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Cooler Master Launches “ControlPad” on Kickstarter - MMORPG.com News
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Cooler Master Launches “ControlPad” on Kickstarter - MMORPG.com News
Cooler Master has a treat for us today, this time with the ControlPad, a brand new analog macro pad launching on Kickstarter today. Why Kickstarter, you may ask? That's because the ControlPad is a new concept in macro pads - a niche of a niche, you might say - and they need your help to bring it to market and develop software that, for the first time, isn't just for gamers.
Comments
Layout wise thought not very ergonomic. I am addicted to the Nostromo game pad that Razer took over with their Tartarus line. It gives the thumb, the most dexterous digit, more options. Nothing else is even remotely appealing and don't feel right playing without one.
I think the reason they're going the Kickstarter route is to try to gauge just how much of a market there is. If a bunch of people commit money, they see that it's profitable to build it, and they do. If the Kickstarter fails, they're only out some minor expenses, and far less than it would cost to actually develop and build the product only to have hardly anyone buy it.
There's nothing unethical about that approach, and you could argue that it's a good sort of crowdfunding. As they're a big, well-established company, there's also minimal risk of them taking the money and never delivering a product.
I agreed but I just find that is a lame excuse to use it as a measuring stick. Like most things ever made or come into existence, a lot of them never knew the potential of their product nor the demand for them in the first place. When something does take off aka "trendy" will be the thing made some of those inventor or risk taker rich in the process, lol.
Indeed, Cool Master have the funding therefore, they can make it or leave it but don't ask for money in advance as a form of a poll box/public interest survey.
On a side note, if I where an "Inventor" I would make devices to better or enrich the people lives, so if it don't "HELP/IMPROVE/SAVE TIME or MONEY" then what other reason for its existence than just to make money by making useless and pointless things. Not to say this keypad is useless just not in high demand imo.
However the keyboard haven't made any real improvement for a long time other than mechanical or adding RGB into the thing. Let say the input/interface with our PC haven't change since there inception. I can imagine the next big or better thing would be the neural link from out brain to the PC.
They want market research. They should invest their own money.
They want product development. They should invest their own money. Should this way be accepted soon we will see company like EA asking for our money before the game is even developed (worse than asking for our money before game release).
Abusing the spirit of Kickstarter according to whom? You? If Kickstarter wants to kick them off the platform, they can. From their perspective, it's a really just a low-risk chance of getting a commission if the product gets funded.
kickstarter? fu2
uh, and i can buy an analog keyboard RIGHT NOW for 140€
https://wooting.store/products/wooting-one
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Anyone here old enough to remember the controller for the coleco vision back in the 80's ? That thing was bizarre
Aloha Mr Hand !
What I think they need though is a way to put your money where you want it to go. Forget stretch goals. I want to back Omega Game, and support features A, B and C, indicate I don.t care about D, and will lose interest is they feature E. So they can actually see what people want to play, once they decide on what they will support you could automatically get a refund if it doesn't match your interests.
If they could have done that with SC, imagine if 90% of the backers indicated they wanted the single player game, and didn't care about the MMO. They might have their game by now.
They were quite upfront about why they were using Kicksarter. Basically the development cost would be prohibitive if it turned out that there wasn't a market for it. Not a huge company in the great schemed of things - founded 2002 by a designer and an engineer.
Is it in the spirit of Kickstarter - whatever that is?
I suppose here the answer would be: "small" company, new idea, out of the norm, could do a lot of harm to their existing product line if they spend money and it turns out no one wants it.
Now at what point "small" becomes "maybe they are abusing crowdfunding" - if that is possible - I don't know. I think a lot depends on the people asking being upfront.
As to why Knog wanted to see if there was a market for something as trivial as a bell well this is what an "Oi" looks like:
Not your normal bike bell!
@thunderC Not on,y did I have a Colecovision but I had the Adam computer with the printer!
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
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https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjQ8eaas4feAhXUjX4KHSoIC1YYABABGgJwYw&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESEeD2xbIuDfMJj7sJNqu1TYD_&sig=AOD64_1zJysRwjxpr0qI0tWNZ2COeJVrkA&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwj-ieGas4feAhXrqVQKHS4YCBsQww8INA&adurl=
Hell they didn't even bother to try and hide what they are making.. have a look.
Go take another look and come back to us when you actually understand the product.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Now before you cite my lack of knowing what I am looking at, can you explain to me in one sentence how this is intrinsically different then a programmable number pad?
If you can't.. maybe I know a lot more then you think I do.
Now I’ll explain that to you since reading the article was hard.
The more force you apply to the key the more effect it will have. A light press may be a creep forward while fully pressing is a sprint. There are countless degrees between the 2. It can be used for aiming, swinging, jumping... tapping a window vs breaking it. The potential is huge.
Others exist but they have drawbacks related to functionality and price, as well as support.
Not sure if I will buy this but it’s not just a reskinned programmable control pad. In short that insignia pad you linked is nothing like this.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
But keep in mind this is a game forum, not a Photoshop Discussion forum, and while that might be a sale point for the "Photoshop" crowed which run programs that have years of integration with Touch Pads, so they are designed with built-in sensitivity control features, (why anyone would use this on a keyboard could be debated, but regardless, I am sure some would.) MMO's are a different animal.
The reality is MMO developers haven't even bothered to apply analog control joysticks to work with MMO games, which is something I think would have just made sense, given they are trying to move towards cross platform games that use both PC and Controller, as such, we all would have wanted that kind of feature where the further I push the controller knob the faster my character would walk, potentially even swapping between a Walk/Jog/Run Animation. Or something as simple as being able to move my camera slower or faster (like I can with my mouse). In fact I cannot think of a single MMO that ever utilized Analog Control Joysticks for anything.
Which, does not really make a lot of sense, given PC gaming keypads like Razer Tartarus have these built in as well.
But MMO's have not even bothered to utilize this technology, regardless that Analog Control Technology havs been out for years, and in many cases (IE: Consoles) a large part of the community they are trying to reach, as many MMO's are being built to work on on both Console and PC, some even have built in controller technology, and it's STILL not applied or utilized.
Seeing that.
What makes you think they will make touch sensitivity work with a button press?
Again, this might be great for programs like Photoshop that use this technology already, I don't see how this would do anything new or innovative for MMO's in general that have had access to Analog Control Technology for years and have never bothered to even try to utilize it. hence my point "It's reinventing the number pad"
None the less.. solid point. But for me, until MMO's change, I still stand by what I said.
Now as for whether it works or will be adopted... I do not know. I have experimented with various game devices but I struggle to adapt to them. Even with the multibutton Logitech/Razor type mouse I generally only use a few. That's not because they are bad but because my hands and reflexes are too firmly trained to the traditional control scheme at this point.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
You wrong me. I never said they were the same.
I said they were "Reinventing the number pad" which they are as far as MMO's go, and I'll stand by that, till MMO's change.