Murder for arthritis sufferers.

[alation13]

Very much enjoying the game, But I am an older player and this game when played with keyboard and mouse is absolutely murder on your fingers if you suffer from arthritis.

[xsys]

It's not much better with a gamepad either. There are just too many orcs to kill! At least you can run away and rest for a bit :)

There are some games (I'm talking about you "Remember Me") that lock you into a room and make you fight to the death...that is really painful.

[76561198017204319]

Understand as I'm 69 and have a hand problem. Thing is Remember Me had a way to the end as did Tomb Raider and places where you could take a break sort to speak and check out the scenery. The scenery in Shadows of Modrr is not bad, but if you aren't fast on you KB or gamepad (X-Box 360 here.) then you can get really chewed up. I developed the old fashioned "tiddle finger" approach on this one that seems to work for me, but it's murder if you have to keep it up for to long. Also I've found that if you take to much time admiring the sights at the game's start, you might find yourself hip deep in not only ocres but animals as well. I just lost a battle with a War chief because the catagor I was riding got killed and two other catagors showed up and were jumping on everything in site including me and the War Chief which I almost had before they helped do me in.

[BlakLite]

I don't have arthritis, but I imagine that you can ease it in a similar manner to how I ease my eye strain - regular breaks. Try setting a schedule for yourself to take a short break every 10 or 20 minutes, just as a guess.

Also, it may have something to do with your mouse and/or keyboard. A small or claw-grip mouse forces you to hold it with your fingertips, whereas a palm-grip lets you rest your palm on it. Deep keys on a keyboard may also force you to bend your fingers more as you reach down to depress the keys.

[alation13]

My mouse is no issue, I even have a callous on my wrist to work as a pivot point. It is the funky way you have to hold your fingers and press three or four keys at once that kills the keyboard hand.

And what is this about scheduled breaks, I am from the era of 48hr long network DOOM sessions. I am sure you remember the physical pain you would leave your body in after those.

[exarkun20088]

i have always been a better player with a controller i just plug in my old xbox wired controller and go

[alation13]

I have never liked controllers, I went straight from a joystick on an old C64 (brand new when I bought it) to a Keyboard + Mouse setup for PC. Most likely for similar reasons why Mac or Linux users hate PCs.

[rcole_sooner]

Can't one just hit pause and take a rest.

New to the game, so not 100% sure.

[76561198017204319]

Yes you can, but unless you like looking at an orc on your pause screen, then you might go to the map for pause... BTW: I tried the KB approach. It's doable but I found myslef getting killed off more and in this game, you don't to do that early on if you can help it...

[BlakLite]

Originally posted by alation13:

My mouse is no issue, I even have a callous on my wrist to work as a pivot point. It is the funky way you have to hold your fingers and press three or four keys at once that kills the keyboard hand.

And what is this about scheduled breaks, I am from the era of 48hr long network DOOM sessions. I am sure you remember the physical pain you would leave your body in after those.

For keyboard controls, I'd suggest rebinding them to something that's more comfortable. I also have a habit of constantly holding Shift to sneak even when there aren't any foes around.

Secondly, do you think those 48-hour sessions might be the cause of your arthritis? In which case, why not learn from your past mistakes? After all, the breaks I'm talking about don't have to be long, just 20-30 seconds at a time. The rule for preventing eye strain is called the 20/20/20 rule: Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds at a time.

[alation13]

Originally posted by BlakLite:

Originally posted by alation13:

My mouse is no issue, I even have a callous on my wrist to work as a pivot point. It is the funky way you have to hold your fingers and press three or four keys at once that kills the keyboard hand.

And what is this about scheduled breaks, I am from the era of 48hr long network DOOM sessions. I am sure you remember the physical pain you would leave your body in after those.

For keyboard controls, I'd suggest rebinding them to something that's more comfortable. I also have a habit of constantly holding Shift to sneak even when there aren't any foes around.

Secondly, do you think those 48-hour sessions might be the cause of your arthritis? In which case, why not learn from your past mistakes? After all, the breaks I'm talking about don't have to be long, just 20-30 seconds at a time. The rule for preventing eye strain is called the 20/20/20 rule: Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds at a time.

Well you hit the nail on the head with one point, once I stopped holding down the shift key to sneak run everywhere my hands hurt much less.
Though I don't think those 48 hr sessions caused my arthritis, it is just as bad if not worse in my knees, and I don't remember ever playing computer games with my feet so it is most likely not the cause.

[BlakLite]

Originally posted by alation13:

Originally posted by BlakLite:

For keyboard controls, I'd suggest rebinding them to something that's more comfortable. I also have a habit of constantly holding Shift to sneak even when there aren't any foes around.

Secondly, do you think those 48-hour sessions might be the cause of your arthritis? In which case, why not learn from your past mistakes? After all, the breaks I'm talking about don't have to be long, just 20-30 seconds at a time. The rule for preventing eye strain is called the 20/20/20 rule: Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds at a time.

Well you hit the nail on the head with one point, once I stopped holding down the shift key to sneak run everywhere my hands hurt much less.
Though I don't think those 48 hr sessions caused my arthritis, it is just as bad if not worse in my knees, and I don't remember ever playing computer games with my feet so it is most likely not the cause.

Glad I was able to help.

[EbonHawk]

Same here. This game will take some getting used to. For me, it was very trying on my hands and wrists/elbows after playing last night for only a couple of hours. I'll have to come up with a combination that works for me, but it will take some time. Amazing game. The newness and intensity of it last night made me want to keep playing and I paid the price for it. :-) Well worth it though.

[SpawnCap]

I'm an older gamer (52) and playing any longer than 1 hour using keyboard and mouse (especially mouse) has always caused me hand pain. This is the reason I always game with a gamepad, at least with a gamepad I can play for 6 to 8 hours straight with no hand pain.

Also, some games I can't play at all like really bad button mashers like fighting games, God of War, Darksiders, and pretty much any Batman Arkham boss battle, so I just avoid those games from now on. Pretty much any game that make you press a certain button as fast as you can over and over for an extended length of time.

Playing this game with gamepad has never caused me any pain. If it did my time in it would be only 10 hours instead of over 150.

[THE KING ADROCK AKA JIGGAWATZ!!!]

I would never play this game with mouse and keyboard. Xbox 360 usb controller all the way.

[Kotipelto]

I play with a mouse and keyboard and it is excellent. I use a Gamdius Zues gaming mouse and Tesoro mech keyboard. Aiming the bow n arrow is spot on with a mouse.

I really think it is so cool that you play this game at your age. Buy a good gaming mouse that your hand is comfortable holding, make sure it has plenty of thumb buttins. You could also learn to make macro commands so you do not have to press the dagger buttin so much. Hope this helps. I am 48 years old myself.