> Anything retro, pre-mouse era, was with the arrow keys, because it made sense. At least for player 1. As well as using arrow keys for directional movement, w

> Anything retro, pre-mouse era, was with the arrow keys, because it made sense. At least for player 1. As well as using arrow keys for directional movement, which just makes sense as you were already using them in other applications that way, it left the letter keys for named actions (attack, defend, ..., which I remember some games using) and/or the left hand free for using shift/ctrl/alt for movement modifiers (which I find a less convenient arrangement on the other side of keyboards I've used). Once mouse controls became common for aiming it made sense to move because WASD is close enough to the common modifier keys that the left can do all the work there. > WASD only makes sense if you're holding a mouse on the other side of the keyboard. I know lefties who were perfectly happy to use WASD+modifiers+other with their right hand and keep their mouse/similar on the left. They would often remap jump (frequently assigned to the space bar by default) to something else (maybe \ on a UK keyboard as that is near the thumb, or V to stretch the pinky less if their thumb is going to be occupied using shift or ctrl as a movement modifier (or fire if they didn't use a mouse button for that)). It was less convenient for them if a game didn't allow key remapping.