OLD HAND

For does familiarity matter more than specs?

- Phil Iwaniuk

They say familiarity breeds contempt. Then again, how often do you see them popping up at Counter-Strike 2 majors? All of which is to say that when it comes to our gaming setups, there are two opposing forces locked in an eternal tug of war across our meticulously RGBed desk. On one side, the PC gaming hardware industry and its ever-changing roster of products, each featuring slightly higher numbers and vaguely different-sounding features than the last. Peripheral makers make us a tacit promise that this latest cool thing they've been working on will make us better gamers.

On the other side is our muscle memory. The divots we've furrowed into our neural pathways over innumerable hours spent attuning to our current, imperfect, outdated setups. We sit down, our hands find their way around our familiar mouse and keyboard, and our K:D finds its groove. So who's right? Does new, technologically advanced gear make us play better or is our familiarity with our own setup a greater asset? In a huge oversight on the part of the academic world, there isn't much scientific literature about this phenomenon.

Love Hz

First it was DPI.

Bigger was better, usability be damned.

Then when enough of us complained that, actually, 20,000 DPI mode isn't useful for much except making your PC unusable to intruders, mouse manufacturers moved on. Polling rate has become the in-vogue stat of recent years and, although its numbers have a more sensible real-world application since it defines how well it captures your own movements rather than sheer sensitivity, it's still over-emphasised for marketing purposes.