Office chairs aren’t the only interesting chairs in the world; gaming chairs are also interesting. Some People use both chairs in place of each other. However, gaming chairs are generally less quality than office chairs. Most people buy gaming chairs due to the similarity of gaming chairs with office chairs; the special design, pretty looks, and almost comfy seats, all at a similar or lower price.
Sadly, if you buy a gaming chair, it won’t take long before you begin to ask the same question: Why is my gaming chair so uncomfortable?
Well, despite the special design and seeming convenience, your gaming chair can be so uncomfortable due to the following factors.
- First-time Use
- Non-functional Bucket Seat
- Poor Head Design
- Non-Functional Chair Side Bolsters
- Chairs’ Only for small, Slender Builds
- No Adequate Adjustment
This article provides hands-down information on the reason why your gaming chair seems to be that uncomfortable. The article also seeks to enlighten the reader on the features available on gaming chairs that result in utmost discomfort
Six Reasons Why Gaming Chairs are so Uncomfortable?
One of the challenges of using a gaming chair depends on the customer’s expectations about the product. As funny as it may sound, most customers complain about gaming chairs becausethe chairs do not meet their expectations. Customers expect a lot of the seat because it costs almost like an office chair and sometimes even more than an office chair.
There’s no denying that gaming chairs come with such beautiful looks, standard design, and a promising comfy seat. You won’t see a gaming chair and not want to buy it unless you have problems with things that look nice. Sadly, gaming chairs tend to offer less-than-expected performance.
Gaming chairs cost a little bit a lot, so their use should equal the amount, yet, it’s never so with a gaming chair. They are exactly the opposite; when you begin to feel the discomfort with a gaming chair, it hurts more when you remember that you actually paid for it.
Not everyone can afford to pay for a chair used only for gaming and nothing else. So anyone ready to buy such a chair, regardless of the price, has high expectations regarding comfort. For a chair that costs over $300, everyone expects nothing but performances that tell the chair is worth the amount.
The high expectations you have from your gaming chair could be why the chairs seem so uncomfortable to you. You expected it to have the same comfort as an office chair, not knowing its design differs from office chairs. This article submits the possible reasons that make your seat so uncomfortable.
Below are other reasons why your gaming chair is so uncomfortable
1. First-time Use
Most times, people who complain bitterly about the discomfort of gaming chairs are first-time users. As with most things where you feel a sense of discomfort, if it’s your first time using a gaming chair, it might not be so comfy to you; you will only become used to it after some time.
Even the design of two gaming chairs varies, let alone a regular office chair. So, you may not necessarily feel the same comfort as sitting in a regular office chair. The least you can do at this spot is give it more time, but if you continue to have the same uncomfortable feeling, you will have to get a new chair or a better one next time.
2. Non-functional Bucket Seat
One of the downsides of gaming chairs is the design of the seat. Most gaming chairs have a unique kind of seat—a bucket seat. The bucket seat design is a replica of a racing car seat. Originally, gaming chairs came as an attempt to redefine the system of comfort while playing racing games.
The seats in race cars help you retain your position no matter how rough the riding is. It saves you time to re-position yourself in the center of the seat. Gaming chairs’ bucket seat design mimics a car seat such that a gamer feels the experience while playing his racing games.
So, as do race cars, the bucket seat with side bolsters on gaming chairs help to maintain a good driving posture. They guard you against going off the chair while entering fast bends or banging around the car and concentrate on your driving.
The intention of designing a chair to mimic the design of race car seats isn’t a bad one. Still, the design can only make sense for selected applications, such as the racing simulator application, where the car will move. And for Arcade-style racing games where after a few minutes of the experience, you go on to another game in the gallery.
The bucket seat design with side bolsters makes no sense for PC or console gaming. The bucket seat seems to make you immobile, which is highly uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the designers of ergonomic office chairs seem to match the concerns of sitting all day in a chair with an initial design that resists the possible challenges of sitting for too long.
The manufacturers design office chairs so you can play your game for a very long time without complaining of discomfort. Therefore, I recommend you buy an office chair for your games and a typical gaming chair.
3. Poor Head Design
You wouldn’t have bought a gaming chair if you knew that you would never place your head comfortably on your chair. Gaming chairs have unreasonable head designs that do not resemble the ideal measurement of a human head. The head design is likely only necessary for marketing the chair.
It’s sad that gaming chairs mimic race cars and ergonomic office chairs but are less quality than both chairs. Gaming chairs must offer users the needed head, neck, and lumbar support for their comfort. As office chairs provide the needed neck support, avoiding any form of body fatigue even after a long time.
Comfort while discussing a gaming chair may only be a buzzword. Unlike office chairs, the ugly narrow head of a gaming chair makes it impossible for you to relax your head on the chair as you, an office chair, would. The head design of the chair is likely to cost you some neck pains.
Before you buy any chair that will cost you more money than your regular chair, you should first consider your comfort.
4. Non-Functional Chair Side Bolsters
Most gaming chairs have metallic side bolsters with a small amount of padding. With such a feature, sitting in a chair for an extended time becomes very uncomfortable. A gamer may be forced to assume a bad sitting position due to the bolsters.
Most gamers will prefer to relax or have any position while playing their games, but the side bolsters make you stay in the seat, forcing you to be in a specific posture as if you were in military training.
Aside from a bad sitting position, the side bolsters restrict you from using the seat as you should. You cannot use either side of the seat. You also can’t feel relaxed in a chair you bought with your money. How uncomfortable can this get?
The bolsters on the backrest are also as problematic as the side bolsters even though, here, they affect. They affect your shoulders. Gaming chairs have such poor back support that the bolsters on the backrest push you forward your back and shoulder, all at the expense of comfort and convenience.
5. Chairs’ Only for small, slender builds
The design of gaming chairs only allows for those with small and slender builds. Because the chairs are not spacious and have low-weight capacities, gaming chairs can only carry less heavy people. Their weight capacities are 220 pounds at most. You may not easily find gaming chairs with large weight capacities, and they won’t come at budget-friendly prices when you eventually find them.
The small space design and side bolster design of gaming chairs specify the size they can carry. Most gaming chairs can only carry slim, small people.
6. No Adequate Adjustment
Unlike ergonomic office chairs, gaming chairs lack adequate adjustments. Because, unlike the multiple position tilt lock, synchro-tilt, and forward seat tilt a gaming chair uses a swivel tilt mechanism. Still, most gaming chairs use faulty swivel tilt mechanisms. They use the lowest quality mechanisms.
The faulty ones need a lot of strength to rock back, and yet the pressure adjustment will seem as if nothing happened. The use of faulty swivel tilt mechanisms manifests in unbearable discomfort.
When that happens, you will realize that you have a chair that should swivel back, but it isn’t. Gaming chairs come with fixed seats and backrests; you can neither adjust the seat depth, nor the back height.
Some gaming chairs arms do not have any function, while others have arms with some functions; only a few gaming chairs provide arms with only height adjustment. You can rarely find a gaming chair with three or four-way arms.
And only the three or four-way arms gaming chairs allow for arm height and width adjustments. These types of rare gaming chairs offer little comfort by allowing for adjustments. And since that’s the best adjustment they can offer, gamers are forced to adapt to the chair.
Conclusion
Most gamers get used to gaming chairs over time. However, they risk posture defects by doing so. A typical gaming chair isn’t a seat you can trust with your musculoskeletal system. I believe this article helped identify the causes of your uncomfortable position in a gaming chair.
The final truth is that you should get an ergonomic office in the place of a gaming chair, and you won’t have to complain any further.
