Thought Experiment: What are things you look for when buying a gaming peripheral?

[franman]

When I say gaming peripherals I mean type of controllers for gaming such as mouse, keyboards, control pad, keypads etc.

What is the thought process behind this before making your final decision on which product to buy?
Have you ever given much thought on the product before making your purchasing decision?
Do you ever compare products?

Whenever I consider purchasing a product, I look at 4 aspects and yes thees aspects are ranked:

1. Price
2. Build/Quality
3. Ergonomic Design
4. Features

I numbered price 1st because in my situation I'm a student on a budget; I set a target range for the price I'm willing to pay at, so say for a gaming mouse I'm looking at a price range between $59.99 to $79.99 and I did not consider tax. But it's not just for the price aspect alone, for what I consider what's my money's worth that's when the other 3 comes into fruition.

Build/Quality is one of the other 3 and is placed 2nd because at the price I can afford, the material has to be high quality, durable and doesn't break easily in a short period of time.

Ergonomic Design, in some cases the terminology may apply to what general aspects the general public feels comfortable in using that product, but I go by my own individual perception based on my own comfort level of using a product.

Finally, I place features last because let's put it this way, if I place features above everything else or by just one or two or three places above a certain aspect, the price will likely be over-budgeted; I may not enjoy the features for a long period of time due to poor quality and the RMA process is too much of a hassle. Bad ergonomic design means not fully taking advantage of these features. Of course when comparing two products in similar categories that satisfies the first 3 aspects I'd go for the one with the better feature.

 

[Death_Emperor_X]

MADCATZ!!! XD The CatMaddness is the finest equipment in all of tamriel.

 

[Ishimaru Jinrai]

1. Price
2. Build/Quality
3. Ergonomic Design
4. Features

I numbered 1st because in my situation I'm a student on a budget; I set a target range for the price I'm willing to pay at, so say for a gaming mouse I'm looking at a price range between $59.99 to $79.99 and I did not consider tax. But it's not just for the price aspect alone, for what I consider what's my money's worth that's when the other 3 comes into fruition.

Lol well all 4 are equally important, but the thing I look at most is the quality of the product like if I'm buying a fight pad or some badass custom Noel Vermillion arcade pad with light up buttons! I'll gladly pay a ridiculous 200 USD or more on a great high quality arcade pad, but I won't bother spending even 80 USD on a crap one... My Hori Tekken 6 pad broke like in 4 months but I mashed a lot in the beginning with that one mostly before I learned better string combos... =P (Mostly my fault!)

Also I like getting the limited eddition controllers like for Titan Fall or Gears of War because then your friends can see those and go "OMG, where did you get that??!" and it's like you have something people can't normally buy, so it adds value... Although most controllers now are standard issue (since 3rd party ones feel just awkward and cheap plastic!)