Mechanical Keyboards and Female Gamers: An Interview

Alannah Aceridano is a project manager and content creator by occupation, and a cosplayer and streamer by hobby. In this article, I ask her some questions about mechanical keyboards.

She wasn’t familiar with Kinetic Labs, but uses mechanical keyboards and tech accessories all the time. She was most interested in the desk mats.

I asked her a couple of questions about how she uses her mechanical keyboard in her gaming:

Christine: How long have you been gaming?

Alannah: My entire life (approximately since 7 years old), so a good majority of my life.

Christine: When did you get your first mechanical keyboard?

Alannah: When I got into school. I used my refund money to buy my first keyboard! I would play video games in between classes.

Christine: So you said that the mechanical keyboards that you like are more tactile, click clack type keyboards?

Alannah: It’s very satisfying and it’s the appeal of playing games with a keyboard that reacts fast to your fingers, as well as that pleasing sound and the performance. Got to stay on brand!

Christine: How do you involve your mechanical keyboard into your streaming life?

Alannah: As a streamer and cosplaying, people normally look up my specs and I show off the keyboard and it’s switches, keycaps, and so on.

Christine: Say you won the Powerball. What is one or two fantasy items that you would get from Kinetic Labs?

Alannah: The Froggy Deskmat and the Candy Keycap set.

Christine: What do your female friends have in terms of specs?

Alannah: We exchange mechanical keyboards and other items all the time. When another streamer friend vets, we exchange. With the Kinetic Labs website in particular, we like the fact that there are options for tactile, linear, different colors, and the like.

Christine: Could I ask you more in terms of specs? What is something that you think that female gamers would look for in mechanical keyboards rather than men?

Alannah: Tactile is my number one preference in terms of performance and the sounds. Honestly depends on budget! It racks up after a while.

Christine: Do you think that there is more or less a gap in terms of women gamers using mechanical keyboards? When I interviewed people on the NJIT campus most didn’t know what mechanical keyboards were.

Alannah: The NJIT thing can be explained. Gaming is a male dominated field, but there are a good majority of my female friends that do game.

In my discord group, I am the only women out of seven that games.

I’m a minority in a male dominated field, so there are a lot of streamers that come up to me and try to see what I’m up to in terms of specs and mechanical keyboards.

Christine: Would you consider yourself a trailblazer in terms of gaming with mechanical keyboards?

Alannah: I don’t know. Would you consider me a trailblazer?

Christine: I believe so, if you are staking your claim in the field of streaming then sure!