how did the WASD keys become the norm for movement on pc games? Couldnt it have been ESDF or some other set of keys?
In: 1807
WASD could have been different keys, in fact some people do use ESDF because it offers more surrounding keys which can be mapped to other purposes.
However WASD likely became dominant because most people are right handed meaning they will use the mouse in their right hand and their left hand on the keyboard. Where the keyboard usually sits for typing purposes would place WASD in a more comfortable position than keys more towards the right. While you could use IJKL it would require moving the keyboard every time you wanted to transition between moving and typing, or be extremely uncomfortable.
The WASD came from when games begun to be multiplayer and one player already used the arrow keys. It was to give both player most space without bumping into each other.
In a single word: Quake. Before Quake, movement controls tended to be all over the place. Arrow keys were far and away the most common, but WASD, ESDF and WASX also existed. You only shot on a single plane, so you didn’t have control over vertical camera movement. Even when games advanced enough to enable that control (such as Dark Forces), you tended to use something like PgUp/PgDn for verticality. Thus it made sense for you to use the arrow keys in the right hand and spacebar, shift, ctrl, etc. in the left.
Quake popularized mouse control of camera, with independent controls for movement, even though it didn’t have it enabled by default. If you wanted to git gud in those days, you had to master mouse control, and since most people are right handed, that forced movement controls to move to the left side of the keyboard. From there, WASD makes the most sense, as the letters form a simlar inverted T layout as the arrows, while still leaving all the other major keys for interaction within reach. Try using something like ESDF, I find I have to bend by wrists in at a weird angle to be able to reach shift or ctrl.
Back in the late 80s and early 90s, with PC gaming still being fairly new, you’d often see a wide range of control schemes. Standards like that simply didn’t exist yet.
It was basically lots of trial and error by lots of different people. Gamers that did well in competitive gaming shared their configurations and their fans would copy them, hoping they’d have similar success.
From a functional perspective, the upside down T-shape of WASD is fairly comfortable and it’s close to function keys like shift, control, tab and the first few number keys.
That said, there’s no particular reason why it couldn’t have been ESDF. With the F key being the default starting position for the left hand index finger, it does make a compelling reason to use it over WASD.
Ultimately it’s because it works well. Using your left hand, it allows your thumb to operate the space by bar, keeps the number keys (typically used for weapons) within easy reach, and allows the easy to hit tab, shift, alt and Ctrl buttons to be assigned to additional operations with the little finger.
Early pro-gamer Thresh made the configuration popular. A lot of gamers copied this because they wanted to be like him, and it became pretty popular.
Most keyboards can register only limited number of key presses at once. For example if you press “a”, “s” and “f” at once a cheap keyboard may only see “a” and “f”. More expensive keyboards may have n-key rollover feature so you can press all keys at once and they all work
Modifier keys like ctrl, alt and shift are wired separately to make sure they never conflict with other keys. Because using them at once is the intended way to use them. Even on ultra cheap keyboards.
Wasd keys are located near them so you can use them with ctrl, alt and shift. Useful feature.
Esdf users like to say how many keys they have surrounding Esdf. But due to conflicting keys those can’t be pressed simultaneously on cheap keyboards.
I personally play with ESDF because it gives me more keys to use on the left side of my hand, and I don’t have to fold my pinky so much reach shift and ctrl. I do have large hands and played piano since I was 7 so my hands and dexterity might be a tad different from the average person. It’s also a bitch whenever you start a new game because you have to edit all the bindings and you can’t easily communicate with others about which key to press to do X action
Something nobody has mentioned- the F and J keys on keyboards have little dimples to help you position your fingers for typing. If you used ESDF you would be constantly touching that little dimple which some might find distracting.
I legit wish esdf had taken over, would be nice to have a few extra button to the left ya know?
On early computers like Spectrum, you could play two player by assigning two sets of keys on the same keyboard. One way on the left, the other on the right so both players had space to play.
I suspect it was due to that as for a while after this there was usually a WASD and another option, think it was IJKL, arrow keys or some games/gamers went with QAZX & NMLP. WASD became dominant as everyone navigated with left hand and left the right have open for mouse work later.
NOTE: This was all LONG before Quake.
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