Shattered Dreams
I’m quite a consistent person, if I classified myself as a gamer (or I’d like to think, asked my team mates to classify me), I’d say I’m smooth and consistent. I rarely find myself nervous before big games these days (the fact we’re not finding ourselves in many big games is a point aside). I know my job in a team and can perform it, get it over and done with, enjoy and walk away with a win. Most of the time.
So anyway, I figured after all these years, I might try convince myself to try something a bit forward, a new mouse maybe – the Steelseries Xai in particular. I’ve used a Microsoft 3.0 mouse since about 2002, the kind of mouse that HeatoN used in his day, before smart companies like Steelseries slowly eliminated any generic peripheral one by one (starting with mousepads, then mice, headphones and keyboards). I’ve lately started to believe that maybe all the top European players use these newer series mice not just because of Steelseries' exceptional marketing/sponsorship strategies, but because these things really do give you a slight edge. The frustrating experiences that Windows 7 and unsigned drivers for mouse hz fixes have caused at LAN’s recently is enough alone to make me consider carrying something like the Xai that is simply plug and play, and carries your settings with you.
Off I went to Playtech earlier this week to pick one up for testing, most people around me still use Logitech, MS 3.0’s or the odd Razer Deathadder (a great mouse, by the way, and I have two spare if u want one ;-D), so there wasn’t anyone I could depend on to lend me one for a testing period, and maybe it’s best for them it turned out that way.
I left work, excited about taking the Xai for a spin (how depressingly nerdy does that sound?) and in my haste while opening my car to start my car and quickly get away, failed to realise I had left the snugly packaged Xai on the roof of my car.
Eventually after arriving in the City from the North Shore, I started to realise the Xai wasn’t with me in the car… Being a “Que, Sera, Sera” kinda guy, I figured it’d already be gone and it would just be a waste of petrol to go back and try find it. Considering it was something I picked up just that day, I convinced myself to be an optimist for once. Turns out I was half right about the waste of petrol.
I pulled back up to Taharoto Road where I came across a Korean girl staring at the road (Always trust a Korean to find a high end mouse lying on the road, probably a StarCraft player).
Anyway, this is what I found…
At first I was kind of optimistic it may have been okay, but upon closer inspection it clearly wasn’t. I got home and tried to plug it in for shits and giggles, but once I removed it from its inadequate protective plastic casing, I actually felt a pang of regret and sadness that my carelessness had destroyed this sweet piece of gaming peripheral hardware, that could have had a long and fruitful career under my care. That and that I’d spent $120 in a day on nothing aside from a broken mouse and some gas mileage.
You'd think they’d make their packaging of industrial grade protective plastic pressure resistant up to 1 tonne at least! Maybe if it had been made by Razer where you get the packaging that consists of multiple layers of material which unintentionally makes it indestructable to being run over when people leave it on their car roofs (not to forget making you feel guilty about your carbon footprint)
I've used a few mice in my playing career, but never one that lasted me just one day…
R.I.P Xai
-simcore (still using a 3.0)
