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I have the most luxurious standing desk imaginable, but I can't quite bring myself to game while standing
For more than two-and-a-half years, I've been blessed to call the inimitable Secretlab Magnus Pro my main workspace. A colossal sit-stand desk, the hulking slab of metal comes with a nifty integrated sit-stand controller, two gargantuan legs, extensive cable management, and an eye-wateringly expensive magnetic ecosystem — the entire surface is magnetic, and can be used with a range of metal cable management devices, headphone stands, and cable sleeves. It is truly the Rolls-Royce of office furniture, vast and expensive, the purview of only the most hardcore work surface connoisseurs.
Yet on reflection of my time behind Secretlab's (probably) bombproof behemoth, I've come to the awful realization that I might have played myself. Somewhere along the way these last two years, I simply stopped standing up to use this desk, a full 50% of this desk's potential left on the table, if you'll pardon the pun. More specifically, I've realized that I own one of the world's most luxurious standing desks for gaming, yet I never stand up to game.
But it's not productivity I'm after. While I've historically been happy to stand up at my desk for work, it's for play where I've generally neglected standing up altogether, leading to my realisation that I've stopped standing up completely while at my desk and probably need to take a long, hard look at myself. But it got me thinking: Is there any market at all for a desk that lets you stand whilst gaming? The Magnus Pro is dynamite for productivity, but would I ever want to stand up to game behind it?
A place called vertigo
(Image credit: Future)
There are numerous reasons why someone might choose to sit down while gaming. Notably, gaming is generally a relaxing thing you do to unwind. The bash marks on my Xbox controller and that Samsung monitor I smashed in 2017 might disagree with me, but for inexplicable reasons, I feel like anyone standing up to game would generally be untrustworthy.
I associate standing up to game with those old Xbox 360 arcade machines you'd find at GameStop (or your local equivalent), or with going to the Casino. If you dialled into an Xbox Live party or your usual Discord haunt and found out that one of your friends was standing up to play during that particular session, you'd probably ask them if everything was okay, or perhaps if there was something wrong with their chair.
Either gaming is relaxing (like a nice leisurely Rome Total War conquest), or it is quite intense (the throngs of the new Battlefield 6). For me, both call for the planted assurance of being sat in a sturdy chair (Secretlab's Titan Evo if you were wondering). I'm pretty sure doing any kind of FPS or fast-paced gaming standing up would make most people feel a bit nauseous or dizzy.
(Image credit: Future)
I'm not really sure why I've never realized it before, but I own a $1,000 sit-stand gaming desk that I never use for gaming, and now that I've figured that out, I'm quite sad. Perhaps then, the beauty of a sit-stand desk dedicated to gamers is to be found in the work half of your work-life balance. Stand up during the day and get the posture and circulatory benefits while you're at work, then put your feet up at the end of the day. I might try my hand at a little upright recreation going forward, but I can't help thinking that I'll last maybe five minutes before I decide I'd much rather sit down.
Have you gamed while standing up since the heyday of arcades? Let me know in the comments.
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Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.
To tell the truth, even if I generally stand up, or rather tread in place, all day long (I am trying to put my feet up during breaks, though), I am more inclined to stand up to game than stand up while working.
If, like me, you have arthritic knees, standing can be the last thing you want to do. For me, standing becomes uncomfortable, then painful in just a few minutes.
