Monthly Archives: August 2009
Ideazon ZBoard Warcraft Keyboard For Gamers
World of Warcraft is one of the most popular video games on the market with millions of users. Ideazon’s custom Warcraft keyboards can help make the game easier to play.
Gaming keyboards are becoming a very prized subset of the computer keyboard market and customized World of Warcraft keyboards are just one popular style. Unlike traditional computer keyboards a Warcraft keyboard provides additional keys that are dedicated to controlling specific aspects of the game.On a traditional or wireless style keyboard a player uses the arrow keys or the A-S-D-W keys to move the character through the World, but quite often this can interfere with other aspects of the game such as sending and replying to in game messages. The ZBoard gaming keyboard from Ideazon attempts to work around this problem and can be customized specifically for World of Warcraft game play.The Ideazon ZBoard Gaming Keyboard With World Of Warcraft KeysetOf all of the various gaming keyboard manufacturers Ideazon’s ZBoard is one of the most useful (and expensive) options available. The ZBoard has a removable folding keyset which lays on top of the base. On top of this folding keyset are all of the traditional keys a person might need from a QWERTY style keyboard.What makes the ZBoard an ideal Warcraft keyboard are the special custom keysets that can replace the QWERTY layout while playing the game. These custom keysets provide dedicated buttons for movement as well as additional buttons that can be mapped to other game functions.Having the special dedicated buttons does not mean that text based chatting cannot be done however. In gaming mode the ZBoard still provides a full QWERTY character set, although the right hand keys are oriented in a manner that makes it difficult for a touch typist to get used to. Another custom keyset made specifically for World Of Warcraft reverts back to a more traditional keyboard layout while adding the additional functionality with special right hand buttons.Downsides To The Ideazon ZBoard Warcraft KeyboardPerhaps the greatest strength to the ZBoard keyboard is also its greatest failing. Remember that the purpose of this keyboard is to remap and move keys to other places in the hopes of making it more easy to play the game. Over the long term and for the very dedicated gamer this may well be the case, but for more casual gamers learning the new layout after spending months or even years playing with a standard keyboard will most likely be a frustrating process.It also bears to mention that the custom World of Warcraft keyboard keyset for the ZBoard looks very much like a standard keyboard and does not use the fancy movement layouts of the standard gaming keyset.This by itself seems to indicate that Warcraft gamers asked for this specific layout for a reason and that it works best for most people when playing the game. In other words, if a buyer is considering the ZBoard as their primary way of playing World of Warcraft, invest in the WOW keyset rather than trying to adapt to the gaming keyset that comes with the keyboard base.
A Gamer's Week: 22 28 February
This week my main gaming-related activity was playing the hell out of Dawn of War II for my review. But, somewhat surprisingly, other stuff was happening that needed reporting. Here are our most interesting stories of the week that was.
On Monday Sony invited gamers to test a new “gaming machine” that might be a revision of the PlayStation Portable (PSP-4000) or a whole new device (PSP 2). At this point I'm hoping that Sony launches something successful and I really don't care what it is. Meanwhile Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard announced their lineups for the next couple of months. Read all about it!