Last week was a pretty exciting time for Razer and certainly for Razerguy himself. Razer was one of the main sponsors of the World Cyber Games (WCG) US qualifier event. Held in the heart of New York city at the Manhattan Center, the event was chronicled by more of the main stream press than we have seen at any event. This is a good thing for gaming in general, and as I have written before getting the word out to as many non-gamers is crucial to the long-term success of gamer in general and more specifically, pro gaming.

Not everyone agrees with our viewpoint and that is okay because controversy spurs thought and discussion. For example Sports Illustrated said, “As nearly 200 video game players gathered in New York City last week for the U.S. finals of the World Cyber Games, a bold — and highly dubious — prediction was ventured by Robert Krakoff, the president of Razer, a gaming peripherals company: "You’ll see these kids on a box of Wheaties one day." Krakoff believes that top gamers have as much of a right to be called athletes as the poker players or bass fishermen on ESPN.” (this URL is longer than the quote?):

Full article here. (opens in new window)

Okay, so I’m “dubious” … the point is that non-gamers are being made aware of gaming as a “sport”, plus there are many positive stories about gamers and the games we are playing to help dispel some of the myths and misperceptions from the past.

At the WCG event I was invited to be a part of a press conference and given the platform to talk to over 40 press and online writers about what I see as the future of gaming. I thought that you might find my comments anywhere from interesting to provocative. So here they are …

The Future of Gaming … transcript from Robert Krakoff’s speech, September 7, 2005, World Cyber Games, New York City.

Gaming is a relatively new pop-culture phenomenon and in the last 10 years it has replaced the movie industry in overall entertainment sales.

What will become of gaming over the next ten years?

As an active sponsor of LANs, teams, events, leagues and world tours over the last 7 years I believe that I’m in a good position to look into the crystal ball toward the near future … and from where Razer views the gaming industry there is much good news.

First let’s look at events like the World Cyber Gamers. I predict that as more and more players, fans, parents and press are exposed to professionally run events that these will be acknowledged as true family entertainment. Gaming when staged properly is as great a spectator sport as tennis, golf or the X-games. Gaming just requires more exposure to reach that status.

Next let’s look at the world of gaming from a geographic standpoint. Korea’s national news coverage and enthusiasm for gaming is considered an anomaly by today’s standards. But imagine the future with 30 to 50 countries having this same passion? This is already happening in China, Brazil, Argentina and Eastern Europe. Longer established countries like Germany, Canada and all of Scandinavia are actively producing another new generation of star gamers and fanatics.

Next let’s look at sponsors … yes, companies like Samsung, Intel, NVIDIA and Razer. We are the current and original sponsors who years ago recognized the value of supporting the grassroots of gaming. Next will be the Fortune 500 corporate sponsors like Coke and Pepsi, Ford and Toyota, Kellogg’s and General Foods, Burger King and MacDonald’s … trust me, they are all coming to the party.

What will bring them into this strange new land you ask? The gamer generation has already grown larger and broader than the marketers current wet dream darling, the baby boomer generation. Unlike the Boomers the gamer generation has a true generation gap. They have their own “’leet” language … they don’t watch or respond to traditional advertising messages or mediums. They don’t trust marketers or believe their hype. In short the next wave of corporate sponsors will be forced to overcome their pop-culture fears and join the party, one-by-one.

The biggest change in the next ten years will be how and when network television will cover gaming as a cyber sport. Oh, this will happen and when it does their will be another major gaming revolution. This will be a healthy revolution, whereby large numbers of 35+ non-gamers will be exposed in mass to the world of competitive gaming and they finally get it. Old misinformation and unsupported fears that gaming is too violent or leads to violent behavior will be exposed as so much misinformation. In the future more parents will encourage their children to emulate professional gamers much as they do other celebrity athletes. And yet another wave or generation of super-gamers will be born.

At that time their will be another wave of game developers with new and more expansive ideas and concepts for future gaming. Windows Vista OS will be a huge leap forward toward advancing the growth and acceptance of mainstream gaming. Microsoft’s goal is to treat the launch of Vista like the launch of a major console, with gotta-have-it games optimized for this new OS through DirectX 10.

