what are your thoughts on 'gamer' hardware?

[randomtangent]

for me, i think they're kinda ridiculous.
it's mostly because RGB can overstimulate me easily, too many mice have too many buttons, with quite a lot of them mucking with my muscle memory. one time my cursor might go blazingly fast, then turn into a snail, then go blazingly fast, etc. and i don't really like how sensitive the weird side buttons are either, they're good for quickly going forwards/backwards from pages but some feel too sensitive, so i often accidentally click them anyways.

my whole setup is very "gamer" mostly because slightly younger me wanted to be 'cool' and a little 'edgy' so she pretty much loved the colour black and anything that was marketed towards gamers. now i'd love to have a cute oak office desk and a chair that won't kill my back :P

i think though, no matter the gaming mouse, the more expensive it is, the worse it is in some ways. currently i'm using a G502 HERO and it's got an absurd number of buttons, which i often get frustrated by; though i think the price itself is the worst part.
it's not exactly cheap for me, it's over A$100 in my country, while other gaming mice are usually around A$30-60ish.

i dunno. i'm a gamer, but i just don't like RGB and flashy everything all that much.

[Corrupted Unicorn]

I find it... amusing. I bet this is one aesthetic that will be reminisced of fondly in the coming years.

I like the rainbow TRON-like lights but I try to set them at a calmer pace: softly switching colours like a lava lamp.

I own four "gamer" things:
- My PC's tower has an internal rainbow light. I did not ask for this, but it's kinda part of why it's called "The Unicorn Machine". It's only visible on one side and that side faces away from me: the closest side is opaque and I use it to stick magnets and stickers on it. However, I can see the reflection of the rainbow lights and it helps me check on the PC's fans.
- One of my laptops has rainbow lights and is a ROG, which stands for "Republic of Gamers" which means it's a gaming laptop. One of the best ones back in its age, its name is "Portable Monster Gaming Machine", PMGM for short. However, nowadays it can't do much without its fans going crazy - that thing looks like it's about to take off sometimes      The reason I switched for a desktop PC (the aforementioned Unicorn Machine) is because it's way, WAY quieter. I really appreciate sound when it comes to my online experience, as you see.
- One of my mice. I needed an extra mouse for my laptops and this is what they had. It makes the clicking noise equivalent of a chipmunk voice, but I've grown used to it now.
- The keyboard for the Unicorn Machine. It's a mechanical one, black with white keys and the ever-present rainbow lights: it's my favourite "accessory" because it reminds me of one of my characters  And it makes an absolute WONDERFUL sound when typing. Like a trotting horse.

By the way, does anyone know how to clean a mechanical keyboard? I was advised against pressurized air and recommended to use a hairdryer instead, but I don't see results... 

[randomtangent]

I find it... amusing. I bet this is one aesthetic that will be reminisced of fondly in the coming years.

I like the rainbow TRON-like lights but I try to set them at a calmer pace: softly switching colours like a lava lamp.

I own four "gamer" things:
- My PC's tower has an internal rainbow light. I did not ask for this, but it's kinda part of why it's called "The Unicorn Machine". It's only visible on one side and that side faces away from me: the closest side is opaque and I use it to stick magnets and stickers on it. However, I can see the reflection of the rainbow lights and it helps me check on the PC's fans.
- One of my laptops has rainbow lights and is a ROG, which stands for "Republic of Gamers" which means it's a gaming laptop. One of the best ones back in its age, its name is "Portable Monster Gaming Machine", PMGM for short. However, nowadays it can't do much without its fans going crazy - that thing looks like it's about to take off sometimes      The reason I switched for a desktop PC (the aforementioned Unicorn Machine) is because it's way, WAY quieter. I really appreciate sound when it comes to my online experience, as you see.
- One of my mice. I needed an extra mouse for my laptops and this is what they had. It makes the clicking noise equivalent of a chipmunk voice, but I've grown used to it now.
- The keyboard for the Unicorn Machine. It's a mechanical one, black with white keys and the ever-present rainbow lights: it's my favourite "accessory" because it reminds me of one of my characters  And it makes an absolute WONDERFUL sound when typing. Like a trotting horse.

