Fashion comes and goes. But every time people like something very much and this goes to national or international level, then it's a fashion and all the people want to follow this fashion and be trendy. Or maybe you don't necessary want to be fashionable, but you do like one thing very much and want to have it, be surrounded by it . If you remember when The Beatles appeared with a new different music style and the beauty that only youth can give you, all the young people in the world wanted to be like them, to have haircuts and clothes just like them and they even bought their pictures and records and all that stuff in an attempt to be like them or to have a piece of their different air and maybe some out of pure admiration. Well, now the Beatles time is gone; even Michael Jackson's time is gone and young people entered a new era - that of the virtual world, the one that happens in a virtual world on computer and on the internet. Instead of having idols like Elvis Priestley, now children and adolescents have idols from the computer games they play - well-known characters with different personality and even a well-known face. I am talking about Half life here, a very famous computer game that turned all the young generations into people who live in a virtual world and fight for their existence. I didn't know what was that at the beginning, but I am working in a school, so I am always around children. And I heard them talking all the time about Half Life and it seemed to me a kind of craze. They talked about the characters in the game like they were real people and wanted to have as many materials possible about it.

I guess that is exactly the reason why the management and creation department from the mouse pads producing companies decided to release a Half Life mouse pad, as they saw the request on the market and the opportunity to sell huge amounts of this model. And they were absolutely right. athe gamers bought these specially designed Half life mouse pads instantly. But I know for sure it is not only about the design of the mouse pads, that has pictures taken from the game and the main characters portrayed on them. The quality of the mouse pad surface is also important. If the mouse pad is not so important to me because I am only using the computer for simple purposes like reading my email and writing my stuff, gamers are the most demanding people in the world when it comes to computer mouse and mouse pad quality. They need precision and speed in order to get good results in their games and they can do this only if they have the best products available.

These mouse pads are designed especially for people who play Half life for many hours every day (even if the second edition of the game was released in 2004, there are still many people playing it even today, as it is interactive and kind of addictive). First of all the size of these mouse pads is larger than that of the usual ones (300 mmx250mm) for this purpose exactly: gamers must have a lot of space for moving the mouse as the game requires ample movements of the mouse and hand and at the same time accuracy is important , so they can't risk buying a mouse pad that is too small and does not allow them to move freely along the computer desk. The material from which these mouse pads are made was chosen carefully: very resistant and durable polymer surface and also a rubber base that prevents the mouse pad from slipping and offers a more stabil base for the movements of the mouse, even if when they are very fast and sudden. The surface of the mouse pad has a micro texture design that ensures a minimal friction between the mouse and the mouse pad, thus enableing a better coordination and a faster movement of the hand and of the mouse. The pattern and the texture chosen are ideal and optimized for optical and laser computer mice and they were tested in order to show realistic results.



Most of the mouse pads that were released then had pictures from the game, especially the main protagonist of the series, Gordon Freeman, but there were also others that showed Alyx Vance, the G-man, the dog robot and so on. The colours are carefully chosen in order to be very realistic and at the same time to capture the atmosphere and the general looks of the game. I think they try to combine the happiness of having something pleasant for a fan of the game and at the same time to be really useful and performing with utmost precision and quality.



Apart from gamers who boguht these Half-life mouse pads from themselves, there were also other customers targeted by the producing companies. I am ralking about the people who wanted to buy a present for their children and just didn't know what to choose or knew it very very that their children wanted something useful for their computer games. The price is not that big and , besides, it makes a perfect gift for a teenager who is mad about computer games. And it is good quality, too, which can be considered as a bonus.Or they were printed with images from the game and also contained the logo of the company who wanted to advertise. You can see such an example in the picture below, where the pictures are surrounded by the advertisement with the web site of the company. In my opinion this is quite an intelligent way of promoting your business.



Big computer companies bought these mouse pads as gifts for their employees, too, and they were sometimes offered as a gift for those who bought the game package. Now you can find them only on the internet, on web sites like Amazon or eBay, with prices varying from $6 to 20.