Gaming Chair For Home Office: Yay or Nay?

Working requires time, focus, and effort. While we are working, our seats have a significant impact on our bodies and how we feel. For this reason, people choose different types of chairs in the office, and gaming chairs have recently become a popular go-to option.

Standard gaming chairs offer many more features than normal office chairs while providing nearly the same amount of functionality. These chairs last for a decent amount of time and provide customized options and designs.

If you want to have a gaming chair in your office, then you need to know what you are getting and how it will affect you in the long run. This article is to make your choice easier about whether you should or should not get a gaming chair for your office easier.

Features Of Gaming Chairs

If you are considering using your gaming chair, then you need to know what features it provides. These features have clear distinctions from office chairs, and their impact on the office is also different.

Outlook in an office

The reason that many people buy gaming chairs in the first place is their unique outlook. Gaming chairs are made to look cool, stylish, and downright more complicated than they are.

You will find many strips and designs of bright colors on a gaming chair. Some of these designs are added with custom requirements. Different stitching patterns, the shape of the chair, added cushions, and an overall stylish layout makes this gaming chair an eye-catcher in the room.

If these features are to your liking in your office setup, then you should go for a gaming chair. On the contrary, regular office chairs do not come with such distinctive looks.

A fair comparison, though, is that gaming chairs will not suit the outlook of classic office setups. While office chairs are made in such a way that they blend in with the office setup, gaming chairs don’t.

So the aesthetics of the office might not be the same with a gaming chair. It does look cool to have a gaming chair in a digital setup-oriented office where there are devices all around and a sharply designed background.

However, I prefer classic-looking office chairs in a normal office setting where they blend in with the background and do not become the center of focus.

The Chair’s Dimensions

The first thing is that, by comparison, most gaming chairs are larger than office chairs. So, if you’re going to replace your old office chair with a brand new gaming chair, make sure there’s enough room for it.

The shape of a gaming chair differs greatly from that of normal office chairs. Normal office chairs have short-winged backs. But gaming chairs have high-winged backs. These back designs help considerably with the ergonomics. More on that later.

The recline of gaming chairs is much higher than normal office chairs. This may or may not be a useful option considering your office work. Average gaming chairs will have a 180-degree recline.

Ergonomics And Posture In Gaming Chairs

We all know how important it is to have good posture. Your chair has a significant impact on your posture and thus on your health. A good chair can help you reduce joint stress, save you from soreness, and keep you energetic.

Gaming chairs have been proven to have a significant effect on providing good posture to the person sitting in them. The reason is that, due to the design of gaming chairs, they provide support for various muscles, such as the buttocks, lower back, and core.

Due to this, your whole body gets a relaxed and energetic posture. Not only that, people who had suffered from bad postures earlier have reportedly commented that they found sitting in gaming chairs helpful in fixing their postures.

The designers of gaming chairs put extra effort into making the chairs ergonomic. Though it is true that some features are just extra and don’t help much. While other features, such as the armrests, which can be moved in all three dimensions, provide great service.

One such feature is the back and neck support of gaming chairs. The lumber design of the chair provides good back support throughout the day while you are working. The neck seat is tilted towards the front in most gaming chairs.

This means that your neck muscles are protected from over-staining. In this case, gaming chairs even beat office chairs in sheer quality. Because most office chairs do not have dedicated back and neck supports.

You can sit in a gaming chair for long hours. They are designed with the expectation that gamers will spend hours on these chairs during gaming sessions.

However, gaming postures and working postures are not the same things. Now, consider that you have a gaming chair in your office setting and want to have the best working posture possible. Your chair can help you most when you customize it to your needs.

Here is what to do to have the best posture in a gaming chair while working:

• Fix the height of the chair so that your knees are comfortable.
• While seating, seat evenly on the chair. This allows your body weight to be distributed throughout the chair.
• Make sure to set up the armrests so that you can place your elbows comfortably in your desired position.
• Consider the distance from the desk to your chair. Move it closer to the desk and keep a sufficient distance from the monitor.

With these, you will have the best position for you to work from your chair. If you feel the need to change the setups slightly, you can always make adjustments later on.

Durability

We want our office materials to be durable for a long time. In terms of durability, gaming chairs do suffer. They are more likely to have a shorter warranty as well.

For comparison, most office chairs will come with a lifetime warranty or something similarly long. However, gaming chairs have two to three years of warranty in most cases.

Gaming chairs do not become unusable in such a short time, though. It’s more likely that some of the features, such as the glow of the leather and other small details, won’t remain the same.

This does, however, impact your per-year expense if you are going to have a large office. For example, the fact that you are going to get a lot more coverage for equally priced office chairs than gaming chairs means that gaming chairs will cost more in the long run.

