WASD keys
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
WASD (also known as Was-duh, WSAD or ASDW) is a set of four keys on the left-hand side of a QWERTY or QWERTZ computer keyboard often used to control the player's movement in first-person/third-person (FPS/TPS) computer games. W/S control forward and backward and A/D control strafing left and right. These mimic the arrow keys, which are also commonly used for movement. A variation is W-A-X-D, used by people who are used to the arrows on the numeric keypad (which has the down arrow a line below the left/right arrows, instead of in between).
Many gamers consider WASD to be superior to the arrow keys for various reasons, including that more keys surround WASD than the arrow keys, allowing the player better access to more game commands, and the hand position for WASD being more ergonomic for right-handed players (one hand stays on the keyboard and the other on the mouse). However, many players who use the mouse with their left hand find WASD less ergonomic and prefer to use the arrow keys, and it is possible for a right-handed player to reach about half of the keyboard while still controlling a character with both the arrow keys and the mouse.
[edit] Other Variations
Some players prefer to use the ESDF keys because it provides access to more keys for the little finger. Also, it is a natural typing position, and there's a small spike on the F key which makes it easier to locate it with the index finger. ESDF is the default configuration for several games, for instance Tribes 2. Players use many other key configurations, since most games provide players the ability to configure their keys.
Also common is the "HJKL" (h=left, j=down, k=up and l=right) layout used in the Unix computer world, a practice spawned by its use in the ubiquitous vi text editor. The editor was written by Bill Joy for use on an Lear-Siegler ADM-3A terminal, which places arrow symbols on these letters. An example of a game that uses HJKL is the text-based "graphic" adventure NetHack.
Also similar is the "IJKL" layout, which is used by a growing number of DHTML/JavaScript games. These browser games cannot use the arrow keys because many browsers' windows will scroll if the arrow keys are used, thus hindering gameplay. IJKL, like WASD, are arranged in an ergonomic inverted T shape, and, since they are used by the right hand, adjustment is easy for people who commonly use the arrow keys.
Vaguely related is the "ZXC" layout, used in many freeware games, and a common setup for emulation and older 2D gaming using a keyboard. An "OPAQ" layout was also common for full-keyboard games.
AZERTY users will use the ZQSD combination instead, since those are the keys in place of WASD on a QWERTY keyboard.
[edit] Trivia
- The PC version of Sega's Virtual On arcade game included a "Keyboard Real" mode for emulating the arcade hardware; this mode used a WASD and IJKL dual-cross to emulate the arcade version's twin joysticks.
- After being popularized by first-person shooters, WASD became more common in other computer game genres as well. Many of the games that have adopted this layout use a first-person or over-the-shoulder third-person perspective.
- The first commercial game to have this layout configured as the default was Starsiege Tribes.
