Longtime trackball user needs mouse pro advice!

[Geosurface]

for fps games the mouse is superior for a few reasons. Mouse wheel to swap weapons. right click secondary fire or zoom is very intuitive, thumb buttons are super convenient for melee or reloads.

Hey, OP checking in here. I like both trackballs and mice, the reason I got a mouse and decided to try it was that I did feel like maybe on those occasions when I tried briefly playing CS:GO with the mouse that came with my wireless keyboard, there was something to it... something that at least aroused my curiosity enough that I thought it might be worth getting a legit gaming mouse and a nice pad.

But I must point something out here. Everything you're mentioning applies to modern trackballs just as much. The Logitech M570 has thumb buttons, a left and right click button (not even sure why you said that, did you think trackballs are just one large ball with no buttons or something? like Centipede? ) and a wheel... so, yea every single thing you listed is just as applicable to a trackball.

As I tweak it more and more I am enjoying the mouse, but make no mistake... I was a beast in Quake 1 1996, I was a beast in CS 1.2 and 1.6 and CS:S when I played consistently enough to hang... and I used trackballs allll the while. I've been damned good at a lot of online games whenever I played any one game consistently. Always with trackballs.

Trust me, you can be quite good with the right trackball, and a high level of familiarity with it. I think the reason you don't see professional gamers using trackballs much (though frankly who has actually gone and polled them to see if any use trackballs?) is the same reason you don't see a lot of them sitting there with VR goggles on.

It isn't so much a negative against the peripheral's actual worth and merit, but rather the fact that it's obscure, and most people aren't going to mess around with something obscure, harder to find, of which there is a more limited selection and let's face it... every kid who later became a pro gamer started off probably messing around on his parent's computer or older brother's computer and then a little later on the computers at school, before they were gaming at all or gaming seriously certainly. What did all of those computers have? Mice, not trackballs.

So if you use mice and everyone you know uses mice from birth (now in my case I'm old enough that there weren't mice when I was very young...) it's going to take a rather odd choice on your part to suddenly deviate from everything you know, go outside your comfort zone, and decide to learn to use a trackball.

Hell, I've always said having a trackball on my PC is like having a second password. Most people are loathe to try to use my PC because they hate to try to figure out the trackball.

But I assure you, as a consistent trackball user since 1989, they ARE good, one weakness though is that there are never anywhere near as many models on the market as mice, so you sometimes have to take what you can get, this was especially true in the past. The Logitech Trackman Marble FX wireless was the pinnacle IMO, and I wish they'd bring it back.

But some have been very good, others not so much... but yea, a more limited selection no doubt. They are also harder to get right than a mouse.

To some degree, a mouse is a mouse. What I mean is, they all adhere to the same basic shape (I know there's variation but it's always sort of... y'know, that mouse shape roughly) and the buttons are always going to be in the same spot at least for the major ones... the scroll wheel too, you start to see variation in the extra buttons that basic mice don't have of course.

But with trackballs, they have varied wildly in layout, how big is the ball? where is it located? how many buttons? what finger or fingers are you using to control the ball, index or thumb? etc etc etc.

So they are more obscure, harder to do right, fewer people even TRYING to do them right, and there is a huge cultural momentum against anyone starting to use them if they didn't before.

But they DO have advantages and things about them which make them damned nice sometimes. Trust us.

Here's my new mouse and it's pad next to my trackball:

 

[thespyder]

Very well said.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Power glove trumps all input devices.

 

[thespyder]

And Love glove covers the most important input device.

 

[ripster55]

If you like trackballs you should check out the CST LaserTRAC 2545W. I love mine.

Woohoo!

I got one of those.

And subscribe here you Ballers!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Trackballs/

 

[Dankk]

Woohoo!

I got one of those.

And subscribe here you Ballers!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Trackballs/

Subscribed.

And... dat trackball. Wat D:

 

[ripster55]

Haha, wait until you see my CST LaserTrac with a smiley face in it.

 

[lothar]

What exactly do you mean, "find me people that know about a trackball and it's advantages"? You're in a thread full of them. I also linked you to a few more.

As far as competitive gaming goes: I have absolutely no clue. None. I'm not the right person to ask. Personally I'm not a competitive gamer... nor do I have a lot of skill. That said, I'm still pretty good; I've been in full 64-player games of BF3 where I sit at the top of the scoreboard (though that's rare). More often than that, I can usually at least maintain a K/D of 2:1. So I can confidently say that I'm decent.

