPGs, which have modifier key presses, which again didn't exist.
Not to mention the added easy to press keys from ESDF is still an argument against modifier key presses.

[Anonymous No.10693115]

>>10693105
WASD became standard because starting with Half-Life it was the default control scheme in FPS games. 95% of people never change from the default control scheme when playing games.

[Anonymous No.10693118]

>>10693105
>Quake history behind it
WASD is known since Doom

[Anonymous No.10693119]

>>10693115

I'll add to this to say that before Half Life I was mainly a keyboard player for FPSs.

For me, Half-Life properly launched Mouse Free-look and WASD as the way to play FPSs.

[Anonymous No.10693120]

>>10693105
>easier to press 1, Q, A, Z compared to Tilde, Tab, Capslock, Shift and Ctrl.
There was a tradition back then to use the big buttons, like ctrl shift and tab, for commands away from the fingers' resting position, since they were big and didn't require as much fine-motor skills to locate and press. That was the idea I think anyway. Even better would have been szxc with that in mind, but it wouldn't have worked as well since s is more staggered away form zxc than w is from asd.

[Anonymous No.10693121]

>>10693115
lol, I remember remapping half life to the arrow keys because I came straight from wolfenstein/doom/quake without mouse look and god damn it I was not about to learn a new control scheme!!
I was 12, so I wasn't particularly smart
I started playing online soon after. I had to adapt to mouse and keyboard real quick

[Anonymous No.10693126]

I have my own WASD variant
>S to crouch
>Right click to move backwards

Been using it since Q3A because I hated the finger position to use S to move backwards

[Anonymous No.10693128]

https://www.pcgamer.com/how-wasd-became-the-standard-pc-control-scheme/

>And yet games, strangely, took a while to catch up. Carmack may have bundled Thresh’s config with Quake 2, but when it released in 1997 the default controls were still arrow keys. A year later, though, that changed. If Thresh's Quake tournament win was WASD's first watershed moment, the second came in 1998 with the release of Half-Life. The Quake and Doom players at Valve—perhaps influenced directly or indirectly by Carmack, Thresh, and other top Doom and Quake players—included WASD in Half-Life’s default keyboard and mouse config, which helped solidify it as the first-person shooter standard.

>Valve engineer Yahn Bernier checked Half-Life's original config file for us and confirmed it included WASD. "I remember finalizing this file (maybe with Steve Bond) during the lead up to shipping HL1 but don’t recall specifics about when WASD was settled on or really why. We probably carried it forward from Quake1…" he wrote in an email.

Gabe is right. WASD doesn't have any advantage compared to ESDF.
>Interestingly, Valve boss Gabe Newell doesn’t use WASD. “I personally don't like WASD as it takes your hand away from your typing home keys,” he wrote in an email to PC Gamer. “I always rebind to ESDF.” Newell's not alone there. Do a little Googling and you'll find plenty of people arguing that ESDF is the more natural configuration.

Only situation I can think of is pic related.

>>10693120
Okay this makes sense. Thank you. I don't think small keys require any fine-motor skills, but I can see people arguing for it back in the 90s.

[Anonymous No.10693137]

because it's furthest to the left when it comes to 'normal' keys and places your pinky on the left-most column of the keyboard which contains a bunch of distinctly shaped keys. I can see how ESDF can work but it's not such a wacky esoteric thing to have your left hand on the left-most part of the keyboard, you shitter.

[Anonymous No.10693159]

>>10693128
>I can see people arguing for it back in the 90s.
Also keep in mind that back in the day a lot of games' default keybinds often used those big keys like ctrl shift space alt etc. So it was what people were used to as well.

Marathon's default keyboard keybinds even used zx for sidestepping and dc for lookin up and down, so the rest of the fingers would have big keys like space (primary fire), option/alt (secondary fire) and ctrl (run/swim) close at hand.

[Anonymous No.10693160]

>>10693105
>WHY IS THIS STANDARD MY OPINION IS BETTER
No it isn't. Shut the fuck up.
God damn. Know your fuckin place.

