Guild Wars 2

Greetings,

I am looking for feedback on how to place things on a desk for pc gaming.

I currently have my keyboard to the left of my monitor, and my mouse to the right of it.

When I need to type I have to turn my body (I don’t want to have to do that).

What’s a good way to position things?

Keyboard in front of you. With the mouse next to it. That’s how I have mine. I do have a very high sensitivity mouse. So I don’t need to do big movements with it. I also have a gaming keyboard and mouse, a Mad Catz Rat 3, and a Cyborg keyboard, an old keyboard but a good one.

I use the arrow keys for movement instead of the w,a,s,d keys. I find those to be quite awkward to use due to their being offset from each other and also smothered by so many other keys. I have my keyboard offset to the left of my monitor so I, too, have to lean over to my left to type. I do not mind it and I rarely type while gaming so it is not much of an issue for me.

I’m sorry that I cannot offer an alternative position to place your keyboard at that would remain comfortable for typing as well as for movement controls.

The only alternatives I can come up with would be to:

• use the left side of the keyboard for movement (w,a,s,d), which I understand may not be desirable (I refuse to)
• Place the keyboard in front as normal for direct access to typing and then acquire a gaming pad that is small and has arrow/movement and function keys that you can place wherever you find comfortable. This way you can keep your movement and function keys where you desire and easily switch to the big keyboard to type.

Some gaming pads to consider:
Logitech G13 ($60)
Razer Orbweaver ($100)
DELUX-T9 ($40)

But there are others out there also.

I have my keyboard slightly offset to the left with a wrist pad in front of it, and my mouse immediately to its right. Monitor centered in front of me with second monitor to the right. I use a Naga HEX so I can put all my movement on the mouse (annoying for ground targeting purposes but vital to my ability to move at all). My mousepad has an integrated gel wrist pad and my desk chair has a padded arm rest I can set to my preferred height so my arm rests on it with my mouse near the edge of the desk while I still have full support. (I’ve layered more mouse pads on top of the gel one, actually, to get a slightly better height plus a better surface). When I type my left arm stays on the left chair arm but I have to pull my right arm over. I seldom type for enough hours for that to be a strain, though. As it is my left hand rests easily over most of the keyboard area used for game controls while my right hand reaches straight ahead for the mouse.

Sorry I’m no neatnik but here’s how it is:

One thing that really changes the ergonomy of a gaming environment is the height of your desk and chair and their position relative to each other.

Basically, you want to sit as low as not having to bend your wrists but as high as avoiding permanent contact with the desk itself.

Second, many pro-league professional players who play for extensive hours (10+), position their keyboards slightly off-set. I’ve actually started doing the same without even knowing its “a thing” because it felt natural to me. Turns out, placing the keyboard straight is actually straining hands. What you do is you slightly shift the left side of the keyboard up. This will cause WASD keys to be slanted and your left hand is completely straight and not strained. Try it — you’ll see what I mean.

Naturally the method above takes a while getting used to cause then you have to slightly shift where every key is and if you type without looking like I do, it causes a little frustration over the upcoming weeks

For the mouse you have to make sure you have the right size. There are certain ways to “grip” the mouse and first you gotta identify which type of grip you are narutally accustomed to. After this, find a mouse for your practical use (MMO mouse if you find you’re running out of comfortable keybinds / regular mouse if you are set with your binds and like ergonomy more than function) and stick to it.

The important thing after setting your gaming gear right is to stick with it and run the mile. You’d be amazed how much you improve with that particular set of gear given you practice long enough. Once you’re comfortable with your setup you’ll notice you can game for longer hours without feeling any pain.

Good luck o/

There are people who arrange their PC workplace in several strange fashions, because they think the PC and its input devices should be arranged to keep some kind of order on the desk. Or want to make the desk look clean and empty.

But you have to realize that a PC workplace can only be ergonomic, if you accept that the monitor, keyboard and mouse is an integral part of your desk arrangement. It’s nothing you put away after work, it’s always there instead.

How do you work with a PC? All of the time, you are looking directly on the monitor. You want to keep your body straight, so you put your hands on the desk in front of the monitor. The most natural thing is now to put the keyboard under your hands, directly in front of the monitor, so you don’t need to turn your head or body if you either type on the keyboard or look on the monitor.

You put your mouse directly right from the keyboard (or to the left, if you are left-handed). Otherwise the way from the mouse back to the keyboard is much too long and you waste your time by moving your hand between keyboard and mouse instead of actually use your mouse or keyboard and input something.

Put your keyboard on the top of your desk. Not sink it into some low hanging drawer. How do you eat? You eat from the table, of course, you will never put your soup plate into an open drawer that hangs below the tabletop and eat from the drawer. It’s the same with the keyboard. Type on the keyboard the same fashion and posture you write with a pencil on a piece of paper on your desk.

Here are more professional workplace health recommendations:

http://www.ehs.pitt.edu/workplace/10steps.html

Gamers have no different requirements than regular office workers who sit 8 hours in front of their work PC, so this applies for all of us.

http://i.imgur.com/HJ2KlTd.jpg

That’s how I have my desk, personally. I’d really like to push everything back way further but the crappy desks at my school have a shelf that prevents my monitor from moving back any further. I recline pretty far when I sit so I can have my arms decently stretched out in front of me.