With the advent of new technologies, video games today games now feature better graphics, more complex gameplay, and, in many cases, demand more playtime. The most popular massively-multiplayer online game today has 10 million players worldwide, each of them playing an average of 17 hours a week. With this massive surge in interest in video games, players themselves have evolved.
Like the phenomenon of the professional gamer - someone who earns a living by competing in national and international game tournaments. In South Korea (where, as of 2005, some 35 percent of all males -- 17 million people -- regularly play videogames) professional gamers are treated like royalty. They earn huge salaries, televise endorsements, have fan clubs, and sign autographs. Countries like the US, Germany and the United Kingdom are also churning out professional gamers, and televised matches are watched by millions all over the world.
And, just like in sports, people who want to seriously play have to invest in the same kind of equipment that the professionals use. Take your ergonomic keyboard, for example. This keyboard is designed to relieve the strain of holding your wrists over the keyboard for extended periods of time. These designs are perfect for those marathon gaming sessions, where the wrists are held in a relatively still position for hours on end. For the gamer who already has to deal with eyestrain for the monitor and back-aches from sitting down for many hours, an ergonomic keyboard is a blessing.
Many keyboards also feature some useful functions for the serious player. Some brands feature high key responsiveness, meaning a shorter delay between the actual button press and the signal being registered by your computer. The difference between good and bad responsiveness in measured in milliseconds, but in shooter games and sports games, these milliseconds can significantly tip the odds
Another feature that unfortunately not in your average ergonomic keyboard (yet) is the anti-ghosting capability. This feature prevents your computer from getting confused by many simultaneous button presses, which happens in many games. Ghosting is what happens when many keys are pressed at the same time (which happens in most games), causing some input glitches. Anti-ghosting hasn't quite hit the ergonomic keyboard sector yet, but there are some design and manufacturing companies working on it, so we should be able to see a product like this soon.
The design of an ergonomic keyboard for gaming is tricky: it should balance efficiency and comfort, but also have the best in responsiveness and have features like anti-ghosting. But at the rate of growth for the gaming industry, I wouldn't be surprised if one came out in the time it took to write this article. So fire up the keyboard, and ready your mouse. Happy hunting
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Writer, gamer, and sales rep Frank Barnett has been playing with and working on computers for more than eight years. In his free time, when he's not telling people to use ergonomic keyboards, he gives advice to people online about computer-related matters. He enjoys playing PC flight simulators and first person shooters, and has logged more than five hundred hours on various virtual aircraft.