You might respond "Well, then maybe trackballs aren't that great after all;" but that's a null argument because you could switch me back to a traditional mouse and not much would change. I've played a ton with both, so I'm pretty used to both. My skill mostly depends on me, and not my input method.

That said, there's still reasons why I prefer my trackball. Comfort and ease-of-use is one of them (no arm or wrist movements when gaming, no cramps). The best feature, however, is the infinite range of movement.

With a traditional mouse you're forced to pick up or "row" your hand. It doesn't matter how big your mouse pad is, or how high you have the sensitivity cranked up: You still have to row your mouse. Period. You're limited to the size of your desk. Your range of movement is restricted and finite. With a trackball, I am not bound by these restrictions.

I can move the mouse cursor infinitely in any direction using only the muscles in my fingers. At no point do I have to pause and lift up my mouse to "reset" it's position. Because of this there is fluid, uninterrupted movement. (As an aside, sometimes my teammates in TF2 laugh at me because I can make my character spin around in circles at a million miles per hour, so I look like a blur. Totally useless, but it's just me demonstrating how fast I can move my cursor).

But like I said: These differences could be negligible to those who've grown up using a traditional mouse (which is understandable; you've been using that kind of mouse for you entire life, so it's completely hard-wired into your brain). Most of my friends refuse to try trackballs because they'd essentially have to "re-learn" how to interact with their computer after years of doing it another way. And that's absolutely fine. Personal preference.

With all due respect to competitive/pro gamers, their reasons for not using trackballs are probably the same as I mentioned before:

1) General ignorance
2) No desire/Not enough good reason to switch (Competitive gamers are so trained and neck-deep in their own sport, are they gonna take a month off to learn a new input method? Probably not)
3) They're 100% comfortable with what they got, so they don't care in the first place. Which, again, is totally fine.

As far as what games trackballs are good for: All of them. There's nothing you can do with a traditional mouse that you can't do with a trackball. The only exception would be the Trackman Marble, which is the one I linked you to above. It doesn't have a scroll wheel, so in games like RTSs that make heavy use of one, you'd have to use the secondary buttons on that mouse to scroll, or use some other method. I have "scroll keys" on my Logitech G105 keyboard in case I need them, so that's what I use.

I think I'm in the minority though. Most trackball users seem to be using the M570 and it's variants. That one has a scrollwheel just like any other mouse.

I have never been forced to do this in any of the games I play.
I mostly play strategy games(both RT and turn based) so maybe that's the reason.

Surely there has to be some kind of scientific study to examine this, similar to how computers in chess can say if you're a certain chess piece color and you open with queen or king's gambit, you're not likely to win the game or you have a higher chance of losing the game than not.

Put the best trackball players in the world in several games vs. the best traditional mouse player and see what happens.
If a person that is using a trackball is competing in such an event:
1.) Irrelevant for a trackball user competing in such an event.
2.) Irrelevant for a trackball user competing in such an event.
3.) Irrelevant for a trackball user competing in such an event.

Presumably, the best trackball player competing in such an event would be no slouch, and he wouldn't just be learning how to use a trackball either.

It's a bit like the wired vs wireless mouse debate. Some on one side believe in free movement which the wireless mouse offers. Others believe the wireless mouse has too much delay/latency/response time and would prefer a wired mouse.

 

[lothar]

My fancy words are the definition of true. Just because something is correlated, doesn't prove that it is Causal.

You can't prove something based on a fallacy. Take a logic class some time.

Also, I never said that trackballs provided BETTER control. Merely that they aren't WORSE. So usage is preference. Not due to any inherent advantage (which is where you MIGHT draw in top level gamers).

How do you know this?
Surely there has to be inherent advantages and disadvantages between using one of those input devices over the other rather than just giving the neutral statement that "all input devices are equal as long as the players are on the same skill level.", which hasn't proven to be a true statement BTW.
Maybe test one of those games that ranks online players based on their skill level similar to how we do for chess? A 1400 and another 1400, 1399 or 1401 are near the same rank(assuming they've played thousands of games in tournaments and such).

Yes, I can't prove that mouse is better.
But you haven't proved that one isn't worse than the other, or that they are both equal.
Neither of our statements are proven.

