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The Daily Grind: Do you use peripherals for MMOs?
I've got a few assorted input peripherals scattered about my PC gaming rig. There's a joystick and throttle setup, a G13, and some sort of G-something keyboard that has way more buttons than I actually use. Oh and there's one of those console-style PC controllers as well. While these gizmos come in handy for various single-player titles, few if any of them see much use when I play MMOs. I have used the keyboard's G-key macro functionality for those games where you simply never have enough hotbar space (looking at you Age of Conan and EverQuest 2), but that's about it. What about you, morning folk? Do you use peripherals for MMO gaming, and if so which ones and what for? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
MoleBot interactive gaming table hooks up with Kinect, puts Milton Bradley on watch (video)
Looking to spruce up that nondescript living room table? So are a smattering of folks from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. At this week's SIGGRAPH E-tech event, a team from the entity dropped by to showcase the deadly cute MoleBot table. At its simplest, it's a clever tabletop game designed to entertain folks aged 3 to 103; at the other extreme, it's a radically new way of using Microsoft's Kinect to interact with something that could double as a place to set your supper. Improving on similar projects in the past, this shape-display method uses a two-dimensional translating cam (mole cam), 15,000 closely packed hexagonal pins equivalent to cam followers, and a layer of spandex between the mole cam and the pins to reduce friction. When we dropped by, the Kinect mode was disabled in favor of using an actual joystick to move the ground below. In theory, one could hover above the table and use hand gestures to move the "mole," shifting to and fro in order to pick up magnetic balls and eventually affix the "tail" onto the kitty. The folks we spoke with seemed to think that there's consumer promise here, as well as potential for daycares, arcades and other locales where entertaining young ones is a priority. Have a peek at a brief demonstration vid just after the break, and yes, you can bet we'll keep you abreast of the whole "on sale" situation.%Gallery-130405%
The Anvil of Crom: You must unlearn what you have learned
Hoo boy, circle-strafing. Basically I suck at it. However, with a little help from a new peripheral and an hour spent coming up with a rather meticulous set of key-bindings, I'm on the (slow) road to improvement. This week's Bear Shaman-flavored adventuring featured a lot of unlearning as I've scrapped the traditional WASD/keyboard-turning approach to Age of Conan that I've been using since the game's release. It's not pretty right now, but once the awkwardness wears off, I'll likely be much more adept at both PvE and PvP. As far as content goes, I got Mr. Oakarm into his mid-30s and struggled to find a group for Stygia's Black Castle dungeon (still trying to coordinate one as of press time, in fact). Craig Morrison also weighed in with his monthly dev update, and all of this adds up to a lot to cover this week. Join me after the break for the details.
Coming soon: StarCraft 2 controlled with your iPhone
I like this idea a lot -- developer Daniel Hellerman is working on an app for the App Store that will interface with a Windows client to control Blizzard's StarCraft 2 real-time strategy game. The RTS Gameboard for StarCraft 2 is an app, downloadable starting in September on the App Store (assuming it's approved by Apple), that will purportedly let you control your units and buildings through the iPad and iPhone's touchscreen interface. The app promises "mini-map control, detailed unit statistics, and easy touch access to the games most important hotkeys and macros." Sounds good, right? Too good to be true, probably -- unfortunately, the app only works with a Windows client running on the game's PC, so this won't work if you've been playing StarCraft 2 on your Mac (although Boot Camp should work ok, assuming the app does what it is supposed to). And then there's Blizzard Entertainment -- while it's definitely interested in Apple's iOS platform, it's not quite so hot on allowing third-party programs that access and control its games. If Blizzard follows past precedent, the odds of this reaching the App Store (especially in a paid form) are slim to none. But we'll see -- while we'd much rather have Blizzard release a port of the original StarCraft on the iPad, a half-step like this might be fun, too. Hellerman says the app is due out by September, so we'll see if he can beat all of the obstacles that seem to be in his way. [via Mashable]
Logitech's G13 gameboard turns it up to level 80
Check it PC and Mac gamers, Logitech just announced its G13 Gameboard. With a trio of game modes, built-in 160 x 43 pixel LCD for stats and messaging, 25 programmable keys, and a programmable joystick, Logitech says that the G13 "offers up to 87 ways for you to control your game." It comes with pre-configured settings for World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to name a few. Otherwise, you can setup custom button-profiles as you please and even create macros on the fly without having to pause your quest. Available in US and Europe sometime this month for $80.%Gallery-38988%
