Not the kind of gaming he's thinking of. Didn't see that at first. And the way it feels to you is the way it feels to you. The multi-touch surface is really cool.
I use a Logitech MX518. ~$40 on Amazon if I remember correctly. Five main buttons, a ratcheting scroll wheel, 1800dpi with adjustable sensitivity settings -- ON THE FLY. I can go from 1800dpi in TF2 for most classes and down to 800 or even 400 while I'm sniping just by pressing a button. Palmer has one too -- he recommended it to me, in fact.
As for a mousepad, I have this one. Works beautifully!
