Great gaming keyboard
I have been using this keyboard for years and love it. I use to avoid first person shooter games because I just couldn't get use to the WASD movement. My fingers would always slip off the keys and I would end up hitting the other keys and end up blowing myself up with a grenade ore something. That all changed when I found the Zboard. I love the butterfly pad on the left hand side that is set up perfectly for ease of movement and improved access to other important keys. The butterfly keys are large and slightly angled to keep your fingers in the proper position. This set up also works great for MMORPGs and man other games that allow WASD movement. The right hand two thirds of the board is a standard keyboard that you can use for typing. The gaming keyboard does not have a num-pad. Some thing had to go to make room for the butterfly pad. Also, there is no ~ key. I guess they ran out of room and figured that was the least used key. Quite a few games do use that key. They should have kept that and got rid of the Ins key. Who uses that? None of that is a real issue. If you need the total functionality of a full keyboard, you just have to swap out the gaming keyboard with the standard keyboard and you are good to go. It only takes 15-20 seconds to do.
One thing to note is that the keyboard requires that the drivers be installed. The keyboard will not function properly without them. Also, the keys are programmable through the software that comes with the board, but there is really no point in that. It is far easier to program the keys within the game itself.
The one premise that this keyboard was built around was the ability to swap out the keyboard with different key sets designed for specific functions. They have key sets that are specific to certain games and applications. In my opinion, you don't need any key sets other than what comes in this package. Every popular game that comes out gets a key set. Most are just the basic key set with with some artwork and keys labeled for specific functions. I really don't find it practical. The FPS ones are not bad, because they are designs are functional but, in most cases, once you set up things the way you like it on the default gaming board, you don't really need to have a specialty board. Most FPS games are set up pretty much the same way. I did get the DOOM 3 one packaged with the game. It did offer a slightly better setup specific to the game, but I could have easily w got by without it.
That said, the additional key sets they create for the MMORPGs seem completely worthless to me. Movement in those types of games are now more like the FPS games. I'm sure that there are still a lot of people in those games that use the arrow keys for movement instead of the WASD, but that is because they lack a better option. The butterfly pad is the perfect solution, but they don't design those boards that way. They basically give you a standard keyboard setup with colorful graphic of the game, and keys labeled for specific function, but it leave movement on the right hand side arrow keys. Movement on the right hand side is impractical. That is the mouse side. People have to reach across their body to use it. People use it that way on standard keyboards because they have to, but you would think that a keyboard designed for gaming would give the a better option. They are not even enhanced butterfly type keys, just the standard arrow keys. I don't understand this design at all and I find them completely useless. I use the standard gaming board that comes in this set for all my gaming.
They also make the MERC gaming keyboard, which I also own. In some ways it is designed a little better for gaming, but unfortunately some design flaws on that keyboard sent me back to my Zboard.