By the way, does anyone know how to clean a mechanical keyboard? I was advised against pressurized air and recommended to use a hairdryer instead, but I don't see results... 

yea that's fair lol.

i'm just kinda sick of lots of gatekeeping within PC gaming, plus i do play consoles, but not PS5 or Xbox.
soft RGB is interesting, though at the same time i don't really see the point of RGB in general. sometimes i wish for a mechanical keyboard that's hot swappable, good with Linux, can unplug, and has quiet keys, but every single one is RGB and there's none with a solid white backlight.
i dunno, i guess i just love stickerbombing things more than having lighting on it :P stickerbombing things feels better to me

i love PSP, Dreamcast, 3DS, and Switch to an extent, plus i grew up on PS3 and PS2, so maybe that's why i just don't like RGB and black this black that all the time, lol

and another bit around the 'gamer' hardware thing too, the specs i don't care all too much about.
i'm fine with a Core 2 Quad or early Intel Core i7 as long as it's capable enough to run video games at around 50-60FPS, 30FPS is okay too. the GPU i only care about being a GTX 700 or 900 series card, like a 780 Ti or 980 Ti, or a Radeon of the same era; and i don't really see much of a point in getting a super high refresh rate screen, when a 60Hz 1080p one works just as fine? :P

i guess these are some 'spicy takes' but i'm just genuinely kinda exhausted on what feels like pressure to get the latest and greatest hardware.
i suppose this will be looked back on in the near future fondly, which is pretty cool :3

[Kie]

I have a real gripe with "gamer" hardware!

For one, it's ugly. There is some of it that I like, don't get me wrong. I don't mind *some* RGB, and I also find the beehive cell patterns that are popular nowdays very pleasant to look at. But the all-black, "sleek" look that most gaming products go for is just boring to me. I think a lot of "gamer" products try really hard to be "cool" and end up looking.. silly.
This is just a personal preference, of course! I personally favor "timeless" designs that take inspiration from the design of the early days of computers. Simple mice, squared mechanical keyboards, and light color schemes with lots of whites and greys, with maybe a pop of color here and there. But I also like pieces that are a bit more "out there" and have lots of personality, like colorful desk mats and controllers, see-through elements, and novelty keyboards.
Anything but the boring sleek black and colorful LEDs look!!

Another big gripe with "gamer" hardware comes from.. the hardware itself. Often time it doesn't come with better specs than the regular products, but it's still priced much higher!    Unfortunately a lot of people still buy it, because they are under the impression that it must be better since it's "meant for gaming".

When I was still in highschool, I once bought a "gaming" keyboard. I got it in one of those big chain tech stores without doing much research beforehand.  I just liked how it looked on the box and it didn't cost too much. Let me tell you.. that thing was HUGE (it could barely fit on my desk) and terrible quality! It had a bunch of LEDs and sometimes it would turn on in the middle of the night, waking me up. And yes, teenager me found it cool, but in a couple of years all the novelty had worn off and I just found it atrocious 
I recently switched it for a mechanical keyboard not marketed as being "for gaming". It's a lower-end Keychron keyboard. It was still expensive (I think it was around 60€ and on sale at the time), but it's great quality, it has a classic look to it, and it's hot-swappable, so very easy to repair! It came with LEDs, and you can make them do all sort of things like making them light up different colors as you type, but I typically just leave them on white    I'm really happy about it. It's my favorite piece from my set-up and I'm sure it will serve me well for many years.

You really do not need "gaming" hardware to enjoy playing games, and I do not like when companies try to sell that idea. My peripherals set up is made up of that keychron mechanical keyboard I mentioned earlier, a simple logitech mouse (it has two extra buttons on the side but that's about it), and a cheap monitor with a decent refresh rate.
And you don't need the latest PC hardware either! I've had my tower for around 5 years now, and it still has all the original parts. It runs most modern games perfectly fine! Unless you want to run stuff on the highest graphics setting, "old" hardware will serve you just as well. I hate the pressure to always be upgrading to the latest hardware in the gaming community

[WhiteFelineWonder]

The whole RGB lighting thing that a lot of keyboards and PC components have I'm not really fond of either. If the lighting can be toggled off, that's fine, but if it's like, solely RGB permanently on then it's a turn off. Overtime I've lost understanding why RGB lighting is so appealing to people when in my use case, maybe I just want a calm and not-so intense light if I decide to just be a bit nocturnal, and having intense lighting like that kind of kills the whole late night vibe. I just find the wacky lighting to be distracting.

The "gamer" mice... they're just... there. :/
Though, I will say the design that some of these mice decide to take seems over the top for something so common. Like they're very intricately detailed, and some may have lots of extra buttons on there, but uh, who exactly is using all these extra buttons?

One thing about this RGB thing that I know irks me is how there's these mouse pads that have that kind of stuff. Like they have it just slapped on there, and I can't help but internally question if there's any sort of practical use case for an RGB mouse pad other than aesthetic.

Can't see much with all this RGB gamer stuff other than it just being some sort of lingering fad.

