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Razer's New Mouse Optimized for MMO and RTS
An anonymous reader writes "XYZComputing has a review of Razer's new Krait mouse which is specifically designed for massively multiplayer online gaming as opposed to the usual design focus of first-person shooters. From the article: 'The criteria for an appropriate mouse for each style of gaming are different, or at least Razer would want you to think that this is the case. With the market starting to accept products like gaming mice and gaming keyboards, it was only a matter of time until someone introduced a mouse for a certain type of game. While it is easy to be skeptical of such an idea, Razer has a great reputation and may actually be onto something here.'"
As a left-hand mouse user it's nice to see that symmetric mice are still around, though.
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...upholstered in italian silk"
"IT'S JUST A MOUSE!"
What exactly makes this a RTS / RPG mouse? It looks pretty normal to me..
"The criteria for an appropriate mouse for each style of gaming are different..."
-- Neminem laede, immo omnes, quantum potes, iuva.
With only 3 buttons, no way I'll be using this mouse in WoW. I ran out of buttons here on a Logitech G5: left and right for the usual select and action, thumb is an instant cast I use often so you can hold your hand on WSAD, tilt left is autorun, tilt right is the "oh shit" button, desperate prayer on my priest, ice block on my mage.
It may seem an overkill at first, but it really is much easier to keep moving / casting with your left hand and not have to worry about the actions mapped on the mouse.
It's a $40 USB mouse which looks like a normal mouse but has a fancy side rubber grip strip thingie that shines in the dark.
The mouse has more sensitivity and a wider data path and the manufacturer came up with an APM (Actions Per Minute) measurement to try and show that you can do a lot of "actions" per minute on the mouse so it's good for RTSs and MMORPGs.
In practice this mouse is but another decent gamers mouse, just as good for FPSs as it is for RTSs and MMORPGS. The whole RTS/MMORPG specific thing is just a marketing gimmik of the manufacturer to try and distinguish it from the competition.
By the way: FPTRTFA (First Post That Read The F... Article)
Because every RTS out there is a frigging starcraft-like clickfest right?
I can't even start to understand how the number of clics per minute you can perform with that thing may impact your RTS experience (you usually aren't limited by your clicking speed and most good RTS players use keyboard shortcuts a damn lot, making mouse much less important), and it's even worse for MMORPGs (which you can usually play pretty efficiently without even having a mouse if you know the keybindings).
In a word, this mouse is stupid and this article is pure slashvertisement. And if I get a mouse specifically for RTS and/or mmorpg it'd better has at least half a dozen buttons so that I can bind all kinds of actions to them and not an ass-sucking 2 buttons + roller.
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
No it's not. I read it too. It's utter marketing bullshit.
The major complaint about the Razer Copperhead that I hear is that the four side buttons are too easy to push. You would think a mouse marketed for First Person Shooters'ers would feature less buttons on the mouse, since fewer are required during intense gun battles (just aim, and click). An RTSer would benefit from the Copperhead's extra buttons because they could bind specific game events (select Group 1, Group 2, Attack, and Defend) to each button.
I don't play RTS's competitively, but it seems like the Copperhead would suit RTSers better, and the Krait would be better for FPS's.
Sigs are for Terrorists.
I paid $50 for a Razer Diamondback - cheap, chinsy buttons which literally squeaked and thumb buttons which neglected to click after a short duration. Can't believe I fell for the hype.
Logitech's offerings are MUCH more durable and robust. It's like comparing a Microsoft joystick to a CH product... the difference in quality is vast.
Don't waste your cash on Razer!
or
or
According to the article, the mouse is not really distinguishable from previous mice by the same manufacturer, and probably not from $1 mice by $TAIWANESE_SWEATSHOP either, even though the review doesn't mention this.
Looks like a non-product: an expensive mouse, with a small form factor and nondescript design, with a 300 gram paperweight to prevent drag on the cable, where you could just have used a book instead, and from a manufacturer making a nonsensical argument about how this mouse was specifically suited to a specific style of computer game.
