Throne of Games

October 7, 2020 3:56 PM

Lewis Gordon on the increasingly HR Gigeresque designs of gaming chairs. “While the gaming chair is marketed as a medical boon, it essentially renders large parts of the body motionless except, of course, those limbs interfacing directly with the computer. These chairs emphasize their ergonomic benefits … but encourage harmful behavior — either in the short term, as in extreme gaming sessions, or the long run, as muscles gradually atrophy.”
posted by adrianhon (31 comments total)

Perhaps they could integrate electro muscle therapy into the interface ?
posted by sammyo at 4:14 PM on October 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

⌘F
"Catheter"
Not found

Phew
posted by adamrice at 4:18 PM on October 7, 2020 [14 favorites]

I should have listened to Ma and become a physical therapist
posted by armoir from antproof case at 5:14 PM on October 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Subject matter: 8
Graphics: 9
Rereadability: 7
Title: 10+++
==============
Final Verdict: The Electric Chair (aka that $3299.00 Cluvens Scorpion Computer Cockpit)
posted by xigxag at 6:29 PM on October 7, 2020

I might read the article later but catheter made me LOL. There are evidently at least a couple of types, one that you see on late night TV that is slim and not too uncomfortable and such. Then there's the other type where the doctors advise you to look away but you're a glutton for punishment and have a weird almost but not quite masochistic response to pain like you're fine watching a nurse try to find a vein while digging around in your arm....

The other catheter is OMG there's no way that's fitting in my pee-hole while they shove something about the size of a pencil up your pee-hole.

I hope there are nicer things now for those that need them but the other is OMG you're going to put that there?

Probably not the worst thing, but...you don't want to spend a long amount of time with a tube stuck up your pee-hole. Maybe a hole in the seat for a bedpan.
posted by zengargoyle at 8:46 PM on October 7, 2020

I'm not a fan of this style of article, trying to be half high-minded critique and half conspiracy theory. Gaming chairs are mostly nice high-back office chairs that can recline a lot and have silly graphics on them.

I bought a gaming chair (a Secret Lab Titan) late last year when my cheap home-office chair died. My back pain went away once they had me working from home, and there was enough overlap that I definitely blame my work office chair. I do throw a blanket over the chair in zoom calls because the logo is somewhat out-of-place.
posted by netowl at 9:17 PM on October 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

I was looking for a bit more meaty analysis of why gaming chairs might have problems other than 'they look spooky!' and 'they make it easier to play video games more'.
posted by Braeburn at 10:20 PM on October 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

Electrophysical symbiosis something something mother's womb something something
posted by benzenedream at 10:21 PM on October 7, 2020

Gaming chairs are mostly nice high-back office chairs that can recline a lot and have silly graphics on them.

That, or racing bucket seats, which has always amused me. You don't need to be held in to your seat that way when you aren't subject to cornering forces.
posted by Dysk at 12:47 AM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

I know it's petty, but scrolling through to see images of the chairs before reading the piece, I closed the tab after seeing a still from Aliens misattributed to Alien.
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 12:53 AM on October 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

That, or racing bucket seats, which has always amused me. You don't need to be held in to your seat that way when you aren't subject to cornering forces.

Like football managers sitting in driving seats with side bolsters to withstand the incredible g-forces of the dugout.
posted by Klipspringer at 3:06 AM on October 8, 2020 [4 favorites]

Gaming chairs are mostly nice high-back office chairs that can recline a lot and have silly graphics on them.

This is very true. They're silly and often overpriced but their great virtue is that they start with functionality - comfort for sitting over very long periods - and build their aesthetic around that, which is a lot better than most office chairs that spend far too much effort Projecting Executiveness or Looking Cool in a Startup Office and end up being actually terrible to sit in.
posted by Tomorrowful at 6:15 AM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Where are these actually-just-good-office-chairs gaming chairs? If I search "gaming chair" on google, Amazon, Argos, wherever, virtually all I see are faux racing bucket seats, complete with holes that in an actual racing seat would be for passing a five-point racing harness through.
posted by Dysk at 8:29 AM on October 8, 2020

Dysk - These folks were mentioned upthread, and seem to ship direct in the UK - Secret Lab
posted by PeteTheHair at 8:36 AM on October 8, 2020

But... those are bucket seats? They just don't have the harness holes...
posted by Dysk at 8:43 AM on October 8, 2020

Is there any systematic health claim those chairs can make other than 'comfy'? IME almost all the real research into computing ergonomics stopped when H Bush eviscerated OSHA.

