🚀 go-pugleaf

It was probably around the Quake / Counterstrike time frame that I
moved off of WASD, and onto a variation that was easier in very long
durations of competitive online play.  I'm specifically mentioning
online play because I think the overall intensity is elevated when
playing real time against humans.  You find yourself gritting your
teeth more, veins popping out of your body more, etc.  You don't have
the luxury of just pausing when you want to take a quick break, answer
the phone or take a whizz, you have to wait until the end of round at
least. I haven't seen any specific studies that monitor blood pressure
during online competitive twitch play versus a relaxed run through a
single player campaign, but I bet it would reveal some major
differences in physiological measurements.

So basically I found it was much easier on my hands (which have been
abused thoroughly via sports over the years anyway) to come up with a
scheme that utilized the natural home row (ASDF).  I could describe it
in detail but it's probably nothing anyone else would like.

The immediate benefit I noticed was just lessened hand fatique.  I can
literally look at my hand and see a difference in the movement of
tendons/ligaments between switching between W and S for forward/back
as opposed to my preferred F forward and G for back.  I'm sure that
sounds counterintuitive for some, but the bottom line is that usually,
when I'm "in reverse", I'm not going to use many other keys like
duck/crouch (D) or jump (S).  The A key makes a great zoom/aim key for
me, whereas to do the same with the capslock key would be weird
because its a toggle key, and aim toggle is either a game feature or
its not.  Left and right strafe is space bar to move right and right
mouse button to move left.  Again, I'm sure some of you are scratching
your head at this point, but in some of the original twitch games that
relied on circle strafing, being able to left strafe with the
uber-sensitive mouse button just by letting my finger rest on it was
an amazing discovery, as was using the spacebar to strafe right (which
my thumb was always resting on).  

Do you see what's going on there?  Two functions which are incredibly
important in close-quarters combat were just placed into a
configuration where the weight ratio of the body part (thumb and
middle finger) to the pressure required to engage the switch becomes a
huge advantage, and because it's an action that's performed so often
in Quake-like games, I cannot even begin to describe the impact it had
on my scores over the long haul.

That said, I don't play nearly as many games with lots of strafing
these days.  I actually prefer more tactical, slower paced shooters
like Battlefield and Rainbow Six, where there is not alot of strafe
movement except to adjust an already-zoomed sight on a straight access
slightly or things like that.

So fast forward all these years, and there are still some fucktard
games that don't support key rebinding.  

I can play with WASD when needed, and honestly breaking out of my
habit in a single player is not that big of a deal, but I refuse to
play an online first person game that won't let me use my competitive
key config.  It would be frustrating because every time I get killed
I'm going to be blaming the feature omission.