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Wednesday 3 December 2003

DC = RSI [lurks]

Like many working journalists, I'm always on the cusp of having a serious problem with repetitive strain injury or RSI. That's something of a misnomer because the injury itself isn't cause by the repetitive nature of the work, it's just that doctors didn't adequately understand what was going wrong when the condition was first identified. It's actually caused by a constant strain on a tendon. Such as you might do when typing, typically it's the tendons in the forearms - as it is for me - although other people get variants.
Normally for me, it flares up the next day after I've had a particularly long session of the offending activity. Now the tendon in my right forearm is swollen and very painful indeed. Only this time it wasn't me typing, because I've learnt to manage that roughly - by pushing keyboards right the way back on a desk and resting my forearms on the table, relieving the strain. I've tried a fancy chair and a proper posture and those didn't help as much as my own technique. Fucking quacks.
Anyway, I digress. The cause of this flair up of my RSI is, you guessed it (or if you didn't due to the title of the blog, then you're a thick cunt), is Desert Combat. More specifically, handling of a joystick. Since we've been playing limited numbers vs a bag load of bots, I've had unprecedented access to my vehicle of choice - the Apache. So much so that I find I end up resting my right hand on the joystick even when I'm not flying one. Oh and I played some X2: The Threat on the weekend too, with a ... sigh ... joystick.
The thing is, I'm kinda hosed here. There are no low profile joysticks. They're all these bulky things which I have to raise my arm up to grasp upon my table in the typically bad RSI inducing posture.
So, do I hang up my helicopter gloves or move to keyboard and mouse? I dunno. I should just probably play less but since our lounge is a building site, my other activities had been removed this weekend. Or, I could seek out some more ergonomically friendly joystick. Does such a beast exist? I suspect not, it's just as much the fault that my huge desk is quite high...
Still, some pretty sizable ownerage was handed down at the weekend and that has to be worth a little pain.

19 comments:

  1. Can you mount your joystick on a lap-board or a side-arm on your chair?
    Perhaps this artists impression will aid you, spazzmo www.users.globalnet.co.uk

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  2. What about a desk modification, placing the joystick lower down, possible between your legs ?

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  3. Hmmmmmm. How about an analogue joypad?

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  4. The logitech cordless is a very good pad. Dual analog sticks. Well, mine *was* good until the batteries leaked and killed it ;( I've still got it, is there any chance it could be resurrected or does battery leak = bin?

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  5. Homer, cunt :) Joypads, you gotta hold in both hands innit - no good when your left hand has to be on the keyboard. Battery leak = pretty bad yeah, highly corrosive - destroys PCB traces. Hmm, I'll have a look around. The arm on my chair isn't real large/solid. It is however a full Davros chair ownage. Heh, this reminds me of my old Amiga chair, which was in essence an arm chair where I'd nailed a plank of wood to the right arm rest for a mouse. It even had a holster for the mouse when I wasn't in the chair. They'll be no nailing on this Davros chair though, it's all metal and plastic.

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  6. Give up flying heli's. That way I dont have to race you for them at spawn ;)

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  7. Mate of mine sells a gyroscopic ball thing that helps rsi. It's kinda weird, you sort of rev it up with a wanking motion and the wights inside pull your wrist around. Might wanna look out for one?

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  8. Well given you play once in a blue moon and you crash them quickly, that isn't a deciding factor just yet - besides I can just shoot you. Gyroscopic ball thing? Freaky.
    Realised something else, it's kinda pointless using a joystick unless it has a twist action - which throws out a lot of the cheaper and smaller sticks and of course all pads. Annoying.

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  9. well, i only use joystick for cargames, and then i hold the base of the joystick with thumb n finger, kinda like when you try to stop the load :) can still use the twist thing and you only have to bind fire to one of the base buttons.
    but you really should go for mouse/kb, since its superiour in almost everything except fast long turns with planes.

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  10. Get a wooden stool, put it between your knees, put the joystick on that. Same config you'd get in an aircraft. When did you ever hear of a fighter pilot with RSI, eh? :)
    (Seriously - I used this config for ages when I was playing Conflict Freespace, because the joystick on the table was killing my arm. Works a treat.)

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  11. Gonna stick with a stick lotta, I don't really feel that key and mouse is superior now I've got the hang of the stick. I'm hovering over flags perfectly and I can execute smooth curving turns due to the analog nature of the the tail rotor control. More importantly, my controlled mad spiral around enemy units (again analog tail rotor is essential) makes a difficult target for incoming fire.
    Shinji, I had just decided actually to try some sort of stand to the right of my chair. Now you've said it, it makes sense between legs for sure. Also frees up desk space for keyboard and mouse for infantry. I like it a lot. Now I just need to find something suitable... My desk is deep enough I can just shove it out the way when not using. I like that a lot.
    Heh it'd be tempting to get pedals for the anti-torque rotor like a proper chopper. That'd rule. Now if only I can get fucking shot of the fucking deadzone, I'll be dead happy.

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  12. Face it Lurks you are just getting old m8 - its probably rheumatism not RSI!

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  13. probably is best to stick to what one learns first, but getting physical pain from playing, urgh... of course, high sensitivity and a proper support for the elbow would probably help alot. and if thats the legs from a chair setup infront or something else doesnt matter much :)

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  14. Houmous: Glass houses grandad! :) On the other front, I've tried the stick between my legs, resting on an old Videologic subwoofer box and a thick REBOL book. It completely sucked, just couldn't get the right angle to control it. Back on the desk it went. Pushed it back a ways and tried to rest my elbow on table and let the stick take the weight. It was alright I suppose but my tendon is saw again today, bleh.

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  15. You can't just give it 5 minutes and then change back. You have to learn to use it in the new position. Try it again, it wont take long and you'll wonder how you ever used it on the desk.

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  16. Yeah, probably the case. The thing is though, it's right in the way of my chair and the game being what it is - you can go for ages without needing a joystick. It's also too low, there's really no way to raise it up. Any higher and it hits the underside of my desk. It's just massively inconvienient really - where as I can shove the (wireless) keyboard right the way to the side and drag the joystick square in front of my right arm, and push it out the way when I don't need it.
    Obviously between legs is the best position ergonomically but it just doesn't really fit with my chair either. I have to sit bolt upright to grab the joystick like that too. I don't think it's for me really. Maybe it'd be worth it for a big sesh playing X2 or something but not for DC.

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  17. Do a POD and have a force feedback joystick on your lap. Takes you mind of the pain ;-)

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  18. More gadgets!
    All IL2 freaks go nuts over this www.saitek.com and this www.trackir.com Just a shame you can't do a free look using the hat within the cockpits in '42.

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  19. The trackir is freaky, I'd love to try it out!

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