As a state gets corrupt, its laws multiply; the most corrupt states have the most numerous laws. (Tacitus, Annales 3:27)
It is a ... mouse. It has all that it should have to make it a mouse. But ... in what way is it different to the other mice that offer essentially the same things?
To be honest, I don't even know what I'd want in a "MMORPG mouse". How is a mouse supposed to make a difference when playing MMORPGs? You neither need ultra-high precision, nor perfect click timing, nor anything else I could think of.
So what makes a MMORPG mouse MMORPG?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It targets MMRPG players - people with too much money. Its main feature is it costs more than a 15 dollar MSFT mouse.
I suppose if you were that fast, then you could afford to throw away £40 on this thing with all the money you were winning from Starcraft tournaments.
*Yes, I know its in $, but from my experience computer gear costs the same in £ as it does in $ despite £ being worth more. Sometimes it sucks being English.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Riiiiight....
Phoronix still has yet to hear back from Razer Inc on whether they plan to port their drivers to Linux, release specifications, or do anything else to help the Linux community. http://phoronix.com/?page=news_item&px=MTQ1Nw==
they invent a mouse (pc) that my cat doesn't chase while i'm moving it, or chew the wires of. I just can't get excited about a smaller more sensitive mouse that glows orange instead of red.
...surely that means it's optimised for playing Elite?
...specifically designed for massively multiplayer online gaming as opposed to the usual design focus of first-person shooters.
i'd say as opposed to the usual design focus on productivity, the office, windows etc
- Frame rate over 6400 frames per second (5.8 megapixels per second)
- High speed motion detection, up to 40ips and 15g
- Zero acoustic Teflon feet for smooth motion over any surface
- Gold plated USB connector for maximum conductivity
- 7 foot, lightweight, non-tangle cord
On the other hand I completely missed such information as whether the scroll wheel has detents (making it click if you turn it). I for one can't stand those gliding wheels that offer no tactile feedback and which are a real pain if you try to select a weapon in a FPS game; not ahving this feature would be a dealbreaker for me, and much more important than the fact that it's got "non-slip side rails" (yeah, cause I can't remember how often my mouse went flying across the room... but maybe it's necessary for those 438 feet/sec people).That is... good? Better than 4 megapixels per second, I presume? If I use a 2 megapixel digicam, how do I have to set the shutter speed to equal the performance of this mouse?
Ok, 15 g acceleration, works out to 15*9.81m/s^2, that's about 438 feet/sec^2. If I have that kind of acceleration on my mouse I'm clearly doing something wrong.
Unlike all those noise mice we all know and hate. I keep waking up at night and hammering on the wall to keep my neighbour from driving my insane with the decibels created by his mouse. I only hope they do something about those deafening clicks next.
We're talking binary signals, right? The ones that are either "on" or "off"? That don't need a perfect connection as much as, say analog signals?
Ok, what's a non-tangle cord? One that magically uncoils itself? I see no rotating connection on either the mouse or the plug, so I assume that's just marketspeak for "a reasonably straight length of standard cable". Oh, it's "lightweight", so make that "a reasonably straight length of cheap standard cable"
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
That's why my original post lacks any currency indicator. Someone still using ISO-8859-1 ?
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
Aristotele
I can see no defining qualities that set this apart from any other standard mouse. It's just a marketing ploy, all they did was add some flashy lights and now are expecting people to pay more for less.
What a cheap attempt to advertise xycomputing, a rubish several paragraph review of an awful sounding mouse made by one of the most overhyped underperforming mice manufactures.
They are just reselling an old mouse with different performance metrics. They are gone too far with the performance of their products that they have problems creating new merchandise to sell to hardcore gamers (that almost always is like saying dull fanboy). Sure, many people will buy for more DPI or more APM, but just today their sensitivity is just way up the scale of a normal human or a pro gamer. At least they are not (yet) reached the state where they will ship fragile merchandise just to continue to move the stocks.
