[LongGone]

I'll just quote one of my recent posts in another thread

Let me write both sides of the story:

I used to purchase a wide variety of keyboards to find whats most suitable for my playstyle. The most expensive I went for was a mechanical Filco MX Blue, which I traded later with a friend for a Filco MX Brown. Prior to this, I was using my laptop keyboard+some cheap A4Tech Mini X-Slim keyboard which I used for years, and still use today.

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My side of the story: I hated my mechanical keyboards, both blue and brown. The only reason really, is that I was too adapted to the flat keyboard layouts. They have minimal travel which I appreciated for playing speedfiles, and are responsive to the touch. If I were to do a jackhammer, I spend less time recovering from the recoil with the minimal key travel. Their build quality varies though; some flat keyboards are simple rubber dome ones (Like my X-Slim). Others like the Logitech X-Flat Premium/Illuminated/Razer Lyc/Artcosa etc have scissor lift which are deemed to have better build.

tl;dr I like flat keyboards because they let me play fast notes due to the minimal keytravel

The other side of the story: My friend plays rhythm games on a bulky keyboard (O2Jam mostly). One day I offered him to try my Filco Blue, and he pretty much had this massive skillboost playing on it. Bulky keyboards have an advantage of being easier to do holdstreaming (which isn't important in Stepmania or FFR), so it was perfect for him who plays longnote files on O2. It was much more responsive; whenever he pressed a key he knew for sure he was hitting it. For those that are coming from a bulky keyboard and moving to a mechanical one, they will probably enjoy the benefits of a mechanical KB most since there isn't anything new to get used to other than being perhaps more clicky (blues) and more responsive.

tl;dr My friend used a bulky KB, moved to a Mech Blue KB and its excellent for him due to the responsiveness and tactility

Another story: Staiain used to play with a Logitech Illuminated, and moved on to a Cherry Blue Mechanical KB at one point. His scores still improved from then on, despite the different form of KBs. He has a certain playstyle; He would hit keys and let go very quickly, like staccato notes on a piano. This gave him very responsive control over fast patterns and jacks. When he tried using my laptop keyboard, he started getting random misses as my laptop KB wasn't responsive enough for his fast hits. In comparison, I tend to hold down keys slightly before letting go (due to O2Jam habits), which makes my current laptop KB just right for me

tl;dr: Everyone has their own playstyle and keyboard type suitable for it. A mechanical keyboard didn't work for me, but it worked for a few others that I know. Ultimately, we all still improved notably over time using our current setups. Best to experiment, or borrow one from a friend before splurging on a KB

...and to be honest, I find all those numbers about "X million keystrokes lifespan" nonsense as I'm sure if your keyboard fails, it would fail because of other means instead (like spilling a drink over it, damaged cable, circuitry failure, etc.). I highly doubt in most practical cases that they keys themselves physically fail or get damaged, unless you're that aggressive and a very regular player. In that sense, most mech KBs would last as long as well built non-mech KBs