There are a lot of games out there that assume that players will use WASD as their keys to move the player (ie. most flash games). I don't use WASD as my player control when using keyboard and mouse.
I tend to use a AERG (Left-Up-Down-Right) control scheme, due to mainly the size of my hand and WASD feeling too cramped. Plus playing for small periods of time (> 30 min) on WASD makes my hand hurt. The problem that I have is that a lot of the Crouch/Dodge/Target/Run keys are bound to the Left-Ctrl/Alt/Shift which I have a problem using effectively with this layout. I tend to rebind them around my left index finger (on the G). I find that it is sometimes difficult to play in this manner as I don't have a spare finger for extra key presses and sometimes multiple keys are required to be pressed at the same time.
I don't really want to use a controller, and I need something that doesn't put strain on my hands. Are there any improvements/layouts that I could use to reduce repetitive stress and still allow optimal control?
Best Answer
There are of course some game specific pads, there are also universal gaming keypads, like Razer Nostromo or Logitech G13. On both of them movement (i.e. equivalent of WSAD) can actually be done with just the thumb. I'm not sure how useful is that, but it's definitively different than WSAD.