Good ergonomic gaming keyboard?

cronjob

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2007
107
0
18,680
I'm so damn tired of seeing gamers getting the shrift when it comes to a good wave/ergo keyboard. I'm looking for some good suggestions. There are some great boards out there with some nifty functions that I wouldn't mind using, but if they're a regular, straight keyboard... I just have no use for it. It's not physically natural for you to have your hands torqued around the front of you and then your wrists jerked into a straight forward angle.

Back in the day, I had the most glorious wave keyboard ever. I believe the company that made it was "Mouse Technologies" or something like that. It doesn't matter, because they are no longer in business as far as I know. The board was a wave keyboard and was SOLID. It did well for about five years and the only reason I had to toss it was a mix between a spilled soda and a cat chewing the cord.

Now, even the non-gaming keyboards are so filled with crap. When was the last time you saw a good wave keyboard that did have 800 useless buttons? Do I really need an "instant messenger" or "email" or "homepage" button?! I'm already AT the damn computer. Come on!

Worse, try finding one without those AND that is wireless. Nearly impossible. And in my mind, if I have to have a whole bunch of stupid buttons, I'd rather have stupid GAMING buttons than seven buttons for controlling me effing audio.

I see there's a cool logitech one with some sort of LCD reader. And then there are all the boards that are specific to a game (which is cool if you play two or three games like me and play them a lot). And some of the more custom additions that are not specific to a game, but geared more towards, say, MMORPGs and RPGs.

So I'm just wondering if anyone has some experience or advice that they'd like to lay on me. I'm all ears.
 

SciFiMan

Distinguished
Apr 19, 2006
385
0
18,790
What's complicated? Go to a couple stores and type on some display models. Pick the one you like the best. I have an ergo one branded Microsoft Natural Multimedia keyboard. Works for me, but I don't care about a ton of macro keys and LCD displays. I just need to type, and use the standard keys for games.
 

cronjob

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2007
107
0
18,680
You're not going to find variety at a retail shop. You'll typically find one ergo/wave (if any). Sometimes two (one cheap ass and one high end Microsoft or Logitech).

There are very few quality ergo boards. Even fewer that are wireless. And as far as I can tell, none that are both solid quality and without all the extra crap that takes up a good 1" of keyboard width (important in some desk environments). And gaming related? None that I've ever seen. That's why I'm asking around. Perhaps someone *has* stumbled upon a decent one somewhere.
 

joelpt

Distinguished
Jan 3, 2010
1
0
18,510
The problem with the ergo keyboards is that they are not gaming keyboards. Specifically, to my knowledge, there is no currently available keyboard that:

* Has an ergonomic shape (split keyboard)
* Supports holding more than 4 keys down at once (a fairly common need in newer PC games)
* Supports hardware-level macroing (e.g. G15 keyboard)

As for the G15's LED readout, backlit keys, etc. I personally find such features to be nice enough but not really a core requirement of a gaming keyboard.

Here's to hoping one of the keyboard manufacturers recognizes there's a market for such a keyboard.