Following the launch of Vista will be another wave of product engineers to deliver even newer and better systems for component development. Games will become even more interactive and immersive and will be available cross-platform. There will be more merging of the personal computer and the console. Consoles will become more interactive and players will become more involved and compete more effectively online and in live events. Look at the support and vision that the WCG has exemplified in the area of console gaming support.

With television coverage and corporate sponsors’ prize money and the number of major gaming events will grow. There will be regular tours of major cities. Fans and families will turn out in droves to cheer their local teams. Players and teams will become celebrities and endorse products beyond the gaming world.

Gamers will become organized, have rules and rights while other event organizers will strive to meet the standards of the WCG. There will be fallout of those event organizers who can’t provide the proper support of the players and provide a professional entertainment vehicle to the fans.

Gamers will become schooled in the art of the media, to become entertaining, interesting and often provocative. They will have press agents, managers and entourages. Image and personality will transcend the geek icon often portrayed by the media. Gamers will become interactive rock stars.

I can see a day where teams and individual players are sponsored by large corporate sponsors much like they have attached their names to major sports stadiums. The players within these teams will travel to other cities and countries and have rock star status. Those of you who haven’t been around gaming long will have a hard time buying or at least visualizing this new world. To those of you I say ten years ago would you have expected to be here today to cover what is ostensibly a major qualifier event for the super bowl of gaming? Or would you have been able to predict the success of the X-Games?

I could talk about this to anyone who would listen for hours but time and good taste prevents me from prattling on. After the dust of the future has settled two constants will remain … the WCG will be one of the leading purveyors of great gaming entertainment and Razer will continue to support the community with sponsorships and leading edge products. I certainly welcome other points of view, questions and challenges to my thesis. I have in the past been accused of being a soapbox orator, and I can accept that title since this perch provides a better view of the gaming world as it passes.

Thank you for inviting me and for the opportunity to address this austere group of involved professionals. I’m really looking forward to this great event.

Not a lot to comment on for this travel log. We made our way to Leipzig in East Germany for our second trip to Game Conference. This is the most packed gaming event of the year and the crowds of gamers were introduced to the new Copperhead mouse.

This is mostly a pictorial view of the sites of this large event. No less than 125,000 gaming fans packed the halls from August 17th through the 21st. Razer showcased its new booth design as well as some very attractive German booth attendees (that’s “babes” to most of you).

There were contests, prizes and gifts of RazerGear and the winner of the most tattoos won a Copperhead mouse.

You won’t see Razerguy in these photos because I was sequestered in the media center in the Speed-Link room talking to customers and the EU press about Copperhead. This event is so loud and packed that it is virtually impossible to conduct an interview on the conference floor. Besides, I didn’t have my major medical insurance paid up.

Many thanks to our wonderful friends and partners at Jöllenbeck for helping with the design, development and for manning our booth. They are a wonderful partner and really nice people to work with.

We hope and plan to be back next year to share the experience with all our Germany friends and fans. It was a truly wonderful experience.

Every time there is a school shooting in the western world the media descends on visible members of our industry, like me, looking for some deep dark psychological reason that links computer gaming to violence. Note that this kind of reporting sells papers and increases network ratings and therefore will continue to be a newsy story line for any hot shot reporter regardless if there is a school shooting or not.

Cries of content control, reform and yes, even censorship have been raised by the press, politicians and members of our judicial system.

Frankly, I’m sick of listening and reading journalistic rhetoric like “gaming leads to violence”, “playing too much isolates us and makes us socially inept”, “the only good thing about gaming is improved hand and eye coordination”, etc., etc.

Anyone actively involved in this industry over the last decade knows that this is a load of crap. With the exception of the rare supportive parent, there exists a wide generation gap that creates concern over the lifestyle and activity of playing games … and I’m not only talking about just the professional gamers.

In my humble opinion, this major misconception of gaming and gamers must change before the far-out right of this nation (and other nations) legislates anymore censorship against the best form of pop-culture in the last 30 years.

