Find a gaming glove, like this: Click Here

They help a lot

The new Valve controller might be a good alternative

Definitely planning to look into this. I figure I can use my desktop as a set-top console box with Steam big picture mode. Xpadder could help a lot. Wireless trackball or pad as well. We shall see.

Start doing finger tip pushups against the wall. The reason for the claw grip is that the back of the hands aren't as strong as the fronts of the hands. I had similar problems with my hands when I started doing pullups. At one point, I couldn't handle chopsticks at all because of the muscular imbalance.

It's certainly possible that you have carpal tunnel syndrome, but not necessarily. There are exercises and stretches out there that can help with that sort of thing. I think Super Joints by Pavel is probably the right place to look. Surgery and avoiding these activities is rather severe for something that's probably correctable with appropriate stretches.

Sucks to hear that Sting. For what it's worth seems you have the attitude to make it work out for the best.

As for sugestions, first thing to my mind is the coming Valve Controller, assuming it delivers on the early promises.

Cheers

I'm sorry to hear that SV. Sounds like console gaming would be the best bet, although failing that, you can use XPadder or Joy2Key to quite adequately play most games using a joypad on PC. I've done this to play Civ II and point 'n' click adventures without any problems.

The only issues you might encounter are with 90s/early 2000s WASD first-person shooters like Unreal Tournament and Call of Duty 1 & 2, and those indie games that require fluid mouse movements. Many of them don't really adequately transfer to a gamepad. More recent shooters obviously do have proper joypad support built into them, so they won't be a problem.

That sucks, my sympathies...

Sorry to hear that!
Kudos to the GOG community for coming up with a bunch of advice! Hope something in there helps you.

That sucks, i'm sorry to hear that. Playing on a console is not as bad as you think, though. Most PC games nowadays do support the Xbox 360 controller, so you can keep playing PC games if you wish.

The Steam Controller will probably solve your issue once it comes out.

I also had pain in my wrist a few years ago. I stack a bunch of folded dish towels to rest my arm and palm on while using the mouse. This way everything is even, it doesn't hurt anymore. I switched to a very small mouse and finger grip.

Just get a bloody gamepad and be done with it, a lot of bits of your body will be thankful for the suddenly gained freedom. And don't worry - once you get used to it, gaming with it is fantastic.

You can even play TBS or slow RTS with a pad, if you are patient and able to get used to it. It's not easy mind you, but I don't have problems with my wrist and for a lot of cases, I just prefer to not sit in my chair. Total War series with the pause feature work fairly reasonable with it, for instance. And then there's the new Steam controller.

(I'm also fairly sure you can get a carpal tunnel operated, can't you?)

Has anybody tried taking something like Super Cissus for this? It's a different kind of issue, but it eased my wrist pain from lifting.

Not sure, if anybody already mentioned this, but have you ever considered, using a "vertical mouse"?

Something like this:

http://www.evoluent.com/

Just like gaming with your hand as opposed to a real woman. FANTASTIC.

despite gaming too much, i didnt get ever real wrist trouble..until i started doing office work. Didnt even take long.

Well, i switched (at work) to trackball (first Logitech trackman, it broke down - now using kensington expert mouse) and the pain disappeared. ..still playing too much. Well, not much as before i married - but sitting in fron of computer whether at work or home.

Trackballs will do nicely for gaming, unless you play alot of reflex games, fps, micro clicking rts or so on.