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A mouse is a fundamental part of every desktop computer. It should just work, at all times. Odd, then, that Razer’s high-end Naga gaming mouse does exactly the opposite, requiring an internet connection if you’re going to stand any chance of using it.
A forum member over at Overclock.net has been explaining the problems he’s been having with his shiny new £70 gaming mouse. From the posting:
This really took me by surprise. Just bought a new Naga 2012 mouse, installed the software and get greeted by a login screen right after. No option to bypass it to use the software to configure the mouse, set the options, sensitivity, shortcuts, macros etc.
So I go ahead and create an account and try to log in. Nothing. Try several more times, and still nothing. Try to make new accounts with different email addresses and it still wont work.
Finally call Razer who tells me the activation server is down, and I wont be able to use the mouse until it goes back up and will only be able to use it as a standard plug and play mouse til then. I ask about a workaround to use the mouse offline and they say there is none. Supposedly once the mouse is activated on the computer offline mode will work, but it needs to upload my profile and activate my account first and since their server is down its not going to happen. I ask for a supervisor to confirm this is the case and ask again for a workaround to use it offline. He said sorry theres nothing they can do, tells me the call center is closing and hangs up on me.
In fact, it turns out that Razer is using a cloud-based version of Synapse to run some of the mouse’s functions. To use the online portion though, you need to register the mouse online—which is impossible if Razer’s servers are down. Not just that, though: lose your internet connection and you lose the features powered by the online version of the software, including all the scriptable extra buttons and functions that are the mouse’s primary selling point.
Without that, a fancy £70 mouse becomes a plug-n-play mouse, much like something you could pick up from a Comet clearance bucket for a couple of quid. TechDirt suggests the same problem afflicts Razer’s new gaming keyboards, and that any workaround using a downloaded version of the cloud-based Synapse software is infuriatingly complex.
And there’s more! Turns out the mouse’s internet connection requirement might also be used to spy on, and monetise, users. The best bit? Turns out there’s no way to sidestep that: either sign up and let it happen, or continue using the £70 mouse without any of its cloud-based fancy features.
A mouse that needs an internet connection to work properly—and then spies on you if it has one—is perhaps some of the worst tech design we’ve heard of in recent time. Bad job, Razer. Bad. Job. [Overclock.net via TechDirt]
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A mouse that cost £70!! Unless it is made out of Carbon Fiber, Pixi dust and puppy farts then why the heck would anyone buy this?
clearly because of the 12 extra action buttons and sweet feel it gives to my hand
A well made, nicely weighted mouse actually is worth buying if you are using it for precision work – doesn’t matter if it is for headshots or photoshops.
My Logitech G5 was awesome…
Awesome Story Bro
Such behaviour needs to stay in 4chan/Reddit
I apologies. I wouldn’t like to see Gizmodo comments to turn into the crap fest that is Cnet, Engadget and the lot.
I will keep my childish comments for my stupid friends
The same reason people buy better cars than a second-hand fiesta.
what’s better than a second hand Fiesta?
Any car that’s more enjoyable to drive.
Like?
I can’t help but feel you’re purposely missing the point here (but if you insist, a Rolls Royce Phantom would probably qualify). Other people have already explained it fairly well, but I don’t think it just applies to gaming mice. In the same way people buy nicer cars because they’re better to drive, nicer mice make for a more enjoyable experience. Everything from the ergonomics, to the switches used for the mouse buttons and even the width, texture, tension and clicking of the scroll wheel all make for a more enjoyable mouse. ergonomics.co.uk has an interesting selection.
Ok, I agree, I have a Fiesta so I was just protective lol.
But my Fiesta is new haha, 62Plate.
I do like the feel of something that is built with quality, so I do understand why someone would buy a mouse for Gaming or some sort of super work.
Ah, apologies for insulting your car. I was thinking more along the lines of the old boxy things.
Am I the only one who finds ergonomically designed objects uncomfortable and infuriating to use?
