by Han
published by Rinie 10 August 2009
Big in size, Big in priceRemember mouse pads? Those little, square rectangles upon which you rode your pointing device? They came free with computers, and even some mice. At the computer store, they cost all of five bucks.
Would you pay RM50, RM100, or more for a mouse pad?
Well, people do. Along with the advent of gaming mice comes the "professional mousing surface." Baked with all kinds of technologies, such as aluminum composition or 7/100 of 1" thick, the professional mousing surfaces available for anywhere from RM20 to the stratosphere all claim to make your performance soar in competitive gaming. Some also make promises of superior ergonomics, but the key in most cases is that, with this mousing surface, you'll transform from a target to a threat the next time you step into the shoes of a person shooter..
Therefore, is high tech, glorious mouse pad a boon to the gamers, or an overpriced liability? We are about to find out.
Take into account these 3 crucial factors of what we look for in a mouse:
- Megapixels (millions of pixels) per second, sometimes reported as FPS or frames per second, indicate how many times each second a digital mouse snaps a picture. The pictures are used by the mouse's logic to compare to other pictures and, from that, to determine vector and velocity. This is known as image processing.
- DPI, or dots per inch, indicates how detailed those pictures are; more detail results in greater pointer precision. This is known as the mouse's resolution.
- Finally, the polling rate indicates how often the mouse tells Windows (or your operating system of choice) what the heck is going on with the mouse. It's measured in hertz (Hz), or cycles per second.
We are probably not qualified enough to give an opinion whether the fancy mouse pad would make or break our game, so we searched online and found the words of a professional gamer. Meet Jake "mojo" Valienes, who gave his opinion how crucial a mouse pad can be.
“Mousing surface really does matter. They all have different textures, which make for different feel, they are all different sizes," says Valienes, "and they all have different resistance to the feet of the mice. I think the professional gaming mouse pads help the gamers a lot, not only with comfort but with ease of play."
Alright, we can probably conclude that mouse pads do help in 1 way or another, as we see top FPS and Dota players are willing to take the hassle to carry the large mouse pads around just to have a slight edge over the opponent. But which mouse pad is suitable for you?
Gamers decide on mousing surfaces mainly by what feels best to them. It has little to do with whether the pad works best with laser or LED mice; they mainly go for feel.
Without a true mouse benchmark, the choice of a mousing surface boils down to subjective feel. Do you like smooth or textured? Do you like hard or soft? Do you like a lot of room to roam, or are your motions tight and precise?
Only you know the answers to all these questions, therefore it is important to test the surface and do proper researches if it actually helps you before you splurge your cash.
4 comments:
Somehow related, I once saw someone with leet battlegear (Rm 300++ keyboard, a Rm 200++ mouse and a Rm100++ mousepad) during this one tournament last year. At first I was like "HOLY SHI-" but then that guy lose at the VERY first round to this another guy who only use the setup given by the organiser (basic keyboard/mouse/mousepad). So I'd say skill > equipment. It's useless to have those kind of stuff if you're... err... suck(?) at it.
Thanks for your feedback. It is true, but this post is meant to help top gamers who are really committed about doing well in tournaments. Because in tournaments, or even top sporting events, the margin of victory can be very slim, sometimes the equipment or even a wrong call by the referee can change the match in favour of another team. Therefore if gamers feel that the usage of top equipment is necessary, then they would spend the money to buy them just to give themselves that edge. And also, I did mention that gamers should do their own research to find out if the equipment would actually help them before they spend their money.
However, you are right, skill is greater than equipment. I bet if we get Lee Chong Wei's racquet and tie his shoes against the post he would still beat us flat.
its about personal preference and consistency. if you keep playing with the same mouse and mousepad everytime, you wont have to adjust to different surfaces @ different tourney venues. thats what gives you the edge. it lets you play comfortably like you always do. it doesnt level up your skillz.
i also have to point out having a decent mouse that doesnt skip and tracks well over a mousepad is also important. can be rm10 or rm300.. but, im sure we all know most rm10 mouse will skip or go haywire during fast swipes
:)
It depends on what kind of game you play. If you're playing dota, imo you dont need a good mouse+mousepad cause all you have to do is just point and click. Look at the korean starcraft gamers. Logitech optical mini and a small mousepad.
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