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Why do Gaming Mice still have a mouse wheel?

Mouse Wheel, YES or NO?

  • I like It

  • I like it but wouldn't miss it

  • I don't like it but can live with it

  • I don't like it

  • FUCK MOUSE WHEELS!

Results are only viewable after voting.
01011001

01011001

Banned
So, I thought about this, and I certainly can't be the only one who thinks this... but Mouse Wheels suck.
I hate Mouse Wheels...

I have how it feels to scroll with them,
I hate whenever a game uses Mouse 3 as an input,
I hate it when changing weapons is bound to the wheel (that at least you can change usually)

Not only that tho. Every Mouse I ever owned, without exception, had issues with the wheel after about 2 years of use. EVERY MOUSE...
Doesn't matter if it's a Razer, a Microsoft, a Roccat or any no-name brand out there.
The mouse wheel either doesn't register scrolls correctly anymore after 2 years (skipping inputs basically or doubling them), or the Middle Mouse button beneath will start having issues.
so the mechanism for the wheel has clearly not been perfected yet, and I kinda bet noone is actually trying to perfect it at this point either anymore.

So, why not simply have either 1 or maybe 2 raised buttons between Mouse 1 and 2 that have a good and easy to actuate click, and are as sturdy as any other button on the mouse?
One of these could simply be Mouse 3, so you can still use that to click scroll on website etc.

High end mice could have touch sensitive buttons that can be used as a touch scroll wheel as well, as to not lose the mouse wheel input completely on it.

So, do you like the Mouse Wheel?
 
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Kuranghi

Kuranghi

Member
Zooming in games and changing weapons come to mind. I like using it for that.

I like it, I used to do everything on my mouse in Diablo 3, for example on Wizard the two side buttons were used for active skills and scroll up and down was for ice armor and magic weapon because they were just things you cast every minute or so I could just spin the wheel to activate them. Its way quicker and less stress on fingers to scroll a wheel up and down a few notches quickly than press two buttons.

Mouse 3 I like to use for grenade often but I do agree that it can break more easily than other buttons, my Razers have been fine but the cheapie logitech wireless I use for browsing has broken like three (3) times over the last 10 years, but I just buy a new one because its buttons.
 
01011001

01011001

Banned
Kuranghi said:
Zooming in games and changing weapons come to mind. I like using it for that.

I like it, I used to do everything on my mouse in Diablo 3, for example on Wizard the two side buttons were used for active skills and scroll up and down was for ice armor and magic weapon because they were just things you cast every minute or so I could just spin the wheel to activate them. Its way quicker and less stress on fingers to scroll a wheel up and down a few notches quickly than press two buttons.

Mouse 3 I like to use for grenade often but I do agree that it can break more easily than other buttons, my Razers have been fine but the cheapie logitech wireless I use for browsing has broken like three (3) times over the last 10 years, but I just buy a new one because its buttons.
Click to expand...

well, the question here is, wouldn't it be better to just have well made and easy to reach buttons in the place of the wheel, not to just take it away.
if you have 2 or 3 buttons there instead you could have bound all of that to them instead for example.

I switched to exclusively use the number row for weapon switching for example
 
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Zeroing

Zeroing

Banned
My Magic Mouse does not have a scroll wheel, to be fair the max I use it for gaming is, chess.
For gaming, I use a controller.

shrug
 
01011001

01011001

Banned
Ailike said:
What on earth are you using to read this forum, dude? Are you pressing page down and page up? You lambast wheels for failure rates, but you want touch sensitive buttons? What madness is this?
Click to expand...

personally I prefer to use the middle mouse button to scroll.
and for gaming, a mouse wheel is simply useless IMO and an unnecessary waste of space that could be occupied by buttons that don't suck to click
 
Kacho

Kacho

Member
01011001 said:
personally I prefer to use the middle mouse button to scroll.
and for gaming, a mouse wheel is simply useless IMO and an unnecessary waste of space that could be occupied by buttons that don't suck to click
Click to expand...
The mouse wheel gets tons of use in FPS, RTS and 4X games. Swapping weapons, zooming in and out of the map, etc. if you don’t like clicking the MMB just rebind it.

What a bizarre thread.
 
hinch7

hinch7

Member
Mouse wheel is invaluable for PC gaming for me.

Scroll up and down can be bound to key functions as well as middle click. Some mouses also have a left and right scroll (on select Logitech ones like the G502) that adds even more bindable keys/functions.

That's like 3 functions in a normal mouse and a 5 in a sideways scroll wheel - a must for MMO's imo.
 
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01011001

01011001

Banned
Kacho said:
The mouse wheel gets tons of use in FPS, RTS and 4X games. Swapping weapons, zooming in and out of the map, etc. if you don’t like clicking the MMB just rebind it.