[Anonymous No.10693161]

>>10693128
>how big u want your keyboard f.am?
>who said I wanted only one keyboard?

[Anonymous No.10693225]

Back in those days after Doom and Final Doom we were playing Dune Nukem and Shadow Warrior. No mouse for those games. We set up the controls to have your right hand on the number keypad have the movement keys and then asdf as the action buttons. Worked well and all those button around those keys allowed quick access to things like looking up and down and using items compared to the default keys.

[Anonymous No.10693239]

>>10693105
Because it's the comfiest

[Anonymous No.10694090]

>>10693105
I assume it was because of keyboard ghosting preventing you from pressing too many keys at the same time, with modifier keys like Shift and Ctrl being an exception

[Anonymous No.10694116]

>>10693105
I don't know if this has any historical factual ties, but I find WASD easy to find because if you go any further left it's Caps Lock, which feels different because it usually has a little recess or at least is wider than normal keys. Shift and Control are also most accessible from WASD.

[Anonymous No.10694164]

>>10693105
WASD vs ESDF comes down to a pretty simple decision for the individual

ESDF gains you 4 buttons
WASD either gains you access to alt as a modifier, or makes it so that your thumb doesn't get destroyed using it

If you have no issues with using alt modifiers under ESDF, use ESDF. If you find it uncomfortable on your thumb, use WASD only if you use alt modifiers, as this will net more additional buttons than the 4 gained from ESDF.
There is no real discussion beyond this. Decide which of those factors apply to you and make your decision.

[Anonymous No.10694212]

Arrow keys for life!

[Anonymous No.10694252]

>>10693105
WASD is closer to the 1234 button which handle weapon selection. It also allows easier access to Shift, Tab, and Ctrl if your hands are small. If you're using ESDF, then it's a further stretch to the 1 key for weapon changing.

I prefer ESDF, since I can freely remap keys as I like these days, but I can understand why WASD started up and remained standard as a result. Sometimes, it's more about momentum than being good.

[Anonymous No.10694262]

>>10694252
>WASD is closer to the 1234 button which handle weapon selection
1 is supposed to be pressed by pinky. If anything WASD makes it weirder.

[Anonymous No.10694324]

>>10694262
If you're dedicating your pinky to the Shift/Ctrl key, then it's not free to be pressing 1.

[Anonymous No.10694417]

>>10693105
>QWES reporting in
You almost never need to go backwards but A and D is a good place to put strafe left and strafe right. Q and E are the superior left right positions.

[Anonymous No.10695167]

>>10693105
I always uses the arrows

[Anonymous No.10695476]

>>10693126
i will be stealing this

[Anonymous No.10695504]

TFGH is best for games that require you to use the mouse. It compensates for the fact that you only have one hand on the keyboard and gives you access to 12 extra keys. Practice muscle memory with your pinky on these new keys and you will never go back to WASD.

[Anonymous No.10695512]

Because if it's not broke don't fix it

[Anonymous No.10695626]

>>10693105
>ESDF
The bump on the F keep feels uncomfortable.

[Anonymous No.10695891]

>>10695626
>bump on the F
That's the best part. You can easily go back if you move your fingers.

[Anonymous No.10695923]

>>10695504
Wouldn't YGHJ make more sense? That way your index finger is still on a bump. Not to mention ring finger on bump feels weird. Pinky is at least on the edge so it's not that bad.

[Anonymous No.10696407]

ESDF after years of only using WASD, though I can go back and forth without issue in games that are shitty about changing controls.

>>10695891
You get it. Becoming clear these other fuckers don't know how to touch type.

>>10695504
>>10695923
Now this is some black magic that is worth consideration.

[Chud Anon No.10696428]

>>10693105
Scroll of Summon ESL

[Anonymous No.10696445]

>>10693105
no it's not easier to press 1qaz, the layout of ctrl alt shift is just a natural fit for many hands

[Dave No.10697023]

>>10693105
because RAPE wasn't invented yet

[Anonymous No.10697047]

>>10693105
I'm still using arrow keys, even on recent games.