There are four areas that computer gaming helps to expand our minds, abstract reasoning, problem solving, pattern recognition and spatial logic. To support my hypothesis over the last ten years IQ test scores have increase by 14 points. Why do you think that this has happened? Our education systems are worse – our school text books haven’t changed – our teaching curriculum still fosters the belief that there are only right and wrong answers and that there is no ambiguity in the real world.

Look at other forms of pop-culture today – movies, music, television and books. If anything every one of these forms has become ever more conservative and predictable. Look at the limited approved music play list on the radio, movie remakes, television sequels and mind numbing array of pop-culture mystery and romance novels as examples of dumbed-down culture.

The broadcast news, once the bastion of non-partisan information, has been sanitized and politicized to the point where real news is often overlooked (like environmental issues) because they just don’t increase ratings.

The only significant cultural change over the last decade is computer gaming and I hold that this is the only reason for the dramatic increase in IQ development.

So how does this work you ask? What’s going on in our brains when we play games and how is that a good thing for society?

Watching television, radio listening, movies and even reading chronically under stimulates the mind. After all, these alternative forms of culture are quite linear and the story cannot be altered by the viewer or reader. The user is seldom required to solve problems and the story is never interactive.

I just completed reading “Everything Bad is Good For You” written by Steven Johnson. This book should be mandatory reading for every gamer’s parent, all politicians, educators, lawmakers, gaming critics and members of the press. In this book the author goes into much more detail on this very subject than I can cover in this limited space.

He writes, “Neuroscientists have drawn a crucial distinction between the way the brain seeks out rewards and the way it delivers pleasure … with specific receptors called the nucleus accumbens.”

Where our brain wiring is concerned, the craving instinct triggers a desire to explore. In the gameworld reward is everywhere. Expansive games allow for exploration. Games offer both rewards and exploration and human brains are drawn to those systems, even if they are virtual characters.

Games engage the full range of sensory and motor cortices of the brain. Johnson continues, “No other pop-culture form directly engages the brain’s decision-making apparatus in the same way”.

Almost all other forms of entertainment are passive in direct comparison to games. While other cultures can be immersive, they do not require the decision-making and problem-solving interactions of games.

What we are creating is a generation of neurologically “wired” opposed to physically wired athletes. This also supports my personal theory regarding eSports or as the CPL accurately refers to them as cyberathletes. The Gaming community needs to step up and take credit for the unprecedented increase in IQ scores over the last decade. We haven’t gotten that much smarter as a culture watching reality TV.

Admittedly the subject matter in this blog is a little heavier than my usual banter. I believe that it is important to carry this positive message to the over 35-year old non-gamer citizenry. Trust me, most of them don’t have a clue as to what is going on and are either cautiously concerned or hoping you will outgrow this “phase”.

I certainly welcome supporting and opposing views from gamers, parents and other interested parties. Bring it!

Neuroscientists are discovering more about the brain everyday. For more information on the brain, visit www.brain-fx.com.

Oh those forums, aren’t they grand? Reading through the multitude of gaming forums is similar to viewing a major car wreck … you simply can’t take your eyes off of it. No matter how much gore and grit you must read on and on and on ….

Then there’s this same guy who shows up on every forum and his name is “anonymous”. This guy hates just about everything and gives us his free opinion on everything from motherboards to motherhood … and free is just about all its worth. Rarely have I ever seen a long string that remains on topic.

It is often difficult to know who is really an expert and who has just jumped into the forum to stir things up or because a friend of a friend heard about this or that. I’m sure that there are many valuable uses for them and many seem harmless enough. No one knows how accurate any open forum is yet we all use them to validate information and ideas.

Over the years Razer products have had their fair share of user forums topics. Most have some value and relevance. Many are highly speculative and some are so technically esoteric that often we don’t even understand them. I do want to comment on one reoccurring topic that IMO needs some clarification.

The topic usually goes something like this, “Razer mice don’t last” or “I like the technology but they don’t last”. We have been seeing comments like this over the past 6-years and while there has been the smoke of truth from the past there has never been a fire. Let me give you a brief history lesson …

The original Boomslang was released in 1999 and over the next several years we sold over 400,000. There were some initial quality control issues with the buttons and the roller assembly and we experienced a 5% return. Admittedly this is high and we were not happy or satisfied with the results. To our credit we replaced every defective unit without question and always attempted to satisfy our customers.