Matteo Anelli
.brain - http://www.dot-brain.com
Ultra Precision - nope Ultra Clickable - nope (only needed when I play Diablo II) Overpriced Aesthetics - I'm a geek, if I want aesthetics I'll mod it somehow. More buttons than a mouse can possibly hold - Definitely needed for lot's of key binds. This mouse meets none of my criterion. I think it would do just as well as any other mouse. It would probabily be less usable than the five button Intellimouse I got four years ago. My review: Stick with what you have.
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if its optimized for mmo's, lets see how soon we can see people complaining about bans "becuz teh admiz zaid im b0tting!!11"
yush
With all due respect , clicks matter . Simultaionsly locking down 6 battle cruisers requires insane clicking speed and mouse precision .
My Starcraft 2 Blog
Just look at the mouse, it looks just like any normal Razer Viper with a new sticker. This has to be the most blatant case of bullshitting the consumer I've ever seen. I was expecting something with extra buttons that can be given programmable macros or something. Instead it's a mouse with a wheel that has quite a precise sensor. Given that MMOs and RTSs don't require lightning quick precision mousing I fail to see why this mouse is worth buying over a decent cordless Logitech one.
Isnt that clever, you take a normal mouse, you relabel it to something trendy ("WoW mouse, anyone?) and then you send it for review to people who will get excited about specs, like 2 buttons and a scroll weel, acting as a third button (WOW again)...
Major changes from older models... the color of the LED
Its got to be a really slow day to get all excited about this kind of technological breakthroughs!
http://www.automatiq.se
Check out the go faster stripes down the side! This is the kind of mouse Vin Diesel would use if he was a nerd.
Back then they made a whole fuss about not switching to optical because a wheel mouse was more responsive and had a better feel - now they are making a fuss not switching to laser because optical is more responsive and has a better feel. I owned one of their mouses and all I can see is never again, it was an absolutely horrible experience:
1) The cable was stiff and sticky and was constantly dragging the mouse not letting me play.
2) The mouse wheel was very still and loud, and clicking it was a real mission.
3) The mouse was extremely flat and huge so was hard to move yet extremely uncomfortable and felt like I'm just resting my hand on the table it was so flat.
4) The rubber buttons didn't help with grip and just felt strange, the buttons were also far too sensitive - since you can't pick up the mouse because of it's flatness, you constantly press the buttons by mistake.
And that was for a $50 mouse - I bought a cheap microsoft optical and my FPS accuracy improved instantly. Just say no!
Not that I don't agree, but stuff like this shows us what retarded marketing is used, and you ask yourself "why do they use it?" Because that is what sells products, stupid gimmicks to stupid buyers.
I personally have an mx700 with matching keyboard, I've had it for over a year and a half now, and love it. They are both wireless, response time is great, mouse has the charging station, still on original batteries, and the keyboard uses a pair of AA's like once every 9++ months (I've changed them twice I think). The mouse, even after long hours of abuse playing all kinds of games and doing everything else I do is still just as responsive and the batteries still have a great life due to the fact the charger only charges it when necessary.
As for Razer, I have never owned one of their mice b/c they have always seemed like one of those companies that try to capitalize on the stupidity of consumers. Kind of like telling me there is a difference between the can of soup with a pretty label and the can that has a white label that says "chicken noodle".
Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling a pig in mud. Soon, you realize the pig is dirty, and he likes it.
So it's pretty clear that they've just made a mouse which is just like all their other models and without any clear benefits marking it specifically for MMORPG. Personally I expect any gear designed for a specific case would end up being less usefull in generic cases, which might be a good indication of how much thinking actually went into this generic mouse. But what features WOULD make a mouse specifically suited for MMORPG's?
;)
Here's some of my ideas which may or may not be ridiculous, but feel free to add your own.