 

[lothar]

Hey, OP checking in here. I like both trackballs and mice, the reason I got a mouse and decided to try it was that I did feel like maybe on those occasions when I tried briefly playing CS:GO with the mouse that came with my wireless keyboard, there was something to it... something that at least aroused my curiosity enough that I thought it might be worth getting a legit gaming mouse and a nice pad.

But I must point something out here. Everything you're mentioning applies to modern trackballs just as much. The Logitech M570 has thumb buttons, a left and right click button (not even sure why you said that, did you think trackballs are just one large ball with no buttons or something? like Centipede? ) and a wheel... so, yea every single thing you listed is just as applicable to a trackball.

As I tweak it more and more I am enjoying the mouse, but make no mistake... I was a beast in Quake 1 1996, I was a beast in CS 1.2 and 1.6 and CS:S when I played consistently enough to hang... and I used trackballs allll the while. I've been damned good at a lot of online games whenever I played any one game consistently. Always with trackballs.

Trust me, you can be quite good with the right trackball, and a high level of familiarity with it. I think the reason you don't see professional gamers using trackballs much (though frankly who has actually gone and polled them to see if any use trackballs?) is the same reason you don't see a lot of them sitting there with VR goggles on.

It isn't so much a negative against the peripheral's actual worth and merit, but rather the fact that it's obscure, and most people aren't going to mess around with something obscure, harder to find, of which there is a more limited selection and let's face it... every kid who later became a pro gamer started off probably messing around on his parent's computer or older brother's computer and then a little later on the computers at school, before they were gaming at all or gaming seriously certainly. What did all of those computers have? Mice, not trackballs.

So if you use mice and everyone you know uses mice from birth (now in my case I'm old enough that there weren't mice when I was very young...) it's going to take a rather odd choice on your part to suddenly deviate from everything you know, go outside your comfort zone, and decide to learn to use a trackball.

Hell, I've always said having a trackball on my PC is like having a second password. Most people are loathe to try to use my PC because they hate to try to figure out the trackball.

But I assure you, as a consistent trackball user since 1989, they ARE good, one weakness though is that there are never anywhere near as many models on the market as mice, so you sometimes have to take what you can get, this was especially true in the past. The Logitech Trackman Marble FX wireless was the pinnacle IMO, and I wish they'd bring it back.

But some have been very good, others not so much... but yea, a more limited selection no doubt. They are also harder to get right than a mouse.

To some degree, a mouse is a mouse. What I mean is, they all adhere to the same basic shape (I know there's variation but it's always sort of... y'know, that mouse shape roughly) and the buttons are always going to be in the same spot at least for the major ones... the scroll wheel too, you start to see variation in the extra buttons that basic mice don't have of course.

But with trackballs, they have varied wildly in layout, how big is the ball? where is it located? how many buttons? what finger or fingers are you using to control the ball, index or thumb? etc etc etc.

So they are more obscure, harder to do right, fewer people even TRYING to do them right, and there is a huge cultural momentum against anyone starting to use them if they didn't before.

But they DO have advantages and things about them which make them damned nice sometimes. Trust us.

Here's my new mouse and it's pad next to my trackball:

I was under the impression that there's no inherent advantage(or disadvantage) in using a trackball over a mouse and vice-versa.
At least that's what thespyder implied in his musings.

Since you state that trackballs DO have advantages, then what are they?
Do they have any disadvantages(besides limited selection and trying to find the right one)? And if so, what are they?

I can't really imagine someone playing a RTS like Starcraft that requires heavy micro-managing with a trackball...I'd say a mouse has the advantage there.
I'm sure trackballs would be better than a mouse in certain types of games or have some sort of advantage, I'm just not sure which ones.

 

[ImpulsE69]

With the Logitech Marbles (the old red ones with dots), they lacked the precision of the newer optical mice as they had a much lower DPI.

Now with the newer Logitech trackball mice that's not an issue. I've been using them since the early 90's and really just like the fact you don't have to move your hand.

Some people prefer the index finger mice, some prefer the thumb mice (i prefer the thumb balls).

As he said though, there just aren't as many to choose from.

 

[lothar]

for fps games the mouse is superior for a few reasons. Mouse wheel to swap weapons. right click secondary fire or zoom is very intuitive, thumb buttons are super convenient for melee or reloads.

That's what I've found to be the general consensus with the people I play with.