You’re using the wrong objects. You need to find one that fits the shape of your hand/grip.
I wouldn’t by ANY car if it needed an internet connection to use the ABS……..
Sorry, as much as I love criticizing Razer (you’ll see I did it further down), even a plug-and-play Razer would still be better than a basic cheapo three-button mouse.
You are obviously not a gamer, or at least a pc gamer. I don’t mean that in a bad way but the amount stated is pittance compared to someone who likes over-clocking their pc gaming rig.
This is actually pretty standard prices for a mouse that has the ability to set up macros with it’s many buttons, change the mouse dpi that is up to 5600, ultrapolling, interchangeable side panels for better ergonomics, wired/wireless use, charging dock. And yes there is even a model that can change the backlit illumination up to any colour of the rainbow.
No I did not make that last bit up, the mouse can really glow in any colour. It helps gamers by, uh, being pretty of course!
With regards to the topic, that is stupid as I can only imagine the backlash this will generate back to Razer as pc gamers are the self proclaimed gaming master race according to some and as such, have the power of interwebs qq lazers at their disposal.
Gaming master race, reporting in.
Too much work these days for me, my Steam library is just filling up.
Nope, not a gamer as a whole really, I like the odd go on COD, GTA, Need for Speed, GT, Uncharted and the lot, but PC gaming just dosent do anything for me at all.
Not as much geek as I want to be
TrulyMad – my mouse at home can change various sections to any colour. love the roccat. not so keep on the razer i have for work though.
but you are right. a decent mouse with customisable buttons is vital for many games
JoeyG410 – not really that geeky. probably less so than xbox
for proper FPS you need a PC.
although i rarely game any more due to work, wife and baby!
Iye, I would like a popper gaming PC with a decent screen, but I am not going to fork the money over anytime soon
And I would probably use my PS3 pad anyway
Roccat Kone by any chance?
Seriously? Have you not really looked around at high end PC components and peripherals?
But being honest, physical DRM on this mouse is pretty…Well, pretty crap if I’m honest. A whole host of things can go wrong with this, and for a £70 mouse, I expect a lot more to be fair.
I know you can get a keyboard for £600 and a mouse for £300, I don’t game on the PC so I don’t look much, I try to stay away from looking at upgrading PC stuff as I could go crazy and spend a good 1K on just updating my desktop, and I only use if for web, videos, music – the basics really. Not a big fan of PC gaming as a whole, but I wish I was as I know the graphics can easily outperform current gen consoles.
Pity then that most games these days are console ports that don’t use PC hardware to its full potential… I haven’t needed to upgrade my motherboard/CPU in 5 years.
Hopefully the next generation of consoles will correct this trend.
Most games yea, It’s alot cheaper than making 2 or 3 different versions of the same game. Going to get the next Sim City though, that look’s good to me.
I have a Sharkoon Fireglider – The best mouse I have ever owned..Better than my past razer’s…Weighted… Changeable DPI smooth design and works like a charm… and for under £25!
So it’s DRM for a physical device? It would be interesting to see why Razer thinks that’s necessary. Did they forget that it’s not yet possible to pirate physical objects?
Yet. They’re preparing for the 3D printing revolution.
Dammit! You have revealed my plot too soon!
They’re future proofing for the digital printing revolution!
Honestly, people shouldn’t be buying anything from Razer except the Naga or Deathadder. Nothing else they’ve made in the past 4-5 years has really been good enough.
Preemptive response: No, the Black Widow is only good compared to rubber dome keyboards. It’s the worst of the mechanical world.
Nothing wrong with my Razer Mamba 2012
You mean apart from the DPI scaling, and PTE sensor?
I’ve had no problems with it. What’s wrong with the DPI scaling?
Well first off, do you know what it does?
What’s wrong with it is that it creates positive acceleration, and the higher the DPI you have, the worse it gets (not overly noticeable at sub-1000 DPI, but it’s still probably affecting your performance). Oh, and you can’t turn it off either.