I'd like the ability to disable the clicking of the mousewheel. Or atleast make it's resistance configurable. It's all too easy to click it in hectic gaming situations.
How about "multifire" buttons? Imagine the left mouse button being split horizontally, the bottom part acting like a normal mouse button, the top part firing off a click every half second or so (configurable ofcourse). Usefull to automatically attack some monster without having to click continuously.
A mouse that detect rotation (around an axis perpendicular to the desk), might be usefull to rotate the camera axis.
Mousebuttons with surface grip (similar for the wheel), against sweaty fingers
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You clearly don't know or understand what I am talking about .
My Starcraft 2 Blog
I hope it works equally well for MUDs, considering that they're the precursor to the MMORPG.
So, is it covered with rich Corinthian leather?
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So glad I bought one of these things, because now, I can say with authority and experience that they are the most uncomfortable peices of shit I've ever had the mis-fortune of owning.
I picked up their top of the line copperhead because it's a "small" mouse designed for finger gamers.
What I got however was an extremely long yet thin mouse which is very difficult to control without jamming it into your palm all night long, the rubber decorative edging was sharp and uncomfortable, the LED distracting etc.
The mouse buttons felt great, perhaps it was just the marketing convincing me but they felt quality, the smoothness of the teflon pads was unmatched - yet it was dreadfully uncomfortable, so so disapointed as NO ONE makes a 6 or 7 button optical SMALL mouse which is good for finger mousers (not palm mousers)
In conclusion,... meh.
...when do we get our Pr0n optimized mouse?
I want something with a zooming wheel, snap-to-naughty-bits software, and maybe a navigation straw so I can use it hands-free!
Hot grits, I'm a genius! Why don't these people hire me?
This has been another embarrassing post by,
Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/
-Tom
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
The manufacturer says it's good.. so I'm getting one!
Seriously though, this is the only secion of TFA that mentions anything about RTS/MMOPG capabilities. Weak sauce.
kthnxbai.
Actually, I was trying to be Insightful, not Funny.
Relevant quotes from the review:
"Aside from cosmetic differences there does not appear to be much that sets the two mice apart from one another."
"Very few mice use an APM rating and while Razer does not explain how they did the testing, it suffices to say that 1200 APM is a lot." I wonder if you can turn it up to 11?
"During gaming the Razer did very well though there was no major difference between it and the Viper or even the Diamondback "
Translation: I got this free mouse I have to review, so, um, it's REALLY COOL. OK?
Funny stuff aside, want to build a "MMOG mouse"? (assuming cost is no object)
- adjustable body size, mouse location: like the Saitek joystics, have adjustment dials that could actually move the body components of the mouse to compensate for larger or smaller hands. Let you raise the restpad of the body of the mouse, laterally move the button locations forward/back or side/side.
- adjustable weight; I hate light mice, some people hate heavy ones
- I like their 'rubber rails', that's a good idea, although likely to get skanky after a few hundred hours of sweaty-handed gaming.
- additional programmable buttons, programmable 'chords' with keyboard keys
- a perforated body and a small internal fan that blows air on up through the mouse to cool your hand for long-duration gaming.
- force-feedback. I thought this was incredibly stupid on a mouse until I tried it for a long time, now I kind of like the subtle tactile cue.
-Styopa
i've been using the number pad for somewhere in the 1-2 year mark (when i first started playing new fps games), but then again, i use the mouse with my left hand. i've found the number pad is way better just because everything is regularly spaced. the downside... only so many buttons within easy reach. personally, i think this mouse would be a lot cooler if it had more buttons that are recognized and can be designated for functions... perhaps 8-15 buttons?
Have you ever been to digg? Even just viewing their "front page" feed, most of the articles there are pretty much garbage. Oh boy, another article on apple/ajax/web2.0/ubuntu howto/etc. I visit digg because they post MORE news, but more isn't always better.
