WASD (Right handed people suck)

[slog]

My old Z fang died, and it's the last of the 'stand-alone' USB keyboards.  For years, I've used to to use WASD keys and be a left handed mouser.  Oh well.

So instead, I'm going to convert to using a mouse with my right hand.  My question is, what fingers  on my left hand do I use for the keyboard?   Do you right handed people really use their pinkie finger for the 'A'?

[Lantyssa]

A: Ring-finger
W/S: Middle-finger
D: Index-finger

[Fabricated]

Eh? For WASD I've always used ringfinger on A, middle on W/S, and index for D.

You can't remap and just use lp;'? Hell, depending on the keyboard layout you could have the numberpad conveniently right next to your right hand if you use that setup with a left-handed mouse.

[Tebonas]

Well, I'm a Leftie that nontheless uses the mouse with the right hand. I didn't even know for a long time Lefties do it the other way round.

Aaanyway, I use the ring finger on the A as well, giving my pinkie finger unobstructed access to the LSHIFT and CTRL keys.

[slog]

Eh? For WASD I've always used ringfinger on A, middle on W/S, and index for D.

You can't remap and just use lp;'? Hell, depending on the keyboard layout you could have the numberpad conveniently right next to your right hand if you use that setup with a left-handed mouse.

Battlefield 3 has continued the trend of games not actually letting you remap all the keys, and when you do map them, some will magically revert back.  :DICE:

[Azazel]

I'm pretty much where Tebonas is on the left/right scenario.

[Khaldun]

I'm a leftie. I mouse with the left hand when I'm working, mouse with the right hand when I'm playing. Works fine.

[Ingmar]

Lefty who uses the mouse on the right, ring finger goes on A.

[MuffinMan]

I can't decide if I'm surprised we have so many lefties here. I only write left-handed so I guess that makes me a just little insane.

[WayAbvPar]

I am extremely left-handed and have always used my right hand to mouse.  It is like driving a stick shift- you learn to use the machine as it is set up, I guess.

[Bann]

Another lefty, checking in.

Although, I think the vast majority of us are not left handed, but rather mixed dominance. I've always thought that I was probably supposed to be left handed, but teachers/coaches/parents corrupted me into doing most of my not-so-fine motor skills (Golf, throwing things, etc) with my right hand. I drew my line in the sand when it comes to fine motor skills (writing, throwing darts, fencing) with my left hand.

To the original question, I mouse with my right and wasd with my left. I have tried mousing with my left hand, but it is not for me.

[Teleku]

....

Holy Shit, there are people who use the ring finger instead of pinky for A?  I didn't even know such a thing existed or was even possible.

Though I am correct handed, unlike a lot of people here aparently, so maybe thats part of it.  Still.....I'm trying it out right now and can't even fathom how to function.

[Samwise]

Just to be clear, we're talking about using WASD for playing FPS-type games here, not touch typing.  Obviously for typing, pinky goes on A.

For WASD, ring finger goes on A, middle goes on W/S, index goes on D.  Pinky handles Ctrl (crouch), thumb handles spacebar (jump).  Right hand shoots things.

[apocrypha]

I can't decide if I'm surprised we have so many lefties here.

What makes you think there's a higher proportion of left-handers here than anywhere else? This thread is the perfect example of a biased, self-selected sample. I'm a right-hander (mostly - doing laboratory cell culture and surgery made me highly ambidextrous) so I don't have anything else to contribute here apart from this observation :)

[Sky]

Lefty who uses the mouse on the right, ring finger goes on A.

Lefty AND color blind?

 

 

As long as I can remember, I've removed the caps lock key from my keyboards, it's my pinky rest spot. Now I also remove the windows keys.

Pinky does tab/shift/ctrl, thumb does space/alt.

[Ingmar]

Yes, I'm practically disabled. 

[MuffinMan]

What makes you think there's a higher proportion of left-handers here than anywhere else?

Whether statistically true or not, the perceived predisposition of lefties in regards to increased intelligence and mental illnesses.

[ezrast]

Another lefty but I can't mouse left-handed with any sort of precision. I will say, though, that remapping everything to PL;' is probably not too practical since some things don't let you change and for the ones that do it's a pain to have to remap a bunch of keys before you can find out what they do. It's the main reason I stopped bothering with Dvorak when in Windows.

[Thrawn]

Holy Shit, there are people who use the ring finger instead of pinky for A?  I didn't even know such a thing existed or was even possible.

Heh, I was thinking the exact same in reverse.

[Bann]

Just to be clear, we're talking about using WASD for playing FPS-type games here, not touch typing.  Obviously for typing, pinky goes on A.

For WASD, ring finger goes on A, middle goes on W/S, index goes on D.  Pinky handles Ctrl (crouch), thumb handles spacebar (jump).  Right hand shoots things.