Remember that these were new technology products and that mechanical mice had more oving parts in them than your entire computer. They were subject to some failure. Also know that gamers are a whole lot harder on their mice than home and office customers … this was a lesson we had to learn … the hard way.

So the forums began to roast us pretty hard in those days and the truth is most of those comments were pretty accurate. My biggest problem with the forums is that today in 2005 they are still making some of the same general comments.

The facts are that we sell in excess of one million mice a year and growing and that the return rate is less than one-half of one percent. Not even 1 mouse in 100 has been reported as failed, damaged or DOA, yet the forums still hammer Razer for ancient history.

The truth is that no product can ever be perfect and that Razer does pride itself on providing excellent customer experience and supporting our products. I could tell you that we strive to manufacture the perfect trouble free mouse but that would be a lie because we know there will be clunkers from time to time. We do care about QA and for the upcoming Copperhead are instigating a testing system for every single mouse coming off the assembly line.

So look, read all the forums and participate to your hearts content and whenever the subject moves to Razer quality assurance do provide the facts to your learned colleagues … especially Mr. Anonymous wherever he is.

Now I can die happy. Last weeks press conference to announce the release of the world’s first “true” laser gaming mouse was the culmination of 7 years of input device history. There are no words in the English language to describe how the Copperhead came out. The only single word I can think of is “perfect”.

I have hoped that one day that Razer could and would create the perfect mouse and on August 4th 2005 a special group of about 100 world press and distributors were on hand in Singapore to witness this groundbreaking proclamation.

The Copperhead® will be a landmark product for Razer and while it might look like the Diamondback it is quite different. The Copperhead does not replace the Diamondback and the feel and performance between the two is quite different. Some of our fans have already criticized us for introducing one technology on top of another. This is true but how is this any different than say a new processor or video card? Isn’t the important issue to achieve the greatest potential in performance and maximize the enjoyment of your chosen game? There is a mouse war going on and our competitors are hard at work to keep up with Razer’s history and reputation for product development and advanced technology.

Unfortunately for our competitors we have aced them once again. There are features in the new Copperhead that make the competition’s products obsolete before they hit the retail floor.

I’m not going to make this blog a commercial for the Copperhead, however I do suggest that you take the time to review the list of unique features through our site, or through Razer Blueprints or through Gamespot.

Speaking of Gamespot, Sarju Shah was one of the key US press writers attending the event in Singapore. There is a photo of him interviewing me just after the press announcement. After the event most of the attendees joined us on a Night Safari of the Singapore Zoo – one of our favorite places – and a visit to the snake pit to say hi to our adopted Diamondback (no we did not adopt a Copperhead … yet). Anyway, Sarju opted to pass on the zoo excursion and retreated to his hotel room to write and post the initial review of the Copperhead. His conscientiousness paid off when at 3:00 am Singapore time he scooped the world that very night and announced and I quote, “Internally, the Copperhead is without a doubt the most sophisticated mouse we’ve ever come across”.

We also had another major announcement at the press conference that Razer had signed to be one of the major sponsors of the World Cyber Games (WCG) for the second straight year. The Copperhead will be the official mouse of the WCG along with the upcoming Tarantula keyboard and the Piranha headset (additional information to come on both of these new products soon). It is certainly gratifying that both the WCG and the CPL have recognized Razer’s leadership in gaming peripherals and our long-term involvement and support of gamers, and have subsequently assigned “official status” on our products over our competitors’. These are the top two tour events in the world and Razer is proud as punch to be associated with them. They are like the Olympics and Super Bowl of gaming events and both are blazing the way to making eSports national and internationally accepted mainstream sports.

Gamers around the world should support both leagues with your interest and attendance. These are the best shows in the world of entertainment! Last October Razerguy had the privilege of attending the WCG Finals in San Francisco. What a great show … professionally managed and set up for the players’ maximum enjoyment. Too bad not enough fans showed up to support the gamers representing nearly 70 countries.

One of the main reasons to hold this landmark press conference in Singapore is that the 2005 WCG Finals will be held there November 16 through 20. Naturally Razer and Razerguy will be on hand for this momentous event … will you?

