Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
For the first time in years , I’mgenuinely excited about the Mac ’s gaming prospects . This year look dress to bea great one for Mac gamers , with computer hardware and package finally aligning to bring a bounty of great games and blister operation in every orbit .
Well , almost every field . You see , there ’s still one thing that is holding gaming back on the Mac . No , it ’s not the compass of games or the performance of Apple ’s computers — it ’s the Magic Mouse .
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
A gaming hindrance
equate any of thebest gaming miceto Apple ’s Magic Mouse and one affair will straight off become obvious : they look nothing like each other . Most gaming mice boast ergonomic shapes and a few extra button that can be customized to your own controls . The Magic Mouse , meanwhile , is a low - profile white pill that does n’t appear to have any buttons at all ( it does , they ’re just blended into the eubstance ) .
The reason for the disparity is clearly the unlike use shell . The Magic Mouse is built for productivity and world-wide use while gaming mouse are intended for , well , gaming . Apple ’s machine has a categoric surface so that you canuse it for gestures , something almost no other mouse offers .
It ’s a clever feature film , but rent ’s front it , it ’s fairly much useless if you play a flock of games . If that ’s your pursuit , you need a shiner that ’s easy to transfix in fast - step game . The flat Magic Mouse , meanwhile , is a slippy slab that can fleetly vanish out of your hired man in first - someone torpedo . Its smooth buttons are hard to find in intense moments , while its full want of side buttons mean you ca n’t assign any extra control to the black eye for quick entree .
That all means that right now , the Magic Mouse is useless for game , even for casual gaming . It ’s far too low - profile to be useful in anything but the slowest , most relaxing games , and even there , its uncomfortable shape means you credibly wo n’t require to use it for long .
In other actor’s line , it ’s a gambling dud . And that might have been fine in age start by because — countenance ’s be true here — Apple did n’t give a Libyan Islamic Group about gaming . Now , though , the companyhas been vocalabout how its twist are gaming power plant , and with the arrival of theM3 generation of chipsand vast titles likeBaldur ’s Gate 3making their way onto the Mac , that ’s starting to call up true .
Now , I know what you ’re thinking — Apple never claim the Magic Mouse would be good for games . And most gamers are going to desire to grease one’s palms their own dedicated gaming mouse anyways . But if Apple want to entice more developers to its political program and convert current Mac user to give their titles a try , having the bundle computer mouse be halfway decent would be very overbold .
Ergonomics first
To be unmortgaged , I ’m not saying Apple needs to trench the Magic Mouse and go full - on gamer modality with a garish gadget sporting a ton of blinding RGB lights and aggressive , swoop curve ( we all know Apple will never do this ) . It just needs to amend its computer mouse so that it ’s better adapted to the Mac ’s new realness as a gambling destination .
Apple could desexualize this by bringing out a better Magic Mouse that ’s more ergonomic and better - suited to games , even if indirectly so . What do I mean by that ? Well , it ’s no secret that the Magic Mouse ’s low profile can get very uncomfortable over extended exercise . It bid no financial support to your hand or your wrist joint , and I acknowledge at least one person who found it so abominable that they had to switch to an erect ergonomic mouse to assuage the discomfort . If Apple simply redesigned the Magic Mouse to have a better , more prosperous shape , it would go a farseeing way to make it a lot friendly for gamers .
Making this change wo n’t come without its trade - offs . For one matter , a more ergonomic mouse credibly would n’t have the flat control surface that the current Magic Mouse uses for motion . But that does n’t entail you could n’t get gesture control at all . TheLogitech MX Master 3Shas a gesture button that you hold while move the mouse in various direction to execute flying actions . It ’s a genius musical theme and proves that supreme comfort and heighten ascendence can go hand in hand .
redesign the Magic Mouse to be more ergonomic will be deserving it , not just for better gaming performance , but for more comfortable farseeing - terminus exercise . And if it means Apple can rethink theabsurd charging situationof its current mouse , all the good .
The Mac could have the best games in the earth , but if Apple ’s default shiner remain nearly unuseable in games , it ’s going to put gamers off ( or wedge them to drop even more money on a better mouse ) . It need n’t be that way . All that needs to change is passably much everything about the Magic Mouse .
