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There seems to be enough interest in the other merch discussion to justify starting one solely dedicated to Gaming.SE mousepads. I'm researching them right now, but since I know next to nothing about mousepads, I figured I should ask the community what kind YOU like to use.

  • Do you prefer for soft or hard top mousepads for gaming purposes?

  • Are wrist rests essential?

  • Is a specific shape more preferable over another (circle vs. square)?

  • Can you recommend a site for custom ordering high-quality mousepads? I'm doing some searching on my end but a lot of these sites look very Internet ca. 1999.

  • Do you know of any sites/attributes that we should DEFINITELY avoid?

  • Design wise, I think we're leaning towards having a classic question on them, meaning they will match the proposed t-shirts. Another idea is having a cheat code for a popular game (Minecraft, StarCraft II, another that I'm not thinking of). Which of these designs is preferable, or is there a third option we are overlooking?

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    Who uses mousepads? A nice hard, flat desk with no pattern (or one that doesn't screw up the laser) is the best. That said, square is the best unless the largest one you can get would fit inside the largest circular one you can get :P
    – Matthew Read
    Aug 15, 2011 at 15:57
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    I'd say rectangular, not square, to be honest. A mousepad should roughly match the ratio of your monitor.
    – user56
    Aug 15, 2011 at 16:22
  • @Arda Since mice are longer than they are wide, I find that a square mousepad makes it so that the area traced by the laser has approximately the same W:H ratio as the monitor. I don't like having part of the mouse stick over the edge :P
    – Matthew Read
    Aug 15, 2011 at 18:26
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    @MatthewRead I can move from the left end of my left monitor to the right end of my right monitor without moving my mouse off my mousepad on its slowest setting. I don't think it matters that much, it's just more logical that way. I think square ones look weird, too, since when it's square it looks like the horizontal is shorter than the vertical.
    – user56
    Aug 15, 2011 at 19:01

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I used a SteelSeries flat mousepad without wrist wrests for about 2 years. I stopped using it because it was a limited edition for the game Aion, and it started to show wear where I wrested my wrist (so many W's) and the cloth started to pull away from the edge. I wanted to save it, so I put it away.

Currently, I use a Roccat Sense Gaming mousepad, which I thoroughly enjoy. It's very thin (1.35mm thick) and has a micro-crystal surface. I don't like small or round mousepads very much. It's 40cmx28cm, which is fine for me because I have a very large desk. I don't really like small mousepads anymore. Anything less than at least 25cmx25cm would likely get 0 use from me. I prefer dimensions closer to the Roccat I listed. YMMV, of course.

Regarding graphics, I too would love to see Jin's heart icon on the mousepad. Popular questions would also be good, but I'm not sure how'd you narrow down how many to print of each, as their popularity will be variable.

I'm not sure if there are really cheat codes that are super-popular for current gen games. I think achivement names could possibly fill that niche, but you'd again run into the problem of which ones to print.

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  • Thinness is a good feature. I tend to find thick pads unpleasant to use, as the edge of the surface can dig into your wrist after a while.
    – sjohnston
    Aug 15, 2011 at 16:29
  • I strongly favor the SteelSeries style soft and thin mousepads, so I agree with this choice.
    – Mad Scientist
    Aug 15, 2011 at 17:01
  • @Fabian I really like their style as well, but I'm concerned about the cloth top curling from extended use like what happened to mine. The Roccat's micro-crystal surface seems to have held up way better against wear, though admittedly I haven't been using it as long. Either way, I definitely prefer the large, thin style.
    – FAE
    Aug 15, 2011 at 17:04
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  • Hard
  • No wrist rest
  • Rectangular is generally better. Also, the bigger, the better.
  • I would personally prefer some sort of iconic graphic on it (like the ♥GAMING logo from the page header), instead of a bunch of text.
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    I would prefer the <3 logo too.
    – KatieK
    Aug 15, 2011 at 16:28
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I have used a Func Industries Original Surface since its release in 1999 (by which I mean the mouse pad I use is 12 years old). I originally purchased it for competitive Counterstrike, and because it's dual sided texture allows it to work for both laser and ball mice (a major concern for me at the time as many lans still had ball mice).

While I am normally a fan of Steelseries products, I find their mousepad to have higher friction when compared with Func's smooth side, and it lacks the option to adapt to a ball mouse.

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