How and when did WASD + mouse look control scheme actually start?
Marathon (Mac) was the first game to use freelook, Terminator: Future Shock was the first on PC. But I clearly remember doom, duke nukem and other early fps days, everybody used keyboard controls. Page up/page down for looking up/down, wow. Even if mouse was there as an option, we didn't use WASD controls because we had no idea. Movement on cursor keys was deeply in our blood so using mouse + those keys weren't that practical, because you couldn't use other keys easily while playing like that. I remember first person games looking very intriguing and advanced, but with very "bad" controls to me as a kid compared to classic 2D games. Quake 1 is often mentioned as a mouselook game (and it was), but default controls were like on doom. Quake 2 too. Even enabling mouse look wouldn't give you an idea of WASD. Now I hear stories from quake 1 era when some famous players used it and spread the word. Half-life was maybe the first to use WASD + mouse as default.