What a bizarre thread.
Click to expand...

it's not a bizzare thread when you actually understand the topic correctly, which noone seems to do.
the topic at hand is: IS THE WHEEL A WASTE OF SPACE... that could be occupied by something better.
the reading comprehension in this forum seems to deteriorate as everyone seems to read it as "get rid of it and leave the space blank"

I already rebind everything that is bound to that thing, but that doesn't change the fact that a gaming mouse with better use for that space would IMO be better for most games.

noone in their right mind changes weapons on the mouse wheel unless it is bound to a binary "Weapon 1" and "Weapon 2". as soon as you have more than 2 weapons it is awful for that job and you should always use the number keys for that. Imagine switching weapons on the wheel in CS:GO or Valorant lol

of course there are genres where a wheel is important (Shooters are certainly not among those genres) BUT, I find it odd that no big manufacturer ever made a mouse that replaces the wheel with something better
 
Last edited:
G

Graciaus

Member
01011001 said:
it's not a bizzare thread when you actually understand the topic correctly, which noone seems to do.
the topic at hand is: IS THE WHEEL A WASTE OF SPACE... that could be occupied by something better.
the reading comprehension in this forum seems to deteriorate as everyone seems to read it as "get rid of it and leave the space blank"

of course there are genres where a wheel is important (Shooters are certainly not among those genres) BUT, I find it odd that no big manufacturer ever made a mouse that replaces the wheel with something better
Click to expand...
This sounds like a you problem.
 
CamHostage

CamHostage

Member
What I'm hearing...

8ORPor6.jpg
 
Verchod

Verchod

Member
I do use the mouse wheel a lot, but it is a good point, could you replace it with something better?
Maybe just a small ball like a Mac mouse. An analogue stick would be a bit big.

How about something like a small linear fader, the kind you find on a mixing desk, and it would sit in the middle vertically between the two buttons as the wheel would but it would be sprung so it would return to the centre of its channel. You could the pull or push it. If it were analogue, that could be cool. Maybe...
 
CamHostage

CamHostage

Member
01011001 said:
of course there are genres where a wheel is important (Shooters are certainly not among those genres) BUT, I find it odd that no big manufacturer ever made a mouse that replaces the wheel with something better
Click to expand...

If they could come up with something better, then sure. I'm not seeing that you provided any suggestions yet, but we could try...

Maybe a thin touchpad instead of a wheel? Maybe that would work. (The Microsoft Arc Touch has a little touchstrip, and Apple has experimented with mice that have touch-sensitivity features.) Or I guess a vertical array of buttons? I guess some people would prefer digital over analog (and usually the scroll wheel has governors/caibrators on it which stop it from really being as fast or as slow as the user moves it, for better or worse.) What else, what else?

The thing is, the scroll wheel is cheap to make, generally durable, conveniently placed between the other two buttons on the mouse, mostly comfortable (for sure, some scroll wheels feel like you're running your finger over a tiny grindmill, but others glide nicely on your finger all day long,) usually has enough feel and give to it that it doesn't activate without intended force, and can be made with other functions like wheel-click or left/right wheel. That's a hard bulletpoint set to beat.

Verchod said:
I do use the mouse wheel a lot, but it is a good point, could you replace it with something better?
Maybe just a small ball like a Mac mouse. An analogue stick would be a bit big.

How about something like a small linear fader, the kind you find on a mixing desk, and it would sit in the middle vertically between the two buttons as the wheel would but it would be sprung so it would return to the centre of its channel. You could the pull or push it. If it were analogue, that could be cool. Maybe...
Click to expand...

W9S2RJ7.jpg


The micro-trackball "Scroll Ball" is not usually considered a great invention on the Mac side. It was more ergonomically impactful, it could get gunked up and needed cleaning (I can't remember if I've ever disassembled a mouse to clean a scrollwheel? I'm sure mine's got gunk on it, but it still works,) and although it could conceivably would offer 360-degree freedom of movement, a mousewheel's limitations can work in its favor (it's either up or down, the computer doesn't have to interpret off-axis movement as factors in how to move; plus you can add a rocker to the mousewheel to have it be an extra left-right action, ScrollBall did have a downclick at least.) Not necessarily a bad idea, maybe after a few iterations the tech would have been worked out and we'd have amazing mice with little trackballs in them, but Apple's not doing them anymore and nobody else ripped off their idea, so that seems to say it was probably a dead-end innovation.

I like your idea of a fader bar, instead of a wheel. It could still do a lot of the things that a scrollwheel does (including maybe downclicks.) However, the nice thing with the wheel is that, when you scroll it all the way to the top and let go, it is already also back at square one. It's a wheel, it just spins in a circle. Turn it a little bit or turn it all day long, it's still in the exact same position as when you started. A physical fader bar (unless you meant a virtual fader bar, ala a vertical touchpad?) would always need to return to its home place, so you'd have to stop and let go or stop and drag it back or whatever. If it's sprung, your finger would be constantly fighting the resistance, and thus it would be ergonomically bad (and would assumedly lead to more wear on the device than a wheel would.) I believe there'd also be a lot more travel of your finger that way (move your finger over your mousewheel, then raise your finger and do it like a slider and see how much more your hand and finger end up moving for the same travel distance on a flat surface versus a rounded one.) And then, getting back to the OP's question of replacing it with something better, what would a slider be able to do that's better? Same moves, same placement, same loosey-goosey scrolling through items (if your device isn't calibrated to your movement.) It's different, but I can't think of how it'd be better? So I think that might be a move in the wrong direction.
 
