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Gaming Gear Showdown, Simplicity vs. Hype
Posted by
timothy
on Wed May 07, 2008 03:30 PM
from the do-these-ruffles-make-my-avatar-look-fat? dept.
from the do-these-ruffles-make-my-avatar-look-fat? dept.
Slack3r78 writes "Gizmodo is running a feature putting the gaming marketing hype to the test and seeing whether it really makes your playing any more 1337. They match up the latest products from Razer and SteelSeries along with some five-year-old Logitech products and come to the conclusion that ... it doesn't seem to matter that much. It looks like maybe you can't buy your way into finally beating that annoying 13-year-old at your favorite FPS after all."
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It's not about the real effect. (Score:4, Insightful)
Gotta be honest though. Having the 'leetest rig' just makes you top of a very small pile.
Re:It's not about the real effect. (Score:5, Funny)
It seems that "leet" mostly means a side window, big fans (preferably with a control panel in one of the drive bays), really weird SATA cables, and lots and lots of blue LEDs.
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Re:It's not about the real effect. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:It's not about the real effect. (Score:5, Funny)
My rig puts out high intensity GAMMA radiation, have it face into my roommate's rooms so they know what I have...haven't heard from them in a while though, and their rooms are starting to smell funny, but I'm not gonna walk across the stream or leave my rig.
Keeps my pizza warm tho.
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Re:It's not about the real effect. (Score:5, Informative)
No need to worry about your roommate. You just need a shower. How could they rot after death with continuous gamma ray exposure killing all of the microbes?
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Re:It's not about the real effect. (Score:4, Funny)
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Audiophile should feel at home.... (Score:2)
It's not leet enough, unless it also sports 500$ wooden knobs [museumofhoaxes.com] on it (for the control panel).
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It is not the size of your joystick that matters (Score:5, Funny)
It's about the armor.. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Um (Score:4, Interesting)
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Exactly! It's a very tired meme. (Score:2)
I'm happy to say that I can enjoy recreation. I don't have much time to game these days but it's still a good outlet.
The flames and naysayer posts are just jealous
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it was never about status or edge or hype (Score:4, Insightful)
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Hungry, tired, thirsty, and in need of a trip to the nearest bathroom... unless you have the 1337 catheter add-on for your gaming rig.
In that case, I guess you would be in better shape. Just hungry and tired, because you can always drink from the catheter.
and I bet you would even be able to spell catheter at
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Could be because of the newer games (Score:4, Insightful)
I have personally found that it's not hard at all to play games like COD, Crysis, Battlefield, etc. on a poor refresh rate LCD and piece of shit optical mouse. It just doesn't matter. There is no way I could kick ass in Quake3 with that stuff though because just moving the mouse fast enough makes it lose tracking. This is where better equipment could show its worth.
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What the hell is realistic about any of them? Just because they aren't a methamphetamine induced hyper-kill-fest doesn't mean they don't require fast reflexes and accurate movements.
Coding keyboards? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm always interested in "better" keyboards for large volumes of text entry. It does get minus points for putting the Ctrl key in the wrong spot - who uses capslock anyway?
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Every keycode was reprogrammable, so you could change each key's output (or key combo, like shift+ctrl+A) to any other letter, or series of letters up to 250 characters. Plus, it was self-contained. No external program necessary. Hit the remap button, select your target keypress, type in the new output you want, hit remap again, poof. OS and program independent.
Plus it's got an additional 12 function keys down the left side. And a 9 button arrow key group. And after 12 years of us
Stupidest Adware Ever (Score:2)
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My personal experience has been the opposite. When I went from an old 19" CRT to a crisp flat panel it improved my game. As did going from an old Intellimouse to a 3200 DPI "gaming" mouse. In both cases it was the improved resolution that helped me. In TF2 it's not something you notice much, but in CounterStrike getting your reticle right over someone's head - and fast - is crucial. (A
That 13 year old kid... (Score:3, Insightful)
I always take the stance that I'm an adult who works 40+ hours a week and has other responsibilities that take my time. The kid likely plays every waking moment. The fact I can come close to beating him with significantly less practice says something about my skill at the game. Or the kid's.