[Monoki]

for me, i think they're kinda ridiculous.
it's mostly because RGB can overstimulate me easily, too many mice have too many buttons, with quite a lot of them mucking with my muscle memory. one time my cursor might go blazingly fast, then turn into a snail, then go blazingly fast, etc. and i don't really like how sensitive the weird side buttons are either, they're good for quickly going forwards/backwards from pages but some feel too sensitive, so i often accidentally click them anyways.

my whole setup is very "gamer" mostly because slightly younger me wanted to be 'cool' and a little 'edgy' so she pretty much loved the colour black and anything that was marketed towards gamers. now i'd love to have a cute oak office desk and a chair that won't kill my back :P

i think though, no matter the gaming mouse, the more expensive it is, the worse it is in some ways. currently i'm using a G502 HERO and it's got an absurd number of buttons, which i often get frustrated by; though i think the price itself is the worst part.
it's not exactly cheap for me, it's over A$100 in my country, while other gaming mice are usually around A$30-60ish.

i dunno. i'm a gamer, but i just don't like RGB and flashy everything all that much.

A lot of “gamer” hardware feels gimmicky to me to be honest. It feels more like it appeals to the notion of being a streamer rather than just merely playing games.
I don’t really use any of it myself personally. I’m more of a casual gamer and I’d rather just play my games for fun rather than be a show off haha. 

[randomtangent]

A lot of “gamer” hardware feels gimmicky to me to be honest. It feels more like it appeals to the notion of being a streamer rather than just merely playing games.
I don’t really use any of it myself personally. I’m more of a casual gamer and I’d rather just play my games for fun rather than be a show off haha. 

yea and most "gamer" hardware is aimed at FPS players too, which is like, the genre i least like!

it mostly annoys me with consoles now but that's a different kettle of fish. PCs though expect you have obscenely expensive hardware and there's no way to get around the RGB part. it's weird.

why do i need an Nvidia RTX card just to play a game when i have a GTX 680 Ti from years ago? it's kinda weird. plus the weird hype culture around it in the mainstream.

[Monoki]

yea and most "gamer" hardware is aimed at FPS players too, which is like, the genre i least like!

it mostly annoys me with consoles now but that's a different kettle of fish. PCs though expect you have obscenely expensive hardware and there's no way to get around the RGB part. it's weird.

why do i need an Nvidia RTX card just to play a game when i have a GTX 680 Ti from years ago? it's kinda weird. plus the weird hype culture around it in the mainstream.

FPS's used to be good at one point in time. I see a lot of the more recent ones however and they all feel really kind of the same. Maybe it's just me. But that's what I get the first impression of to be honest.

A lot of the fun has been taken out of gaming in recent years and I think that's mostly because people are treating it as a weird status symbol rather than a niche, nerdy hobby.
As a result, there are a bunch of people trying to cash in on the status of being a "gamer".
There's a lot of effects that happen as a result, from games that aren't fun to weird, unnecessary products marketed at gamers. But gaming really is supposed to be a hobby by regular people, for regular people. Not taking it too seriously is partly what made it fun.

[randomtangent]

yea really - i never liked FPS genre personally it's just not my cup of tea. i love bullet hells though, but agreeing hard on gaming being a weird 'status symbol' now.

i think it's especially weird with retro games - like i just want an N64 or a GameCube just for Animal Crossing/Doubutsu no Mori but they're thousands online now. that whole area feels like a weird 'stock market' thing now -- 'buy low, sell high' instead of... i dunno, playing it?
well i guess that's why emulation's a thing. it's technically not legal, but despite that i simply can't get most games or consoles. emulation's also pretty good though, some are optimised to play on weaker hardware. PPSSPP can run even on mid-range Android phones :D

okay taking off the negative light i guess, with PC there's still many games you can get without that weird status thing. the Touhou Project games are all bullet hells (or PC-98 at least shmups) and they can get ridiculously hard, without paying anything at all! they also look pretty too..
with Linux also there's many games (and knockoffs lol) that kinda fit well too. ClassiCube and MineTest (now Luanti) are good alternatives to Minecraft especially if your hardware isn't modern or powerful. Super Tux Cart's a fun game and is even optimised for low-end hardware too.

yea i do find it annoying since there was an esports competition in my city a month or so ago, and the only games were Valorant, League of Legends, and some others i forgot the names of but they're very similar. i wonder why it's always those anyways?

[Monoki]

Honestly the subject of how gaming has changed over the years has been one of those things on my mind a bit lately. That’s partly because I have a small game I’m trying to make myself, and also been trying to get back into gaming a bit more.
I find it hard to pick up games these days. Part of that could just be because of being much older and therefore a busy adult. Part of that could be the games themselves.

I’ve been making it a point to sit down and play Zelda: Windwaker on the weekends, recently bought Quake 3: Arena because I played that as a kid, and started Tomadachi life. A few minutes to an hour is good enough tbh.