What is so great about the keyboard as a gaming tool?

[Piorn]

Why can't we have a mouse on the right hand, and something like the Wii-nunchuck with an analog stick and some buttons on the left hand? It would make perfect sense.

 

[Zhukov]

Is it really so hard to accept that some people prefer one input mechanism over another? You prefer controllers. I prefer a mouse and keyboard.

Or to put it another way...

"I don't understand all these people that say vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate. Vanilla just makes me feel sick, chocolate is so much yummier. Man, those people who prefer vanilla are stupid!"

 

[geK0]

People emphasise the mouse.

And for some games, you can't do without, WoW and all RTS games would fail without a keyboard.

Also: My favourite bonus is that learning to game on a keyboard especially at the games mentioned above vastly enhances your typography, especially accuracy since you can hit the key you are thinking of much more easily. I actually type now with my left hand defaulting to WASD (It used to default to asdf as it should) since I can hit what my keybinds would be for WoW so accurately that way. That's just a cool plus.

I have a fightpad for platformers and a 360 controller for things that need twinsticks though, such as a racing game or a third person slasher. But all FPS games need that mouse and the additional left hand binds.

Also: Modify that claim, since it's the fact that you may always choose freely which method of control you want which makes PC control superior. There are no controllers I can think of which exclusively function on a console only, other than build in pads on handheld devices. And they're generally space-constrained versions of a better controller. (And a few of them are even usable on a PC with some mods XD)

I played WOW with a controller and did it pretty damn well! as an enhance shaman I had enough button combinations for all my abilities and cool-downs, as well as target selecting macros, and my ventrillo chat button.The controller I used was similar to a playstation controller but with two extra buttons. I actually improved my performance by using a USB controller. Sometimes I'd even heal using a wii remote, which is always pretty fun.
Although, mousing over anything with the control stick was a tad awkward, I'd usually switch to the mouse for any kind of inventory management.

 

[kidfork]

i have 90 keys on my keyboard and use around 20 for games like rift... howmany buttons do you have on your controller?. also its not the fact that its better with a keyboard its the fact that everything you could need is there.

 

[Svane]

For one, it would be hard to make an arguement for controlers on an rts, but at the same time, a keyboard proves a pain for fighters.

True but if the game industry develops the mechanics of controlling through voice commands, such as Tom Clancy's EndWar tried, I think the RTS would become somewhat just as popular, and fun, on consoles as it is on the PC, since micromanagement and macro management then will be just as "playable" with a controller and microphone then it is with mouse and keyboard.

 

[viranimus]

Yes, Its not the Keyboard people profess In K&M, its Mouse. Keyboards are actually the hinderence.

And for some games, you can't do without, WoW and all RTS games would fail without a keyboard.

Thats funny, Cause Ive played WoW with a 360 gamepad and leveled from 1-60 till I quit out of boredom with how easy the game was. Really its all about having patience and basic understanding of how to set up controller software. It took hours of remapping the keys to get it away from WASD control configurations to allow the gamepad to do a decent job, but it CAN be done and once it is, it works just fine.

 

[Dyme]

Is it really so hard to accept that some people prefer one input mechanism over another? You prefer controllers. I prefer a mouse and keyboard.

Or to put it another way...

"I don't understand all these people that say vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate. Vanilla just makes me feel sick, chocolate is so much yummier. Man, those people who prefer vanilla are stupid!"

This would make sense, if consoles actually had an advantage apart from being easier to use and cheaper (which is only true for hardware, software is more expensive for consoles).

Mouse + keyboard is objectivly better than any other controller ever invented. It has nothing to do with taste.

Of course, for some games, the difference doesn't matter, because they have limited controls anyways. But all FPS and RTS, and many other games are better with mouse+keyboard. Also some RPGs, for example inventory-management is way better with mouse.

In the same way that for some games a controller (that you can easily plug into your PC as well) is better, such as racing games and maybe sports games, but those are the only exceptions I can think of.


edit:

Yes, Its not the Keyboard people profess In K&M, its Mouse. Keyboards are actually the hinderence.

And for some games, you can't do without, WoW and all RTS games would fail without a keyboard.

Thats funny, Cause Ive played WoW with a 360 gamepad and leveled from 1-60 till I quit out of boredom with how easy the game was. Really its all about having patience and basic understanding of how to set up controller software. It took hours of remapping the keys to get it away from WASD control configurations to allow the gamepad to do a decent job, but it CAN be done and once it is, it works just fine.

You were bad at WoW. And it can't work fine. No offense, I am bad at racing games, and I admit it.

(There is NO WAY IN HELL that you can click your desired target without a mouse quickly (and by quickly I mean nearly instantly and precise).
Also I don't know how many buttons a controller has, but I used QWERTASDFGYXCVBGT123456 + all kinds of combos (like ALT+1, ALT+2, ALT+3, ..., SHIFT+1, SHIFT+R etc.) for WoW.
I highly doubt you can do that with a controller efficiently.

And it is no wonder WoW got boring for you, if you can't chat with people.

 

[zehydra]

No, no, it's the mouse that's better, not the keyboard, silly.

 

[Zhukov]

Mouse + keyboard is objectivly better than any other controller ever invented. It has nothing to do with taste.

If it is possible to prefer either one over the other, then yes, it has something to do with taste.

And, judging by the posts in this thread, it is indeed possible for people to go either way.

 

[Dyme]

Mouse + keyboard is objectivly better than any other controller ever invented. It has nothing to do with taste.

If it is possible to prefer either one over the other, then yes, it has something to do with taste.

And, judging by the posts in this thread, it is indeed possible for people to go either way.

Okay, maybe I define better then.

A controller is better when it is faster and more precise.

