Logitech G15 keyboard for WoW

It all started with the patch notes for World of Warcraft 1.11. I read them, and found the curious entry there that WoW would now support the Logitech G15 keyboard. G15? What the heck is that? And do I need one? After some research it turned out that the Logitech G15 is a highly desirable backlit keyboard, with lots of extra keys for gaming, plus a LCD display. And the LCD display shows all sorts of useful information as soon as you start up World of Warcraft.

Now all of the information displayed is also available from inside the game. There is a screen with character stats, including number of arrows or shards left, durability of your gear, and how many free bag slots you still have for loot. Another screen gives you a warning whenever you received a tell, or got overbid in an auction. There even is one screen to show you your position in the waiting queue if your realm is full, or when waiting in a battleground queue. The advantage of that is that if you are just waiting, you can ALT-TAB out of WoW, and still get notified if the wait is over, or somebody wants to speak with you.

The Logitech G15 keyboard has 18 programmable keys, which you can switch between three sets, for a total of 54 programmable macros. Now it has been widely reported that some guy got banned for using such a keyboard. But more research revealed that he got banned for playing unattended, and that using the G15 to lets say just cast a series of spells is legal, as confirmed by Blizzard representatives. You just need to be present and able to respond to tells from a GM. That is useful, because if you always start your combats with the same series of spells, you can put them on a hotkey now. And because the G15 hotkey macros can have delays built in, that works a lot better than using WoW macros.

So I decided that I need such a keyboard. But getting one wasn't all that easy. Logitech has problems making enough of them, it seems that every gamer wants one. And as additional problem I of course wanted a keyboard with a US or UK QWERTY layout, so I had to order one from the UK. Most of the third parties offering one via Amazon UK wouldn't ship to continental Europe, and when I finally found one who did, I paid a rather hefty shipping fee. The keyboard arrived yesterday evening, and it *is* looking coolm with its blue backlit keys and the LCD display. After downloading the latest drivers, the LCD display worked perfectly with World of Warcraft. I'm not quite sure whether I will use the programmable macros, not because of any banning risk, but because I don't like to automate games too much. But there are different ways to use the additional G-keys of the G15 for WoW hotkeys. I'm looking forward to experimenting with that when I get back home from the US.

(This blog entry was written from a public internet terminal in the airport business lounge.)