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For those that don’t know, I have decided to put aimmag, my monthly video magazine discussing aim and by extension the peripherals industry, on an indefinite hiatus.

As the guy writing, voicing, and editing every single issue, it wasn’t exactly an easy decision, I personally loved the project - it came out exactly how I wanted it to, a video magazine about aim, with an editing style ripped straight from 411vm. The vibe of the videos was just as I envisioned, from the music selection, to the running jokes (at finalmouse’s expense). The content was great too, “next ups” and “record books” were the spots for people to show-off their improvement, something that I always wanted to see, and never had for myself, and when I first started the series, “industry news” was very exciting: Wooting was redefining what was possible with keyboards, and Chinese manufacturers were really beginning to be competitive, a “budget” mouse no longer meant technical blunders, quality concerns… The questionable software is still around though. Each of the other segments, while rare, was something unique that I was happy with.

At the time, I truly believed that aimmag was able to… deliver some value to the viewer, I believe that what me and tjohn were doing every month was productive in giving a space for enthusiasts to be tapped in with the scene, but, truth be told:

It’s all gotten very boring.

I’ve been a dedicated enthusiast since I was 13 (Over 10 years ago now, I know I’m old), and I’ve watched the scene grow from the days of there only being a HANDFUL of mice worth buying - the G400S, Deathadder, Intellimouse 3.0, and a few offerings from SteelSeries before they decided to throw all of their shapes in the trash. These days you have to TRY to get something that is actually bad.

The average release has gotten so much better that the way we describe them has also changed. Back in the day, “bad” was significant: an inaccurate sensor with forced angle snapping and smoothing, a laser sensor adding negative acceleration, and low PCS (perfect control speed) sensors that spun out if you moved too fast. A mouse was considered “light” if it was 90 grams, and wireless mice had legitimate latency concerns. Since you could count the number of relevant companies on one hand, releases had a certain… gravitas to it, since if it was a dud, it’s back to the same half dozen mice.

I remember browsing overclock.net, closely following the release of the G402, the successor to the legendary G400S - my first serious mouse, finding out that they were using an AM010 instead of a 3090 was devastating to a 13 year old me. Speaking of which, remember when people used to argue about sensors there, swearing that a MLT04 was better than a 3366? Good times.

(Veteran’s discount if you remember first seeing Artisans on ESReality.)

Back to the topic, seeing the development from “70% of everything is garbage” to “everything is good now” has been incredible, it’s a great time to be in the market for a mouse. With most releases being so good, we are at a time where reviews need to be rigorous, products should be picked apart, and closely examined for the smallest issues. When competition arrives, the judges should start paying some attention, otherwise how can the consumer know what’s best? Unfortunately - and I have no way of putting this nicely - the overwhelming majority of the content in this space is terrible.

Let’s take a look at the modus operandi of the average release: A brand posts a few pictures as a teaser, and the leeches- I mean “content creators” come out of the woodwork with eye emojis and “can’t wait!”s, at which point the brand sends out review samples that may or may not be cherry-picked, the same “content creators” then post a couple of good-looking pictures as marketing in return, and if they are feeling particularly generous, they would make a “review” reading off the marketing material, claim the product is good, and call it a job well done. Sometimes, they just send products out to people who are “good” at aiming, who will then make a tweet thanking the brand, and have it collect dust (or sell it for profit) when they realize it’s not as good as what they already use.

Click latency? Motion latency? Glide tests? That shit is for nerds, all you are gonna get is a “No issues when I was playing (in gold lobbies)” and a “The pad is fast/controlled” if they remembered that gaming peripherals were made for gaming, I don’t think anyone actually knows what MouseTester is. Here’s a fun challenge for the readers at home: recently, Skypad (I am not calling them Wallhack), released their 5th generation glass pad. Your goal is to find ONE objective measurement of the surface’s speed in comparison to ANY mousepad, seriously, I want you to stop reading right now and actually try this, go on.

Welcome back! I assume you’ve found… NOTHING and now you know exactly what I mean, here’s another fun game for you:

Look up the words “VA-005 review” on youtube, click on any video (Other than boardzy’s, he is mostly competent and it doesn’t work with his review), and mentally replace every mention of the word “VA-005” with the name of any other hard pad, notice how nothing changes? The reviews are so vague that the product that is being reviewed does not matter, these are so devoid of information that it makes Linus Tech Tips look like Gamer’s Nexus.

(I am aware that peripherals have much more subjectivity involved compared to PC components, however it’s not like the average reviewer is able to discuss shapes in depth, either due to a lack of skill, a lack of effort, or both. Also Skypad is named as an example, while they are one of the worst in terms of the problems I outline, you can do the same test with any other brand.)

Here, it’s all too easy to blame the current state of things on a small group of reviewers for being “bad at reviewing”, like most things, there’s always a bit more nuance. There are systemic issues at play here, for one, the FOMO-focused, breakneck-paced release cycles of many brands today - how well can you get to know a product, if all you have is a week to crank out a review? Testing takes time, measuring takes time, coming up with interesting observations takes time, and quality, takes time. It’s not exactly easy to make a review, and I know this for myself.

The community is not blameless either, it’s not like effort is exactly appreciated, if posting yourself simply buying a mouse gets you 200 likes, why try to make an actual video for 30? If posting the same boring single OLED, monochrome setup lands you 500, why even try? If the affiliate money and free products are rolling in, why risk rocking the boat and ask the manufacturer if they got their pads from JimFuk (I actually did this.)? People certainly have the right to make the (often right) decisions for themselves, but this does not mean the community that results from it is good, and it doesn’t mean it has not gotten massively draining to follow and cover the scene.

I started to think about what aimmag as a series actually offered starting from a couple of issues back: “next ups” and “record books” were cool, but I rather you follow the aimers yourselves, as for “industry news”... what are people actually getting out of being up-to-date on the same 10 companies make the same thing over and over again? I already spend an entire week every month working on 3 segments, do I risk burning myself out for a fourth? Or collaborate with people when I’ve been flaked on a surprising amount of times? I had lots of questions, but I never could find answers to them that I was happy with, in the end I still felt like I was fueling the consumerism of a stagnating industry, one full of mice ripping off decade-old zowie shapes and hideous mousepads made for people whose hard drives I don’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole, and on that thought, I’m calling it quits.

I don’t know what the future holds for aimmag, maybe somewhere down the line I find peripherals interesting enough to be worth covering again, but for now, I’m burnt out on the project, just at this scale each issue takes around 10 hours to make, which is a lot when you only have 2 hours between work and sleep every weekday, there’s a lot of ideas I had that I never got the time to really develop, like more interviews with high level players (“pro files”) or industry professionals (“corporate”), history of high scores on scenarios (“rewind”), proper guides on mechanics (“classroom”), and just more segments in general other than the main 3.

To me, the project was highly successful, the comments I’ve got were overwhelmingly positive, the numbers were quite promising and I do blame myself for not being able to deliver on as much as I would’ve liked to, but I am pretty tired after two whole years. Right now, I am much more interested in pushing my own skills further, and making videos at my own pace, some of which are already in the works.

Until then, see you around.

Written 05.09.2025