How important is a good mouse?

Using a gaming mouse makes a pretty big difference. I've found that Logitech's require you to move your whole hand when moving, and the Razer's are controlled more by your fingers which I prefer but I do well with both.

I've been using the Razer Copperhead for almost a year now and its been a great mouse.

A good mouse has many advantages. Chief among these is the extra buttons. Just one extra button for your thumb can make you much more efficent. I normally make it my melee attack, and its great.

Some mice come with other useful functions. Mine (logitech mx518 ) has 2 buttons for increasing/reducing the sensitivity of the mouse seperately from whatever game im using. It can be useful for slowing it down for accuracy, or increasing it for the edge in close quarters (although this takes practice!).

Also, good mice from good brands like logitech are more reliable, tend to feel much nicer to use, and normally come with their own software to make sure everything works as planned. These things help make your gaming more comfortable and reliable. Dont mistake this for making you better! If youre just not very good, this wont help, only practice will.

It will save you from tenosynovitis.

If you're finding it hard to shoot people, it's probably your ability to use a mouse. The basic design principles and techniques of usage are the same with both a normal and gaming mouse.

Gaming mice generally just have much more comfortable design, a much higher aesthetic level (because we... like... sexy mice...?) more buttons with greater customisation, and much higher DPI options as well as the ability to change it on the fly - changing the DPI may help your accuracy level, but probably not in any significant way.

Try changing your in-game mouse settings. You may find yourself better suiter to a higher or lower mouse sensitivity, or inverting the axis may suit you better. You can always try getting a gaming mouse, but you won't really notice a significant improvement in your ability just because you changed your mouse.

Remember also that a lot of games have zoom, scope or ironsights and you aren't meant to shoot from the hip. You may also just be shooting from too far away. Some guns are just designed to be used up close.

This isn't the hardware forum, so I'm just going to say very very important especially for fps.

Each player should choose the best one for them individually. Use laser mouse, they are the best. Different hand, different style, so it's up to you to choose.

RK-Mara is right. It prevents RSI (repetitive stress injury).

A "gaming" mouse won't make you better. Any mouse that doesnt skip and has about 400dpi or more will do you fine. Having a mouse is all about how comfortable you are with it and aiming is mostly skill. I have seen first hand that having a different mouse wont instantly make you better unless your old mouse was skipping and doing crazy stuff.

Companys advertise DPI, but in the real world, DPI has nothing to do with how you aim but rather how much of a resolution you use. Like I use 800x600 in FPS multiplayer so I can easily use a 400dpi mouse and be fine. (which i do(IME 1.1))

Now of course everything is still preference and even if you think you do good with your mouse you can be good like that with any mouse. Again Aiming doesnt really have much to do with your mouse, just as long as you are comfortable then thats all that matters.

Well, you tell me. Do you want to live or die? LOL

Seriously a good mouse isn't going to make you a good player - that takes practice - but the 300DPI mouse you are using for Office 2003 won't do you a lot of favors when you're playing a FPS, particularly a challenging one like Far Cry. Get a good gaming mouse with decent resolution, 800-1000 DPI probably isn't a must have but in my opinion you should ditch that mouse you brought home from the office. It'll cost you a little but come on, you're spending all that money on games and a gaming PC, get yourself good controllers. BTW if you are using XP be sure to disable mouse acceleration - it's a pain in the ass. If doingit in Control Panel doesn't take there's registry fix to handle it permanently. I have yet to use Vista but I assume the same general rule regarding mouse acceleration fits.

Not that I am going to win any trophies with my skills but these things should help.

Aside from that, yeah - practice. You need good gear to get the most out of a game but the only way to become good at anything is repetition. Like they say it's a poor musician who blames his instrument. LOL

A good mouse (and keyboard for that matter) are important if you want to do well in fps games. Simply having good equipment won't make you a good player - that still takes practice. But if you already have some skill you will very quickly notice an improvement in how you play.

Personally I am a big fan of Logitech mice, using the MX700 wireless. It is big and some complain heavy, but fits my hand well and has loads of buttons. For me the only downside is when I have to use someone elses mouse and wonder how they cope with only a couple of buttons!! :)

a mouse on its own cant help u get good at killing people u need practice

but finding the right type of mouse to your style is a differnet matter

i use a tracker ball you dont need to move the mouse with this but u just roll the ball i think this is a good choise if you dont have much space
a lazer mouse is much more sensative than a old rubber ball mouse
try different types of mouses see if you improve

i never use a gaming mouse b4,i never know about it !
maybe i should give it a try

my answer - vital.

i used to be a competetive FPS online gamer, in FPS games a good mouse is vital. i use a G5 and have never looked back, nor do i feel the need to look anywhere else.

and as an added bonus, you can adjust the DPI level by pressing a little button on the top. perfect in DoD:S when you are the machine gunner, just change to 2000dpi and you can move and aim the deployed MG as fast as any other weapon :P