And there is no doubt a mouse is more precise than a controller, no matter how hard you practise, you will never aim nearly as good or fast as someone decently good with a mouse(+keyboard).

If people say a controller is better, it is because they never learned how to use a mouse, or because they don't care about efficiency in their controller (in which case they shouldn't even talk about it.)

And concerning fighting games: Don't these "fighting game pros" use something like a keyboard? (Obviously no computer keyboard, but something flat with keys).

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Why, why on either would a keyboard ever be a "superior gaming device"? It's a device made specifically for typing, not gaming. The amount of games that are made better for a gamepad/joystick are far greater than ones made better for a keyboard.

The answer is, the number of available keys. While game controllers have added more over the years, currently sitting at 8 with DPad/clickable thumbsticks and what have you) the keyboard puts many keys at a players disposal.

Not that it matters so much anymore as games development is quite clearly consoles first-PCs second, but back when we could carry more than two guns, we could switch between them all at will. We can hotkey powers and items and have shortcuts to all important game features like maps, inventories, journals, etc.

In conjunction with a mouse, the keyboard is the best controller bar none for FPS, 3PS, RTS, MMO, RPGs and Sim type games. The controller, in my opinion, is much better suited for fighting games, driving games (in the absence of a steering wheel), flight simulators (in the absence of a joystick), and perhaps a couple of others.

Being part of a PC system means the keyboard is, or can also be more than a simple set of keys. Gaming keyboards for example offer macro keys in addition the the normal set.

My only complaint is that while I have plenty of keys available to my left hand (as a right handed person), I often wish for more on the mouse, at least under the thumb. It's an impossibility that I can't resolve (Razer Naga is OTT). The D-Pad quick select is a great example of the kind of functions I'd like accessible from there.

 

[Joccaren]

You know what WASD is good for? Making your fingers ache. Playing games with a keyboard is uncomfortable. I know, because many years ago as a poor person without a computer controller who had to play many games on an emulator with a keyboard and a keyboard only, I had to quit after around 3 hours because my hands were absolutely throbbing with pain. There's oft the argument that "you can simply hit more buttons with a keyboard than a controller", but is that really true? That sounds silly, there's already a huge amount of buttons on controllers and if people wanted to, they could add more.

Why, why on either would a keyboard ever be a "superior gaming device"? It's a device made specifically for typing, not gaming. The amount of games that are made better for a gamepad/joystick are far greater than ones made better for a keyboard.

You can think a person is better for playing Street Fighter IV on Windows rather than a console all you like. But I would rather use an arcade joystick. And I have tried playing some with a keyboard, it is one of the greatest exercises in frustration and futility I have ever encountered.

Really, its controllers that make my fingers hurt. All that turning of the joysticks, Gah. Keyboard and mouse for me any day. If you are tapping the keyboard that hard that your fingers are hurting, either you have a terrible keyboard, or you need to treat it better. I personally have a very comfortable keyboard that fits to my hands nicely and takes only the slightest amount of force to press a key. It isn't even a specialised keyboard, just an old one my dad had from work.

There is not a huge number of buttons on a controller, and they do not want to add more. RPGs, FPSs with more than 2 weapons, strategy games, all of them are superior with more keys. Why? The common approach I see on controller games to swap between one of many abilities or weapons is to hit a certain button then scroll through a list with the joysticks. Not only does that hurt my thumbs, but it wastes valuable time that I could spend shooting and killing, or casting and blasting. With a keyboard, I just have to hit '5' or '3' and my weapon/ability will be chosen for me.

Keyboards these days aren't specifically made for typing, my friend owns one specifically made for gaming, with typing as a side utility. It has auto-queue hotkey buttons that will press numerous buttons in order within a second (good for RTS: You can press your 'select group one' which you may have as your barracks 'set hotkey to mouse' and 'build marine' queued five times pressed within 1 second with 1 press of a button. Unfair advantage, yes, but who really cares?). It is designed to fit around the hand and be comfortable to use whilst also having easy to hit keys that lie perfectly within where your hands lie for hotkeys, making things even easier. One main reason for more controller built games being more common is due to the fact that more games are made for consoles than PC these days. The PC unfortunately tends to get built for second, with console control styles mostly carried over (Some games even have 'press x to continue' in their early releases...). If consoles were less popular than PCs (Which controllers isn't the reason they are from what most of the complaints about PC are) then more games would be made for the keyboard.

Games like Street fighter I feel should not be played with either a controller nor a keyboard, but with a good old fashioned arcade rig. Controllers are just too annoying to get my hands around and work in strange ways, keyboards aren't as good with button spamming as they are with everything else (Unless you're spamming SC2 Hotkeys), and those games always feel best on an arcade machine.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I love the keyboard because it allows chat without the need of a mic.

Also it's really customizable and my hands are just used to using a keyboard.

 

[Zhukov]

Is it really so hard to accept that some people prefer one input mechanism over another? You prefer controllers. I prefer a mouse and keyboard.

Or to put it another way...

"I don't understand all these people that say vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate. Vanilla just makes me feel sick, chocolate is so much yummier. Man, those people who prefer vanilla are stupid!"

You can't apply terms such as efficiency, speed or ease of use to ice-cream. It's not all preference.

Like I said to someone else, if it is possible to prefer either one over the other, then yes, preference is relevant. And, judging by the posts in this thread, it is indeed possible for people to go either way.

Besides, what about comfort? Some people clearly find controllers more comfortable. Speed and efficiency aren't going to mean jack shit if your fingers hurt.

Also, I bet there are people out there who can use a controller with greater speed and efficiency than me using a keyboard. Lastly, most controller-dependant games have software to compensate for any weaknesses of said controller. Aim-assist and such.