Posts with tag razer-naga

Back in July, I featured a submission on Reader UI of the Week from reader Steppinrazor which featured a dual-peripheral setup of the Razer Naga MMO mouse and the Razer Nostromo. The Razer Nostromo is a peripheral that acts as a keyboard for input commands, with buttons for clicking, a D-pad, a scrollwheel, and much more. In my discussion of Steppinrazor's UI, I made note that I was not privy to the Nostromo, having never had the pleasure of resting my fingers on its keys. Now, however, I've spent considerable time with the Nostromo and can tell you my story. Here is my review of the Razer Nostromo.

The Razer Nostromo features:

• Ergonomic form factor and tournament-grade layout
• 16 fully programmable Hyperesponse keys
• Programmable eight-way directional thumb pad and scroll wheel (can be used as keys)
• Instantaneous switching between eight key maps
• Unlimited macro lengths (this is really cool)
• Storage of up to 20 different game profiles
• Adjustable soft-touch wrist pad for exceptional comfort
• Backlit keypad and scroll wheel for total control, even in dark conditions
• Enhanced Razer configurator software
• Works with Mac or PC

Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter.

Last week, Reader UI of the Week profiled Lellee's UI and a call for help in fixing up a non-widescreen UI and just making the whole thing work a little bit better. One thing that I try to do during a call-for-help-type article is point people in the direction of an example of what I am trying to articulate. In this case, I wanted to profile a user interface that is simple enough to replicate on your own with a minimal amount of configuration addons, with an acceptable amount of time needed to create it. That's what today is about -- the philosophical process and a general outline to making your user interface look nice and tidy, just like our friend Pathanos has here.

Pathanos' UI is built around a Razer Naga-plus-keyboard setup for his tanking paladin. In the screenshot, you will see his sparse raiding UI, a clutterless view space that allows for plenty of information gathering while not being an addon monstrosity. Hopefully we can get you up to speed as well as to what is needed to set up something like this, with a quick understanding of the concepts needed, where to start, and what you want to look for when building it.

Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter.

Reader UI of the Week is an interesting experience for me. There are moments of awe, moments of sadness, and (more than you probably would guess) moments of utter perplexity. Today's submission from Steppinrazor features a peripheral that many players have been asking me to do a spotlight on: the Razer Nostromo. Once developed by Belkin, the Razer version is the updated model, still created in partnership with Belkin but featuring spiffy new features.

Many people ask me about peripherals like the Razer Nostromo, and while I would love to have an answer for them about the usefulness of something like the Nostromo, I can't give the best account. I'm a keyboard and mouse guy, through and through. However, there is nothing on the books that says I can't bring in someone who seems to know what he's doing with a peripheral as versatile as the Nostromo.

If you've got an interesting UI setup that features peripherals out of the keyboard-and-mouse box, let's see them! Email your UI along with an explanation of your addons, setup, and other details to readerui@wowinsider.com. The community will love you for it, I promise.

Let's face it -- the Razer Naga is sort of iconic now as the mouse of MMOs and WoW players alike. One of the biggest concerns about the Naga is that it is functionally only available to right-handed players, because the number pad interface on the mouse is controlled with the right thumb. Some lefties have come up with interesting ways of using a right-handed Naga, but the problem still exists.

Razer has offered up a left-handed version of its Deathadder mouse, but MMO players have been without a left-handed option ever since the Naga released. As many people in the community (including myself) would tell you, the Naga is a powerful tool, much like the other MMO-centric mice out there.

So why talk about this? It looks like Razer is entertaining the thought of creating a left-handed version of its popular MMO mouse. On its Facebook page, CEO Min-Liang Tan posted a faux propaganda poster and description soliciting comments from left-handed raiders to make this happen.

The biggest downside to gaming mice is that they are not very good at being universally acceptable products for both righties and lefties. Inclusion is essential, and good tools for gaming are important, especially to WoW players. Let's hope this happens.

