Review: The HipShotDot AKA The Gaming Gadget We Already Owned
The Intro So let me start off by saying I’m not a fan of this product. If that discourages you from reading this review then go ahead and read the TLDR and have a lovely day. Now if you’re still here let’s dive into this shitastic product. First of all the fact that someone took something that all of us “in the know” are already using, made it more complicated, marked it up a shit load, and is now trying to sell it back to us, I’m a little pissed off. BUT it’s not because they made it and I didn’t, it’s because they did it in such a half-assed tacky way. Like bottled water. Like, I’ve been putting water in bottles for a long time, but damn Voss makes water in a bottle look really good...but the HipShotDot fails at that...hard. So with that analogy let's look at a light on a wire.
The Concept Now, for all of you who are seeing the HipShotDot for the first time and have been in the dark about this kind of tool or aid, this may seem like a good deal, so let me explain the concept. It's very simple, in a nutshell you just put some kind of indicator in the exact location of the in-game aiming system physically on the screen so that no matter how the game alters your view of that aiming system in the game, you'll always know where to aim (which for almost every fps out there is dead center). For those of you who don't understand the benefit of this, it's basically the same concept of having a laser on a real firearm. If laser is zero'd properly, the laser will show you exactly where your firearm is going to shoot even if you're not aiming down the sights. Most of us veteran gamers know about this kind of aid. You see, if you’re really a competitive gamer, you’re constantly trying to figure out ways to improve your game, get an edge, and if you’re like me you look for everyday products that will aid you in playing games.
The Product Essentially, the HipShotDot is just a little LED that attaches to your TV via a suction cup, and then plugs into a USB bay. The first suction cup is transparent so that it minimizes any distraction on-screen and houses the LED. Trailing out of this suction cup is a 2-foot-long "micro thin lead" which passes through the second suction cup which is meant to help keep the lead straight and tight so that the lead doesn't become a distraction on your screen. The micro lead then hits an adapter that then switches the cable from the thin and fragile micro lead to a 6-foot-long "durable USB power cord". That power cord then meets the "USB Power Connector" which features a "Illuminated Power Indicator" that sports the letters HSD in red. Basically you've got an 8-foot-long USB cable with two suction cups that you're going to stick on and beneath your screen so that the glowing red end will show you where to aim when you don't have an in-game aiming device.
The Features According to the Amazon page AirDrop Gaming's HipShotDot will "Improve your KDR, perfect your trick scope, run and gun and shoot from the hip like never before.", is "Works with XBOX, XBOX ONE, PS3, PS4", and "Works with 100s of 1st and 3rd person shooter games including popular titles such as Call of Duty - Advanced Warfare, Battlefield, Metal [Medal] of Honor, Titanfall, Halo, Gears of War, The Division, Destiny and many more." However, "The HipShotDot is designed for Television use only. Not for use with laptop, gaming or pc monitors." so PC gamers, unless you're playing on a TV, sadly this isn't for you. But did you guys read that? This little LED is going to improve my kill/death ratio while helping me perfect my trick scope! While, they may not be an outright lie, it's definitely a stretch. Nevertheless, I think it's safe to assume that they meant that the HipShotDot works with the Xbox 360 and not the original Xbox, but I suppose that it'll work with any console as long as you have a USB power source for it to plug into, but don't use it with monitors regardless if they're laptop monitors, gaming monitors, or just PC monitors. Just don't do it. Seriously, under the support page Airdrop Gaming says that this suction cup LED “...has been developed for TV use only..” so this suction cup Christmas light will not work for monitors...period.
The Hype Oh boy, here we go...
What AirDrop Gaming's website said: "HipShotDot will help! " – Gadget Review
What the reviewer actually said: "Getting the upper hand in an FPS takes time, patience and lots and lots of practice. The HipShotDot won’t turn you into a “super-soldier,” but it will improve and enhance your shooting abilities."
Source: http://www.gadgetreview.com/hipshotdot-first-person-shooter-red-dot-sight-attachment-review
Stats: Date – 8/3/15 Unique Views - ? Comments – 1 (and it’s from a guy saying that he’s got a superior product and it’s been around for two years longer)
What AirDrop Gaming's website said: "You'll be shocked by how much your game improves" – BroBible
What the reviewer actually said: “You'll be shocked by how much your game improves.” My Thoughts: Completely accurate quote. Granted this was on a video game gift guide and they only wrote 81 words to tell you what this thing is. I mean they did use 3 times the amount of words to tell you that Call of Duty: Ghosts was number 4 on their list…right behind a completely impractical cell phone holder for your Xbox controller.
Source: http://brobible.com/gear/article/video-games-gift-guide-2013/
Stats: Date – 12/11/13 Unique Views - ? Comments – ?
What AirDrop Gaming's website said: "HipshotDot gives you laser light precision in every FPS game" – Gizmodo
What the reviewer actually said: "HipShotDot Gives You Laser Sight Precision in Every FPS Situation" My Thoughts: ...and that was the title of the article. Basically, the article just explains what it does and how much it costs. What confused me though was that this was on Gizmodo and not Kotaku (a sister site whose posts are centered around gaming).