As for the mouse pad thing yes it matters. If you lift up your mouse or have to move it in a non-linear way you are doing it wrong. Nobody who is worth mentioning who plays competitively will use a small pad and have to adjust. They make sure their setup and sensitivity are setup appropriately.

Hotkeys...1-0 on the keyboard to change weapons.
I'm a mouse user and do not use the scroll wheel method to change weapons unless they are right next to each other such as if I'm using weapon #5, I can scroll up or down to change to weapon #4 or #6 when needed rather than trying to push the hotkey on the keyboard. However, I won't keep scrolling all the way to weapon #9 when I can just press the hotkey for it. Maybe it's just because I haven't mastered mouse sensitivity yet or it's because I am hasu when it comes to FPS games, I don't know.

I assume there are trackballs with more than one buttons, no?

I 100% agree with you on the mouse pad issue.

 

[Geosurface]

I assume there are trackballs with more than one buttons, no?

Yep.

This is the most popular/common trackball now, and the only one Best Buy carries in store:

As you can see, it has 4 buttons and a wheel, the wheel can also be pushed so that's a 5th button.

This was the best trackball of all time:

 

[Dankk]

I assume there are trackballs with more than one buttons, no?

I can't imagine there are any trackballs that only have 1 button. Unless we're still living in the 80's or something.

 

[thespyder]

Yep.

This is the most popular/common trackball now, and the only one Best Buy carries in store:

As you can see, it has 4 buttons and a wheel, the wheel can also be pushed so that's a 5th button.

This was the best trackball of all time:

I have the logitec shown above for my gaming and have absolutely no problems what so ever. I would highly recommend it.

I have a finger version for work and likewise I find it much smoother and easier than a mouse (for me - preference here).

As for mouse sensitivity being superior to Trackball, the technology is literally the identically same functionality. So I see NO reason why one should/would be 'Better' than the other from a mechanics perspective.

However, from the human interface perspective, once you get over the muscle memory learning curve (and it is significant), your fingers/thumb are much more nimble and flexible than your arm or arm/wrist. Plus it takes a lot less energy to merely move the thumb than it does to hold/move/reposition the mouse. No matter how good you are at doing it, less effort and more manual dexterity will trump arm movement any day of the week.

Just because everyone does it, doesn't mean that it is easiest or best.

 

[lothar]

I can't imagine there are any trackballs that only have 1 button. Unless we're still living in the 80's or something.

The other guy I quoted that mentioned "right click secondary fire/zoom" as a benefit for mouse over trackball made it seem like there was not.

 

[lothar]

I have the logitec shown above for my gaming and have absolutely no problems what so ever. I would highly recommend it.

I have a finger version for work and likewise I find it much smoother and easier than a mouse (for me - preference here).

As for mouse sensitivity being superior to Trackball, the technology is literally the identically same functionality. So I see NO reason why one should/would be 'Better' than the other from a mechanics perspective.

However, from the human interface perspective, once you get over the muscle memory learning curve (and it is significant), your fingers/thumb are much more nimble and flexible than your arm or arm/wrist. Plus it takes a lot less energy to merely move the thumb than it does to hold/move/reposition the mouse. No matter how good you are at doing it, less effort and more manual dexterity will trump arm movement any day of the week.

Just because everyone does it, doesn't mean that it is easiest or best.

Most games don't last more than 20-30 minutes. 1-2 hours or so, tops. Your "less energy" theory is therefore invalid because not much energy difference would have been expended in an hour or two. I know in my earlier days, I played StarCraft ~5+hrs a day without breaking a sweat.
Now if this was a 168 hour gaming marathon, then you might have a valid theory regarding less energy/effort.

 

[Geosurface]

Most games don't last more than 20-30 minutes. 1-2 hours or so, tops. Your "less energy" theory is therefore invalid because not much energy difference would have been expended in an hour or two. I know in my earlier days, I played StarCraft ~5+hrs a day without breaking a sweat.
Now if this was a 168 hour gaming marathon, then you might have a valid theory regarding less energy/effort.

I usually do back to back games of CS etc so the individual length of a game is irrelevant usually.

I think he's referring to the lifetime, accumulating muscle strain of using a mouse for years over using a trackball for years. Not necessarily within one session.

A lot of people with carpal tunnel have to switch to trackballs, which makes it highly likely that using a mouse rather than a trackball is more likely to GIVE you carpal tunnel in the first place.