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Razer has very graciously sent me one of its Anansi MMO keyboards to review for you fine people. My previous experience with Razer products has been positive, mostly because its MMO-centric wares fit well into my own MMO-centric lifestyle. I face this simple fact every day -- I play a lot of games. In fact, I play a lot of World of Warcraft. When you play a game this much, you get the tools made for it.

How about some features in convenient bullet point form?

The Razer Anansi MMO-Gaming Keyboard:

• 7 thumb modifier keys
• 100+ programmable keys
• One-button profile switching (awesome for backlighting your Alliance characters blue and Horde characters red ...)
• Five additional macro buttons
• Media keys
• Gaming mode option

The Razer Naga gaming mouse is one of those designs that, at first glance, you scoff and laugh at -- because frankly, the thing can look a little ridiculous. A second glance, however, becomes one of cold adoration, slowly letting the fact sink in that Razer, a company already known for quality gaming products, put what amounts to a number pad on a mouse. A third glance is silent wonderment. The number of skills you wish you could have bound to your mouse begins to take hold. "What if I put my tanking cooldowns on the second row, and let the top row deal with movement based abilities like Intervene and Heroic Leap?" I'd think. "No, it's too risky. I'd have to learn an entire new system of button presses and get an entirely new feel for a foreign mouse."

But I did. For you. What follows is my week with the Razer Naga Epic, the newest product in the Razer Naga line that takes the Razer Mamba's wireless successes and adds them to the Naga's MMO-focused capabilities. The result is an MMO mouse that is solidly built, gorgeous on the eyes, and -- after the initial shock of change to the Naga's own brand of world view -- a customizable powerhouse that has your thumb doing acrobatics you never thought it could.

12 Days of Winter Veil is under way here at WoW Insider. That means 12 days of giveaways, from loot codes to literature and gaming mice to graphics cards. Even if you've been a good goblin or a naughty night elf, there's a chance that WoW Insider has a holiday gift for you this season.

Next on the Winter Veil giveaway list is the Razer Naga, a 17-button MMO gaming mouse. This mouse works with both PC and Macs and includes WoW addons plus a customizable interface. And don't forget the keymapping for the side buttons.

To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment on this post before 11:59 p.m. ET, Monday, Dec. 27, 2010. You must be 18 years of age or older and a legal resident of the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec). You can only enter once. Make sure your email address is up to date, because that's how we'll get hold of you. We will pick one winner randomly. Official rules here.

Don't forget to check back every day through Jan. 2, 2011, for new contests celebrating the 12 Days of Winter Veil!

EDIT: Contest closed. Thanks and good luck to all who entered!

12 Days of Winter Veil is underway here at WoW Insider. That means 12 days of giveaways, from loot codes to literature and gaming mice to graphics cards. Even if you've been a good goblin or a naughty night elf, there's a chance that WoW Insider has a holiday gift for you this season.

Next on the Winter Veil giveaway list is the Razer Naga, a 17-button MMO gaming mouse. This mouse works with both PC and Macs and includes WoW addons plus a customizable interface. And don't forget the keymapping for the side buttons.

To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment on this post before 11:59 p.m. ET, Thursday, Dec, 23, 2010. You must be 18 years of age or older and a legal resident of the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec). You can only enter once. Make sure your email address is up to date, because that's how we'll get hold of you. We will pick one winner randomly. Official rules here.

Don't forget to check back every day through Jan. 2, 2011 for new contests celebrating the 12 Days of Winter Veil!

EDIT: Contest closed. Thanks and good luck to all who entered!

Looks like those folks over at Razer are having quite a busy year designing all sorts of cool peripherals, such as the licensed products such as TRON and StarCraft 2 gaming gear, and making recent announcements such as the upgrades to the MMO-centric Razer Naga. They aren't letting up, either, it turns out. Razer recently revealed plans to launch a keyboard designed specifically for MMO gamers, the Razer Anansi.

