GamingFilter: WASD keyboarding is hard on my left hand!

January 2, 2022 11:17 AM

So after years of not playing PC games, I'm back at it with Borderlands 2. Like most of these games it seems, it uses WASD (left hand) to control movement. But I find it tiring and after an hour or so I've got cramps/pain in the hands & arms. Is there a better way?
posted by storybored to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total)

arrow buttons?
posted by Max Power at 11:22 AM on January 2, 2022

Long-time lefty Borderlands 2 player here. I rebind the movement keys to IJKL. (B is melee, V is reload, etc.) It takes a little time to get right, but works great. I used the same rebinding in Borderlands 3. (See Options > Keyboard-Mouse, IIRC.)

FYI, in Borderlands 3, the "chat" key (T, I think) cannot be rebound for some reason.
posted by SPrintF at 11:42 AM on January 2, 2022

Arrow buttons are not a good solution, since you need quick access to other keys. So, for example, in my IJKL binding, I have H bound to Action Skill and G bound to grenade. If you had to move your hand to hit those keys, it would be awkward.
posted by SPrintF at 11:44 AM on January 2, 2022

You can try playing with a gamepad maybe? Most modern PC games support it, either wireless or via USB. I use an Xbox One controller myself, but I think Stream will let you configure a 360 or PS3/4/5 one if you have one handy. You can also custom bind all keys or use community-made ones, even if the game doesn't natively support it.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:04 PM on January 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm not an ergonomics expert, but I think the general recommendation is that you want your wrists as straight as possible, which is why ergonomic keyboards are bent in the middle and often have a wrist rest. You'll want to adjust the positioning of the keyboard so your arm is in a neutral position and not over- or under-extended.

Since you don't "need" the right side of the keyboard to use WASD, what I usually do when playing FPS games is move the keyboard slightly to the left and rotate it about 30 degrees clockwise, putting it under my hand at a more natural angle. If you don't have a wrist rest, you can use a small folded up towel to make sure you aren't bending your wrist up or down.

The other thing to watch out for is the height and distance of the keyboard relative to your shoulder. If it's outside the sweet spot (too high, too low, too close, too far), you'll be straining your shoulder and/or elbow or even bending at the waist. You can adjust this with the height of your chair or desk.

If none of this helps, you'll definitely want to follow up with more significant improvements for setting up your workspace. Repetitive stress injuries with computers can get progressively worse if not addressed, and can quickly spiral into hurting your quality of life even when not at the computer. Borderlands 2 is an excellent game, but it won't be worth it if you can't pick up a grocery bag down the road.
posted by arcolz at 12:22 PM on January 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

I'm not sure if it will help, but IIRC, my friend uses QWES, to reduce the forward middle finger strain, and since backing up is less used than forward movement, so you move your finger less, and it's not stretching out as much. I think I've also seen people just use the ASDF (same fingers, just that you don't have that "up/down" mnemonic in physical space - a = left, s = down, d = up, f = right.

I know there are other alternatives.

Have you tried a wrist pad? If you use one, have you tried without? If you do use one, have you tried different wristpads than your normal one? How about an ergo keyboard (or split board).
posted by symbioid at 1:48 PM on January 2, 2022

A lot of PC games work with a USB Xbox controller plugged into the PC
posted by Jacqueline at 7:35 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Lots of alternatives depending on how much money you want to throw at it. Some ideas:

* Rotate keyboard as suggested above (free)
* Wrist-pad (like those for mouse) (maybe $10-20)
* Gamepad (such as XBox controller, or whatever you can interface with PC) ($25-$75)
* Gaming half-board (Razer Orbweaver, or the Chinese equivalents by ReDragon / Aula, et al) ($50-$200)
* A split-keyboard (Mistel Barocco, or Kinesis Freestyle 2, that splits in half) ($100-250)
posted by kschang at 8:09 AM on January 3, 2022

Most AA/AAA PC games will allow you to rebind your keys and I've found that to be a godsend when dealing with repetitive stress pain or fatigue. I rebind the movement keys in every WASD-configured game to ASDF. Having a key assigned to each finger is a more natural position for my hand and my middle finger isn't being overused by constantly moving between W and S.
posted by i feel possessed at 3:24 PM on January 3, 2022