The evidence is easy to see. Here are two pictures of the same hand. The first is contorted and twisted to be able to use the W and other movement keys. Notice that the hand is not in natural state and the T, G, and B keys are far away and hard to hit.
The second picture is the same hand, but this time, the walk forward function is on the mouse. Notice how the hand and fingers are in a natural, more ergonomic position. Making this change also allows not only the T, G, and B keys to be used, but Y, H, and N can also be reached from this position; opening up 3-6 keys that you can easily use.
Make It Your Own
In key mapping, as well as all things gaming related, customization is everything. If one size fit all then there would only be one mouse and one keyboard for sell in all the world. Rather it has become a necessity for a gamer to make things their own. If my layout doesn’t work for you, then try something else. As long as your walk forward function is on the Right Mouse Click, then you will have solved most of the problems that you face with hand cramping, finger fatigue, and ghosting. Always remember; no matter what you do, every game has a “Reset to Default” button so there is no chance that you will hose yourself.
The Only Disadvantages
Of course, nothing in this world is perfect and my layout has one major flaw. That flaw is allowing other people to play on your computer. Since every game starts you out with the standard WASD default controls, it takes me roughly 5-15 minutes to get all my controls ready depending on the game. Games that run on the Source engine take very little time to set because the keys map easily and they are persistent across the Steam Cloud. However, games like Battlefield have 3 different key maps (on foot, in vehicle, flying) that are independent from one another. Couple that with the constant prompts stating, “That key is already mapped. Are you sure you want to move that key?” and you end up spending a long time getting set up.
I had a friend staying with us for a week and he asked if he could play on the PC while I was at work. Thinking nothing of it, I told him that it would be fine. When I returned and went to play some Killing Floor, I hopped in game and stood still with my iron sights pulled up. With one easy click of the mouse, he had reset my controls to the default settings. To my horror, I discovered that he had played 15 different games that day restoring the defaults on everyone of them. I spent hours getting my controls back to my normal configuration.
There is also a small flaw with console ports. Games that are ported to the PC from the console versions will sometimes not allow you to use this configuration. I have never played Red Faction Guerilla for this reason. When attempting to remap my controls, the forward/backward and left/right functions were tied together and required to be placed on the same input device. Other games will not allow you to change the mouse controls at all. In these cases, you could play with the default configuration if necessary, but for me it has been so disheartening that I push the game to the side all together.
Tell Us What You Think
So if you wanting to improve your game, then try out this configuration. You have nothing to lose. I will say that it takes a few days to break the habits that you pick up from default controls, but with time I hope that you find the layout to be more comfortable and that you see a significant improvement in your gameplay. Then, once you have tinkered around with it for a bit, come back here and let us know what you think. We would love to hear your input.
