The recent announcement of the Sidewinder mouse, sporting five buttons, custom weights, a red and black paint job, and a built-in LCD on the mouse was met with widespread derision.
The biggest criticism of the mouse, even from competitive gamers, was “It’s ugly.” Don’t believe me? Check ESReality’s forums, long home to some of the hardest of the hardcore, old-school FPS players.
For a more casual perspective, head over to the Shacknews comments. Even Steve “sCary” Gibson, a one-time hardcore QuakeWorld player who knows a little something about being really good, said: “Wow.. I can only imagine someone had a focus group say ‘We want f***in ass ugly angles and s***, the uglier the better!’ and sold the results to Logitech and MS. Amazing they both put out such terrible looking turds.”
My question is this: How often do you find yourself admiring your mouse? Does it really matter what it looks like as long as it’s comfortable to play with? Do you bring girls over to your house to show them your mouse?
I hope not. I hope you judge your mouse by how comfortable it is. By how many headshots or midair rockets you can hit — or your lightning gun percentage. Because that’s what really matters.
Maybe it’s just me, but I never look at my mouse. I’m too busy killing virtual people with it — if it’s good — or replacing it with a good mouse if it’s bad. It’s true that I’ll probably never look at the Sidewinder’s built-in LCD screen, but I’ll use a mouse the color and shape of Barney the dinosaur if it gets the job done.
In the next few weeks, GGL Wire is going to find out if the Sidewinder mouse is worth your money. Until then, keep the flames fanned. It’s amazing how many gamers value style over true performance.
4 Comments
Performance and how comfortable the mouse feels. I loved my mx300 and used it till the thing practically fell apart. I had a back up Razer Diamondback that is clear with big red lights in it. Although the DB has higher DPI and looks better I simply can’t stand the feel of it. I do terrible when it comes to aiming with it because it’s so huge and clunky compared to my mx300. I have yet to find a mouse like the 300. I’ve even stopped playing Quake because I can’t get the correct mouse to fit my hand anymore.
/ramble
I’m in the same boat as you mood, I don’t really care all that much as to what my mouse looks like either. I wouldn’t go so far to say that I would use a Barney colored mouse, but I’m not going to deny a mouse based purely on looks. I don’t even really care about the LCD readout either, but if it is comfy and gets the job done for what I use it for, then it’s good enough for me.
As it stands, I don’t need another mouse in my collection, nor do I need a replacement for my current mouse. But if I needed a new mouse, I would at the very least go to Best Buy or something and hold the mouse to see if it felt good. I might even go so far as to buy it and try it out for a week or two (I can usually tell if I like a mouse within 30 mins of use). Having that said, I wouldn’t count it out until Sujoy/McFly/myself got a hold of it.
I mostly care about the feel in my hand. I have huge hands so small mice aren’t my thing that’s why I have an IE 3.0. Second I’ll look at the tech that’s been put into the mouse, optical versus laser, etc.
The look doesn’t really matter but if the mouse is comfortable I would bet that it looks pretty darn good too. Of course this isn’t always true but in general that’s what my experience has taught me.
Lance Armstrong once said “It’s not about the bike.”
It’s not about the mouse either folks. Though that thing looks drat awkward to use.
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[…] in two hours. Until then, one of my coworkers will be using the mouse. I know, I’m a tease. Read back in time for a rant about this mouse’s looks. Does it even matter what it looks like? News, E-Sports | Mahmood Ali | | Share this […]