Source: http://gizmodo.com/hipshotdot-gives-you-laser-site-precision-in-every-fps-1466783065
Stats: Date – 11/18/13 Unique Views - 42,500+ Comments - 126
What AirDrop Gaming's website said:
What the reviewer actually said: "Turns Out Sticking A Thing On A TV Doesn't Make You Better At Shooters"
My Thoughts: LOL. Alright so they posted a video along with the article, and both just confirm my theory behind this thing, that's it’s too distracting, it’s garbage, and it’s just too much...everything. I mean even watching the video I found myself staring at the red light the whole time. Also, the guy in the video had a good idea, the hole punch reinforcements. Here's a link http://www.staples.com/Avery-Reinforcements-for-Hole-Punched-Pages-Clear-200-Pack/product_166322 200 for $2.79? That's a steal!
Source: http://kotaku.com/turns-out-sticking-a-thing-on-a-tv-doesnt-make-you-bet-1476381517
Stats: Date- 12/4/13 Unique Views- 73,200+ Comments – 383
Now let’s see if there’s anything on their Facebook page.
Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/HipShotDot/about/?entry_point=page_nav_about_item&tab=page_info
AirDrop Gaming's About Page: “Awards: Best of CES 2013”
My Thoughts: What? The HipShotDot received an award at CES 2013? Wow,that’s actually pretty impressive. Well I couldn’t find any award for them in 2013, but after searching the internet for about 15 minutes I did find an award they won in 2014.
Award: 2014 CES Alternative Award “Best product name: AirDrop’s HipShotDot, a red-dot sight attachment for first-person shooter video games. But who cares what it does? It’s just fun to say, isn’t it?”
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/01/08/2014-alternative-ces-awards.html
My Thoughts: LMAO! “…who cares what it does?” I love it. That’s a perfect award for this product.
Wow. alright, now let's check out Amazon.
Product Page: https://www.amazon.com/Airdrop-Gaming-HSD-1619-HipShotDot/dp/B00GV0LR64/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8
Overall Reviews: 4/5 Stars (492 reviews)
Rating distribution: 5 star - 54% 4 star - 17% 3 star - 8% 2 star - 6% 1 star - 15%
My Thoughts: Pretty decent ratings, but reading some of the reviews something just seems off. All of the positive reviews are pretty generic. So let’s check out the critical reviews. These seem to be a little more in-depth. Interesting, well I always to reviews with a grain of salt anyways. Oh one last thing before I move on, there are 51 questions about this thing. 51. It’s a red USB red LED light that suctions to your TV. Nearly all of these questions have been answered by the either the manufacturer's website or the features portion that is right next to the Add to Cart button! Something it definitely sketchy. Like, I feel like the probably sent out a bunch of codes that discount these tripping hazards down to $0 and in return for getting the product the customer has to give a review. I seriously think that’s what happened her, but I have no evidence, so it’s just a gut feeling.
Seriously, manufacturers do this. Now I don’t think it’s illegal because they don’t tell the customers to give positive reviews, they just encourage to give honest reviews. Now, imagine you’re a 14-year-old boy, was contacted by Review Group XYZ, given a code for a free Light-Up Gaming Thing, and all you have to do is give an honest review. Now, I remember 14-year-old me, he would have given the best review with 5 stars, I also know that if he spent $30 on this 14-year-old me would be giving a pretty crappy review and would be sending obnoxious emails until I got my money back. Bur remember, this is all hypothetical.
Let’s go to Walmart’s website, because I want to be comprehensive here.
Product Page: https://www.walmart.com/reviews/product/34973708
Well starting off the HipShotDot costs about $7 more at Walmart. Cool, just one more reason to not shop at Walmart.
Overall Reviews: 3.6/5 Stars (16 reviews)
Rating distribution: 5 star - 9 4 star - 0 3 star - 2 2 star - 2 1 star - 3
My Thoughts: Again these reviews are incredibly lackluster and tell me nothing...well that’s not entirely true. I mean they either tell me they love it or not to buy it.
I might as well check out one last place before I give you my review, GameStop.
Product Page: http://www.gamestop.com/accessories/hip-shot-dot-red-dot-sight/113703
Lol. Alright, so we went up another $7.
Overall Reviews: 6.7/10 (27 reviews) Performance - 6.8 Value - 6.2 Design - 6.7
Rating distribution: 5 star - 9 4 star - 0 3 star - 2 2 star - 2 1 star - 3
My Thoughts: These reviews are great. The most helpful review gave it a 3 out of 10, says more or less that it’s a good concepts, but the application and actually trying to use this wire is terrible, but they bought it for someone else so you know, it’s all good. Oh, and apparently they purchased it when it was a $30.