"Something's wrong with you...and I hope we never do meet again." - Deftones When Girls Telephone Boys
Speaking of which, the main feature of an mmorpg optimized mouse just has to be monthly costs... ;)
I'm wondering if these guys have ever even played a MMO or RTS, because I just don't see how they could have missed the -ONLY- feature that's going to matter.
We want macro-able buttons. Lots of them. So many and so useful that WoW's Guardian program would think about banning us if it detects this thing is plugged in.
An 8-way hat/pov-switch/d-pad under the thumb wouldn't hurt either. I've yet to see a proper optical mouse with this.
The more I can do with one hand, the less I have to worry about when I'm trying to type.
If it ain't broke, it needs more features!
Nobody every takes the time to make a high tech mouse pad, to compliment the hard core mouse...Till now...See http://f1store.formula1.com/catalog/index.php?cPat h=29_35
I'm not sure how long you've been around Slashdot, but if you recoil in fear of the word Goatse then you should remember when Slashdot was filled to the brim to informative articles covering science, games, technology, real hardware hacks and Uni. projects, as well as real news.
/. to end this crap.
When 9 out of ten stories is tagged Stupid in a day, that is a problem. Sure Digg isn't the answer, but it manages to get a better ratio of signal to noise, and something like their system needs to be implemented here on
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Kind of like telling me there is a difference between the can of soup with a pretty label and the can that has a white label that says "chicken noodle".
Actually, there are differences: In my experience, comparable generics tend to be "worse" in terms of calories, fat, sodium, etc. Sometimes the differences are negligible (e.g. 100 calories v. 110 calories), but I've seen generics with up to twice the amount of fat as their branded counterpart.
The real point of your post stands, of course — I'm just bringing this up for anyone concerned about nutrition. (Which admittedly means I'm posting on the wrong website...)
Bones powdered in 15g? Oh give me a break.
_ review_soccer_heading.php
It mentions a previous research where a professional boxer's punch was measured to have an acceleration of 53g!
I did some quick googling and came across this: http://www.physioroom.com/research/reviews/200410
Likewise 15g is not that much when it comes to quick movements of your mouse. Do the math yourself if you don't believe it.
What the hell is an MMO/RTS mouse?
I looked at this thing when I was buying a mouse yesterday. I eventually decided to get a Kensington Optical Pilot mouse instead.
DPI is useless for non-FPS non-twitch gaming
Notwithstanding the excellent price ($19.99), I actually preferred the mouse I was getting to all the other ones on the shelf. Why?
1. Comfortable shape, rubber grip.
2. Teflon feet.
The Razor has teflon feet, but a crappy grip. All of the other mice are similar; most without teflon feet. And the difference to me, between 600 DPI, and 1000 DPI? 1600 DPI? 2000 DPI? Laser? Optical?
Meh.
A decent wireless mouse with a decent optical sensor is indistinguishable from other "high-end" mice for non-twitch gaming. At least to me; maybe its because I'm getting old.
I feel like I notice a slight accuracy increase in things like CounterStrike. That maybe a psychosomatic effect; who knows.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
i have an original boomslang 2000, that i'm using RIGHT NOW!
i wonder when thier going to make a slashdotting mouse. it should have a special button to automaticly submit a witty comment!
I thought it was going to be a mouse with a single button that's permanently bound to Frostshock or the pally bubble. Then it would be a true MMO mouse.
The perfect sig is a lot like silence, only louder
But the mouse needs to be able to tell how far, and in which direction, it's moved between screen-updates. It tracks motion (delta-position), not position (except for the Wacom-style mice, I guess--they're different).
Imagine watching video of pans across the mid-section of a large carpet, or parking lot, or anything without distinguishable `landmarks'. If you have to report how the camera has moved at 1-minute intervals, what kind of frame-rate do you need to see in order to perform your task? At one frame per minute, you might be able to tell that the camera has moved, but you won't be able to tell where to or how.
What if the camera moves to the left and back to the right within a single sample-period? Would you even be able to tell that it had moved, let alone how?