Then again, ignorance is bliss.
i like my gaming mini-keyboard (Score:2)
not a mouse, but i'll put out there that i'm enjoying the ideazon fang [ideazon.com] gaming keyboard i got a few months ago.
i happened by it when looking for a usb keyboard after i decided i just cannot crouch, strafe diagonally, and change weapons at the same time with my wireless keyboard. i now use that + a usb extender on my living-room set-up (plus the extender enabled a wired mouse and microphone to be near me again too, while still stashing under the couch nicely)
i like that it reaches for ergonomics and don't-hav
Re:You don't say? (Score:4, Informative)
As stated at the end of TFA, just buy what feels comfortable - the rest will, or should, come naturally. If you have to contort your fingers to fit the mouse/kbd, it's only natural your game will take a hit.
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Re:You don't say? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:You don't say? (Score:4, Insightful)
For a typist the feel of the keys and layout of the keyboard really can cut down on wear and tear to the hands. An investment in a good keyboard can save you a payout for medical care later.
Still in the world of ergonomics there are a lot of quacks so you really do have to do your research on what is truly a good keyboard.
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Re:You don't say? (Score:5, Funny)
I dunno, your mom is going to want you to EVENTUALLY kick in for food and use of basement.....
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Yes, to the above.
I spend a lot of time on my gaming rig, and I want input devices that are not only comfortable, but fun to use. And I use Logitech for just about everything, including a G15 keyboard (the blue one), MOMO force-feedback wheel, MX620 mouse and Precision headset. Does spending all that money make me a better gamer? Probably not*, but do I enjoy playing video games with them? Definitely.
*Actually, with the purchase of the mouse, it has. The MX620 is the same form factor as my mouse at work
Re:You don't say? (Score:5, Funny)
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I feel so at home here.
Re:You don't say? (Score:5, Insightful)
The functionality of your mouse makes the greatest difference in a FPS: binding the extra buttons to prevent keyboard movement allowing you to continuously move/jump/crouch etc. to dodge instead of "press whatever key to throw grenade/use good gun". This assumes you have 2-3 fingers for movement, 1-2 for movement actions, you only have at best 1-2 random fingers lingering for a select few keys.
My personal example would be playing spy in TF2, before I had my 8 button mouse I had issues stabbing engies while placing sappers immediately. Now, I can do it with 90% success - meaning I don't die. Why? Cause all I have to do is press left click, thumb click, left click, while maneuvering with keyboard effectively.
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Re:You don't say? (Score:5, Insightful)
Its marketing. They've identified a target demographic with:
a) interest in the product
b) disposable income
Your average enterprise manager isn't interested in equiping his team with higher quality peripherals, and is even less interested in shelling out for them. To a phb, they only reason you got an optical mouse was that they were the same price as wheel.
Why can't you get the same features and comfort on something that doesn't have that doesn't make you look like a status-whore to own?
You can actually. Razer for example has a 'pro' series of its mice that are white. And the product name is 'Click v1.6' or something instead of 'Death Adder in Biohazard Green', specifically to be more palatable to getting your PO approved at the 'office'.
Logitech and Microsoft also make decent quality mice that aren't overly garish.
But at the end of the day the big market for this stuff are teens. And they buy it as much for the status as the performance. And there is plenty of 'gaming hardware' that is ALL flash and no substance. The same 'Razer' that makes extremely good quality mice also has a 'cord manager' (to keep your mouse cord from getting out of control, pulling, tangling, etc. That little dohickey is little more than steel bolt and screw that that they charge $20 bucks for. You could improvise somethign equivalent from the hardware store for maybe $2.
Other products, like gamers computer cases are often poorly designed cheap plastic monstrosities -- while others are genuinely high end product.
Mousing around for eight hours a day is a significant part of many jobs the average
You should. Do you? If not, why not?
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Re:You don't say? (Score:5, Informative)
I both mocked and applauded them in the same post.
Why does anybody care about them?
They make very good quality mice in general.
