Longtime trackball user needs mouse pro advice!

[lothar]

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).

I agree entirely with your conclusions.
I am of the belief that mouse has the advantage over trackballs in "certain" games(Ex: fast paced RTS like StarCraft, etc...).
In most other games, it's for the most part about equal.

I DO agree that trackballs are better for our bodies than using a mouse.
However, assuming that a mouse can potentially lead to carpal tunnel because certain medical professionals told you so when the evidence out there is clearly inconclusive in showing any associations between such or throwing an anecdotal evidence that you see people with carpal tunnel switching to trackballs is a completely different story all together.

I'm not even sure how this topic all of a sudden became a "health" issue in the first place.
The place to debate "health" issues is in the "Health and Fitness" subforum, not the "PC Gaming" subforum.

 

[Obsoleet]

We just need a food chart of input devices, ranked by health and recommended dosage

It should be noted that best pro gamers use mice and not trackballs. That said, correlation != causation. The same guys could probably pickup a trackball or mouse and beat 80% of gamers out there, just based on the game-knowledge edge alone. I'm not going to say trackballs are inferior for high end gaming, but at best they are equal, because I have yet to see a progamer such as Thresh (I'm old) use a trackball. While anecdotal in my case, I think that's a more than a fair assessment. I'm not really opposed to the guys saying trackballs are inferior to mice.. there's 20 years of FPS gaming championships to back that up (but again in trackball's defense, correlation != causation).

Trackballs are nice devices. I like Trackpoint nubbies on laptops and mice as well.
The only input device that I declare hatred for is a touchpad. Those are good for nothing and I wish they weren't so commonplace. The only place I want to use a touchpad/screen is on my cell phone.

 

[thespyder]

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.

Completely wrong. Equal skill level of auto racers, one driving a professionally tuned formula 1 and the other driving a clapped out pinto. All other things being equal, which one wins?

To put it more succinctly, if the input device (Mouse/Trackball) are equal from a technological perspective and the skill level on the appropriate device is the same for each player, there is still an energy disparity. The simple fact of the matter is that it takes significantly less energy to move a trackball with your thumb than it does to move a mouse. Orders of magnitude difference. You personally may not feel that the extra energy is relevant, but that doesn't invalidate physics.

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.

Please read this again and think it through. Once you see your own flaw, you will be that bit smarter.