When it comes to selecting the best gaming peripherals I think it's all in the feel.

It's easy to get lost in the spec sheet when you are looking for a new gaming accessory, whether it is a joystick, controller, mouse, or keyboard. You're probably looking for the most bang for your dollar, so there are a lot of peripherals that offer a ton of extra features. Keyboards and control panels with screens that are hardly useful. Mice with scroll wheels. Flight sticks with every type of switchgear you can imagine bolted on the controls.

You will have different experiences, of course. You may find that all those features are useful, but most of the time you will forget they exist. In my experience, the most important thing in a gaming accessory is Feel.

Recently, I was reminded about this when I unboxed the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro. It is not lacking in features. Four rear back paddles are included, as well as two "claw grips" bumpers and a pair lockable triggers. These can be switched from a traditional trigger to a clicky switch using a pair slidable toggles at the rear. Naturally, the default selection of face buttons.

All of this would be worthless if the controls were not comfortable. Oh, what wonderful, satisfying things these are. Most of the main switches in the Wolverine V3 Pro are designed to elicit an immediate gut response.

The sliding locks are incredibly well-weighted, and you can feel a spring inside the controller when it is engaged or released. Razer's mecha tactile switches are behind the face buttons, giving them the feel of a microswitch but with the cushioning provided by a rubber membrane.

This isn't me being swayed by the copy on the product page. I didn't really know what the Wolverine V3 Pro was when I took it out of its box. But I knew how I felt when my hands touched its controls. It activated a deep, primal instinct in my lizard-brain that told me what I was holding to be a beautiful thing. If I had paid for it like some common, nonhardware reviewing pleb, I would have been immediately happy with my purchase.

Because I'm a tease, I'll wait until the full review is published to see what we think of the Wolverine V3 Pro. But the fact is that our games exist digitally. These mechanisms, these touchy feely devices, are how we interact with them. (Short of something more direct, like a racing wheel), plastic switches and clicky mechanism are the only thing that gives us meaningful tactile feedback.

A well-designed peripheral with a good mechanism is the link between reality and imagination. When I see a bad peripheral, I am always left wondering how it got past the testing stage and into the hands or gamers.

It's important to note that some products are manufactured and developed on a budget. As a result, they have to make sacrifices. It's understandable that a $30 controller with a mushy D Pad, or a mouse for $20 feels too plasticky to trust. I would argue that it is a mistake, regardless, because there are many cheap controllers that have half-decent D Pads and many ultra-light, ultra-cheap mouses that still feel well made. A tight budget is still a reasonable reason for a poor experience.

It can be quite frustrating to find a product that is expensive but has a bad feel. Enter the Hori HOTAS. This is a flight control system and throttle stick that costs $500. That's not cheap. It's also covered with buttons, toggle switches and clicky hats, which are all very satisfying.

However, the twin throttle control is completely unacceptable. When implemented correctly, this movement should place the powerful engines of your plane digital directly under your arm movements. It should have weight and substance. It should make you feel like you are accelerating the engines of a real, exciting plane.

What it shouldn't be like is dragging a cheap piece of plastic over sandpaper. It shouldn't sound like that either, which is what the Hori HOTAS achieves.

Hori units still have a lot of positives. For every good-feeling control there's a hollow, sticky and rattly one that seems hell-bent to ruin the overall experience. Unbeknownst to man or animal, you'll find yourself using these terrible controls the most.

What is the result? Anyone who buys a box is likely to be dissatisfied the moment they take it out. This is simply not good enough. It's not that the peripheral is everything, but its importance is so great that it can feel like it.

Don't even start me on keyboard switches. I'm still a relative novice, but I've had the pleasure to hang out with keyboard enthusiasts and learn from them (and it was a real pleasure), so I can tell that they take their switches as seriously as they do their mortgage payments. After using some of the best switches myself, I can confidently say: I get it.

I use my keyboard for hours every day. I'm sure many of you do. It matters if you are going to interact with a key action for millions of keypresses in its lifetime. Again, it's all about tactility.

There aren't that many stores where you can get this stuff in person anymore. You'll have to rely on reviews written by people like myself to tell you which products feel good and which don't.

You'll also hear us use words like crunchy, chunky or clicky. We'll also use thwock,thwap, and zing. Onomatopoeic words are used to convey a touchy-feely feeling through words.

We try our best. When you're ready to make your next peripheral purchase consider the features, the price, and everything else that will help you spend your money wisely. If I were you, I would pay more attention to the tactile stuff. The clicks, clunks and clacks. In my opinion, that's what makes the biggest difference.