Cross-branding for Broda chairs would be a hard slog, but afaict they're the main make that has actual tested results.

Has LaZBoy really not made a gaming chair?
posted by clew at 10:18 AM on October 8, 2020

kudos on the post title
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:33 AM on October 8, 2020

Honestly, gaming chairs just remind me of those toddler beds shaped like race cars. Kids don't really think they're going to drive their bed around a track, and I don't think gamers really feel like it's going to help them game better; it's just for fun and to make themselves feel cool.
posted by phooky at 10:34 AM on October 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

(I was going to make a joke reference to doing all my gaming in this wooden folding chair I've been dragging around since 1997, but realized that almost all the games I play now are VR that I stand up for. If you haven't tried it, and you can manage it: it feels so much better to spend an hour playing games on your feet.)
posted by phooky at 10:41 AM on October 8, 2020

Toddler car seats and gamer chairs... are the same
posted by Tom-B at 11:13 AM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Gaming chairs seem like the next evolutionary step to the hoverchairs from Wall*E.
posted by ZaphodB at 11:39 AM on October 8, 2020

I find amusement in there being a cushion, chair or seat for every [NSFW] activity in the home.

Of course, the next logical step is to do all of those activities laying down. (Obvious link elided...)
posted by Anonymous Function at 12:51 PM on October 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

It is a shame that the article is too focused on making a point than to consider reasons why these designs would be useful. Reclined computer access would be helpful in many situations outside of "gamer gotta game."
posted by Anonymous Function at 1:17 PM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

I get the point the author is trying to make, and it's more nuanced than "look at these losers" but it does admittedly sound a lot like they're saying "look at these losers."

Extreme gaming chairs (like the gaming beds, and that weird scorpion thing) are clearly being marketed to support people who have serious, even life-threatening gaming addiction issues.

I know someone who got so deeply sucked into an MMO during his college years that he - an able-bodied young man - got bedsores. Surely it would have been unconscionable to address that issue by making his bed more comfortable.

But consider the other use case for "a chair that is comfortable to sit in for a long time" - people with mobility problems, who have no choice but to sit in the same chair or lie in the same bed for long periods of time. Lots of people get non-voluntary bedsores, and here's hoping they can benefit from some of the technologies being developed for gamers.

Also, you could write the exact opposite of this article about standing desks, treadmill desks, and VR gaming. Failing to at least mention their existence in the context of this article feels like a bit of a cheat.
posted by ErikaB at 1:19 PM on October 8, 2020 [4 favorites]

Adding 'Japanese gaming tent' to my personal wishlist even though the most I do is play a gacha game during long zooms.
posted by betweenthebars at 2:00 PM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

They're just recliners that fit next to a desk at this point.

Which sure whatever you do you. I like being comfy too.

Next article is going to by how high end couches are made for people with crippling addictions to rewatching The Good Place and spilling red juice all over them. Booooring.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 3:13 PM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

> Adding 'Japanese gaming tent' to my personal wishlist even though the most I do is play a gacha game during long zooms.

Yeah, I'm eyeing that for if I ever go back to the office. Take that, open floor plan!
posted by Anonymous Function at 4:20 PM on October 8, 2020

quick question is a throne of skulls ergonomic
posted by um at 4:38 PM on October 8, 2020 [4 favorites]

ErikaB, there are already chairs designed *and tested* for people at risk of bedsores, limb contraction, etc., and they don't look like what's being sold as gaming chairs to me. A big market in untested stuff that "looks right" doesn't help the market for stuff that's more boring but works better.
posted by clew at 6:34 PM on October 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

I sense a Ballardian vibe. The intersection of modernity, violence, bodily decay, technology.

I wonder what kind of set-up military drone pilots use.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:33 PM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

I wonder what kind of set-up military drone pilots use.

They look like something between an office chair and a business-class seat torn from a domestic airliner.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:46 PM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]