Gaming keyboards - I don't think I get it?

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I think he should be exiled.

In all seriousness though, I find a lot of people that dismiss keyboard and mouse do so under the fact that they have terrible equipment. I wouldn't dismiss all controllers over a crappy Mad Catz one and it's silly to do so with mouse and keyboard as well.

[noiseredux]

I think he should be exiled.

In all seriousness though, I find a lot of people that dismiss keyboard and mouse do so under the fact that they have terrible equipment. I wouldn't dismiss all controllers over a crappy Mad Catz one and it's silly to do so with mouse and keyboard as well.

for me, it's just a comfort thing. I can struggle w/ kb/m but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to do so. It's not fun. I'd rather just play with a controller and have fun.

[TSTR]

I think he should be exiled.

In all seriousness though, I find a lot of people that dismiss keyboard and mouse do so under the fact that they have terrible equipment. I wouldn't dismiss all controllers over a crappy Mad Catz one and it's silly to do so with mouse and keyboard as well.

But I haven't even begun to stage my coup d'état yet!

Joking references to French history aside, I do wholeheartedly agree that kb/m, at least for me, is a much more efficient way of playing FPS games. Just as I feel that an arcade stick is a much more efficient way of playing fighters, and a gamepad is a much more efficient way of playing a platformer.

I'm a big proponent of not knocking something 'til you try it, but if someone's played with all the toys and found the one he/she likes, then who are we to judge?

Except for, like, this being the internet and such. Judgement and derision for all!

[Stark]

I remember joysticks and gamepads for PC were pretty popular when I was a kid and then they fell out of vogue. Now they're making a comeback! I'm with Brad, I pretty much exclusively play PC games with a controller now. It's like a 4th console for me. It's where all the prettiest versions of the console games live.

[noiseredux]

I remember joysticks and gamepads for PC were pretty popular when I was a kid and then they fell out of vogue. Now they're making a comeback! I'm with Brad, I pretty much exclusively play PC games with a controller now. It's like a 4th console for me. It's where all the prettiest versions of the console games live.

this is how I'm feeling. I don't need SteamBox or Big Picture or a new controller. Just sitting at my PC with 360 controller these days feels just like playing a 360 game. I suppose it helps that it's the same desk I'd play 360 or PS3 at anyway. But yeah. Keyboard and mouse always felt like "work" to me. A controller feels like fun time. Maybe it's cuz I skipped a lot of the PC period where kb/m became popular. My early PC days were often with a gamepad of some sort.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I recently got an old school Windows 95 era 2-button joystick.

Sonic CD is gonna be my test subject...

I've been thinking about getting one of those PC Xbox 360 controllers. I have a Logitech gamepad but I'm not madly in love with it.

[noiseredux]

Bone, the 360 controller is where it's at. I have a Logitech F310 too. But it's night/day. Games with controllers in mind on PC are made for 360 controller - literally.

[Hobie-wan]

1920 × 1080 all the way! Get your 4:3 outta here!

Hey, this monitor rotates on the stand so I can do 3:4 too. That means I can tate shmups without any janky piles of books holding the monitor up.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Bone, the 360 controller is where it's at. I have a Logitech F310 too. But it's night/day. Games with controllers in mind on PC are made for 360 controller - literally.

yeah I'll def have to invest in one. I played Trine last year with the Logitech and it was meh.

[Menegrothx]

FPS and games that have a ton of functions you might need quickly.

easy fix:

Are you trolling?
I used the following buttons in WoW regularly during gameplay
WASD+QE
Z, X, F, V
B, M, Shift+B, C, I, T, -
Mouse side buttons (2)+Mouse middle button
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0
Shift+1, Shift+2, Shift+3, Shift+4, Shift+5
Shift+F, Shift+Space, Shift+V, Shift+B, Shift+C, Shift+G, Shift+T, Shift+X
Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3, Ctrl+4, Ctrl+5
Ctrl+F, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+Space, Ctrl+0, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+T
+mouse clicks+some buttons I used more rarely, like Alt+Z, G18 etc
That's 54 buttons. Xbox 360 controller has 17 buttons when you include the Xbox button, L3+R3 and the D-pad. Console games rarely use combinations like Left trigger+AB, and even if they do, at some point it'll end up being a clusterfuck when you run out of combinations to do.

Granted, it's a MMORPG, but there are plenty of RTS, Strategy, FPS, simulator and RPG games on PCs that require the use of so many hotkeys that keyboard is the only way for playing them. Even games that don't use that many buttons might include button combinations that would be hard or impossible to pull of in a console game due to the design of control pads vs keyboards, like for example movement related stuff in FPS games (lean forward+sneak+attack/steal was one in Thief games IIRC)
And you can't use a mouse when you have both your hands wrapped around a controller.

The biggest impact for me is when playing MMOs and the amount of hot keys needed. The side button mouse was also nice for Diablo 3 and SC 2.

I'm also not sold on a gaming mouse. Again, don't play enough games that would warrant it, and they all seem to be really huge, which I'm not sure I'd find comfortable.

I can't use a computer with out a mouse that hasn't got side buttons. Not just are they tremendous help in PC gaming, but they make browsing the web so much more comfortable. It's like getting used to an automatic transmission in a car and not wanting to back to stick shift.
Despite the fact that I used to sink a lot of hours into PC gaming for years, my keyboard isn't anything special. It's a Logitech G11, a gaming keyboard with 18 macro buttons, windows-prevent (so you wont accidentally press the Windows button during gameplay), volume control, rewind, mute and pause&play buttons+it glows in the dark, but I don't think I payed more than 70 dollars for it as new. It's good for watching movies, listening to music while playing games etc.

So, buy a proper mouse (and a comfortable chair+mouse pad!!!!) before you invest in a 300 dollar keyboard if you're looking to get into PC gaming. Even if you don't do PC gaming, those are still items that will make the experience of using a PC much more comfortable.