Look, these are the biggest and best gaming events the world have ever seen, so get off your butts, save your money (stop buying WOW gold) and get with the program. Show your support for the big tour events, show up and root your preferred players, teams and games. The sponsors of these events want to see you there. We (all the sponsors) want to meet you and listen to your ideas, wants and product needs. We want to see more sponsors from all over the world get behind gaming to the degree that they can help to grow our sport, our image and let the world know that gaming is a healthy, acceptable endeavor for the masses. By showing your support more of the mainstream press will attend these events and more people will hear the positive stories about gamers, gaming and the people that make up the sport.

Last week I reported to you on the CPL Summer event in Dallas … another incredibly entertaining and well run event. Everyone attending witnessed the best in competition and a very well run and entertaining event. Tomorrow we will be at Quakecon and the week after Game Conference in Leipzig Germany. Please show up, come by the Razer booth and say hi. Make plans to support these events and help us drive eSports to where they belong … as mainstream entertainment for the masses. We need to unite as a nation of gamers with a purpose and a mutual goal for acceptance and prestige.

Remember the WCG Finals and that Singapore is an amazing city … the prices for food, accommodations and transportation are still a bargain. There is so much good nightlife and shopping that you will have one of the most memorable times of your life. Besides, you can always visit the Singapore Zoo and say hi to our adopted Diamondback, future adoptee Copperhead and tell them their foster dad said to say hi.

So to recap this weeks blog … Razerguy can die happy … Copperhead will be the BOMB … all other mice will suck in comparison … WCG is the Olympics of gaming … support big international gaming events … Singapore rocks. Out.

Important Report from Dallas: Professional Gaming is Alive and Well

So, Razer had been away from US turf pro gaming for a while. We’ve attended events in Europe and Asia, but except for the WCG Finals in San Francisco last October, we haven’t been to a big US run CPL event in three years.

So there I was all decked out in my black-on-black Razer gear curious as hell to see the Gaylord Resort, the new slim and trim Angel, the giant Intel booth, the major-hyped TsN set up and all of our old friends from the US amateur and professional ranks.

Would I be impressed or disappointed with the hype? When last we attended a US based CPL event the sponsors were smaller and not particularly impressive. The video replay and the commentary left a lot to be desired … but that was 3-years ago and I wanted to see how far the CPL had progressed in the entertainment and professional processes.

I can only sum it up in one word – “absolutelyincredible” – is that one word?

This was hands down the best gaming event I have ever witnessed … and the competition wasn’t too shabby either. First off the Gaylord Resort was so grand, clean and comfortable that I can’t wait to go back for Quakecon. Intel completely outdid itself with a 10,000 square foot booth that was the absolute center attraction. Hat’s off to Intel for the planning and professionalism that went into this booth and hat’s off for sponsoring professional gaming (I will think twice before ever buying another processor than Intel).

Intel also sponsored a CPL panel of experts (okay I was there too) that was informative and entertaining. The questions from the gamers were challenging and provocative and the feedback to me from the audience was completely positive.
NVIDIA and Hitachi had spectacular booths and activities (lots of free stuff!). Every sponsor was well prepared to entertain, play and inform. Angel is truly a new man. Last time I saw him he was overweight, overstressed and overworked. He now looks ten years younger and has learned to deal with the weight and stress of managing the CPL and the added magnitude of the world tour.TsN is ultra professionally run and the play-by-play guys keep getting better and better with each event. We had the opportunity to be adjacent to them in Sweden and they make gaming even more entertaining for both the hardcore and casual viewer.

Razer had a nice space and it was great to see so many fans and old users from the past. The BYOC area was crazy and while there were a few power and connection issues, this didn’t detract from the sheer pleasure of the event. There was so much to do and see for everyone, which is one of the reasons I believe this event was landmark in pro gaming. What do I mean by that?
It seems to be that the time is ripe for a couple of things to happen. One is the fan-base sitting at home needs to get off their collective asses and get to events like this. There was certainly room for them and the product!!!! Oh the product of competitive gaming is NOW so well packaged by the CPL, Intel, NVIDIA and even Razer that you may be missing that greatest show in town.