The `resolution' issue is presumably similar. And the sensor in the mouse is presumably not an inch square and not able to capture all of those pixels simultaneously. At a bare minimum, I imagine that you need at least a 2x2 array of pixels to see motion, and that resolution-requirement goes up as the sample-rate goes down. The more of the image you can see of your panning carpet (or whatever), and the more detail you can see, the easier it is to see where you're going.
Try navigating through a dense, unfamiliar forest, with a set of blur-inducing eye-glasses. And open your eyes only briefly, once per minute. And then try to escape the Blair Witch
-rozzin.
And because Kevin Roes isn't cuter than Taco..(and that's a compliment :) ) Taco's just a guy who helps run a site that's popular.
They're identical except for the colour.
It must have the following: -Be cheap to begin with -Have a monthly fee to use -Gradually improve through regular upgrades -Require an upgraded PC to support add-on expansions j/k, take with a grain of salt, as this is coming from a gamer that does not share the time with any current mmorpgs... ~CYD
//Nothing to see here, please move along.
When they first sent me an email months ago, I just had to laugh. While they were bringing out their next-gen mice like the Diamondback / Copperhead, they were pricing the Viper at $39. They then discontinued that mouse.
This new mouse physically appears to be the same thing as the Viper. It may have a higher resolution sensor, but beyond that it appears the same.
I like and use the Viper, but their marketing is crass and disingenuous. I listened to one of the marketing people on Chatterbox and was totally unimpressed. My BS-ometer spiked listening to him.
This was only released because they wanted to hit a lower price point. The MMO thing is just a steaming pile to try to justify this as a gaming mouse. Plus they tend to ignore any OS but Windows. Not surprising since they focus their marketing on gaming.
While I would replace my Viper with this mouse, I certain wouldn't get any warm fuzzies doing it. I like the mouse and dislike the company.
A bit under a year ago, i picked up a Razer Diamonback. I wanted something with many buttons and high resolution. I was tired of trackballs and using el-cheap-o 5$ mice that had trouble with precision or always needed to have their moving underside-ball cleaned. It also had to be comfortable. The mouse wound up coming with a LAN pouch that i've actually used regularly given that i use this mouse with a Powerbook and take it everywhere when i travel. I don't know about non-tangle cables. On average I treat my cables respectfully and almost obsessively make it a point to neatly tie them up when transporting devices so as to avoid tangles and other sorts of negative wear & tear.
I think the colors of their mice as well as the glowing is a bit annoying, particularly when watching a movie on screen with the lights out. But i understand it keeps the gamers happy, or perhaps the marketing folks? Either way at worst i just put a cloth over it and watch my movie in peace.
On resolution and number of buttons:
I think this one's pretty straightforward: 7 buttons are nice. 3 Up top including a scroll wheel that does have notches that will hold. None of this smooth wheel scroll without deviation that are a pain in FPS games when selecting items. The 7 buttons are nice as they work well with Expose when configured in preferences. I doubt i'm the kind of person that can tell the difference between 2000 dpi and 1600 dpi versus 800 dpi in a mouse. However i can say that this mouse is a world of positive difference from an MS trackball and cheap 3 button no-scroll wheel no-name types i've used in the past on other computers.
The size of the buttons, location of the buttons, and over all size of the mouse are the sorts of things that are very user specific. It fits my hand which i like to think is neither too large, nor too petite. There was a brief period of a few hours where i did have to get used to the buttons located on the sides of the mouse. I've also noted the same with others who try to use my mouse. At first there's a bit of disorientation after accidentally setting off Expose or using the side buttons inadvertently.
I like the mouse for use with photoshop and apps like Aperture that regularly span multiple screens. In the occasional games i do play i've also found it to be a pleasurable mousing experience. Precise, quick and comfortable. Razer does make an awful lot of fuss over the numerical specifications detailing out how 1337 it's mice are and the one thing that sticks out in my mind is: The thing about high resolution and fast travel time is not that you need it all the time, but over brief periods of time to traverse from one high res monitor to another on spanned screen real-estate, or want to be able to reliably click on specific pixels in a scene or displayed image the 1st time and not the second without having to zoom in, or in cases where the interface is a bit fiddly and it's just easier to have a high res mouse do the job.