Even when I type now I find that my rest position for my left hand has my pinky hanging out snuggled up to the shift/capslock key and left thumb is the only one that hits the spacebar.  Anecdotally, I taught a technology class for 5 years and one of our goals was for kids to be able to type 35 wpm by the time they left eighth grade. I started off being a big stickler for having fingers on the proper keys, but came around to the viewpoint that once a kid can type without thinking about it, it doesn't really matter what their method is as long as it works for them.

[pants]

I'm a righty, but WASD is crazy talk.  ESDF 4 life yo.

[CmdrSlack]

I'm a lefty. I use the mouse with my left hand, but I have the buttons configured for a right hander. This means that I left click with my middle finger and right click with my index finger.

In CoH, I used the numpad for movement with my right hand. In SWTOR, I use the arrow keys, which also served me well in LOTRO.

I have no idea what I'd do if I had a gaming mouse or KB right now, because they might make my obviously oddly-wired brain melt.

[Kail]

I'm a lefty, but I've always used the mouse right handed, even when I'm drawing with it.  The only real interface problems I have are on things like the Nintendo DS where there's a stylus, because it feels weird as hell to hold that in my right hand yet games often assume I will.

[Simond]

This is a highly sinister thread.
(dohohohoho)

And I taught myself to use the mouse left-handed in a training course when the 'helpful' tutor saw me writing and went "Oh, you're left-handed? Let me switch everything around for you". And then promptly went back to using my right hand after finishing the course.

[Chimpy]

I'm a righty, but WASD is crazy talk.  ESDF 4 life yo.

While ESDF gives you access to more keys for pinky action, I am too lazy to change key bindings anymore.

[slog]

I'm a lefty. I use the mouse with my left hand, but I have the buttons configured for a right hander. This means that I left click with my middle finger and right click with my index finger.

This is what I do when I mouse left handed, but when I mouse right handed I left click with the index finger.   

[MahrinSkel]

Saitek Cyborg 3D and AutoHotkeys, only way to go.  Everything under the thumb, where it belongs.

--Dave (I use it left-handed, which is why the Cyborg is the only way to go.  Lefties could use any joystick)

[Sheepherder]

If you can't pick almost any arbitrary spot on the keyboard and find enough nearby buttons to run, say, a Mechwarrior game you're clearly not trying hard enough.

[ezrast]

This is a highly sinister thread.
(dohohohoho)

Got me.

[Thrawn]

For 90% of my gaming I've used the same n52 Speedpad for whats gotta be at least 8 years.

[K9]

....

Holy Shit, there are people who use the ring finger instead of pinky for A?  I didn't even know such a thing existed or was even possible.

Though I am correct handed, unlike a lot of people here aparently, so maybe thats part of it.  Still.....I'm trying it out right now and can't even fathom how to function.

I have never heard of anyone using pinky for A. What finger do you use to press shift and ctrl with?

[Khaldun]

Pinky.

I was a touch typist for too many years before keyboard gaming had any kind of twitch element to it. Can't break the habit of A = pinky, shift = pinky. I could do ESDF but I'm so used to WASD that it's hard to make my brain think that way.

[slog]

So Day 1 of gaming as a right hander in BF2.

Aiming with the mouse is not as bad as I thought.  The real challenge I'm having is training my brain to use the keyboard correctly.  Using my pinky it press Shift and Controls are particularly challenging.

[MisterNoisy]

There's a couple of options to replace the Fang if you don't want to swap to right-handed usage - the Logitech G13 is probably the best of what's currently out there.  There's also the Razer Nostromo, but I don't care for the buttons on it.

EDIT:  There's also this, which looks a lot like the Fang.

[Teleku]

....

Holy Shit, there are people who use the ring finger instead of pinky for A?  I didn't even know such a thing existed or was even possible.

Though I am correct handed, unlike a lot of people here aparently, so maybe thats part of it.  Still.....I'm trying it out right now and can't even fathom how to function.

I have never heard of anyone using pinky for A. What finger do you use to press shift and ctrl with?

What Khaldun said. I use my pinky, just like I do for all the other keyboard activities I do outside of gaming.  Its easy and natural.  With this other method you guys use, access to the R, T, G, B, and V keys are much more restricted, which would get on my nerves.

Only thing I usually do is, if the key board is an ergonomic one where the ctrl button is really far away, remap the crouch key to C or Z to make it a bit easier (if they actually put crouch on ctrl, many put it on c to begin with).  If ctrl not something I'm hitting constantly for the game, then I don't even bother remapping that.  Other than that I can hit shift easily, and there are no other keys over there you ever need to hit usually (though tab is easy as well if need be).  Then I have easier access to a much larger range of keys.

Also, you know, it feels way the hell more natural since thats the position you type in all day long as well....