I think the earliest one I remember though was Tunnels of Doom, not sure if the directions were WASD but I think it was the first game I played where you used up down left right to navigate 3d looking hallways in a Wizardry style.

One of my favorite early WASD games on the PC from the Doom era was Cybermage. Not sure how many folks know of it, but it dealt with superpowers and was the first game I remember seeing npcs wandering around to interact with in an FPS.

I think Rainbow 6 was the first game where I needed all the extra buttons around my movement keys and firmly entrenched me in the WASD mentality. Before those days, it didn't matter how I played games ilke Wolfenstein 3-D or quake because I didn't need the extra function buttons.

I think it was Half-Life that permanently forced my left hand into the Wasdy-claw that subconsciously forms whenever I hover it over a keyboard. Seriously, if I were to close my eyes and drop my left hand on a keyboard, I know exactly how and where it's going to land, it's spooky..

I have always had desk with lots of space, which has enabled me to use the arrow keys instead of wasd. I have big fingers, and I like the extra real estate and ability to find the movement keys without glancing.

I usually remap ins key for jump, end for use, and use the other nearby keys as needed.

I played doom and duke, but quake test was when mouse and keyboard clicked.

I started early on while playing Doom and ROTT, and never looked back. Interestingly, I use "w" for forward, and usually the space bar for jump, reserving the right mouse button for more important things (like zoom adjustment).

I do know some people who use esdf because that is also the natual typing position.

ESDF 4 EVAH!!! Nevar say die! Etc, etc...

I went to visit a friend of mine who was playing Quake1 with the mouse/keyboard thing and it finally clicked. I had seen the demos running and thought to myself "how do they look around so smoothly? I don't get it." Once I saw someone else using the mouse it became obvious. I used WASD for about 3 or 4 days before getting so aggravated that I switched to ESDF. I also used to invert the vertical axis like a flight sim, but I switched out of that eventually, too. A guy saw me using the ESDF one time and asked why and I said I liked to keep my hand on the home row for chatting while playing and he called me a 'homerow-sexual.'

I normally use a for crouch and space for jump, r for reload and w for use.

Hmm... Let me think about this for a minute.

I'm almost sure it was Quake. Was it the first one that had WASD preconfigured?

I'm absolutely sure that I played Quake with WASD, but I don't remember if it had WASD as the default, or if I read somewhere that it was "how the pro's played"

If Duke3d had it, then I most likely used it. Damn, I can't believe I don't remember. I do recall that I used ALT+direction key to strafe.

Wolfenstien 3-d! Mien lamen! Seriously though, Quake deathmatch was what really opened my eyes to what computer gaming could be. At the time I didn't have my own computer so I had to go to a local cybercafe and pay out the nose to play. Totally worth it.

I thought I was the only ESDF gamer! I hate WASD. As a typist, using my main three fingers (index, middle, & ring) is much more comfortable for main keystrokes than using my pinky. Not the least of which is because I can then use tab, shift, or ~ without losing my ability to maintain "left strafe" movement.

My first WASD game was my last WASD game: Tribes 2. I made it even through Quake multiplayer, EQ1, and Asheron's Call without using WASD, as well as a few other shooter-types I forget. But Tribes 2 had so much to it that I simply couldn't stick with just the arrow keys.

I used the WASD layout for a few matches and rapidly realized I just couldn't play that way. I thought about it for a few minutes and wondered "why not just shift whatever's on RFV over to QAZ, and just use ESDF for movement instead?"

I swapped the keymappings, and the rest is history. Any game since then with keyboard movement, I use ESDF. If a game uses turning with the keyboard as well, I move strafing up to WR and put turning on SF (this is mostly for mmo-style games; I can't recall an FPS where I used the keyboard to turn).

My MMOs are setup so that S and F turn in normal mode and strafe when i have the right mouse button held down. I think this is the default for WoW and GuildWars. It was a little weird at first, but now second nature.

*Bows to the master who taught him strafe jumping*

Though, I like ESDF better too, and I picked that up elsewhere. ;P

I think my first WASD game was probably Quake 2. If not, it was TFC.

You guys are gonna laugh at me, but... Oblivion.

/blushes furiously.
/slinks off.

I don't remember when I made the switch but it was some time after Rocket Arena 3. I always used the arrow keys since ... well whatever game started using them so I guess it was ingrained in me to play that way. I think the reason it took me so long to switch to WASD was because I would sit down on a buddies computer and try and play a game that way but my fingers would hit the wrong keys pissing me off. And about Quake ... those were some of the best times I have ever had. We had a LAN set up in the apartment and had Frankensteined enough computers to play with 4 people. The haze in the air, the shouts from across different parts of the apartment as righteous kills were made, the smack talking ... good times, good times.

WASD here, I don't think I could "learn" ESDF if my life depended on it.

My favourite Action Quake 2 moment was my first time playing online. A guy had just blown someone off a roof with the handcannon, and he stood in place and gave a salute. Right in the middle of the salute a sniper round exploded through the back of his head spraying that 5-spray pattern through his forward and on to the streets below.

I was in love.