To only have 3,000 gamers witness the amazing competition is a major loss. Here is another landmark event … great competition and super coverage. I don’t care if you don’t play CS or PK, or even if you just play console games occasionally, or if you don’t play games at all … this event rocks and you will have a blast.
The other big opportunity is for attracting maximum gaming exposure to cable network television. Listen, if ESPN viewers can watch poker, pool, bass fishing, spelling bees, synchronized swimming and the national cheerleading championships there is no sane reason why PC gaming, which IMO is on a par with the X-Games, wouldn’t be a screaming success.

So, major kudos and ‘grats to the CPL, the sponsors, TsN, the pro teams and players and everyone who worked so hard to make this event AN EVENT. And hiss-boo on all you gamers who missed this “entertainment attraction” and stayed home. On the darkside, major jeers to producers at ESPN and MTV who are sitting on their hands trying to figure out what the next reality sports TV loser show can be, when the future of entertainment is here, at the good ol’ Gaylord just waiting to be revealed.

Okay, off the old soapbox … just wanted to say thanks to the CPL for the great time and I’m so glad that Razer and the CPL is back together. Good stuff!

Dreamhack is a very cool event. Dreamhack was very crowded and I got to see many of my friends from Scandinavia. The BYOC area was a grand show of extravagant systems ever. It was like driving down the strip in Las Vegas and taking in all the neon and glitz. When the lights finally went down this area became enchanting.
It looked like Hollywood on steroids. I never knew that there were so many LED colors and so many combinations. I wished that I had a good time-released camera to capture these incredible images in the dark for our readers. It’s truly amazing how technological and creative gamers have become. Mods rule!

For those of you who couldn’t make it to Jönköping for Dreamhack, here where my impressions. The city is small, but not too small, and set on Sweden’s largest lake, Lake Vänern, which is more like an inland sea. The weather was quite comfortable and we didn’t get much rain. The last two days were sunny and quite lovely, and on Sunday when the event was over many of us made it to the beach (no sand – just grass). The gaming facility, called Elmia exhibition center, was located in a large sports complex. It was quite large and comfortable for the over 6,500 players in attendance. The event ran 24 hours around the clock and players could take a break and sleep in a separate hall area. Not luxurious, but convenient and certainly priced right.

The security of the event and entire area was quite impressive. I believe that everyone felt quite safe and that their valued possessions (systems and gear) would not be ripped off. I did not hear of any theft and I must assume that this was much better than most other similar type of facilities.

The pro events were quite competitive and entertaining. Since the CPL Painkiller world tour event was situated directly adjacent to the Razer booth we were conveniently exposed to nearly all of the action. PK is amazingly fast action game. Having played a ton of Quake 2 in my time and having watched many Quake 3 and UT events over the last 4 years, there is nothing that can compare to PK in flat out speed. The matches for the most part were competitive and in the end Vo0 demonstrated why he is the best in the world by defeating my old friend Fatal1ty in the finals.

At the Razer booth we demonstrated the new Plasma mouse and across the hall G-TEK, one of our Scandinavian distributors, sold out all of the Razer mice
before the event was half over. They underestimated the demand for our products and couldn’t supply the demand.

Obviously Razer underestimated the demand for the Plasma product world-wide. If you recall from my previous blog, Plasma was intended to be a limited edition - a small celebration for selling one-half million Diamondback mice in the first 6 months and we only manufactured 50,000 for the world. For those who were fortunate enough to get Plasma hold on to yours as it will be a collector’s item in a few years. For the rest of you, there are still a few in some of the retail shops, but you are going to have to hunt and search to find one. Smart guys are already selling theirs for a profit on eBay. Oh well …

The good news is that there are still Diamondback Salamander (some call this red LED mouse Magna) and Chameleon mice. Both case colors are very popular (I saw one on about every third system in the BYOC area) and the performance is virtually the same as the infrared sensor Plasma mouse.

