Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Monograph
Monograph
ESTUDIANTE
Nicholas Max Meals Franco
ASESOR
Fernando Ordoñez
1 SUMMARY..................................................................................................................11
2 ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................11
3 INTRODUCCIÓN........................................................................................................13
4 PROBLEM STATEMENT...........................................................................................15
5 OBJECTIVES...............................................................................................................16
6 REFERENTIAL FRAMEWORK.................................................................................17
6.1.2 Ergonomics.....................................................................................................17
8 DEVELOPMENT.........................................................................................................25
8.2 DISCUSSION........................................................................................................30
9 CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................................32
10 BIBLIOGRAPHY.........................................................................................................35
11 ANNEXES....................................................................................................................39
TABLE INDEX
INDEX OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Percentage drops and increases in average score relating to mouse weight. Source:
Own elaboration....................................................................................................................29
Figure 2 Percentage drops and increases in average score relating to framerates. Source:
Own elaboration....................................................................................................................29
INDEX OF ANNEXES
Figure 1 Percentage drops and increases in average score relating to mouse weight. Source:
Own elaboration. 29
Figure 2 Percentage drops and increases in average score relating to framerates. Source:
Own elaboration....................................................................................................................29
Annex 1 Excel document containing all the data collected for analysis 39
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
DEDICATION
ACCEPTANCE NOTE
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Jury
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Jury
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Advisor
This project studied how different physical and digital ergonomic advancements
developed for first person shooters influence target acquisition to determine whether the
theory behind these aspects stands. Furthermore, this study seeks to compare these aspects
to figure out if one is more beneficial than the other for an average player. To achieve this,
five subjects selected and asked to undergo various trials in the aim training program
known as Kovaaks. Their scores were obtained after testing how the different aspects
influence aim, specifically in the flicking and tracking aspects of aiming. The results
confirmed that both aspects whether physical or digital showed benefits for performance in
both flicking and tracking, although the best performing aspect was the digital
advancements. Furthermore, all the digital and physical advancements were faithful to the
theoretical background.
2 ABSTRACT
físicos y digitales desarrollados para los shooters en primera persona en la punteria para
determinar si la teoría que sustenta estos aspectos se mantiene. Además, este estudio
pretende comparar estos aspectos para averiguar si uno es más beneficioso que el otro para
un jugador promedio. Para ello, se seleccionaron cinco sujetos y se les pidió que se
la puntería. Los resultados confirmaron que ambos aspectos, ya sean físicos o digitales,
mostraban beneficios para el rendimiento tanto en el flicking como en el tracking, aunque
el aspecto que mejor funcionaba era el de los avances digitales. Además, todos los avances
engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. The aspect of ergonomics this
paper aims to discuss, is the area related to FPS gaming, specifically the advancements
made to enhance performance in such games. Some of these include aim trainers, improved
analog sticks, lower latency, etc. These can be found in the documents that have been
selected to support this project: The trackball controller: improving the analog stick, which
studied how replacing the right analog stick with a trackball affected the performance of
Training, that explained how training affects their performance; Body Involvement in
Video Gaming as a Support for Physical and Cognitive Learning. This article questions the
different degrees of bodily involvement in the practice of video games according to the
different types of games and the mechanisms that allow the player to learn the games’
gesture patterns; The impact of mouse weight and connection type on muscle activity and
performance while gaming that studied how mice weight affects performance in FPS
experiment made with mouse pads to determine if they improve performance in games;
Latency of 30 ms Benefits First Person Targeting Tasks More Than Refresh Rate Above 60
Hz that includes an extensive explanation as to why latency is more impactful than refresh
rate; Evaluating The Effects of Aim Lab Training on Filipino Valorant Players' Shooting
Accuracy that had the goal of demonstrating the effectiveness of aim trainers on
professional players; Gaming at Warp Speed: Improving Aiming with Late Warp
implies, this article presents how ergonomics have influenced the development of game-
pads; Measuring the impact of game controllers on player experience in FPS games this
final document takes on the complications that using a controller bring into FPS videogame
experience. On the other hand, this text aims to test how these ergonomic advances can
hinder or improve the development of aim in FPS videogames, which could in turn benefit
a wide variety of people who participate in the FPS genres. This is because by defining
whether physical aspects influence aim more than digital aspects or vice versa, players
could facilitate how they choose their peripherals for a more comfortable feel or even a
competitive advantage. To further explain how this could help someone, let’s take for an
example that physical ergonomics are the way to go and that they help improve aim in a
significant manner when compared to the digital aspects; in this case, then people would
now know that getting a better mouse could improve their performance in a more
substantial manner than by when compared to using an aim trainer, and as a result they
How do the physical and digital ergonomic advancements compare regarding the influence
of aim in FPS games of a select few Richmond School students when used frequently?
