From Cosmetic to Critical: The Gamer’s Advantage

Quick Links

• A Headset
• Controllers
• A Gaming Mouse and an Extended Mouse Pad
• A Gaming Keyboard
• A High Refresh Rate or High-Res Monitor
• An Ergonomic Chair

Key Takeaways

• A headset is essential for immersive gameplay and team communication in multiplayer games.
• Controllers offer convenience and immersion for PC gaming, especially for couch co-op.
• A high-quality gaming mouse and keyboard enhance precision and speed while playing video games.

You may have scoffed at all those flashy gaming setups you’ve seen online, thinking to yourself that nobody needs all of that to enjoy gaming. You’re right; flashing RGB lights aren’t necessary to win a battle royale. However, there are some gaming accessories that really improve your experience.

1 A Headset

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A good pair of headphones with a microphone is a must-have. Why? Well, consider this: behind most games you’re playing, there’s a whole team of sound experts. By using tinny earphones, you’d be doing them, and yourself, a great injustice. Besides, there’s a reason why The Game Awards gives a prize to the game with the best score and music.

A high-quality headset can truly transport you into the game, making every sound, every whisper, and every explosion feel real.

When you switch to multiplayer games, the reasons become twofold. Firstly, you’d want to hear what your teammates or the game are saying to you since context and information are vital in co-op games. Secondly, you’d want something with a good mic so that your teammates can hear what you have to say properly. You don’t want to be that person with the crackling mic.

If you’ve been avoiding a headset due to high costs, you’ll be pleased to know that we have a list of budget gaming headsets you can check out.

2 Controllers

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Playing on a PC often means you can complete all your tasks competently with a keyboard and a mouse—you might not see the need for a controller at all. However, there are certain things a controller does well that the keyboard and mouse pairing can’t.

For instance, a controller can be convenient if you want to play on a sofa and you’re tired of putting your arms on a desk. Some controllers also provide haptic feedback and pressure-sensitive controls for select games, offering a new range of accessibility options and immersion.

Additionally, some PC games were built with controllers in mind, like platformers, for example—as we’ve detailed in our comparison piece on controller vs. keyboard and mouse .

The header here says “controllers”, meaning plural. Buy more than one controller if you can. One of the beautiful things about controllers is that you can easily do a couch co-op with friends. There is no need for them to have their own PC; you can all use controllers and have a more enjoyable, good old-fashioned split-screen experience.

3 A Gaming Mouse and an Extended Mouse Pad

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Some might not know, but there’s plenty of differences between a regular mouse and a gaming mouse. On the surface, it might look like they’re just flashier. But behind all the aesthetics, most gaming mice have strong pros for enjoying video games.

These include:

• A gaming mouse’s bigger size and design often gives you better grip. This means you can play for longer without feeling pain in your hand. Just make sure you get one that fits snugly.
• Do you find yourself repeatedly performing a string of actions in a video game, like opening your inventory and taking a health item? You can program this into one of the extra macro keys on your gaming mouse or any other similar set of actions you’d like. Most gaming mice have extra mappable buttons.
• One of the core differences between gaming mice and regular mice is sensitivity (measured in DPI). Gaming mice typically have an allowance for higher sensitivity, which means you can move your cursor across the screen with shorter movements. This is ideal for games that need quick reaction times, such as first-person shooters.
• Another aspect is precision and responsiveness. A gaming mouse typically has a faster polling rate (measured in Hertz) than a regular mouse. You can get up to 8000Hz, depending on the mouse, meaning your cursor has a near-instantaneous reaction when you move your mouse or press a button. This will give you a huge bonus in games that need you to target and click quickly.

Another thing to keep in mind is a good mouse pad. Placing your mouse on a mouse pad instead of a bare desk would help keep your mouse movements accurate and consistent. Those regular office ones might not cut it because of their relatively small surface areas. You need a mouse pad that can handle arm movements instead of just wrist flicks.

4 A Gaming Keyboard

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If you read the section about gaming mice, you must have already gotten the gist of how “gaming” accessories typically mean faster speeds than regular accessories. This also translates to gaming keyboards with the additional bonus of mechanical switches.

Before we go into polling speed, let’s explain how having mechanical switches can make your gaming experience better. Mechanical keyboards provide tactile feedback when a key is pressed. It helps when you know for a fact you pushed a button while playing a video game.

Moreover, mechanical keyboards allow for simultaneous key presses and won’t “ghost” the way membrane keyboards do when you mash several buttons at once.

While gaming keyboards generally have a faster polling rate than regular keyboards, mechanical gaming keyboards add some hardware speed too since mechanical switches actuate faster than their membrane counterparts. Also, with a higher polling rate, your input is more responsive and the milliseconds of difference can be life or death in fast-paced action games. You can learn more about this in our guide on what a keyboard polling rate is and why it matters .

Additionally, gaming keyboards are usually backlit (unlike a regular Apple Magic keyboard, for example), and they also come with extra buttons that you can map macros to.

5 A High Refresh Rate or High-Res Monitor

If you use a PC, then you should already have a monitor or a TV (these days, the distinction between these two items is diminishing). But if your display has a low refresh rate or low resolution, then you might be missing out on a lot. In the case of FPS games, it might be why you’re losing.

Things would be easier if all monitors displayed images the same way, but this is not the case. Some monitors can display pictures or frames on the screen much faster than others. The rate at which the frames on the screen refresh, or refresh rate, can make all the difference. Just like polling rates, we measure this in Hz (Hertz is how many times something occurs per second).

In an online shooter game like Call of Duty: Warzone, seeing your enemy fast enough could mean winning or losing. If you’re into FPS games or prefer smoother animations, consider getting a monitor that does better than 60Hz.

For players who prefer single-player graphics-intensive games, resolution is more important than refresh rates. If you have a high-resolution monitor or TV, the images will appear with more detail and sharper clarity.

There’s no one resolution that is the best for gaming , but a good future-proof option is a 4K display. They are generally pricier, but there are some pretty good, affordable 4K monitors out there today.

6 An Ergonomic Chair

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You may have seen a relatable streamer or two playing video games on a plastic chair or a dining chair. As relatable as they are, that kind of setup isn’t something you should emulate. It’s difficult to stress too much how disadvantageous it is to sit with a bad posture for hours. Every gamer should have an adjustable ergonomic chair that they use for desktop gaming.

Maybe you can get away with ignoring ergonomics in your other gaming accessories, but you’ll pay for using a bad chair. You could get repetitive strain injuries if your chair and your desk have a huge height difference, for instance.

Some people recommend ergonomic office chairs, while others might suggest gaming chairs instead. As long as it’s adjustable and has good back support, go for it.

These accessories are core to enhancing your gaming experience. But they are, by no means, all of them. Other accessories like an SSD external hard drive, for example, can directly improve your game’s loading speed.

You should choose accessories depending on what types of games you enjoy playing and what your current gaming setup looks like. Granted, there are many showy gaming gadgets, but there are also some gems among them.