The difference between this keyboard and other gaming keyboards is simple. There are seven configurable modifier keys below the space bar that can assigned to the common modifiers such as Alt, Ctrl and Shift, making all those keybinds and macros even more accessible. Designed by Razer to be paired with its MMO gaming mouse, the Razer Naga, the Anansi also sports features such as 100 programmable Hyperesponse keys, one-button profile switching (for up to 20 profiles with the built-in software driver), five additional gaming keys, and an option for those multi-colored lights that are becoming in vogue with most gaming peripherals lately.

It also has an optimized key matrix that prevents the ghosting that typically happens when more than two keys are pressed simultaneously. The engineers at Razer have reconfigured the hardware to enable recognition of up to six simultaneous keystrokes, centered around the left-hand cluster generally used for gaming (the W, A, S, D keys). It's a cool feature that most MMO gamers probably won't need, but all you button-mashers can rejoice. There's a nifty gaming mode option that temporarily disables the Windows key so you can stay in the game without having to remap your Windows key for fear of hitting it the chaos of a raid or arena match.

The Razer Anansi is compatible with Windows and Macs and will retail for $99. It is scheduled to ship in December, with pre-orders starting soon.

Barely a week after the announcement of visually-upgraded special editions of its MMO gaming mouse, the folks at Razer did themselves one better to reveal an even bigger upgrade with the Razer Naga Epic. Razer's new version of the popular 17-button mouse sports a dual-mode wired or wireless functionality similar to its first wireless gaming mouse, the Razer Mamba. In addition, the Razer Naga Epic also has interchangeable side panels to accommodate different hand sizes and grip styles; the current Razer Naga has a somewhat bulky, if ergonomic, form factor that may not appeal to players with smaller hands or use the claw grip to play. The three different side panels should broaden players' options in customizing their mice to better suit their playstyle.

The Razer Naga Epic's dual-mode functionality allows the mouse to be used wirelessly or with a braided mouse cord that charges the mouse during gameplay. It also comes with a charging dock for charging the mouse during downtime. The Razer Naga Epic is aimed at all MMO gamers, with support for various MMOs such as Warhammer Online and City of Heroes, but there's no question that the mouse is targeted squarely at World of Warcraft players, with its epic nomenclature and purple glow (the regular Naga only glows blue) that can actually be configured to cycle through a possible 16 million color combinations. Razer also promises in-game addons for better interface customization, although at this time, the RazerNaga addon is only at 1.2.2, which hasn't been updated for Patch 4.0.1. The Razer Naga Epic is available for pre-order at the Razer store and slated to ship by the end of November, retailing for an equally epic $129.99.

How do you improve on awesome? That's a tough question, but the clever folks at Razer seem to have come up with an answer: Add some molten lava or a raging maelstrom. The gaming peripherals manufacturer announced today the Razer Naga Molten and Razer Naga Maelstrom special edition mice. Both mice sport the same specs as the original 17-button Razer Naga plus the addition of new, pulsating designs -- a swirling, cool blue maelstrom or glowing hot lava. If the themes seem familiar, it's probably no coincidence that these mice arrive just in time for Cataclysm, which is set to launch on Dec. 7.

The Razer Naga is designed specifically for MMO gaming, with a special addon for World of Warcraft, allowing players to bind their spells and abilities to the mouse's numerous buttons. The mouse also supports key mapping, the way most full-featured gaming mice can be configured, and also comes with drivers for the Mac. The new designs take the place of the current pulsating Razer logo on the palm end of the mouse, adding a different level of cool to the popular mouse. Either version of the special edition Razer Naga gaming mouse will retail for $79.99 -- about the same price as the regular version -- and will become available for pre-order on Oct. 12.

World of Warcraft players using a Mac should be pleased to hear that gaming peripherals manufacturer Razer pledged their commitment to supporting the Mac gaming community at the Game Developers Conference. They announced that all upcoming Razer products will come with Mac driver support, including the Razer StarCraft 2 peripheral suite scheduled for release later this year.