All-in-all it was a wonderful trip to one of my favorite countries and we plan to make this a regular stop for Razer in years to come. The event was well run and we were happy to be a small part of the fun. I even found time to visit my good friend Andreas and his lovely friend Hanna in Stockholm on my way back to the states. My personal thanks to all our friends and fans for your hospitality and for welcoming Razer to this great event. Sweden rocks!

By now you have probably read up and fed up with reports, news and live updates from E3 … so I decided to bring you a dead report from E3 (huh?).

We’ll its over. I know that’s not really riveting news to you, but my vocal chords are certainly happier now. We must have spoken to every one of the 200,000 plus attendees at the expo this year.

This year we had a significant presence on the floor with a nice size booth. It was well decked out in Razer green and black and we featured the new Plasma Diamondback on every system. We had one of our sponsored teams, Girlz of Destruction taking on all comers in Quake 3, instead of parading out some booth babe who could care less about Razer and our products.

I mean everyone who was anyone came by our booth. George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Bill Gates, Peewee Herman, The Pope and Attila the Hun (actually I’m kidding; the Pope was busy and couldn’t make E3).

One notable dignitary was my good friend and colleague, Ruben Mookerjee, Director of Marketing for all gaming at Logitech. After some gentle coaxing and some strong drugs I was able to get Ruben to pose for the picture herein. Which one of us looks like our mice will win GameSpot’s peripheral of the year award this year? I confided in Ruben that we were working on the new Razer 1036 mouse, which is twice as good as the 518 (that’s a joke to all of you who are lining up for the pre-order period).

Ruben is a great friend and a really good sport to take all my abuse (especially when you consider that he works for the evil empire). I always tell everyone that Logitech make the best home and office products in the worldJ

I can’t believe the press at some of these events. Some of the members of the press actually believe that the PC gaming market is declining. Naturally they attended the big Microsoft and Sony console press bashes and listened to their new console hype. Then they come out and interview me and say things like, “are you concerned with the decline in the PC market” or “how is Razer going to deal with demise of PC gaming”. I ask what planet are they from and have they been living under a rock for the last couple of years?

PC hardware sales are going though the roof. Half Life 2, and World of Warcraft
have brought millions of new PC gamers over the last 9 months. Games like S.TA.L.K.E.R, Battlefield II, Quake 4 and others are all highly anticipated PC titles that will once again drive more discriminating gamers toward the personal computer sector. Hey, there’s still no device better for action gaming than the mouse and keyboard. Until there is your PC is good as gold. Controllers are a sad substitute for most PC gaming peripherals. If you like to play sports and racing games they’re alright. If you are serious about FPS and RTS games then there is no substitute for the mouse/keyboard combo.

The challenge here is to get past the graphics and amazing specs of these new consoles and to understand the purity of PC gaming. In my mind console gaming is social … something you do with friends to relax. You sit back on your favorite pizza-stained sofa and play Madden football. PC gaming, on the other hand, is up close and personal. It’s mano y mano and you either get owned or you are the owner. If you want to argue this point I challenge you to play Doom 3 on a console and then follow it up on the PC version. It’s not the same game!

Anyway back to my recap of E3 (I think that’s what this blog is about); Razer fans were very excited to see and test the Plasma. The press wanted to know more about our new product plans (of course), and I’m certain you do too. We did show off the new keyboard by appointment only and we are sitting tight on releasing any specifications to anyone (my grandmother asked and I had to slap her). All I can say is that there are new products in the works and they will be ultra-cool and technologically advanced. If I told you more I would have to shoot me (this is my first violent blog in some time …).

What’s next for Razer is a trip to the next CPL World Tour stop in Sweden in June where we will have a booth. We haven’t been to Europe since last Game Conference, so please stop by and say hello. We will have lots of Razer swag to give away and you can test a Diamondback if you’d like. Some of our sponsored pro team players will be there to meet and it will be good to see many of our old friends again. Hey, maybe the Pope can make it since the event is in Europe … one can only hope.

After being separated at birth, Razer and the CPL are together again. It was too long in coming. Both sides had some issues to overcome from our past relationship. Both sides have matured and developed into viable, well-run, world-class operations. It was time.

