The
World of Warcraft Tap Chat, or The Gaming Peripheral Formerly Known As Voice Tap, is now available. Essentially, it's a hotkey for your foot -- or some other appendage other than your fingers. Designed primarily as a push-to-talk button to pair with the Sound Blaster
World of Warcraft headset to allow players to devote their hands to the game, this USB device can just as easily be assigned a macro or as a hotkey. This means players can actually assign the Tap Chat to an ability like
Hammer of Justice, to add a realistic feeling of crushing your opponents underfoot.
Players willing to spring $29.99 for the edge of one additional button -- notably a non-hand-activated one -- can head over to the
Creative or Blizzard online stores, where the
World of Warcraft Tap Chat is exclusively available. Although sold out at the Blizzard store as of this writing (barely a week after it was made available), players who manage to get their hands (or foot) on the product also get exclusive
World of Warcraft logo lenses that can be used to customize their matching
World of Warcraft headset.
Tags: creative, gaming-peripheral, gaming-peripherals, hardware, peripheral, peripherals, sound-blaster, sound-blaster-world-of-warcraft-tap-chat, tap-chat, usb, voice-tap, world-of-warcraft-tap-chat, wow-tap-chat
Filed under: News items
Jul 5th 2010 at 4:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Alex Ziebart Jul 3rd 2010 7:24PM
An absolutely fantastic piece of equipment for players with certain disabilities.
Tribunal Jul 5th 2010 4:38PM
That's an aspect I didn't immediately consider, and a pretty cool one at that.
What I did sadly consider, at my house anyway is.
"Who's mike is open?"
"Sorry, cat on pedal".
Snuzzle Jul 5th 2010 7:44PM
I was just about to say this was the stupidest idea ever, then I read your comment and realized I hadn't considered this from that angle. I bow to you sir, this peripheral will be great for some niche players.
However there are already a plethora of alternative peripherals for disabled persons with large clear buttons that are available much cheaper and have more than one button on them. I'd personally go for one of those before this, but to each their own of course.
Jamie Jul 5th 2010 7:53PM
Yes... but it looks like a sewing machine pedal!
Fizzl Jul 5th 2010 8:02PM
Yes I'm sure my mum has something just like that for the sewing machine.
Grab an old mouse then:
Assign buttons to something useful
Remove ball/tape over sensor
Step on mouse
Experience the joy of not spending $30 on one button
Rai Jul 5th 2010 4:06PM
It would be fun to wire it up to the Rogue ability Kick.
Eddy Jul 5th 2010 4:09PM
I think it might be fun for movement-related abilities, like Blink or Disengage.
Cadros Jul 5th 2010 5:17PM
Thunder Clap/War Stomp!!
Endless Jul 6th 2010 8:02AM
Or jump maybe.
If I could actually connect two of them to my computer, it'd be even better!
Darthoej Jul 5th 2010 4:07PM
"or some other appendage other than your fingers."
penis joke?
devilsei Jul 5th 2010 4:23PM
Man, why downvote this guy?
Seriously, if Jack Black can deactivate a laser with his, why can't I use mine to hit the "chat" button?
Cadros Jul 5th 2010 4:49PM
I think it was downvoted because darth used a question mark. Mr. Yonson was clearly refering to a penis.
dillonwelch Jul 5th 2010 4:15PM
New definition of facerolling
PeeWee Jul 5th 2010 4:17PM
30 USD sounds expensive for what is essentially a very simple USB device. But hey, I still approve.
Tribunal Jul 5th 2010 4:36PM
I was tempted to take apart a modern sewing machine pedal (you can get crappy replacements for 5-10 dollars, though the nice ones are 25-30) and see how hard it would be to re-terminate the cable in USB.
Plus sewing machines have variable pressure, which I'm sure if you're clever you could work out to do something neat.
Hoggersbud Jul 5th 2010 4:49PM
If you want to do it yourself, and your computer has a serial port, that's the better option.
Much simpler IME.
Henrah Jul 5th 2010 4:50PM
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-Game-Foot-Control-Keyboard-Action-Switch-Pedal-HID-/170506847426?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Video_Games_Accessories&hash=item27b30004c2
Get one for $11.54 with shipping included.
Warning: No 'World of Warcraft' logo included. Buy a sticker of the WoW logo and stick it on, and hey presto, you have the same product!
Then again, exactly how somebody is going to see your l33t logo on a foot pedal is beyond me, but there you go.
musicchan Jul 5th 2010 6:22PM
I actually looked up sewing machine pedals and as someone else above mentioned, the cheap ones can be pretty easy on the pocketbook, but the average ones ran from about $20 all the way up to $100 or more.
So really, $30 for a foot pedal isn't exactly price gouging. You're really paying for the branding though, which always adds a bit more.
Niennee Jul 5th 2010 4:21PM
$29.99? Seriously? I bought one to use with Vent off ebay for £8 two weeks ago. Works perfectly - only difference is it doesn't have a logo on, but who sees that when you're foot's on it?
Cadros Jul 5th 2010 5:14PM
Stickers aren't cheap my friend...
OR!
They're buying em where you got yours and making a huge profit on resale