They make very good quality AMBIDEXTROUS mice in particular.
I hate ergonomic mice. As a left hander I find most of them, being designed for right handed people, extremely uncomfortable. Logitech, for example, doesn't make any of their worthwhile products in a left handed configuration, hell they don't make anything really good that's ambidextrous.
Their mice only have two buttons,
Mine (copperhead) has 6 'buttons', two of which are hard to reach. Plus a clickable scrollwheel, so 7 if you count that. Being that its ambidextrous I can forgive 2 buttons being hard to reach because its symmetrial. The buttons I can't reach are the right hand thumb buttons. I'm sure a right hander would find it equally awkward to press the two left hand buttons. But all the buttons are discrete and can be mapped independantly.
and half of them have the laser in the ass for some bizarre reason.
A lot of gamers hold the mouse with their fingers instead of resting their hand on it. And they make fine left/right mouse movements by swivelling the mouse with their thumb and ring finger, instead of actually pushing the whole mouse because you can make much more precise movements with minimal effort - e.g. for sniping. (imagine it was bolted to the table through the scrollwheel; that's the rough axis its swivelled on). Locating the laser in the 'ass' gives you better control and range doing this.
Razer's not for everyone. I like their mice, not much else. Their cable management system and 'mouse surfaces' are a scam on par with Monster, I prefer the saitek eclipseII to their keyboards, and their headsets? Nothing wrong with them, but I use plantronics . And honestly evem with mice I recommend logitech to most people. They make some very well regarded mice. But if you are a left handed mouser logitech sucks complete and total ass.
Like I said in my original post... you have to separate the quality products from the hype.
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Re:You don't say? (Score:5, Insightful)
You could just as easily say that no one really believes their Monster cables make their stereos sound better. And yet, that company is still in business.
I think for most people there is a psychological relationship between how expensive something is and how good it is. If these things cost $20, no one would even consider the idea that they would make anyone play better, even if they were built exactly the same. At $300, though, people are more likely to believe it.
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Re:You don't say? (Score:5, Insightful)
Knowledgeable people don't believe it.
And yet, that company is still in business.
The world is full of stupid people.
I think for most people there is a psychological relationship between how expensive something is and how good it is.
Yep, see above.
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Re:You don't say? (Score:4, Funny)
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There is a relationship there. Pick up "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" if you want a good book on the subject of marketting and persuasion. Often times it is more difficult to give aw
Re:You don't say? (Score:5, Interesting)
And a laser mouse is better than an optical mouse.
a silent and/or small motion motion keyboard helps
I tend to say, "go with what is most comfortable". Quality keyboards tend to have 2 crucial gaming features:
1) more simultaneous key presses. Nothing sucks worse than side strafe moving while crouching and flicking the reload button and having nothing happen.
2) quality = durability/consistency. the only thing that sucks worse than 1) above is playing on a keyboard where one of the w-a-s-d has gone 'squishy' or 'sticky' or otherwise doesn't have the same feel or travel as the other 3, for example. Any keyboard can fail, but cheap ones fail sooner and more often.
most of these 15 button mice are useless because only the standard 5 buttons can normally be mapped without having to run some special software in the background which impeeds the performance
Trading 0.1 fps to be able to run a useful mouse macro is nearly always worth it. The trick is coming up with useful macros -- some games have them... some don't.
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1) Something is wrong with your G5. Mine is smoove. This, of course, highlights the one big drawback with these fancy mice: you can't open them to clean them out or anything. My RMB has started sticking every now and then, and there's nothing I can do about it except run a toothpick through the groove. :/
Let me clarify -- the wheel itself is fine but it absolutely blows as a middle mouse button. They completely compromised the clickability to get a left-right action that I never use into the mouse.
I've been told the new MX Revolution is better, but I have no interest in wireless mice.
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Think about it. What's the smallest distance you can move your mouse pointer on screen? One pixel. No matter WHAT the DPI rating of your mouse is, this will never change. It's the sensitivity settings in software that are determining how far you have to move your mouse in order to move the pointer one pixel on the actual screen.
DPI ratings are a scam on mice.