Well thanks for the heads up. I’ve not noticed anything like you describe and I normally have the DPI set at 3200. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Slightly oddly phrased – “requiring an internet connection if you’re going to stand any chance of using it”.
You however also state that it can be used as a plug and play mouse, so surely that means you *can* use it?
Ya I think internet connection is required for the settings cloud sync, it would still work as a plug and play mouse.
I have this mouse and I can confirm I have had the issues related with their software authentication failing.
The rest of this article is pretty piss poor. The extra buttons still work perfectly well without the software (although I’ve never used the software to see what bonus features can be enabled). The Naga has a switch on the bottom which allows you to choose between the button presses acting as if you are pressing numbers on a keyboard (1-0 and – +) or a number pad on a keyboard (my choice as a I have a Filco Majestouch Tenkeyless with no number pad so I never have them bound). This makes custom binding easy as pie in practically every PC game, and thus the big selling point of this mouse is still in tact.
Don’t bother installing Razers software, just use it out of the box as PnP.
Bad article Gizmodo, Bad article. While I agree having to login to customise a few features on your mouse is a major design flaw, the mouse still works perfectly fine.
Queue Naga backpedaling in 3, 2, 1…
*Razer I mean
*shrug*
i use mine for work.
binding keys to anything is great.
You just have to think outside of gaming to see the use of a mouse with so many extra buttons that you can set to do things.
Cant complain, good mouse.
I agree about using it outside of gaming. I bind shortcuts to the extra buttons and it’s great.
It’s the underlying issues about the online features and spyware that is… icky.
This is a riduculous article that is completely over dramatizing the situation. You have to login the first time. Once. And this is only to give you the benefit of your settings syncing across computers, which is a great feature.
DRM is still bad. Ironically, all DRM really does is punish the people who shells out cash for goods instead of getting it illegally.
It’s bad enough when it’s on things like pc games where it does absolutely nothing to defeat pirates, rather it just makes life for legitimate purchases hell. To have it on hardware is just as bad worse.
The mouse features itself is good but as the original poster in the overclock.net said, should you lose net connection you lose those extra functions and in worse cases locks you out while it switches to offline basic functions mode.
For a mouse targeted at the gaming community that is a rather big deal.
And did you not even get the end where it states in the terms and conditions that they can collect personal data FROM YOUR COMPUTER and sell it on to third parties? And you can not opt out of it if you want to use the mouse.
That’s reliant on a server being up to activate.
So no, more and more people should make a big deal out of this. The hardware itself is good, but the forced software conditions are not.
Being a user of the mouse, and software, I can in fact verify that the settings do not disable if you lose internet connection. In fact, they never disable once you have applied the initial login.
The quote you refer to is
“If your connection drops out for any reason, the Synapse software will make a habbit of locking up on you while it transitions to offline mode. During that time your settings may revert or possibly not be saved.”
For a start, software locking up is most likely to be caused by a slow computer, and not a mysteriously high workload “offline mode”. As well as this, it states “your settings MAY revert or not be saved”. Despite having a router that crashed every 15 minutes or so, my settings have never reverted, not saved, and I was never even aware of this so called “Offline mode”.
Besides which, even if they were selling on my data, which I doubt they are, they need explicit opt in permission for this, so I imagine its a quirk of the T&Cs rather than any sneaky attempt by Razer, especially as they are run by a man who clearly wants to improve the gaming community and would no risk alienating his customer base by doing this.
I’m fine with the one time activation though I could live without it. However it should not be necessary if a user doesn’t want to. I had one of the older models and I never had problems.
The T&C is a blanket statement that lets them do what they want with the data. Which is something I never would have thought I would have to think about when buying a mouse.
I like that they do experiment with their products, as many in the pc industry just play safe with their designs.
With regards to alienating customers, we both know how fanatical pc gamers can be, especially when you mention DRM and spyware.