SteelSeries GameSense indicates ammo, health, via keyboard LEDs

[HEXUS]

Gaming peripherals maker asserts that "it can be quite useful".

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[Froggywoggy]

If you're looking at your keyboard to check health and ammo while playing CSGO or most other competitive shooters, you're probably already dead. Seems like a terrible place to put important information.

[Plasmastorm]

Dunno about most folks but I tend to look at the screen when playing a game, not the keyboard.
Seems like more of a distraction than anything.

[Spreadie]

"features, people, we need features!"

"how about we duplicate some of the info on screen and display it on the keyboard?"

"brilliant! have a promotion."

[go4brendon]

And when you're playing late and half your keys turn off then what lol

[dirky]

Sounds like another pointless feature to try and justify a high price tag :/

[abychristy]

I played CSGO and I know if I purchase this keyboard there won't be any lights on it.

[herulach]

Doing it via Json is a pretty neat idea, most games that support mods would be able to utilise it, and you could do snazzy stuff like light the staging key when you run out of fuel in KSP have different parts of the board lit for different modes in something like Age of wonders etc.

Admittedly the feature they demonstrate is pretty damn useless.

[azrael-]

I played CSGO and I know if I purchase this keyboard there won't be any lights on it.

There's always the first couple of seconds after the round starts...

[Jonj1611]

I have a Steelseries Apex keyboard and thats gotta be on of the most stupidest features I have ever seen. The lights aren't exactly that bright anyway but lets say your playing at night, I have barely enough time to realise whats going on around me without trying to look at the keyboard to see my ammo is almost low.

Features for features sake, sounds more like something the Work Experience person dreamed up.

[AlexKitch]

Because when I'm playing Battlefield 2, I'm ALWAYS thinking "Gee, I'd love to know how many head shot kill chains I've had. If only this information were available on my keyboard..."

Edit: Yes, I still play Battlefield 2. What you gonna do about it?!

[M_Taylor40]

Yes, I still play Battlefield 2. What you gonna do about it?!

You manage to play online? If so, how? I thought online had gone when GameSpy shut down!

[Ttaskmaster]

This is WICKED!!!! This is SICK!!! This is FANDABBYDOZY... and whatever other hip terminology the young folk use, these days!!

In fact, the only thing *better* than key LEDs showing you things would be a keyboard with an LED screen showing animated secondary information.
Yeah, I could pitch that idea to, say, Logitech. They could call it the G19 or something...

Oh... wait...

As with the G19, the Saitek MadCatz Cyborg S.T.R.I.K.E 7 and several others, this is worth stuff-all, unless the Devs support the product and program in features that make use of the capabilities.
I'm guessing that, as with the above, most will not and the potential will go pretty much untapped.

[Strawb77]

meh.

[KeyboardDemon]

The most important feature to me on a keyboard is having a series of input devices that let me interact with games and applications, let's call those devices keys for now.

A useful feature is being able create different coloured lighting zones on the keyboard to make it easier to find the 'WASD' keys in case my hand drifts it's still not enough for me to buy one. This ammo/health indicator just seems gimmicky beyond the point of being reasonable.

If a player can't tell by looking at the screen that his gun needs to be reloaded or he is being shot then having that information displayed by cryptic colour codes on his keyboard won't help him much. I stopped using the display on my Logitech G15 for game info when I found myself dying whilst looking at it, I can't see this being any different.

[jag272]

Dunno about most folks but I tend to look at the screen when playing a game, not the keyboard.
Seems like more of a distraction than anything.

Agreed, my keyboard is on a drawer on my desk, I don't even look at my keyboard unless I'm unplugging it for some reason, I just know where the keys are so I sometimes go months without even looking at it.