My idea was to create a general configurable control scheme like this for each game:

Q W E
A S D

Q = LEFT, W = Up, E = RIGHT
A = LEFT, S = DOWN, D = RGHT

games such as Doom, Star Soldiers and Street fighter would be much more gamer friendly with this as a configurable control scheme.
Take for example using an emulator and holding down UP+RIGHT whilst playing Doom, the player would have very inaccurate motion so having. Or try to play star soldier holding UP+LEFT you would have very stiff movement. Games require free and accurate movement, mapping diagonals such as UP+LEFT, UP+RIGHT simply won't be the best option for mapping when it comes to gaming. The my idea layout would allow free and accurate movement since it would allow the users to hold any two buttons at one time (up+left, up+right, down+left, down+right) when needed and with precision. It would also bring more of a analog like feel...

I currently do not have an n900 right now however if someone was to try this mapping out for some game or simply imagine how practical it would be to implement...

Also It'd be nice if MACROS were implemented in emulators so that users may be to customize and map their own key combinations. For example a key combination of L1+L2+A+B manually created by a user and mapped to the enter button to bring up a games cheat menu, since pressing four keys would be impractical to try on a psx emulator for n900.

mhm... when you want to use more than the wasd-keys i would prefer following:

Q = left-up......, W = up......., E = right-up
A = left ..........., S = ............, D = right
Y = left-down..., X = down..., C = right-down

so you would only have to press one key at time to move around ^^

edit: with freely configurable mid-point for longer thumbs -> s d f g h (:

I'm not saying that the option to map your above layout should be phased out completely, your layout should be an optional layout also. It's also true that your layout would be practical for some games..to an extent, but imagine using your layout in games such as doom. Using the Q (left-up) etc diagonals would produce unpredictable movement and in fighters for eg, if you want to short jump, a key mapped to right-up would not suffice, you'd have constant long jumping since UP-right etc is automatically processed when the key E is pressed.

To short jump you have to temporarily tap 'right' and then 'up' quickly this can easily be done by my explained layout in the first post of this thread. Also your layout would create stiff movement in 2d scrollers like star soldier and other similar games. Movement would be stiff and or unpredictable in games like doom, tony hawks pro skater etc. My idea layout could be used as a more universal layout where as your explained layout would be practical for selected games.

Q = left-up......, W = up......., E = right-up
A = left ..........., S = ............, D = right
Y = left-down..., X = down..., C = right-down

vs

Q = Left, W = UP, E = RIGHT
A = LEFT, S = DOWN, C = RIGHT

A Universal controller....simple yet effective....
their is also this idea layout I had:

Q = left-up......, W = up.......,. E = right-up
A=LEFT.........., S = DOWN,.. C =RIGHT

But this also may only be practical for selected games...
Then again our two ideas for movement should first be implemented in an actual n900 game of each type (eg scroller, fighter, rpg etc) and tested to see which would be more practical. I did my control tests on computer emulators to see which would be more suitable for thumbs on n900...