As done earlier this month, we are currently preparing to launch a new software update for the WoW MMO Gaming Mouse. One of the main reasons for this forthcoming update is the fact that a few software issues affected some WoW Mouse users’ ability to take full advantage of the button programming capability on the mouse.

We have addressed some of the issues in the recent software update and are currently working to resolve the remaining known issues. Before listing the planned updates, I want to explain a little bit further about some of the software changes.

First off, we’ve received complaints quite a few times from customers trying to rebind buttons to continuously send a single key. This is a known issue since currently all custom macros are treated as long macros and therefore only allowed to be sent once or looped a given number of times. This will be fixed in the February update as shown below - for now you can use the commands from the Game Commands list which are handled correctly and can be repeated.

Secondly, some users had trouble finding their character names when using the built-in armory window. When encountering this problem, make sure that you can find your character using The World of Warcraft Armory website, remember to select your region correctly and check the spelling as well.

A known issue regarding finding your character name, is that when the name contains any special European characters (accented letters, etc.), the software is not able to read it properly and therefore can’t find the character. As you can see below, this issue will also be fixed in the next software update.

Finally, here’s the list of fixes planned for the upcoming release, which will be available last week of February:

1. Fix armory linking for character names that contain non-standard characters such as accented letters, etc.

2. Fix repeat rate for single key mappings – now you will be able to press and “hold down” the button if it’s mapped to a single key.

3. Fix mouse button 4 and 5 for non-default assignments.

4. Some translation and layout fixes for localized versions.

Of course we’ll do another post here on the blog prior to the software update launch in case more fixes will be included and, looking forward, make sure software updates are quickly shared with WoW Mouse customers as soon as they are released.

/Casper

A fair amount of World of Warcraft players prefer using Mac and therefore it is unfortunate for some, that the WoW MMO Gaming Mouse software is not available for Mac - yet.

For those World of Warcraft players who prefer using Mac, rest assured that we are working aggressively with Blizzard to develop a strategy for providing robust support for the WoW MMO Gaming Mouse and as soon it’s available we will of course let you know.

In the meantime ControllerMate is your savior, and it just recently (December 2008) got updated to be compatible with the WoW MMO Gaming Mouse.

Latest changelog:

- Added compatibility with the World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse. ControllerMate can control the mouse resolution as well as the LED color, intensity, and pulse rate.

- Fixed a bug that caused excessive CPU use by the helper application in certain situations.

- Fixed a bug that prevented ControllerMate from properly applying mouse or keyboard customizations in certain situations.

Have in mind that ControllerMate is not free. Consider this only a heads-up on a temporary option for Mac WoW players who own, or want to buy this mouse.

/Casper

XSReviews’ Whoopty recently got his hands on the World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse and posted a full, 9 page review this Friday.

Copy/paste of the in-game testing:

“I setup a rest key to give myself a quick way of gaining health and mana back instead of typing “/sit”. I also threw in a few chat commands I liked to use , adding those to the buttons I hadn’t used before. After time, I managed to turn the mouse into something that was geared exactly to my playing experience, giving me all the commands I need on one hand, meaning I don’t even need to touch the keyboard for quick shortcuts. As soon as I noticed myself using the keyboard, I added the command to a free button on the mouse.

If you really went to town on this, you could add a profile switching button and having different profiles geared up to different situations that you might need certain button combos in. You might even like to add certain DPI values and Polling rates if you wish.”

Part of the final conclusion:

My recommendation is that the WoW mouse, is really for hardcore WoW players, but if you use it otherwise, it will do what you want and more; but perhaps more than you need.

XSReviews awarded the WoW MMO Gaming Mouse 4 out of 5 stars - read the entire review here.

/Casper

Over the course of the past month we’ve discovered a higher than acceptable return rate on the WoW MMO Gaming mouse. The problems were found within a limited number of early manufactured units from the first batch of production.

It is unfortunate that these devices made it through our quality control process and out to the public - of course this is unacceptable and we deeply apologize.