We were both pretty green in 1999 when we first grouped. The CPL was in its infancy and Razer was making ball mice. Gaming, as a competitive environment was in its early years, and playing video games was generally an unacceptable way to form ones career. Video games were being linked to violent acts in schools and educators and some politicians were attempting to have them censored or even banned. Horrifically, in some countries they were successful.

It’s now five years later and leagues, events and world tours are offering prestige and prize money never heard of before. Gaming as an eSports is reaching a pinnacle of acceptance that was unforeseen among most of us who have been around the scene since the beginning. One man had that vision from the first day I met him and has stuck doggedly to it to this day. Angel Munoz is the driving force today as he was in 1999, and his vision was as clear then as it is reality today. Hell, when Angel told me about his eSports vision I thought he was smoking the funny stuff. Man, was I wrong!

Razer is no longer a little mouse company looking to pick up on the crumbs of Logitech and Microsoft. We are serious competitors to the big L and make no mistake about it, we are here to stay. There are some inaccurate and unfortunate rumors floating around the forums since the press release announcing the reuniting of Razer and the CPL hit yesterday. Most of it is hogwash and some of it is made up from old tales. The truth is that Razer did run out of money three years ago and left the CPL hanging on a $5,000 CS tournament. The CPL made good, the players were paid and the debt has long been settled between the CPL and Razer. While this was unfortunate it happened and now it is history. We same guys on the forum failed to mention that Razer was the first sponsor to offer (and pay out) $100,000 for a tournament … or that Razer has sponsored amateur leagues, private LANs, individual players and teams for five years. All they can offer is misinformation on the one time we screwed up over a period of time where we have invested over $2MM into gaming events and sponsorships. But hey, if that’s what flips your skirt and you love forum funnies … then power to you.

Razer and Razerguy will be with the CPL in Sweden next month at Dreamhack. We are looking forward to meeting all of our fans and even you forum hacks (I’m smiling, are you). We are particularly looking forward to renewing our association with the CPL and for me my association with my old/best/new/friend Angel. As two old war horses we can sit on the porch and discuss the good old days of gaming. Hand me my slippers.

Blog notes: Sorry to say that when Razerzone went down two weeks ago all the replies to my past Blogs were lost. I apologize to the many of you who were kind enough to reply and if you want to re-submit your comments I will see that they are re-posted.

Last week I paid a visit to one of the most beautiful and exotic zoo in the world. Razer was supporting Ilsa, a four-year old Diamondback with a $5,000.00 donation and Razerguy was on hand to present the check and kiss all the baby snakes.

Presentation of Cheque to the Singapore Zoological Gardens.

(Robert and Clyde the Python)

First off, I must tell you that I like snakes and have no fear of them. I actually wanted to hold Ilsa provided a trainer was nearby with a hypo of anti-venom at the ready. As you can see by the photos, I was relegated to holding a very large and non-venomous Python I named Clyde. Clyde has just eaten a cow or something like that and was rather a heavy load. I learned from the Singapore officials that their trainers keep all of the predatory snakes in their natural state. That is with their fangs and never milked. That meant that my new best friend was fully loaded and overdue to spread her milk my way.

Most zoos have an adoption program for their animals. The money goes for feeding and health care for wild animals in captivity. Usually snakes never see this kind of support. The more visible or cute the animal, such as monkeys, pandas and koalas, the more likely the bulk of financial support will be. Since Razer has used snakes as our logo and names for all our mice since 1999, it only made sense to adopt a snake. The Diamondback being our most recent mouse is the obvious choice here, and besides, the tsetse fly was already taken.

If any of you ever have a chance to visit Singapore a Singapore zoo side trip is a must. The zoo is located within a tropical rain forest, so the habitat is one of the most natural in the world. The zoo is large and close physical access to exotic animals is the best I’ve ever seen.

(Hamming it up for the camera)

Note the photo of me along side one of the many orangutan (I’m the one on the right) that you can almost touch.

While I have no fear of snakes, my hopes are that we will never adopt a tarantula. Spiders and I are not as close. Any animal or insect with more than four legs is not a consideration for adoption. We all wish Ilsa a long and healthy life. Razer will be back next year to adopt yet another exotic zoo resident. It’s a great program and we are proud to be a part of the funding.