 

[Obsoleet]

I'm probably going to switch to a trackball after this mouse breaks.

They don't make any good mice anymore. I use a Logitech G3 and it's my favorite mouse of all time. The shape goes back to the 80's when I used the same shape (along with the standard old white 2button MS mice). Never got into the MS Explorer everyone love(ed)(s) for so long as MS mice were cheap pieces of crap.

Now that Logitech doesn't make the G3, and I hate how Razr mice are.. I'm probably going to a TrackMan Marble. Unless I can get my hands on a G3.

I'm left handed, but use the mouse right handed and it would be nice to have something like the Trackman Marble to use with either hand if I wanted to.

That and FPS are dying/dead in my book, could give a crap less about the DoD sponsored BF or COD series.. mainly play LoL at this point which I think would be easier to play with a trackball than the FPS glorydays.

 

[lothar]

I usually do back to back games of CS etc so the individual length of a game is irrelevant usually.

I think he's referring to the lifetime, accumulating muscle strain of using a mouse for years over using a trackball for years. Not necessarily within one session.

A lot of people with carpal tunnel have to switch to trackballs, which makes it highly likely that using a mouse rather than a trackball is more likely to GIVE you carpal tunnel in the first place.

5-8 hour long daily sessions(each game or level lasting 30mins to 1 hour) is also usually irrelevant because not much energy is expended there(for me at least).

I can play both Civ4 and GalCiv2 forever and not worry about "energy". I've played them for 18 hours long nonstop before and I'm sure I could have played longer.
No one can tell me that they cause carpal tunnel...Neither of those games are like fighting or FPS games where you're just mashing a bunch of buttons and moving the mouse frantically because you're using the mouse the same way you would while browsing on Anandtech.

His exact statement was "...any day of the week", not over several years or decades.
I would really like to meet this mystical trackball user that thinks he's better in StarCraft(a game that requires heavy micro skill, unlike WarCraft) because trackballs use less energy. I would encourage him to play in tournaments or join TeamLiquid.net
I can envision trackballs being equivalent to a mouse in many games(including FPS ones), but StarCraft would not be one of them.

Anecdotal evidence. Correlation does not imply causation.
I'd say that one more likely to get carpal tunnel from typing on the keyboard than playing with the mouse.

 

[lothar]

I'm probably going to switch to a trackball after this mouse breaks.

They don't make any good mice anymore. I use a Logitech G3 and it's my favorite mouse of all time. The shape goes back to the 80's when I used the same shape (along with the standard old white 2button MS mice). Never got into the MS Explorer everyone love(ed)(s) for so long as MS mice were cheap pieces of crap.

Now that Logitech doesn't make the G3, and I hate how Razr mice are.. I'm probably going to a TrackMan Marble. Unless I can get my hands on a G3.

I'm left handed, but use the mouse right handed and it would be nice to have something like the Trackman Marble to use with either hand if I wanted to.

That and FPS are dying/dead in my book, could give a crap less about the DoD sponsored BF or COD series.. mainly play LoL at this point which I think would be easier to play with a trackball than the FPS glorydays.

I 100% agree with that statement.
I played both UT '99(mainly) and UT2004 forever. No FPS game I've seen out there compares to them today.
I never fell in love with the vehicles thing in most FPS games, CoD series, or Battle Field series, and such.

I spend more time playing strategy games nowadays.
Civ4, CoH, Civ4, StarCraft(only occasionally), Civ4, GalCiv2, Civ4, WarCraft, and oh, did I already mention Civ4?
I'm sure that game alone accounts for at least 60% of my playtime, if not more.

 

[thespyder]

5-8 hour long daily sessions(each game or level lasting 30mins to 1 hour) is also usually irrelevant because not much energy is expended there(for me at least).

I can play both Civ4 and GalCiv2 forever and not worry about "energy". I've played them for 18 hours long nonstop before and I'm sure I could have played longer.
No one can tell me that they cause carpal tunnel...Neither of those games are like fighting or FPS games where you're just mashing a bunch of buttons and moving the mouse frantically because you're using the mouse the same way you would while browsing on Anandtech.

His exact statement was "...any day of the week", not over several years or decades.
I would really like to meet this mystical trackball user that thinks he's better in StarCraft(a game that requires heavy micro skill, unlike WarCraft) because trackballs use less energy. I would encourage him to play in tournaments or join TeamLiquid.net
I can envision trackballs being equivalent to a mouse in many games(including FPS ones), but StarCraft would not be one of them.