Prior to the Razer DeathAdder Mac Edition in 2008, all Razer mice and peripherals only had native Windows support and drivers. While these products would generally work with a Mac through its plug-and-play technology, customizing them was more difficult and in some cases, impossible. In order to configure my Razer Lachesis to make all its buttons usable on my Mac, I had to configure it on a PC and mapped some of the buttons as little used keyboard keys because the Mac wouldn't recognize click-throughs from more than a few mouse buttons.

This situation improved with the release of the Razer Naga, which shipped with native Mac support, although the key-mapping functionality for the Mac came several weeks after the PC version. Currently, newer mice come with basic Mac support, although Razer promises the same functionality and customizability as their PC counterparts through future updates. Razer also promises to release Mac drivers for all existing products, which presumably includes their line of headsets and keyboards. While Mac gamers have always been treated as second class citizens by most peripheral manufacturers, it's encouraging to see a major player pay the community some attention. I mean, the Magic Mouse is awesome and all, but there's nothing like having a real gaming mouse to play WoW.

As previously mentioned in our lengthy review of the Razer Naga, Razer had plans to update their 17-button MMOG-centric mouse to enable key mapping. Heathcliff Hatcher from Razer responded to concerns about the mouse's configurability back then that "software driver remapping of keys is a standard function for most of Razer products and we do have suitable solutions that we intend to release in the near future for Naga that will enable this feature out of game."

Razer delivered on that promise with an update to the mouse driver, allowing users to configure all 17 buttons. This addresses the reservations many players expressed when the product launched in August last year. The driver update also supports different profiles, allowing users to configure different key functions according to their current application. Razer has also added full macro capability including timed delays between keystrokes. However, it should be noted that taking advantage of this last function might violate the World of Warcraft's terms of use, something that plagued the first versions of Steelseries' World of Warcraft mouse. Read the FAQ regarding the driver update after the break.

WoW.com continues to celebrate all that is wonderful and majestic about World of Warcraft's 5 year anniversary by giving away more stuff! This time it's the ultrasleek Naga gaming mouse from Razer. This bad boy has 17 programmable buttons, it's own AddOn program and a hotness that can't be denied. We've written a full hands-on review of this product last month. And now we're giving away 5 of these little beauties. Here's how can enter for a chance to win.

The contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), and everyone who enters must be 18 or older. To enter, leave a comment on this post before Wednesday, November 25th, at 12p ET (noon), and please be sure to use a real email that you check often to enter, so we can contact you should you be one of the winners. You may enter only once and five winners will be selected randomly. Each winner will receive 1 Razer Naga MMOG Laser Gaming Mouse with a retail value of US$80. Click here to read the official contest rules.

If you don't qualify for this contest, be sure to enter today's Loot card giveaway and look for more WoW.com giveaways tomorrow!

EDIT: Contest closed. Thanks so much for participating!

Peripherals manufacturer Razer has partnered with Taverncraft to give away a Razer Naga MMO gaming mouse and a Charge of the Great Dragonflights World of Warcraft stein to two lucky fans on Facebook. Those interested to participate in the contest must have a Facebook account and become a fan of the Razer page in order to submit an entry. Razer lists three simple steps in order to join:

• Select your preferred beverage of choice while you game
• Select your game of choice (presumably World of Warcraft)
• Take a picture of you owning it up while holding said beverage

Deadline for submission of entries is on November 17, with a limit of one entry per person. The Charge of the Great Dragonflights stein, which debuted at BlizzCon last August, retails for $89.99 and features artwork from artist James Zhang on fine-grain stoneware with a solid pewter lid. The Razer Naga also appeared at BlizzCon and retails for $79.99. WoW.com did a full review of the 17-button mouse aimed specifically at MMOG players back in October.