Mouse setup is superior to the little sticks on a controller, but the keyboard is not. It's clunky and awkward. Sure theres alot of buttons, but nothing is analog. It's alot of flat "yes or no" keys. It's alot of keys set in a bland and unintuitive fashion.

I was thinking (and this may be stupid) maybe I could use a joystick with the left hand and use the mouse in right. It would be a bit awkard at first for sure, but I don't know maybe it's doable. That is unless other's have some better alternatives.
The reason I don't think about using just the joystick is because I think that would be pretty awkward to aim, but again, maybe I'd get used to it.

@Crispy78
I'm thinking for FPS games mostly.

First of all, for what sort of games?

You could possibly use a standard joystick with a trigger button and top thumb button then use something like Xpadder and set up a profile so the directions mimicked WASD and the 2 trigger buttons could be something like action and inventory. Then just use your mouse alongside it in the way you normally would.

Bit weird but would work.

Most Joysticks can't be controlled well with a single hand. If your desk has a smooth surface, then you could probably fasten a Joystick with suction cups, and try to use it with the left hand, but I doubt that it'd go well. Also, no games are targeted for a "mouse plus joystick" setup, so you'd probably need to fiddle around with each game to get a working control scheme.

I (and many others) agree though that the keyboard isn't a particularly well-suited device for gaming, especially if used with only one hand.

Alternatives for the left hand are:

- Nostromo n52. Used to be manufactured by Belkin, recently Razer released one as well.

- Gaming keypads like the Logitech G-13 or the Revoltec Fightpad Advanced.

- Special Gaming keyboards like the Wolfking Timberwolf or Wolfking Warrior XXTreme

- Getting a mouse with enough keys to only need the cursor keys on the keyboard, like the Logitech G600 or the Razer Naga

Personally, I'm using a 13-button mouse together with a Microsoft Strategic Commander. I never found a better device to play games, and imho it works eve better for FPS games than for the strategy games which originally were the target market. But it's out of production for a long time now, and Win7 support only exists through a user-made driver. Occasionally you see one still on offer, with greatly varying prices.

Edit: Added some links. Look around, there are plenty of options. :)

How would that help with the missing analog buttons? I think all the buttons in flightstick type joysticks are digital on/off, or at least in the ones I have. I presume you were referring to flightsticks, as a gamepad can't really be operated soundly with one hand.

Whether you really need analog buttons depends on the game. I've yet to play games that _really_ benefit from them. In e.g. console driving games, they seem to be used for the accelerator, but I've always found that quite imprecise, so I change it so that accelerator function is in one of the analog sticks instead. It gives me a much more precise accelerator function.

Back when I played Mechwarrior 2 on PC, I actually tried to set up a system so that I would use the joystick and a mouse at the same time. But in the end it didn't really feel worth it, too much hassle and it didn't really feel natural (trying to use either the mouse or the flightstick with the "wrong hand"), and I finished the game by using keyboard + mouse. I think flightsticks are designed to be operated that way. The base is normally so big and heavy that the stick will not move, even if you don't keep it in place with the other hand.

But quite often they are not symmetrical in design, so using them with the left hand is near impossible. The first MS Sidewinder 3D Pro flightstick was an exception (as well as some very old CH Flightsticks and such), but after them flightsticks seemed to be mostly designed for right hand as far as I can tell.

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joystick_-_Microsoft_Sidewinder_3D_Pro.jpg]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joystick_-_Microsoft_Sidewinder_3D_Pro.jpg[/url]

I don't know... I always have soft spot for those early Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia games when you play only with keyboard, so...

You're probably right, I think I stopped looking into joysticks right after the first sidewinders hit the market. I never got accustomed to that generation of sticks - they all seem to require a fist grip, and I prefer a three-fingers-from-above grip, which gives me much finer control. Personal preference, of course - judging from the way the market developed, I'm probably in the minority with mine. ;) As you can see from my post above, my taste in controllers went into an entirely different direction. :)

I guess it depends whether you were into e.g. flight (combat) simulators, which I was. Actually, including even space combat "sims". I think it was normally quite vital you could operate both the stick and the keyboard, or even a separate throttle stick, at the same time.

For e.g. driving games though, I nowadays prefer console-type analog gamepads. Heavy-duty flightsticks feel a bit too clunky and heavy for them, even though I used to play lots of driving games/sims with them in the past.

Yes, but I never had a problem doing that. I had one of these analog joysticks. Gripped from above, you needed only one hand for them (provided you had a proper surface to rest the stick on), so your other hand was free for the keyboard.

Come to think of it, these old sticks _could_ be used with the left hand without problems. But I doubt they could be used with today's systems. Back then, they required a special "game port" socket that was typically part of your sound card (or you had to by a special extension card for them).

Ah, old times. :)

Ack! That is old skool indeed. I think I was still an Amiga gamer when those type of small analog joydicks were prevalent on PCs (and Apple II computers or such?). I think my first proper PC gaming controller was CH Flightstick (see the attached picture).

I, on the other hand, used to hate most of the classic (digital) joysticks that seemed to be so popular on Amigas and Commodore 64s. Competition Pro and such. They never really felt that good to my hands, especially if they didn't have any button on top of the stick, but just on the base which I had to use.

I especially disliked the pistol-handle kind of digital controllers where there was a small stick on top of it, and the button would be the trigger on the handle. I never understood why they seemed to be so popular... or maybe they weren't, because I think they disappeared almost as fast as they appeared to the market. But they sure were marketed heavily and seemed to come from many manufacturers.