Freedom Of Movement In A Gaming Chair

It is indeed comfortable to sit in a gaming chair in the usual seating position. However, after a while, if you need to move a bit, you might face an issue there.

Gaming chairs mostly incorporate bucket seats rather than the flat seats of their counterparts in office chairs. Except for the fact that you can’t move much in them, these seats have got you covered in every way. It does not mean you will feel trapped or that it will harm your posture.

The short explanation is that bucket seats give you a sort of fixed position on the chair. For example, if you want to raise one leg over the other, then the bucket seat design will be a problem because now one of your legs will be in an unbalanced position since the sides are higher and the actual seat is lower.

This can limit your movements in the chair. However, if you do not need to change your posture often in your job, then this will not be much of an issue for you.

Moving the chair from one place to another, however, is as easy as it gets. There are attached wheels on all types of gaming chairs. So you can simply sweep from one desk to another if need be. 

Budget

When deciding whether or not to install a gaming chair in your office, the budget is more than just a factor. If you buy both gaming chairs and office chairs from renowned brands, then you are more likely to find the gaming chairs slightly lower in price.

For a 350-400 budget, you will find some high-end gaming chairs. For the same budget, you will get a mid-range office chair. Because office chairs, when looking for increased features, skyrocket in the price department.

This makes it a very good option to have a gaming chair if your budget is medium. The price difference is also reflected in the cost of the used materials.

A large portion of the price for gaming chairs is used to customize the outlook, different styles, logos, prints, and other fashionable features of the gaming chair. On the contrary, a regular office chair is focused on functionality.

That means that a large portion of those funds will be used to make an office chair much more durable and long-lasting. This is what makes the difference in durability between office chairs and gaming chairs.

Are Gaming Chairs Good For Working From Home?

Gaming chairs provide all the necessities for you to work from home sitting in one. You might even consider getting one matched to your setup at home.

Working from home requires the seat to give up a state of focus and comfort. Gaming chairs do a decent job at both. You can surely work from home in a gaming chair.

Are Gaming Chairs Good For Sitting All Day?

Gaming chairs are beautifully made with a lot of extra features directly targeted at making the person sitting in the chair feel comfortable. Some people find it more comfortable than regular chairs.

Due to having adjustable back support and a high level of lumbar support, gaming chairs provide well-balanced weight distribution. This helps to reduce work-hour soreness.

Gaming chairs also come with detachable headrests and lumbar support pillows. These pillows can be added or removed as per the demand of the person sitting on them. This is a common misunderstanding.

The bucket design of the seat and armrests, along with the rest of the chair, makes them a good choice for comfort. Many of these chairs have memory foam inside them. That means the longer you use the chair, the more it will adjust to your body shape.

Are Gaming Chairs More Comfortable Than Office Chairs?

Gaming chairs offer much more features that are dedicated to comfort than office chairs. From this angle, gaming chairs are more comfortable than office chairs.

If you are using the features to the fullest, then you are more likely to have a comfortable experience with a gaming chair. For some people though, they find it more comfortable in premium office chairs.

Do Gaming Chairs Hurt Your Back?

Gaming chairs are designed to give your back full support while you enjoy your time in the game. The high lumber design spreads your weight around the chair making it less likely to develop soreness in the back.

For a decent amount of time, gaming chairs will not hurt your back at all. Rather it will provide a relaxing position for you.

You can develop soreness in your back in two cases. One is if you are sitting in for way too long. In that case, no matter what type of chair you are in, your back will hurt.

The other is when you are not sitting properly or have a bad posture for the time you are sitting in a chair. Although, gaming chairs automatically help you to fix your posture in the chair. So you can get rid of this habit with a bit of conscious effort.

Can I Get Gaming Chairs That Match My Office Theme?

Many companies offer custom designs for your gaming chairs. These custom orders might cost more, but you will get the designs you want.

Also, there are many single-colored gaming chairs. For example, black leather gaming chairs go well with office themes. Some companies offer dozens of colors for the same designs. This helps you choose according to your needs.

Do Gaming Chairs Explode?

For years, a fake rumor has flooded the internet about gaming chairs exploding. In reality, gaming chairs do not and will not explode. Branded companies check their chairs, especially from materials to manufacturing, so that there are no safety hazards.

You might find some batteries added to special models of gaming chairs. These are used to move the chairs as well as other functions such as lighting up the attached LED. These do not explode and are pretty safe overall.

Final Words

Considering everything, gaming chairs can be good office chairs if used in the right way. Secondly, your personal choice matters a lot here, because if you feel pleased with the stunning outlook and the extra features that a gaming chair brings to your office, then go for a gaming chair.

Do be aware that some features will not be the same as regular office chairs. In my opinion, getting the high-priced office chairs is not worth the hassle when you get many of the same with some extra features in a gaming chair. The rest depends on your aesthetics.