←back to thread

90 points amichail | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.209s | source
Show context
thesuitonym ◴[] No.42204499[source]
Reading this brought something to my mind that I had not yet considered. With the rise in popularity of esports, we're getting to a strange place where there is very professional gear for playing games, that is specifically suited to the high intensity, quick reactions of professional athlete. Whether you think that is an appropriate term is not an issue, people are getting paid for this and they play at a much different level that most of us plebes do.

But then you have people who play casually--and let me be clear here, even if you are very good and only play ranked competitive matches, if it's not your job, you're who I'm talking about--who get this same gear. They deck themselves out like the pros for what is, essentially, a hobby. Is that weird? I don't know. People who head out to the local basketball court typically go with only a Spalding they bought at Walmart. Folks who play a little footy on the weekends might buy shin guards, but otherwise just head out to a field.

I don't know where I'm really going with all this, it just seems odd that a person would say one should buy a keyboard that allows for 1mm actuation, when the vast, vast majority of game players wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.

replies(4): >>42204925 #>>42207061 #>>42207296 #>>42207826 #
1. kstenerud ◴[] No.42207296[source]
The cool feature of hall effect keyboards is the ability to set multiple actuation points on a key.

For racing games, that means a real throttle.

And it's also nice with FPS games to have the W key mapped at half-press to W, and full-press to SHIFT and W. Most FPS games require you to press an additional key (such as shift) to run, even though you'll spend 99.99% of your time running.

That being said, I wouldn't buy a keyboard (magnetic or otherwise) for more than $50.