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kraspkibble

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
i will never buy a mouse without a wheel!

1.jpg


they are good for scrolling websites and in games they have many uses. maybe if some day we get a mouse with a touch pad replacement (i think apple ones do this) it might be good but until then i will always get a wheel!
 
Last edited:
H

hlm666

Member
Competitive players normally don't use a mouse wheel to cycle through all weapons but they do bind things like scroll down to switch to secondary, up for primary so none of their movement needs to be stopped pressing 1 or 2. Some people will use an optional fire bind on wheel for semi automatic weapons. It's also useful for games with stances (prone/crouch), weapon zooms as someone already mentioned. The wheel is on all of them because most people can find a good way to use it.

As for breaking, My mice always start to have left button click issues before anything else on my mouse fails, kinda surprised your breaking the wheel before anything else. If you don't like how the wheel feels can find a mouse with a wheel that is easier or harder to move, One of my logitechs has a button above the wheel you can toggle that makes it scroll free (so u can flick it and it keeps spinning) or tight with a very noticable bump on each activation. You can also accomplish what you want with mice with multiple thumb buttons and using 1 of them as a shift input for lmb/rmb/xb1 to make them six inputs instead of 3.
 
Pegasus Actual

Pegasus Actual

Member
OP is correct mouse wheels suck especially for FPS. Personally, I don't bind anything to the scroll functions in those games as pressing it for mouse 3, even on a quality gaming mouse just has too much of a chance of an accidental scroll. I'd miss scroll wheel for web browsing and the like for a time, but a lot of the time I use HOME, END, PGUP, PGDN, and arrow keys anyway as they are faster and more accurate. Of course a lot of modern day PC hipsters go minimalist w/ their custom keyboards so as to move all those buttons in FN+Whatever country.

Back in the day I rolled with:
afSmeSL.png



Obviously modern gaming mice are better in most respects. But it did take me a while to move on from the the 3 finger each getting a button paw grip.

I used a slightly bigger mouse (Mionix Naos?) some years back that had mouse DPI up and down right below the scroll wheel, and those were far more useful than scroll once rebound. I eventually had to go for lighter/smaller though (I'm on a FinalMouse now), but it's 100% a requirement for me that the DPI button is located beneath the scroll and is fully reprogrammable and stored onboard the mouse rather than in the drivers.

Having seen how great the Up/Down DPIs were on the Mionix mouse, I would love for two buttons to become standard there... maybe even three stacked vertically, with the scroll wheel pushed just a little more out of the way. Or maybe a little D-Pad formation of buttons. Or a Hat type rocker switch like you get on a flight stick.

It doesn't help that the best scroll wheel for web browsing and the like is the free flying spin it and it goes forever type whereas all the gaming mice try to have very defined notches so as to make it feel somewhat useful as a game input. I know Logitechs have (had?) the toggle button to go between the two but ya know.. jack of all trades and all that.

I think at some point in the not too distant future I'll just have a more general wireless mouse for strategy type games and productivity, then an FPS focused wireless mouse as well that I can quickly swap between. As I'm still on wired that's a bit too cluttered right now.
 
March Climber

March Climber

Member
Zeroing said:
Btw, Am I the only one who uses a controller for gaming on a PC?
Click to expand...
I'm a controller+gyro guy myself. However even I'll admit that d-pads can't come close to mouse wheels for weapon switching. The only one that can come close is the Saturn Dpad but no console manufacturer wants to use it 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
K2D

K2D

Banned
01011001 said:
So, I thought about this, and I certainly can't be the only one who thinks this... but Mouse Wheels suck.
I hate Mouse Wheels...

I have how it feels to scroll with them,
I hate whenever a game uses Mouse 3 as an input,
I hate it when changing weapons is bound to the wheel (that at least you can change usually)

Not only that tho. Every Mouse I ever owned, without exception, had issues with the wheel after about 2 years of use. EVERY MOUSE...
Doesn't matter if it's a Razer, a Microsoft, a Roccat or any no-name brand out there.
The mouse wheel either doesn't register scrolls correctly anymore after 2 years (skipping inputs basically or doubling them), or the Middle Mouse button beneath will start having issues.
so the mechanism for the wheel has clearly not been perfected yet, and I kinda bet noone is actually trying to perfect it at this point either anymore.
Click to expand...

hvDlFoF.jpg


Billiards/pool glove..

..or wash your hands more often, and/or stop mosturising at the pc.

I LOVE the feel of a clicking mouse wheel - and I really like bunny jumping.
 
Killer8

Killer8

Member
You wouldn't be able to play the Splinter Cell series on PC without a mouse wheel. The mouse wheel controls the movement speed and it's perfect.
 
Justin9mm

Justin9mm

Member
Is OP high? Because the mouse wheel is used for the operating system you are most likely gaming on.

Am I missing something here?
 
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