How many aspects influence the aim of people playing first person shooters?
What are the most popular programs to practice aim for FPS games?
How many frames per second are essential for performance in aiming for FPS games?
5 OBJECTIVES
Understand how physical and digital ergonomic advancements for FPS videogames
Identify what ergonomic advancements are the most practical for testing.
This genre of games has the characteristic of being in the first-person perspective
while also being accompanied by the use of firearms which is why it has the acronym “First
person shooter”. In these types of games, you can find different modes such as capture the
flag and team deathmatch, but since this is the shooter genre the necessity for proper aim is
at an all-time high since these games are very competitive, as demonstrated by the growth
of interest in esports:“eSports is growing around the globe, with more and more individuals
are engaged as players or spectators.”(Hallman, 2017, p.3).This genre has had such an
impact due to its competitiveness to the point where players are asking for better ways to
improve or get a competitive advantage, and as a result, companies have released a variety
of peripherals and programs that are supposed to aid in the art of aiming which include: aim
6.1.2 Ergonomics
It´s common for people to think that ergonomics has something to do with seats or
designs of workspaces, and they would be right but it’s way more since ergonomics applies
to the design of anything regarding people like sports, leisure, health and safety. Knowing
this, people have shown to have a continuous need for comfort in everyday environments
and this has led to beneficial improvements in routine items, items such as chairs,
keyboards and mice. This need for comfort applies perfectly in the context of gaming in
aspects like height of chairs, keyboard feel, and mouse weight. This last aspect has been
known to affect gamers’ performance when playing fps games since people have different
arm strengths. What is light to one person may be heavy for another. And what is just right
for one person, may be too light for another to the point that it makes them lose fine control
over the mouse, resulting in worse performance. The design of mice is a very important
part for a gamer’s experience when playing because to perform in the most optimal way
possible you should feel as comfortable as possible, and just as Eoin Conroy (2022) said,
“Advances in human performance have shifted research attention from individuals towards
understanding the effects that equipment can have on their performance” (p.2) On the other
hand, ergonomics in the context of this research is defined by physical and digital
advancement that has the element of touch such as mousepads, keyboards, mice, chairs, etc.
On the other hand, when we talk about digital ergonomic advancements, we are referring to
any advancements related to software, like latency, framerate, aim trainers, etc.
should depend on personal preference, and while that is technically correct, it still doesn’t
address how it could actually be beneficial to have a lighter mouse rather than a heavier
mouse since with games that require continuous fast movements such as Fortnite, Call of
duty, and Halo, having a lighter mouse means that you can have that wide ranging
movement without having that dragging feeling of a heavier mouse because less force is
needed, which in turn allows for a great balance of speed and control which is essential for
action packed FPS games. This is one of the main reasons as to why you can see many
professional FPS players use the Logitech g pro x superlight which is one of the lightest
mice on the market, weighing in at about 63 grams. So, in a sense, the theory behind mouse
weight is that the lower the weight the better performance for FPS games. This is backed up
by the results Eoin Conroy and his colleagues´ research on how computer mouse mass
affects target acquisition in fps games. The document confirmed that “Results showed that
participants were 4% faster and 9% more accurate with 50g, 60g, and 90g mice compared
to the 100g mouse.” (Conroy, 2022) This confirms how a lighter mouse does bring benefits
Framerate is what allows us to view the games that we play which is usually
measured in frames per second (FPS); and when the question comes up about what the best
framerate a person could have is? The general answer would be that there really isn’t one, it
just depends on how high you can get it, since the higher framerate your computer can
achieve the more responsive and smooth experience you will have. And if you can have a
more responsive game when compared to others, you will have the competitive advantage,
although one thing that is important to mention is that monitors are only capable of
displaying up to a certain framerate, which means that even though your computer is
capable of producing major framerates, visibly you cap out at your monitor’s refresh rate,
and the highest you can get it these days is up to 360hz, so you can only visibly notice up to
360fps. In a sense, the ideal framerate is the refresh rate of the monitor being used. But
technically the higher your framerate is, the better your performance will be with regards to
target acquisition as supported by the study done by Mark Claypool which says
Framerates as low as 3 fps and even 7 fps are almost un-playable as users cannot
adequately target opponents. In fact, there are performance benefits for user play up
This further supports the fact that a higher framerate increases the performance a
Aiimer7, a well-known aim enthusiast, aim training can actually result in enhanced abilities
due to how we as humans can perfect skills with practice. But there is a comment that even
if you train, base skills such as reaction time are genetic, so training can’t improve it.