As for this review? It looks like Razer's released just another bottom of their product line mouse with partially trimmed down features and attempted to orient this new mouse to mmo/rts gamers. The review wasn't all that inspiring and is laced to the brim with advertisements. Navigation of the site is a pain and i had to stare at the first page for about a minute to realize there were 4 or so more pages of review content with NEXT and page number links to click on near the end of the 2nd paragraph.
In closing i don't particularly understand a lot of the negative feedback on this article in regards to cheap quality of Razer mice. As far as i'm concerned, they're a bit expensive, but of good quality if they fit your hand and personal sense of preferred ergonomics. I've never had my mouse break / cease working.. or act negatively unless you count the glowing.
"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."- Friedrich Nietzsche
"DARN!! This stupid mouse made me die in Guild Wars! Man, I really need higher DPI and a more responsive sensor!"
I doubt anyone else has thought that either.
Don't waste your time with Razer - stick with Logitech. Logitech drivers let you program your buttons to do almost anything you might imagine. Logitech drivers work better with more applications, too. The Razer drivers are extremely limited in comparison and don't work at all with some applications. The position of the side buttons on the right side (for a right-hander) makes the effort required to press them almost the same as taking your hand off the mouse entirely and using the keyboard.
This mouse was a huge disappointment.
First of all: The 1600dpi sampling is very nice. It is not a waste, as some have claimed. I used to use the previous mouse at the highest cursor tracking speed, and the cursor was always jumping over pixels. I set this one to about 75% tracking speed and the cursor still moves faster than the previous mouse, but no more pixel jumping.
The insanely fast cursor tracking speed takes about a week to get used to. During this week, you are flying past buttons that you're trying to click, and it's mildly annoying. However, it results in a huge reduction in wrist strain, because not only are you moving the mouse much shorter distances, you no longer have to lift it up.
The low-friction feet are not a lie -- this mouse glides with almost no effort, which also cuts down on wrist strain. This is countered somewhat by the high-friction cord, described below.
Aside from the sampling, this mouse sucks. It is not ergonomic, not comfortable to hold, and the extra buttons are impossible to reach without shifting your hand (a common problem with extra-button mice.) The switches for the main buttons seem to be of low quality, because the left-click button has developed a problem where it makes two clicking sounds for every time I press it -- a lot more annoying than it may seem. The scroll wheel placement seems to have been made with lesbian pornstars in mind, or someone with equally long fingers. Finally, the cord is made of a high-friction rubbery material, requiring me to suspend it from the wall to prevent friction on my desk.
I'm curious, dear moderators: What criteria did you use to determine that this post was worthy of our time? Since every time you post one of these you get essentially flamed for it, perhaps sharing your algorithm with us would allow us to help you tune it so that these incidents can be avoided in the future.
This is kind of retarded. It's a cool-looking mouse, there's no doubt about that, but just because it looks cool is no reason to buy it. This looks like just another way to take money from geeks with too much time to play WoW and other such things. It's overpriced, and it's sales pitch doesn't make sense at all. However, it will probably appeal to people who will pay for epic mounts and ships and weapons for MMORPG's.
I AM MAN!!!
Must have been a typo.
More Digg Astroturfing.
Great.
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Thats nice that you like Digg, but I like Slashdot.
See, that's why they are different, different customers.
now go away.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
But what I find almost as puzzling is how swiftly people jump to recommend Logitech. Granted, this was a while ago, but I've used Logitech mice in the past, and all of them seemed to suffer from a problem I called, "the reverse blip." This is a circumstance where, if you're moving the mouse very finely (such as when trying to line up items on the screen, or point at a particular pixel), the pointer occasionally jumps one pixel in the wrong direction before heading in the direction you've actually been pushing. This only happens during direction changes. I could never quite get it to happen at will, but it happened often enough that it drove me nuts. And it was only Logitech mice that did this.
