When it comes to gaming peripherals, the gaming keyboard is usually seen as more of a luxury than a necessity.
But a gaming keyboard does have its advantages for certain types of games and players.
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Is A Normal Keyboard Good For Gaming?
In most cases, a normal, high-quality keyboard will be good enough for gaming. However, gaming keyboards do come with some features that you might find important if you ever plan on gaming competitively or playing MMO games that can cause a normal keyboard to suffer from ghosting – certain keypresses not registering – when many combinations of keys are being pressed at the same time.
When Should I Consider Buying A Gaming Keyboard Over A Normal One?
You should consider buying a gaming keyboard over a normal one when you want to complete your gaming setup, play competitively or play MMO games, or when you want comfort and durability from your keyboard.
To Complete Your Gaming Setup
If you want to game (and possibly stream) from a nice gaming setup with RGB lighting that features throughout, then a plain, normal keyboard is not going to fit the mold.
You will want the RGB backlighting on a gaming keyboard to match the lighting behind your monitor, in your computer case, and wherever else you have chosen to add it.
For Competitive Players
Competitive gameplay is packed with stiff competition and a gaming keyboard may have features that will give you a slight edge over your opponent.
Competition-oriented gaming keyboards are equipped with low latency mechanical keys that can make your in-game reactions faster, allowing you to get that split-second drop on your enemies.
Additionally, many of these keyboards are equipped with extra macro keys which can be programmed to allow gamers to perform combos in-game by simply pressing a single button.
For MMO Players
MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online games) can be incredibly complex and depending on the game, you may need to press large numbers of keys in quick succession for certain character abilities.
A normal keyboard might not be able to register such a large number of key presses without some not registering (known as ghosting) and this can really hold you back in games like World of Warcraft.
Most normal keyboards have a rollover of up to 6 keys, which means pressing any more than 6 keys simultaneously will result in additional keypresses not registering.
This will be a problem for many MMO games.
However, you won’t come up against this problem with a good gaming keyboard, like the Corsair K100 RGB Optical, which has full key rollover and 100% anti-ghosting.
When You Want Comfort
Good gaming keyboards are designed to be comfortable for long hours of gaming.
Gaming keyboards are designed for gaming so all of the common keys used to play games will be laid out so they are comfortable to reach with your fingers.
They have a nice ergonomic design and come in many different sizes to suit small or large hands.
They also come with extra padding and wrist support so you won’t feel any discomfort when playing for extended periods.
The comfort of a quality gaming keyboard will often make gaming more pleasurable.
The switches of these keyboards are designed in such a way that they are good to press and give auditory and tactile feedback.
This can give gamers an edge over others who may be using regular rubber dome keyboards which can oftentimes feel mushy and unprecise.
When You Want A Durable Keyboard For Gaming That Will Last
Gaming keyboards have got to be durable to stand up to the wear and tear of regular gaming.
Gaming keyboards are designed to be tough, which means they use quality materials like brushed aluminum for the faceplates (on higher-end models), or ABS plastic on lower-end models.
Many gaming keyboards use mechanical key switches rather than rubber dome switches since these are more durable and can last up to 70 million key presses, which is about 5-10x longer than normal keyboards.
Regular keyboards use soft rubber dome switches that often wear out after only 5 million key presses.
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When Is A Normal Keyboard Good For Gaming?
A normal keyboard is good for gaming when you are not planning on playing competitively or not planning to do too much MMO gaming, where you’ll need to be able to press many keys at once to perform in-game actions – something many normal keyboards may not be able to do.
whether gaming-oriented or not, what is important is that you get a high-quality keyboard that feels good for you to type and game on.
There are countless keyboards to choose from and looking at pictures and specs online may not be enough to discover whether or not that keyboard really does suit you.
Avoid the very cheapest generic models and look instead for higher-end keyboards that are on sale.
Go to computer stores and try out ones that are in your price range that you like the look of.
Apart from ergonomics and functionality, there are different feels and sounds to keyboards.
Some feel smooth, others provide a slight click and tactile feedback while and some can be clicky, like an old typewriter.
Try them out first if you can.
If you end up with a key actuation that you really don’t like, you may never get comfortable with it.
The keys on cheaper keyboards are oftentimes too spongy and mushy for gaming, which can make it feel like you are unsure if the keys you press are registering.
This can really hold you back when gaming competitively or while playing fast-paced MMO games.
Further to this, a normal keyboard may not have the programmable macro keys or media keys that you may come to appreciate as a gamer.
Media keys will allow you to control your music or video playback without having to alt-tab out of the game and search through menus.
Macro keys, on the other hand, will allow you to program multiple keypresses into one button so that you can execute more complex moves in games with ease.
A quality gaming keyboard like the Mountain Everest Max Gaming Keyboard will allow you to do all these cool things and more.
With a good quality gaming keyboard, you won’t have to worry about ghosting or losing out on keystrokes or macro presses as this is something that has been taken care of at the design stage.
In conclusion, not having a gaming keyboard to play on is usually not going to be a show stopper but it will probably be of benefit and serve you better than playing on a normal keyboard, but if you are not engaging in competitive or MMO gaming, then there is probably no need to buy one.
However, it’s still nice to have the ergonomics, extra programmable keys, and media keys on your keyboard so that you can have all the control you need straight away without having to distract from the game.
And if you ever do decide to get into MMO gaming you’ll be happy you went with a gaming keyboard.