Similar to what was mentioned previously, Aiimer7, also confirms that since genetics does
play a key role in how skilled a person can be with aiming, training can only place you
above the people who don’t. Furthermore, in a study conducted by Cheselle Jan Roldan
“The results concluded that doing the 6 recommended training on Aim Lab, for a total of 6
minutes every day, before playing Valorant for 1 week led to a significant improvement in
the average damage output generated per round.” (2021) This clearly demonstrates how
consistent training in aim training software, improves the performance of players´ aims
since by having an improved damage output it is inferred that the players had greater
accuracy.
In a sense, theoretically, the optimal setup for high performance aim requires a high
This study has a quasi-experimental focus since this design allows for the use of
independent and dependent variables without relying on random criteria similar to a true
variable to observe its effect on one or more dependent variables, only they differ from
"pure" experiments in the degree of certainty that can be placed on the initial equivalence
of the groups. (Sampieri, 2014) The independent variables that are manipulated in this
study are the different mouse weights and the different framerates with the dependent
Additionally, this study uses a qualitative approach since this method is guided by
significant areas or themes of research. However, instead of clarity about research questions
and hypotheses preceding data collection and analysis (as in most quantitative studies),
qualitative studies can develop questions and hypotheses before, during, and after data
The object of study for this project is the five different performance variations in aim
as a result of the digital ergonomic aspects (aim training & FPS) and the physical
ergonomic aspects (Mouse weight) These performance boosts will be given in percentage
increases, through the evaluation of average scores in an aim training software known as
Kovaak’s.
Knowing this, the different stages of this study include: First, select five Richmond
School students to participate in a series of trials which involve playing two different
situations in the computer program known as Kovaak’s to measure their performance with
the two major mechanics that surround computer aiming: Flicking and tracking.
Second, they will be asked about their current experience with the FPS genre,
specifically about how experienced they consider themselves to be when regarding their
aim. To further solidify their claims, they will be placed in the theoretically ideal setup to
calculate their average tracking and flicking scores from 5 attempts each.
Third, the subjects will then be handed the heaviest mouse available which is the
Logitech G502, which weighs in at 121 grams. Using this mouse, they will perform the two
situations in Kovaak’s and their average scores will be calculated to figure out how much it
they varied from their initial state. This process will be repeated a total of 3 times for the
different weighted mice, which include: Logitech G502 without the added weights (121g),
the Logitech g305 (99g), and the Logitech G Pro X superlight (63g).
Fourth, the subjects will be given the g pro x superlight for the remaining trials since
this is theoretically the optimal mouse due to is shape and weight, the subjects will then be
asked to repeat the two situations in Kovaak’s, their latency will be set to default and their
frames per second (fps) will be locked at three different values which include: 30fps, 60fps,
and 120fps. Their scores will then be gathered and compared to see how this impacted their
aim.
The fifth stage involves letting them repeat the situations with the ideal setup, to see if
their average scores have increased in comparison to their first encounter. With these
The final stage involves gathering the average scores of each stage to compare and
figure out the percentage increases or decreases to finally determine whether the physical
As mentioned previously this study seeks to figure out how digital and physical
when aiming in fps games. To achieve this, different stages had to be completed. For the
first and second stages of this research the five subjects were selected and asked about their
experience with FPS games on PC in order to rank their skill level for accurate analysis of
their performance. These five Richmond school were specifically chosen since they were
known to have some experience with the FPS genre prior to testing, these subjects also had
similar ages ranging from 17-18 so that age would be a factor, additionally these students
lived with rather similar sleep schedules to further isolate the variables down to the physical
Additionally, the subjects were placed into the theoretically ideal setup which
included high framerate and a light mouse. They were then asked to find a sensitivity they
felt comfortable with to perform the tasks in. Once they found their sensitivity, they were
told to complete the two tasks in the aim training program known as Kovaak’s: one for
tracking called “Close Long Strafes Invincible” and one for Flicking known as “Tile
frenzy”. Each of these situations were repeated a total of five times, recording each
repetition’s score (see annexes for complete tables) to then be gathered and turned into
averages.
