What's it been, a few months since I posted on geekhack? I almost feel like I should reintroduce myself since no one would really know me anyway.
In short:
I'm kinda hardcore into competitive gamingI'm loving my Goliathus Speed Edition.
For those wanting just a little bit more ammo for the "gaming mousepads are legit purchases" argument:
1) Choice of mousepad offers control over your mouse's coefficients of static and kinetic friction. Some of us like for our mouse to have a nice grip on the surface (EWW WHY WOULD YOU?) while others like to feel like our mouse is gliding on air (master race).
2) Any good mousepad is going to offer consistent and good tracking on its entire surface. You can't really ask for this on other surfaces, especially wood desks which may or may not have an unevenness, dark spots which alter tracking ability, etc.
3) Now, take the properties in notes 1 and 2, and add to them the point that you will ALWAYS have them. For people like me who actually leave my house and go to PC video game tournaments and LAN parties, this one is truly invaluable. I don't have to assume that my mousing surface will be different from how it is at home, because I take it with me.
Outside of gaming applications, again, I'm not sure you'd really need something like a $20 mousepad for just goofing around in Word, Excel, or anything else you'd do with your computer (maybe Photoshop would be good to have high-precision equipment). However, for gamers, usually the priority list for what you will want to make sure is good equipment is:
1) Mouse
2) Mousepad
3) Headset
4) Monitor
5) Keyboard (Gotta be frank here, if the keys register and it's not some ****ed up uncomfortable layout, even membrane keyboards are fine. I'm just crazy and like mechanical.)