[afavour]

Because there’s a very small defined set of actions a person can take in such games: backwards, forwards, left, right, etc.

By comparison pages have dozens of links, form fields, menus, etc. It’s not that they can’t be navigated with the keyboard alone, it’s that it’s rarely the most efficient way of doing it. Clicking a link will always be quicker than pressing tab X number of times to select it.

[bmn__]

> pressing tab X number of times

You seem to be under the impression that Netscape style navigation is the best a keyboard can do, which makes the argument an involuntary strawman.

Spatial navigation and caret navigation blow a pointing device out of the water.

[LocalPCGuy]

Tab is not how most keyboard only users navigate web pages. There are an entire set of built-in keyboard navigation utilities for those that cannot use a pointing device.

[V-2]

If I have never learned this entire set, I bet you that my mum won't learn it. Most users not only aren't power users - they have zero interest in becoming power users.

[ummonk]

The fact that pressing tab x times is so slow is exactly the point. Our support for keyboard navigation is really crappy.