Initial Average Flicking Tracking
Subject 1 63.4 8583.2
Subject 2 71.6 7514
Subject 3 68.33 7402.4
Subject 4 59.52 7340.8
Subject 5 57.4 7320
Table 2 Initial average scores. Source: Own elaboration
In the third stage of this study the subjects were then given the different mice and
asked to complete the aforementioned tasks five times per category: Flicking and Tracking.
Their results were then gathered, and their averages were calculated for every mouse
weight. These averages were then transferred onto tables for further analysis.
Once the previous data was gathered, the setup had to be modified to fit the next
stage of this study which involves testing how different framerates affect performance. To
do this, a program known as RTSS was installed onto the computer, since this would allow
to set a frame limiter. After installation of the program the subjects were then asked to
repeat the tasks in Kovaak’s with three different framerates: 120fps, 60fps, and 30fps. Their
individual scores were then gathered and their respective averages were calculated and
recorded.
The fifth stage of this study involved placing the subjects in the ideal setup once
again, followed by asking them to repeat the trials once again to see if their results would
improve or get worse when compared to their initial scores. Once doing this, the results
For the final stage of this project, all the average scores were gathered and
compared to see their respective percentage increase or decrease that the physical/digital
ergonomic advancements resulted in. To facilitate the analysis of such information, the data
20.00 18.13
16.95
15.00 12.30
9.44 10.32
10.00
6.99
5.00 3.54
0.00
Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4 Subject-0.33
5
-5.00
-10.00 -8.78
-15.00
Flicking Tracking
Figure 1 Percentage drops and increases in average score relating to mouse weight. Source: Own elaboration.
29.78
30.00 27.90
25.04
25.00
19.87
20.00 18.14
15.43 15.70
15.00 14.34
9.51
10.00
5.00
0.00
Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4 Subject 5
-1.93
-5.00
Flicking Tracking
Figure 2 Percentage drops and increases in average score relating to framerates. Source: Own elaboration.
Percentage Increase/drop after training
25.00
21.77
15.00
10.00
5.00
Flicking Tracking
8.2 DISCUSSION
To begin, during the first and second phases of this study, the subjects were asked to
personally rank themselves based on their skill level regarding FPS games on PC as seen on
table one. Additionally, their initial average scores were gathered to confirm their claims as
seen on table two and as can be seen, their claims are relatively accurate with the only
exception being subject number four which actually performs at a skill level similar to an
advanced beginner, which meant that, individual scores would be more consistent, thus
During phase three, when reviewing the average scores it is possible to notice how in
subjects 1, 2 and 3 for the most part, as the mice get lighter, their performance increases,
which is faithful to the theoretical benefits of using a lighter mouse provided by the
theoretical framework, but in the cases of subjects 4 and 5, their scores for both flicking and
tracking are rather inconsistent which could be a result of their skill level and comfort with
first person shooters. Although, in the case of subject number 4, there is a clear decline in
tracking scores while flicking scores got a slight boost from using lighter mice.
Now, when taking into account the percentages for increases/decreases, there are
evidently various increases in performance through the use of a lighter mouse with the only
decreases found with subjects 4 and 5 with their tracking scores although subject five’s
decrease is negligible, only standing at a low 0.33%. The theory regarding mouse weight
In the case of the framerate values acquired during the fourth phase of testing, all
subjects showed substantial increases in their scores except for the single instance with
subject number 4 in which the flicking score showed a 1.93% decrease, which isn’t much
of a decrease but could still be the result of subject number four’s skill or this subject’s
comfort with playing games at lower framerates since this particular subject consistently
Considering this information, it is valid to say that the theory behind framerate also
stands, since higher framerates allow for better performance, but not just slight
improvements, major ones ranging from 15% all the way to 29%. This shows how
framerate has so far had a more positive impact on performance when compared to mouse
weights.
