A middle-aged man who doesn't play games, but has gone all-in on a serious gaming setup for his creative work
Hello. I'm "neon | on my way home," an infrastructure engineer living in Fukuoka.
I have an unusually strong setup around my desk.
My PC is entirely unified with NZXT parts. A white case with an AIO liquid cooler. The fans light up too. It's a full-blown gaming PC.
But I don't play games. My Steam library only has Wallpaper Engine and the Monster Hunter benchmark.
Instead, what I do is talk endlessly to ChatGPT and Gemini while writing romantic comedies, writing notes, and generating AI images.
My mouse is a white wireless Razer mouse.
My mousepad is a limited-edition glass mousepad called HANA.
Well, I bought a huge glass mousepad out of vanity, and at first, I thought, 'What's the difference?' But once you get used to it, you can't go back. It glides with a 'swish.' It feels great. Even though I'm not gaming.
My keyboard is the Shishiro Botan collaboration REALFORCE. But REALFORCE keyboards don't make you tired even when writing long texts. Even when I keep typing away at ChatGPT, my fingers feel comfortable. Even when I hit the Enter key hard, it doesn't feel like it's going to break at all.
My monitor is an Alienware 360Hz display. It's originally meant for playing games like VALORANT.
But what's displayed on it is Google Docs and a novel posting site. What I'm doing is hitting a wall with ChatGPT, saying things like, 'This heroine is a bit too intense...' while endlessly adjusting the dialogue for my romantic comedy.
I don't need 360Hz even by a millimeter. Plus, since it's OLED, the screen pixels move slightly to prevent burn-in.
Honestly, it's not really suited for reading text for long periods.
I don't even know why I ended up with this configuration myself.
But when I'm writing in a room where the RGB lights are glowing softly, listening to Tokyo lofi, I at least get the feeling that I'm creating in a 'powerful environment.'
Only the desk is at an e-sports world championship level. What I'm doing is just a middle-aged guy writing romantic comedies with AI.
Also, on the edge of my desk, there's a small Chinese-made OLED monitor. I keep ChatGPT pinned there at all times. Originally, I used it to play cyberpunk-style videos on Wallpaper Engine to feel like I was in the future, but it ended up becoming a dedicated ChatGPT monitor.
And, just for the atmosphere, I have the cheapest white Elgato Stream Deck. I don't stream. But when I press the buttons I've linked to the URLs for GPT or Gemini when I start my PC, it gives me a sense of 'being at work.'
Also, I've been thinking lately that a 'gaming environment' probably isn't just for games anymore. It's an environment for diving into digital space for long periods. Creation. AI. Video editing. 3DCG. Streaming. Music production.
Everything is gathered on one desk.
So right now,
a middle-aged man is glowing with RGB lights at night,
playing Tokyo lofi-style music,
and brainstorming romantic comedy ideas with AI.
Such a bizarre scene feels very 2026.
I don't play games. I don't stream either.
But I have finally obtained the
“powerful-looking desk” I dreamed of in my youth.
The only thing missing is an RTX 5090.