Steelseries World of Warcraft MMO Mouse

[elsegundo]

Sorry to hear it wasn't what you were expecting. Seems like everybody is doing everything they can to jump on the WoW cash cow. I bet they'll sell a crapload of these things.

Makes me think I should come up with an idea so I could get me some WoW money too. Like selling some crappy speakers that look cool in the photo, and have a great description, but after you open up the package they're nothing but some ol' cheap POS's that'll bounce across the table if you turn em up. Return policy? 10 days after you ORDER them the refund policy expires. And we won't ship em to ya until day 11.

I could make millions.

i feel like the happy fun rock would be a great product idea.

[Vyndree]

I wonder if this mouse is any good if you just assign the buttons to keys combos?

How's the size, feel etc...?

If I keep it, this is how I'll use it. Of course, the macro software is a bit convoluted but I'm sure I could come up with some interesting binds like CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+b or something, and just use the in game menu->keybindings to make things more instant.

A friend of mine made a good point at work today -- what happens if you're in a raid or whatever, get a good string of crits and need to hit your "Stop all" macro so you don't pull threat? If the fight involves movement and you're using your WSAD keys, will you actually "/stopattack" as it types it out or will it turn into "/stopawwwwwwwttack"? Will you stop attacking fast enough to not pull threat? Will you stop attacking at all if you mash any keys before the speed-typer mouse is done typing? What about if you press your stopattack macro and then your assist macro in rapid succession (before the next one has finished typing) -- will the assist macro wait until the stopattack's typing buffer is completed or will they collide with one another?

Key tip: none of the packaging materials had any sort of tape or glue, so if I wanted to I could pack it all back up and it'd look like it never came off the shelf. Just in case you're worried about returns.

In any case, the mouse itself is very light -- it's a very plasticy mouse that LOOKS all metal and shiny but is, in fact, just plastic. The buttons themselves are "jiggly" which makes me think they won't stand up to long-term hard usage (after all, the w and s keys on my keyboard have long since been rubbed away thanks to excessive use). The buttons on my Microsoft ergo mouse were much more sturdy and didn't have the "wiggle" to them. Really, besides glowy flair the only thing this mouse has going for it is the fact that it's basically a right-handed Nostromo N52. I mean, it's lefty/righty, but the button position suggests more of a righty unless you've got an opposable pinky, and the fact that the Nostromo is left handed to begin with makes this a good companion for the right hand.

Basically, I give it an F for sales execution (pushing back release dates, long backorder), a C for hardware design (flimsy buttons, attractive design but somewhat uncomfortable for my hand size and the "wings" are clumsy, tossing ergonomics out the window), and a D for software design (overly-specialized software, tries to help you build macros "too much", why is it even WoW-specific and not game independent?).
If they wanted to improve, I'd make the software an integrated addon with WoW so that it can push your mousebutton macros directly to WoW's addon API (much like bar mods do) without exploding your chat window with speed typing. There's no use in touting a 3000+ dpi "uber fast reaction speed" mouse and then gimping it with text typing latency. I'd also ditch the cost of the fake metal finish and the misleading WoW branding and focus more on functionality and give those buttons better stability. I'd focus more on ergonomics, since if you're marketing this mouse towards a "hardcore gamer" they're going to be resting their carpal-tunnel prone wrists on this thing all day. Many device software recognizes when you've got a program open -- if this is honestly a "WoW" mouse, make those button macros work only when WoW is actually... well.. open. I have no use for a stopattack macro to be pasted into Notepad or Word.

[JasonB87]

Sounds like I'll be sticking with my Razor Diamondback and soon a g13 pad.

[elsegundo]

Vyn... thank you for the time you took to write up the information about this product and for the video. when i first read about this i thought it would be bad gimmick product. thanks for confirming. good for the collector though!

[Vyndree]

Ok, just got home so I'm able to do a bit more investigating beyond the obvious default setting flaws.

The user manual is incredibly misleading about delays and loops...

1. Timing Control

• Text (Auto Delay) - This option is selected by default and is designed to optimize the delays for proper in-game performance. If you are not sure what option to use - simply leave this option on.
• Record Delay - When selected, it will record the delays in real time reflecting your typing speed when creating a macro. This option is useful when you need precise real-life timing for some advance macros.
• No Delay - ...

Not only was I shocked to read such "gray area" material in point one and most-definitely-against-the-rules material in item #2, but they followed up that section in the user guide with...

2. Looping
You can loop the macro by enabling the Loop check-box and specifying the number of repetitions.

... X( <-- this is Vyndree's angry face


That being said, I also tried out some software multiplexing to see if this mouse COULD be used for multiboxing at all. I found, using the program Multibox, that I was able to transmit the mouse "macros" using the "Keyboard broadcast" button -- NOT the "mouse broadcast" button. It's basically what I expected after seeing the speed typing -- the mouse software is just throwing all the input in as if it came from a standard keyboard.

The most useful part of the manual really just told me where I could make my own "custom" macros. The print/sharing feature for profiles also seemed nice.

Anyway, I'm pretty miffed that they didn't even put a "Hey, don't do this in WoW" blurb next to the delays/looping section... after all, WoW's logo is plastered on the plastic. But I can't say I expected the quality of their manual to meet my expectations after this whole thing, so bleh. whatever.


SALT ON THE WOUND! SALT ON THE WOUND!

The damn program pulls data from the armory, and it DOESN'T ACCEPT EXTENDED ASCII. Furthermore, I was going to try and put the URL-encoded text in to see if it would "fix" their lack of foresight, but it's also CHARACTER LIMITED. They had the frame of mind to remember to limit the number of characters you could paste into their little form window, but not enough to realize that some people use extended ASCII in their names.

Retards.

[Millz]

You've really got to lol at this product.

You'd think blizzard would review a product before endorsing having their logo slapped all over it and selling it on their site. It's like they're accepting having macroable delays and loops is fine. Drop blizzard an e-mail and see what they say.

[Dinkydau]

I also thank Vyndree for the review of the mouse. I wanted one myself and then saw a couple of negative comments on NewEgg. Thanks for saving me a hundred bucks.

[Kicksome]

Yup, thanks for the review. I was about to buy it too, forget it now!

[Vyndree]

http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/01/24...n-terms-of-use


Wowinsider'ed compliments of our good friend Belfaire.

[mmcookies]

kinda reminds me of the krusty alarm clock...

i wish logitech would design a 15 button mouse