The good news however, is that we have now resolved this issue and have identified the affected units along with their specific serial numbers. A process has been established to expedite the replacement of any affected devices in a quick, simple and painless manner - either through the place of purchase or through the SteelSeries website (whatever is easiest for the customer).

Lastly, we wish to underline that the issue has been corrected and we are continuing to monitor our supply chain closely.

We appreciate the feedback provided by the community.

/Casper

As announced on the 1st of January along with a 1st prize of 100.000 SEK (+11.000$), Ultimate Gaming Tour’s first stop will kick off in about 14 days in Malmö, Sweden.

Registrations for other future qualifiers are open as well, and we are constantly adding news and info on which CS celebrities will attend the different events.

Freshest additions are old-school legend XeqtR and, as figuratively showcased below, fnatic’s dsn:

dsn will be attending the Bäckebol qualifier, whereas XeqtR will play in Högsbo. UGT writes about XeqtR:

“A true legend on the Counter-Strike scene, belonging to a generation of the very first professional CS players. If you are new to the game and unfamiliar with this nickname, you better hit the history books right now - XeqtR has a gaming experience and a stack of vintage gaming medals, not matched by many retired players.”

Read more about UGT on the official website.

Have an awesome weekend. :)

/Casper

SK Gaming was one of the first community sites to offer the SteelSeries WoW MMO Gaming Mouse to its users in a quite awesome competition.

To enter the competition one had to post his/hers 15-button favorite setup of the WoW mouse and finally today the most staggering, creative and intelligent configurations have been nailed down by the professional WoW PvP team from SK Gaming consisting of Another, Xom and Orly - the official judges of the competition.

“The main thing we considered when judging these binds was how well they complemented the standard mouse functionality: movement, camera control and target selection. In addition, the advantage of using mouse binds is being able to do two actions simultaneously with both keyboard and mouse so we looked for binds which made most intelligent use of this.” - SK.Another

Prizes and winning setups are announced over at SK Gaming so make sure to drop by if you need inspiration for your own WoW MMO Gaming Mouse setup.

Check this post (go to previous comment page) for all entries in the competition and to see the SK WoW players’ comments on selected setups.

/Casper

SteelSeries sponsored teams, fnatic, SK Gaming and MYM qualified and were present at the €20.000 Euro ESL WC3L series Grand Finals in Chengud, China this weekend.

After a close final match between World Elite Pepsi and SK Gaming, first mentioned came out victorious making the final standings look like this:

1. World Elite Pepsi
2. SK Gaming*
3. MYM*
4. fnatic*

*Teams using SteelSeries professional gaming gear.

Prize ceremony on stage. Picture courtesy of ESL.

/Casper

UK based tech and games blog, Zath.co.uk, got their hands on the SteelSeries Zboard WotLK edition in a well done review published yesterday.

Here’s a little preview:

“Not only do you get special keys for specific World of Warcraft control functions, but you also get the default shortcut keys used in WoW written on the appropriate keys - I think this is a great idea which will encourage any new player to WoW to easily learn the controls. I’m an established WoW player already and even I learnt some new keyboard shortcuts because of this which has had a positive impact on my game playing - I never had any idea about the Assist Target function which comes in very handy for instance and raid gaming - and it was there all along!”

Make sure to check the review here.

/Casper

Just recently, the famous tech and gadget blog, Gizmodo, pointed out the very best gear they’ve seen over the course of the year in the annual Bestmodo post.

This time around, SteelSeries 7G made the cut and finished 2008 strong by receiving the classy title of being the best keyboard reviewed by the blog in 2008.

To quote Gizmodo: “It’s more bragger’s guide than buyer’s guide—if you have any of this, you can officially tell your friends to suck on it.”

So yeah, I guess we’re happy to give our customers that authority. ;)

/Casper

The fourth season of Europe’s largest Team Fortress 2 league kicked off yesterday with SteelSeries as a proud sponsor.

Check the announcement of the Season 4 SteelSeries prizes here.

/Casper