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Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

How are these split keyboards for gaming? I guess not great in many fast paced FPS or MOBAs which is a bit of a deal breaker for me.

The size of the Kinesis Advantage is another big problem in gaming I reckon, with very little space left for the mouse - I have a full keyboard with numpad and I'm already thinking of going tenkeyless for more space.

EDIT: ah... nevermind, these comments have convinced me to splurge on a Moonlander, which can be used with only the left half plugged in. Also probably a good idea to invest in an ergonomic setup now that I was thinking of removing evil and going back to the Emacs keybindings.

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I am unable to feel comfortable WASD-ing with my moonlander, so I switch back to a "traditional" keyboard for gaming. I think it's mostly the ortholinear aspect that makes it not great for me in this context. I never really tried to get used to it anyways since I don't play keyboard games much. I've had my moonlander for two years now, it's my primary keyboard that I use almost every single day.

However, lately I've been using a traditional keyboard more, mostly because i keep mixing more between home office and not, and leaving my moonlander at the office. I have no issues using the one over the other anymore since starting biking to work.

It depends on whether you often need to reach across the keyboard middle. If you need to press keys on the left half with your right hand or the other way around, it will be uncomfortable.

Specifically for shooters I've found it pretty great though. I usually only need the left half of the keyboard anyway, since the right hand almost exclusively uses the mouse. Having a split keyboard means I can push the right half back and have more space for the mouse.

I am, however, also the kind of person that rebinds 80% of hotkeys in games to what I like, so I will always go to the trouble of binding every single important action to a key on the left half of the keyboard in shooters. So take that with a grain of salt.

The Ergodox EZ is great for these! You can customize your keybinds and program macros and layers. Just use one half, for more space for the mouse.

Flat keyboards are going to perform better for games vs curved keyboards if you play FPS. Unless maybe you're a pro gamer who want to extend your career or something.

the kinesis advantage gives more room for the mouse. and gaming on FPS or MOBA is totally feasible. but gaming is pretty terrible activity as it increases your chance of developing RSI. I would go back and never play games :/

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