So no matter where you plan on buying this 8-foot-long LED wire, you’re going to see about half of the people tell you not to buy it, that it it doesn’t stick very well, it’s distracting, and it’s a waste of money. Then you’ve got the other half of people saying stuff like “ I've seen where people say the same effect can be had with an orange sticker... Well, in a dark room the orange sticker doesn't work. I play regularly on a projector and had to modify this a bit (magnets in the suction cup), but it works awesome... Simple to set up and very good high-quality design.” or “Good product. I feel so much better this improved my k/d. My k/d went from 1.06 to 2.07. I recommend this it's worth the money”. I mean, I’m really just torn. ON TO THE REVIEW!!
The Review Alright, so now I'm going to give you my take on this ‘must have’ gaming gadget. Now, obviously I’m going to order it from Amazon for $9.03 with 2 day shipping. So I’ll put it in my cart and then I’ll just smack myself in the face with my left hand as I use my right hand to quickly remove it from my basket. I don’t need to buy this product to tell you it’s garbage. Additionally, I game exclusively on monitors so I wouldn’t be able to give you a completely comprehensive hands-on review if I wanted to...and I don’t. Honestly I’d rather give someone the $9.03 in all pennies, have them put it in a sock, and hit me in the face with it before spending nearly $10 on a 8 foot long red LED. First let’s break down the economics of this thing...
Red LED - $0.49 (less if you buy in bulk, but we’re just breaking down one)
20mm Suction Cup - $0.35
3′ USB Cable - $1.72
5′ of Wire - $1.42 (quick search resulted in only bulk options)
So there we go. For under $5 you can make your very own USB powered LED snake. However, this is rough pricing for just the raw materials, but I’m trying to get a general idea of cost, which I’ll safely infer is no more than $4 a unit. So everything above $4 markup for this and that, which is fair, a business needs to make money, I get that, but this thing was selling for $30...and people bought them. Moving on....
Next, you want me to put a suction cup on my monitor TV? How about no? I don't want anything on my monitor TV. There shouldn't be anything that obstructs my view, no matter how small, thin, or transparent it is.
Hypothetically, let’s say there was no wire and no suction cups, would I buy it then? Nope. Do you know why? BECAUSE IT’S A RED LED! Seriously who thought this would be a good idea. Let me ask you something, have you ever been in a movie theater when you hear some teenagers start snickering and then all of a sudden you see a glowing red light from a laser pointer on the screen? Annoying isn’t it? Think you’ll get used to it? Yeah? Ok, well do this. Go scroll up to that Kotaku review article, and watch the 5 minute and 23 second video. Go ahead I’ll wait.
....
Did you stare at the LED the whole time? I know I did. And don’t say “l’ll get used to it”, because even if you do, you shouldn’t. Now while I couldn’t find the exact study that all of these articles are referring to in May of 2013 some Spanish researchers found that staring at LED’s is bad for your eye’s saying “Eyes are not designed to look directly at light -- they are designed to see with light." Now, like I said I can’t find the exact source so it may be exaggerated a bit, but I do know that staring directly into any source of light is not good for your eyes, and I’ll stick with that.
However, I owe my readers a review, so, I’ll let me review it, but I'm not going to put a glowing red dot, with an 8-foot-long tail, and two suction cups on my monitor TV just to get annoyed, distracted, and then pissed off to the point where I try to rip it off the monitor TV, but I can’t because it’s already fallen off, and then I have to pick it up just throw it away.
I do believe that it’s a good decent marketing product though, it makes some theoretical sense, it’s cheap to make, easy to mark-up (and subsequently discount), looks “cool”, and the target demographic loves these kinds of products. That’s the only way AirDrop has sold as many as they have, because of the 12 to 18-year-old boys that play games any time that have a free second. I know, I was one of them. I probably would’ve bought one of these had I not come up with my own aiming aid. So let’s move on to the rating.
VILUHN’S OFFICIAL RATING 1/5 Stars
Why the one star? Because at the very foundation this is a good idea. Like I said gamers have been doing it for a very long time, but they’ve never needed this LED on a wire. It’s too much, over priced, annoying, a hassle to deal with, and is just plain tacky.
Conclusion Alright, so let’s conclude this E.T. finger and call it a day. This red glowing tapeworm is not worth $30, $20, or $10, in fact if AirDrop Gaming sent one to me I still wouldn't use it. I would turn around and sell it on eBay, take the profit, and make something better and then give that out to someone who’s on the fence about buying one of these terrible flashlights. So bottom line, if you think this is really going to help you, go purchase a dry erase marker instead, because that's going to the same damn thing and you’re not going to feel (or look) like an idiot.
TLDR This product is a terrible attempt to capitalize something that gamers have been doing for years. It’s dropped to a third of it’s original price in 3 years, and it appears it’s still losing steam. If you like the idea of this product email me and for $5 I’ll send you one of my very own AimingReticleDevice (ARD), in your choice of red, blue, or green, and if you live in the U.S.A. it ships for free!