It’s time to throw aside your apprehension and claim your rightful title: gamer. No more skulking about on the computer, waiting to have the room to yourself before booting up your favourite new game. Embrace your geekiness and shout your pride from the rooftops!
Or, at the very least, get the gear that will make your hobby more enjoyable. If you spend as much time playing games as I do, your hands deserve to have the relief that a proper gaming keyboard and mouse combination will bring you. Take the beat-up keyboard and grimy mouse that came with that old PC you upgraded from years ago, and throw them in the electronic recycling. It’s time to level up your gaming keyboard and gaming mouse hardware.
But before you run out to make your purchase, there are a few things to consider.
Space: The Final Frontier
First, take a look at your computer area. Maybe you have an entire dedicated gaming room, with space for every peripheral and toy imaginable. But if your family/roommates have failed to give you the space due a Top Tier Gamer, you’ll need to consider a more compact keyboard and mouse solution. Compact is also the watchword if you bring your laptop for gaming on the road.
A foldable keyboard like the Microsoft Foldable Universal Wireless Keyboard will take up very little room in your laptop bag, and in combination with a wireless mouse like the Logitech MX Anywhere 2 Wireless/Bluetooth Laser Mouse, it’s a great improvement over using the built in trackpad and keyboard.
No one wins a round of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 using the sticky trackpad on their laptop.
Twitching, Fast or Slow
Second, what kind of gaming do you focus on?
First Person shooters are won or lost on input speed. Delay kills. In this case, a wired connection between the keyboard, mouse, and computer ensures that no sudden wireless interference turns your pending victory into a crushing defeat. The speed at which the keys can register being pressed is also an important factor for split second decisions. A keyboard like the Bloody Light Strike Mechanical Gaming Keyboard boasts an infra-red switch technology which makes the key response time 0.2 milliseconds, which they claim is 30 milliseconds faster than traditional metal switch keyboards. It also registers multiple key presses with impressive accuracy, thanks to it’s anti-ghosting technology. If you’ve never heard the phrase before, relax. There are no actual ghosts involved. Anti-ghosting makes sure that simultaneous key presses are all processed by the keyboard and none of the key presses are lost.
For the more strategic player, or the roleplaying game enthusiast, absolute speed is less important. For folks like us, it’s all about comfort.
As I was happily spending 200+ hours trudging around Fallout 4, my hands and wrists really appreciated the ergonomic benefit of the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Wireless Bluetrack Desktop Keyboard.
With a wireless keyboard and mouse, you can sit in reclined luxury up to 10 feet away from your computer, and search out every last secret hidden within the game.
Have it Your Way
Whatever your specific flavour of game, there’s always room to improve with programmed key combinations (or as the cool kids call it, macros). The ability to program a set of buttons with a string of commands will end up saving you a considerable amount of time over the course of a gaming session. It can also be the edge you need to compete with the elite. A keyboard like the Razer BlackWidow Chroma USB Keyboard has 10 buttons that can be customized to suit your needs (it also has nifty customizable backlights). The customization can also extend to your mouse, like the Razer Mamba Chroma Wired Laser Gaming Mouse with its 9 customizable buttons.
The tools of the gaming trade are an important area to invest in, so take your time and find the keyboard and mouse that will make playing comfortable, successful, and fun.