Additionally, Logitech's "drivers" were becoming more a study in graphic design and bundleware rather than an efficient, usable user interface. I was always worrying, "What the hell else are they installing in my machine? Why is it taking six megs of disk space to install a mouse driver?"
So I've kinda gone off Logitech, and Razer so far hasn't done anything to piss me off.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
I've been around Slashdot since its inception, so please spare me. Natalie Portman, Hot Grits, huzzah, w00t, goatse, bathtub, etc.
/. has not changed much then you are delusional. Dupes, sure, always had 'em... old news, fake stories, yep all have been around... but not in this quantity. Take a gander sometime at the tagging of each story and keep track of the numbers, then tell me how off-base I am.
If you honestly believe that
I am no Digg proponent, nor do I have any ties to the site. I am simply stating that such a system needs to be implemented here so that my frontpage "news" isn't filled up with junk stories and slashvertisements. What is stopping them? have it be an option, then people like you that _enjoy_ reading dupes, old news, "stupid/lame" tagged stories, and slashvertisements can be left to revel in their crapulence. And it would also ensure that no other Zonk "review" would make the frontpage again.
Digg was an example, not astroturfing. Piss off and may you develop a rare incurable disease.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
I guess I'm a finger mouser. However, I have relatively long hands (I can strike ten keys apart on a piano keyboard), and I also use airplane controls (inverted Y) on all my FPS games. So the issues of the mouse's body jamming into my palm don't really come up. (I'm guessing the original Razer Boomslang drove you crazy.)
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Ya want buttons - the 5 normal mice buttons (with the scroll wheel doubling as a button) and an additional six programmable buttons across the top. It's also symetric for left or two handed mouse users (I use one on each side of the keyboard -- very handy).
-l
I have an older Razer Viper and it looks identical.
The Viper was sold as an FPS mouse - but while it has the aforementioned high-res optics, it falls down as an FPS mouse on some very basic stuff:-
You cannot turn off the acceleration completely! This is a must for old-skool FPS gamers like me - I need a linear relationship between mouse and game movement - it's no good if it speeds up unexpectedly - how'm I supposed to do my snap-rails now?? It's just about usable if you ditch the drivers and use the standard XP ones.
It has a wheel!! Arrgh. These are no bloomin use at all in fast-paced FPS's. Much too easy to move the wheel either not enough or too many times, or click it by accident while moving it. Probably OK in more recent slow FPS games or RTS though I should imagine. I'd rather have a proper 3rd button myself. No self respecting Q2/3 player selects weapons by using a scroll wheel to cycle through them - you need to go straight to the weapon you need at the time.
It does random things on almost all mouse mats. The only surface I have that it doesn't throw a wobbly on every couple of minutes is my desk - and it's wearing thin...
It's shape is pretty good for gaming, but the old Logitech Wingman or 3 button cheapo Pilot has it beat (even if you did have to buy 3 Pilots to make one good one). It's not a bad mouse by any means, but it isn't worth the asking price, especially, as you can now get cheap mice with the same high-res opticals.
Even the reviewer at the end asks - how the hell is this an RTS/MMORPG mouse? This is clearly the opinion of a PR guy that couldn't even spell out what those acronyms mean. Actions per minute and DPI may be important in first person shooters, but in RTS and MMORPGs any veteran will tell you it's about being able to issue a wide variety of commands through simple inputs - IE - more buttons without convoluting the whole design.
I'll stick with my 20 dollar GE mouse, with 5 buttons, and omgosh, a perfectly clickable mouse wheel. And I'll still get owned by Koreans, and I promise you, it has nothing to do with the mouse.
You can get 15 minutes of fame, but you can go down in history for infamy.