With the completion of the previous stages of this study, the last thing to do was to
gather the average scores of the subjects using the ideal setup, which resulted in increased
performance in every aspect, although the more significant increases only seemed to
happen in the flicking aspect with percentage increases ranging from 16% to 21%;
meanwhile, the tracking scores only had percentage increases ranging from 1.35% to 1.62%
which is very minimal but understandable since it’s the setup with which the subjects were
Keeping this in mind, the theoretical benefits of consistent practice with aim training
programs do in fact show since there was definitely an increase to the subjects’ scores, and
while only significant in flicking, there were still increases in tracking. Furthermore, the
theory behind the ideal circumstances for optimal performance in target acquisition is
properly supported by the data collected since by using a high framerate, a light mouse and
consistent training, every subject was able to achieve their highest average scores out of the
entire study.
Lastly, taking into account the different percentage increases and decreases, after
classifying the different aspects that were tested into physical and digital aspects, the best
aspect for a boost in performance was the framerate since it had the highest percentage
increases out of all the different aspects, meaning that the most beneficial aspect for
As the videogame industry grows, more and more players will be attracted towards the
first person shooter genre, thus encouraging competition, which means that it is essential to
improve their framerate since as discussed previously, this is the aspect with the highest
percentage increases for average scores for both flicking and tracking, the higher the
framerate the better. Th next best thing players should do should be to try to keep a
consistent training regimen in aim training programs such as kovaaks if they wish to
majorly improve their flicking skills, since as presented previously it provides better results
when compared to having a lighter mouse. Although, having a lighter mouse does bring
better results when it comes down to tracking but the best thing a player can do is to mix all
of these aspects to perform at their best since, for the most part, every aspect brought
performance, this study established that both of these types of advancements perform rather
similarly and for the most part only bring positive results no matter what aspects a player
may decide to use. Although it is important to apply the theory for every aspect to
maximize results.
Future research of this subject should focus on a larger group since this would allow
for more in depth and accurate results, additionally, the amount of task repetitions done by
the subjects should be increased to allow for more precise averages, furthermore this would
also impact the results of the percentage increase that aim training had, since subjects
would be repeating tasks more frequently which creates better muscle memory for aiming.
Lastly future research should include more digital and physical aspects such as latency
since this would provide players with more options to improve their performance.
10 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boudaoud, B., Knowles, P., Kim, J., & Spjut, J. (2021). Gaming at Warp Speed:
Improving Aiming with Late Warp. Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics
https://doi.org/10.1145/3450550.3465347
155541201882042. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412018820426
Claypool, K.T., Claypool, M. On frame rate and player performance in first person
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00530-007-0081-1
Eoin Conroy, Adam J. Toth, Mark J. Campbell, The effect of computer mouse mass
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103637.
Gerling, K. M., Klauser, M., & Niesenhaus, J. (2011). Measuring the impact of
Giovanni, N. D. (2021, January 27). Our mouse control tests: Click latency.
https://www.rtings.com/mouse/tests/control/latency
Games and frames: A strange tale of qoe studies. (n.d.). Retrieved December 16,
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Li, G., Wang, M., Wiesinger, A., Hoeglinger, E., Barr, A., Liu, Y., & Harris, C.
(2019). The impact of mouse weight and connection type on muscle activity and
https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181319631458
Latency of 30 ms Benefits First Person Targeting Tasks More Than Refresh Rate
Mark Claypool, Kajal Claypool, and Feissal Damaa "The effects of frame rate and
resolution on users playing first person shooter games", Proc. SPIE 6071,
Multimedia Computing and Networking 2006, 607101 (16 January 2006);
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Powers, K., & Brooks, P. (2013, November 28). Evaluating the Specifi city of
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Roldan, Cheselle & Prasetyo, Yogi. (2021). Evaluating The Effects of Aim Lab
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Aim_Lab_Training_on_Filipino_Valorant_Players'_Shooting_Accuracy
Shengmei Liu, Mark Claypool, Atsuo Kuwahara, Jamie Sherman, and James J
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Slocum, J., Thompson, S., & Chaparro, B. (2005). Evaluation of Mouse Pads
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Spjut, J., Boudaoud, B., & Kim, J. (2021, May 5). A case study of first person
aiming at low latency for Esports. arXiv.org. Retrieved December 16, 2021, from
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https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00530-007-0081-1
https://web.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/fr-rez/paper.pdf
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003687021002842
https://www.uca.ac.cr/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Investigacion.pdf
11 ANNEXES
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pOo0CQvaNxQzoce--B2dtuLxtMoDBFdo/edit?
usp=sharing&ouid=112043760488968587541&rtpof=true&sd=true
Annex 1 Excel document containing all the data collected for analysis