I'm taking the plunge and getting one. Any advice on what features are important and what models are best?

Thanks.

Depends on your budget and what kinds of games you usually play.

Mostly RPG's and the occasional FPS and strategy game. Budget of about $130

I wouldn't bother spending money on anything with "gaming" ahead of it, and spending $100 or more on a keyboard is just.... Just buy a regular keyboard if you need one, "gaming" ones don't have anything beyond some neon-lights and some extra assignable buttons which you'll never use

The assignable/illuminated keys would be nice. for me anyway. Maybe I'm overshooting with the budget though.

I use a Logitech G510 for 2 years now without any problems playing the same type of games.

edit:
if you want something more....
seek for a mechanical keyboard like the Logitech G710+

I believe we had a thread about that topic not long ago, too lazy to search for it now. I just leave that guide here for you, it explains the different types of switches of mechanical keyboards and some other special features.

I really miss my old ibm and my old mechanic cherry keyboard, they were great for typing. Because of that I have a close look on threads like this. Personally I would prefer a mechanic keyboard with brown cherry switches, because they're relative silent (if you know how to type and not to hammer your keyboard the other switches can also be pretty silent), need less pressure and are good for writing (not so good as the blue ones, but I'm sick about any noise from my computer). But that's me and you should check for yourself what's important and good for you. Spending round about 100-130$ for a device you daily use isn't that much and can be a good investment, but I would also not focus here on gaming alone. Nonetheless 100-130$ is a lot of money, so it must really fit, which is the reason why I'm still looking for the perfect keyboard for me. At the moment it would be DasKeyboard Silent, which unfortunately costs 130€ here and so is absolutely out of my budget right now.

I've used the macro keys of my SideWinder X6 plenty of times to perform various tasks, such as word processor macros, pickpocketing merchants in NWN2 while I was out doing the groceries, pulling the trigger at superhuman speed and so on. Maybe I'm just that lazy.

How did you pickpocket merchants while doing the groceries!?

Put pickpocketing (or thieving or whatever the technical term was) into a quick action, assign a macro that pushes that quick action key and immediately left-clicks, then repeats after a certain amount of time. I think I used a ten- or twelve-second delay because of the cooldown thing you get if you cock things up. It's ridiculously boring to do it manually or sit by the computer while the macro does its thing - especially because some of those merchants are richer than the bloody Rockefellers.

This is a revelation! I thought you could only pickpocket an individual once, but maybe I'm confusing it with every other RPG ever made.

Now that I think about it, have you ever considered cheating? It might save you some time and effort ;)

Wise words, indeed.

Considering I spill a glass of whiskey over mine at least once every three months, the only features I look for are the keys: A,D,W,S. and a cheap-ass price tag.

As a joke, I'm going to suggest a Model M keyboard.

On a more serious note, I'm going to suggest you don't spend too much.

If you have the budget for a high-end keyboard, it's worth not focusing on the gaming too much but getting a good keyboard that you enjoy using for everything else as well. Try out some keyboards with the popular cherry switches. Many find the cherry browns a good compromise between writing and gaming. I have a Tenkeyless Filco Majestouch 2 with cherry browns, and I like it quite a bit.

Due to the way cheap keyboards are built, having several keys pressed down at the same time can prevent some other key from registering, which could cause some issues on keyboard-heavy games. As a quick test, press down both shift keys and type THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOGS. Missing letters? You will with most cheap keyboards and even if not, some other key combination may still be impossible. A related issue, ghosting, is harder to reproduce but sometimes when you press two keys down at the same time a third key gets registered as if it was pressed too. Good keyboards with individually wired keys shouldn't do that either.

Even if the keyboard is good, the USB protocol has a hard limit of six simultaneous keypresses (+ modifier keys). This is probably enough for everything and keyboards that max out at that should say "6KRO" somewhere in their promotional material. If your computer has a PS/2 port and the keyboard supports it, you should use that instead, it's slightly better that way and you'll even save a USB port. Keyboards can offer "NKRO" this way and not lose one keypress even if you press them all down at the same time.