Anecdotal evidence. Correlation does not imply causation.
I'd say that one more likely to get carpal tunnel from typing on the keyboard than playing with the mouse.

5 hours a day or 5 minutes a month, more energy is more energy. PERIOD. You may not feel that the amount is relevant, but that is hardly the argument.

As for your assertion that "No one can tell me that they cause carpel tunnel", No one can help you if you have a closed mind.

And your assertion of "Better", again?? I would strongly work on your reading comprehension. I in NO WAY said that Trackballs were better at gaming. In fact I clearly state that the technology is analogously the same and therefore there is no TECHNOLOGICAL superiority in using the mouse over the trackball. I said that the HUMAN interface is more efficient using a trackball. Anything else is an an inference on your part.

My personal opinion is that, considering the same technology equates to no superiority on that level, and considering that medical professionals have been saying FOR YEARS that repeated mouse usage potentially leads to carpel tunnel syndrome (among other muscle/coordination related ailments), why take the chance that they are right, for ZERO gain?

 

[Obsoleet]

I believe (note: believe) that mice give you an edge over trackballs. That said for most of us, all of us here, for our bodies we are better off using trackballs. I've been gaming on PC since the mid 80s, before mice. None of you are good enough to worry about the difference causing you to fall out of professional gaming. It's more important to take some health precautions. That said, I use mice*.

*Until my precious G3 dies as most gaming mice today are goofy marketing products with either removable parts or 10 useless buttons instead of 4 (+ scroll wheel button).

 

[lothar]

5 hours a day or 5 minutes a month, more energy is more energy. PERIOD. You may not feel that the amount is relevant, but that is hardly the argument.

As for your assertion that "No one can tell me that they cause carpel tunnel", No one can help you if you have a closed mind.

And your assertion of "Better", again?? I would strongly work on your reading comprehension. I in NO WAY said that Trackballs were better at gaming. In fact I clearly state that the technology is analogously the same and therefore there is no TECHNOLOGICAL superiority in using the mouse over the trackball. I said that the HUMAN interface is more efficient using a trackball. Anything else is an an inference on your part.

My personal opinion is that, considering the same technology equates to no superiority on that level, and considering that medical professionals have been saying FOR YEARS that repeated mouse usage potentially leads to carpel tunnel syndrome (among other muscle/coordination related ailments), why take the chance that they are right, for ZERO gain?

If they're at an equal skill level, whether one uses one a bit more energy than the other would be irrelevant. The same way that if they're at an equal skill level, the input devices used(whether trackball or mouse) would be considered irrelevant because both players would be adept in the respective methods that they choose.
Your argument makes absolutely no sense.
Energy usage and input device usage would be already considered as part of skill level calculation.

Carpal tunnel being caused or implicated by keyboard/mouse are for the most part inconclusive.
If you refuse to believe that, then I have nothing to tell you.
You can educate yourself more on this issue by reading scientific journals. There are lots of medical studies on these on Mayoclinic, PubMed, NCBI, etc...
The risks of mouse/keyboard being implicated in carpal tunnel are for the most part completely inconclusive and don't show any moderate or strong association. Many epidemiology studies and meta analysis confirms this.
I don't know which medical professionals you use, but if yours has been telling you that when clearly the evidence in inconclusive as such and has no moderate or strong association, then I suggest you find yourself a "real" medical professional.

Since you believe in taking no chances for Zero gain, I hope you haven't been posting using a keyboard.
If you have, then so much for your "taking no chances for zero gain" part. That keyboard is more likely to be implicated in causing carpal tunnel than using a mouse.

On a side note:
1.) I would strongly work on your spelling before telling others to work on their reading comprehension.
2.) It's amazing how this discussion has suddenly changed direction to a "health" issue(which there isn't much evidence that shows a moderate or strong association BTW), when that was never my original intent.

Using a mouse repeatedly may potentially lead to carpal tunnel? Little to no evidence.
Using a trackball helps with carpal tunnel symptoms? Very likely.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

If you like trackballs you should check out the CST LaserTRAC 2545W. I love mine.

I found it.. clunky. The rollers had too high of a breakaway point, meaning that it required too much force to get them rolling and as such I often overshot small movements.