It’s true that gaming consoles have become the dominant entities on the gaming market. There are virtually no titles which arrive first on the PC and later on get released as a console title. It’s always the other way around. A console title gets released and after a few months, after the waters cool down and profits from the console version begin dropping, the company may decide to release the PC version in order to squeeze a few extra bucks.

But although console titles like Halo take years to be ported to a PC (and even then the end result may be horrible), there hasn’t been a game controller made yet which can replace the mouse and keyboard combo. Professional FPS gamers know what I’m talking about and it’s time for you to know why you’re getting badly beaten online in games like Quake or Unreal Tournament.

Well, to be honest, you’re probably not very good at it. But this is not actually your fault (in most cases); the truth is that low skills are most often the cause of poor performing hardware. Yes, you got it. If you want to dominate in UT you got to have dedicated gaming hardware. Just remember that not everybody is required to buy expensive hardware in order to be good. Some of you might even find non-expensive keyboards more than pleasing.

And of course, the key component of any FPS action junkie is the mouse. More accurately, the gaming mouse. The mouse is your most important investment when it comes to gaming, especially in a FPS game. It is the tool which helps you aim, shoot and move at the same time. Granted, movement is still keyboard bound, but trust me, if the mouse is lacking in performance, you’ll re-spawn more than you can count in a multiplayer game.

Let me explain to you how a mouse affects one’s skills when it comes to FPSs. First of all you use your mouse to look around. No problem here. But what happens when an adversary comes in sight. Well, movements get more aggressive. Your brain start calculating (based on your sensitivity settings and former training) how much, how fast and in what direction your hands need to move the mouse in order to aim at the opponent. If you do the math right (and if you’re good you get it right most of the time), you should have the crosshair placed somewhere on your opponents body.

But it’s not. Why? Well, that’s because your mouse isn’t precise enough, which means that it can’t track the entire movement of your hand because the hand moved faster than the optic sensor's capture and processing capabilities. If you’re still using a ball based mouse just shut down the computer and never turn it on again. This is just one example of how a cheap mouse can get you killed (in the virtual world, of course).

So what really counts when deciding to purchase a gaming mouse? Well, there are actually several factors that you need to consider. And they’re mostly personal factors. First of all, you need to consider how big your hand is. If you have small hands you’d probably receive a lot of strain when using a large mouse, so you’d be better looking for something medium sized. Second, you need to establish what hand position you prefer. Some people like to have their hands stretched across the entire mouse surface, so bigger mice is the way to go. You should also take into account how your hand feels after extended periods of gaming.

Third, weight is a problem. Using a weightless mouse is not a good idea. Weightless mice provide for pure accuracy since it’s difficult to keep the steady. On the other hand it’s obviously a bad idea to use more than you can carry. Again, you need to find out how much weight your hand can control for extended periods of time. This is why companies like Logitech (but not only) provide weight adjustable mice, which come with a special compartment and different weights that can be combined and placed inside the mouse for obtaining a specific weight.

Another important factor that needs attention is the mouse grip. Your hands are bound to get sweaty when playing against a professional player and adrenaline will start working. After a couple of hours of fragging, your hand will begin to slip when moving the mouse. In order to avoid this problem, you need a mouse with special rubber grips. This means that some parts of the mouse surface will have some rubber patches applied and provide the user with a much more solid grip.

One last ergonomic feature which needs a bit of attention is represented by the mouse feet. These are the small pads beneath the mouse that actually make the mouse glide on the mouse pad. These should be manufactured from something like Teflon alloy, which makes for a smooth movements and long lasting feet.

Now that we have the ergonomics set out, we need to focus on performance problems. These problems mostly surround the tracking sensor, which is built one of the three technologies currently available on the market. The first is optical, which seems to become somewhat obsolete when it comes to gaming mice, and the second is represented by laser technology. The latter is currently the most advanced technology used in mouse tracking and you can be sure it will provide the best possible response in any gaming scenario. Optical gaming mice also provide performance tracking (my first gaming mouse was a Logitech MX510) and are guaranteed to improve your skills compared to a regular optical solution.

Next, we have to take into consideration the number of auxiliary buttons a mouse provides. Any mouse comes with left and right buttons. Most respectable mice also provide a third button in the form of a click-able scroll wheel. And here is where gaming mice come in. A gaming mouse should have at least (in the worst case) two more extra buttons. So, this makes for a total of 5 buttons. In practice, you really don’t need that much for FPS games, but strategy and RPGs could make use of more mouse buttons.

Also, most of the well-known gaming mice manufacturers provide customized software that allows users to create macros and assign them to one of the extra buttons. Profiles to be used with different games are also very popular these days. This makes it easier when playing different games, since the user isn’t force to readjust his settings with each game.

This is pretty much everything you need to know when you think the mouse is holding you back from realizing your true potential. However, there are really two more factors (one of which is mouse related) that may help you on your road to fame. The first is defined by the presence of the mouse wire.

There was a time when most gamers where complaining that wireless mice were not as responsive as wired mice and that there was a significant lag which degraded overall performance. This was true, the key word being “was”. I can personally confess that current wireless laser mice have pretty much zero lag when it comes to gaming and should not affect anyone’s skills. I could be wrong since I haven’t been 1on1 with a professional for a long time, but it thing this is for you to decide.

The second factor is not really mouse related and has to do with the mouse pad. Companies have developed some special gaming mouse pads which come with a large surface, rubber grips, mouse wire holder and changeable surface texture. These feel very comfortable even in day to day office use and have dropped in price in the last couple of years (but are still something like 5 to 10 times more expensive than regular mouse pads). Using such a pad will definitely increase your gaming skills, but only after you have a lot of training with a good mouse and some serious players.

In the end, I would like to point out that although I mostly pointed out Logitech in my examples, there are other companies, such as Razor, Microsoft and many others that also provide high quality gaming peripherals.