Putting the arrow keys on the left side of the board is a pretty interesting idea. I still use the arrow keys to play FPS titles, (I hate WASD) and in order for my hands to be comfortable I have to shove my MS Internet keyboard all the way to the left side of my desk so that the arrow keys are in front of my right hand. The Ergo Diver solves this little dilemma. The location of the Tab, Tilde, and Esc keys actually makes some sense when you think about this in FPS terms. Tilde and Esc generally open and close the console (you cheaters knew that already) and the Tab key is often used to display a list of mission orders or something along those lines.
What I have to question is the placement and size of the Shift, Ctrl, Caps lock, and Alt keys. Caps lock in many games cannot be remapped, so you’re stuck with a key you won’t use right in the area where a reload, or jump, or use key would be very handy. The shift key is in an odd position to hit with your pinky finger, and the Alt and Ctrl keys suffer from being too small and are easily mistaken for surrounding keys unless you’re looking right at them.
The right side of the keyboard is unfortunately less ingenuity and more madness. The Delete and Backspace keys, for instance, are down in the bottom right corner; Page Up and Page Down are at the top right area where Backspace and Delete are normally to be found. Be prepared to rewrite your sentences several times. The logic to this layout is completely lost on me. Unless Japan market keyboards are all setup this way, I would suggest to Scythe that they might want to rethink this part.
Since I am more obsessive about my keyboards than most, I gave the keyboard to my girlfriend, and asked her to tell me what she thinks of using it from “a casual user’s” point of view. Her comments were that she was constantly paging down when she wanted to backspace, and that the left sided arrow keys were generally annoying. Then she gave me the keyboard back. Suffice to say most people probably aren’t going to like this keyboard. As for a specialty gaming keyboard, it has some good points, and some faults. Some gamers may love it; others may be generally irritated by it. It really comes down to personal preference. The keyboard is available in the U.S. for about $25.
