If you’re the king of your castle, surely you need a throne worthy of your status, right? We might spend our days slaving at a 9-5 job, but when we get home and settle in for a night of “pwning noobs on the interwebz” all of that can be forgotten.



If you spend as much time as the average gamer in front of your console or PC, you may have noticed that having the wrong chair can do a real number on your back and posterior. Chair makers have noticed this and now you can choose from a wide variety of chairs designed for play. So what should you look for in a chair while you’re fighting dragons or exploring space?

These five aspects of gaming chairs will help you find the best gaming chairs for your specific needs.

1.What’s Your Style?

“Gaming chair” is a term that can refer to a wide range of designs and feature sets. The only real things all gaming chairs have in common is that their design is somehow built around gaming as an activity.
Other than that, you can get them in a variety of styles. For example, the pedestal style is the most popular and is simply a gaming chair mounted on a pedestal which both lifts you a little off the ground and lets you rotate in place. A bit like an office chair without wheels.

You also get “rocker” chairs that just sit directly on the floor and let you rock back and forth for comfort and “PC gaming chairs” which are modified office chairs. Finally there are specialist racing chairs for people who are way too serious about their racing sims.

There are also more than a few tech features, such as built-in subwoofers. Which of these matter to you will depend on your own needs and situation.

2.Size Matters

More often than not, marketing pictures of gaming chairs don’t show you anything that gives you a real sense of a chair’s size. So when you’re looking for the perfect chair, don’t just gloss over the listed dimensions. Make sure that you’re not buying something meant for much larger or (more likely) smaller person.

3.Built for Comfort

It goes without saying that the chair has to be comfortable. The problem is that without actually sitting in a given chair it's hard to know how comfortable it will be. So if possible test them out in a physical shop or try to find video reviews of your chosen chair. Pay attention to padding for lower back support and head and neck cushioning.

4.The Right Stuff

As with any furniture, there are a lot of different choices for your chair’s materials. Each type of material, whether leather or a synthetic substance has its own pros and cons. Then again you get different grades within each material type.

In terms of the substructure of the chair it pays to have as much metal as possible, but of course the better the quality of the materials the more expensive the chair will be. Which brings us to the next point.

5.The Color of Your Money

Gaming chairs range from cheap to insanely expensive. For most people the right choice lies somewhere in between. Obviously your own budget dictates what you can afford, but buying the most expensive chair is not always the right choice.

Rather, simple is better. Don’t be swayed with features that don’t really improve your gaming experience. It’s better to get a chair that does the fundamentals right instead of one that’s just flashy.

Seat of Power

Just these five considerations should be enough to weed out the lesser products on the market, but to recap all you have to remember is this:

●    Double check the chair dimensions
●    Make sure the right supports are in place
●    Pick materials that will last

Whatever chair you do decide on, it should provide the perfect place from which to enjoy the latest games or those oh-so-good retro classics.

IMAGE CREDIT
Craige Moore CC BY ND via FLickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/craige/310001702