How important are mouse pads?

I don't use one at all, but I suppose it also depends on the surface of your table.

Umm, are you still using an old mouse with a ball to track movement? Cuz optical mice don't really need a mouse pad to operate, as long as the surface you use isn't black. What mouse pad are you buying that's 20 dollars?

For me, when playing FPS-games, mouse mat and mouse combo is extremely important - I want to be able to drag left-to-right without disturbance in weather the mouse on the screen or on the surface on the mouse mat.

I like to have a good quality mouse mat even when only browsing internet or playing RTS, MMO's or RPG's, but not as important as FPS.

Tip: Get one thats good for your mouse get the cheapest that has the same material as the expensive ones.

you can't compare a cheap plastic mousepad with a cloth mousepad, if you play FPS I think it's worth.

Buy a random one on chinese

For the past 10 years, I've used the same tiny circular Google promotional mouse pad that I got for free. It worked fine. I just replaced it with a full-sized mouse pad, which makes a pretty big difference, as I don't keep sliding off the edge of the thing. As long as it isn't complete crap, I don't find the surface makes much of a difference, but I'm hardly a pro gamer. I prefer soft mouse pads over the hard plastic ones though.

I've never used a mousepad before and never had issues but then I got a new mouse and thought I might as well get a mousepad and see if it makes a difference. I bought a Steelseries QCK because it's pretty much the most popular mousepad and well I am really loving it. The mouse moves easier and it feels a bit better to have my hand resting on the pad than on the table. I will never go back to a hard surface ever again.

I got my Steelseries QCK medium size mouse pad for 20$ in a store but I've seen it for 10-15$ online.

Buy the Roccat Alumic and you'll never have to buy a mousepad in your life again

Once upon a time, mice had rubber balls in the bottoms that slid around, and were very temperamental.

With modern optical mice, a mouse pad isn't necessary at all, except for the comfort of your hand, or if you have a desk surface that is transparent or reflective.

A mouse pad doesn't really make a difference to me, as long as the surface I use my mouse on is flat then I'm fine.

I never used one.

I say it depends on your desk. If it's rough and uneven, a mouse pad is a good idea.
Some people like mouse pads and some don't, so it's basically all up to you.

I'm still using the free mousepad that came with the computer I bought in 1992... It's lasted longer than the store that gave it to me.

important enough to at least have one. without even a cheapo mouse pad, the surface of my desktop stand, the mouse is very jagged in movement and overall difficult to control. I'd rather use a piece of felt from my mom's craft room than nothing at all.

A MousePad For A Mouse Is As Important As A Cutting Board For A Block Of Cheese.

Sure... You Can Cut The Cheese ANYWHERE... But Some People Like Doing It In Style.

I just use the cheapest one I can find. Even $1 you can sometimes find one. Or better, get on as a freebie somewhere. Some companies give them away free if they have their logo or some form of advertising on them.

I used to think they're not important until I bought a good one (SteelSeries QcK for ~$10). Coupled with Logitech G400 it works really well because G400 has teflon feet that never get dirty on a cloth mousepad. Playing FPS games is much more comfortable and you don't run out of area needed to move your mouse.

Depends on application of course. For example I used to use a cheapo mouse + no mousepad and I was completely fine. But when I got a nice mouse, the hard slidey feet would bang against my table and were clearly built for a mousepad. As well I got into competitive CS, where I'd use extremely low sensitivity for precision and so i could train my muscle memory, plus the sensor would be stupid withotu a mousepad.

I have 1 custom $1 mousepad, and I'm happy, I hardly ever use it anyways xd, because of my form of using the mouse, I use it like this mouse is placed in the image and normally ppl use it like this, but I have the mousepad placed like in the second image.

I use bow instruction manual as my mouse pad, previously it was paper

I use a DVD case. It's covered with some material I cut off an old cushion cover which held in place with duct tape. Stuffed some tissues into the case to stop it sagging.

I have my desktop hooked to my living room tv and use it from the armchair. Found that putting the mouse straight on the chair didn't work too good because of cracks in the leather + the cruvature of the arm of the chair itself. With regular mouse pads the curvature of the chair was a still a problem as they're flexible whereas I needed a flat, more rigid surface.

The DVD case works for me better than hardback books which I've also tried. I have looked at buying non-flexible mouse pads but for now I'm fine.

On some tables, mice work as they would on a good mousepad. On some they don't work at all. The typical ikea furniture surface (white - where you can't really tell if it's all plastic or actually some wood inside it) is terrible for one of my mice, the other works fine on it, but it makes too loud noises. Glass usually doesn't work at all (please get a new table at the very first in that case, the super cold surface will kill your arms in the long run and make you a cripple).

I've had a Steelseries 4HD for so many years now, still looks like it's brand new. Most probably my grandchildren will also use it. Now some people do prefer cloth surface over hard plastic. Can not recommend (especially if you're hands are sweating a lot). Depending on how much you use it, they'll wear down rather quickly.

I used to think that mousepad is not important. Until I bought a mouse with teflon slide-feet (I don't know the proper english name for that mouse part, but I think you know what I'm referring to) and my desk surface destroyed them pretty quickly. So I bought new feet and fabic pad. And then it was like a bliss. I never imagined mouse could be going so smoothly. From now on I stick with Steelseries QCK, though some of my friends prefer A4Tech or Razer pads - they give a bit different feel. I can't say it really improves gaming performance, but it surely is more comfortable and since I've been using it, my mouse can compete with graphic tablet in simpler photoshop tasks, something that was tedious on desk surface (more precision in small movements).