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you are definitely in the minority

I tried to say all this in a comment on amped news, but it doesn't work. I sent them this support message:

Tried in both Firefox 1.5 and IE 6.whatever to "leave a comment" on http://esports.ampednews.com/?page=articles&id=655 2 but the link doesn't work. I looked at the source, and it doesn't even look like it SHOULD work...

For what it's worth...

If this other article I found can be believed, the mouse is going to go for $49.

Why that much? It does nothing new, it's not even a laser, and frankly, it just looks plain ugly. I can pick up a Logitech G5 for the same price now, and it has all the features of this Fatal1ty mouse, plus it's a laser. I own a G5 and it's accurate on any surface, and it's a noticeable improvement from my now deceased optical mouse.

Really, I'm mystified. How do they hope to justify that price tag?

ampednews broke this story last month, and I'm sure it was submitted to Slashdot (the site owner even admits to wanting slashdot to break it).

So why didn't Slashdot publish it then?

This delves deep into the history of the G4 programming, its changes in executives, and the online entrepreneurial initiatives of former TechTV employees. Good read: http://igo.ampednews.com/news/3151/

http://igo.ampednews.com/platform/xbox360/news/281 9/
There's the correct link to that story.

Here's an actual news story about the list, at http://igo.ampednews.com/news/2798/ with a full list and more information from the article in the actual magazine:

For the third-straight year, Electronic Arts has taken home the top slot in Game Developer magazine's yearly list of the top-20 video game publishers.

The list, published in the magazine's October 2005 issue, reads like a veritable "who's who" of popular game companies. Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony followed EA in finishing off the top 5 -- though a number of factors, including both revenue and game quality, determined where the publishers ranked.

EA was a no-brainer. With an annual revenue of more than $3.1 billion, EA is the largest video game publisher in the world. The company released 126 games during the past year -- the most of any game publisher -- among them new titles in some of its flagship franchises, including The Sims, Madden NFL and Medal of Honor.

A number of business moves in 2004 and early 2005 helped cement the company's position atop the publisher pack.

The acquisition of Criterion Games landed one of 2004's most critically acclaimed titles, Burnout 3, in EA's hands. And the signing of exclusive contracts with the NFL and ESPN meant EA Sports' Madden NFL 06 was the only game in town with real-life NFL players, coaches and teams, as football aficionados responded by buying more copies of the football game than the year before.

Other than Criterion, EA's business connections with two other major game companies increased its slice of the development pie. It purchased 19.9 percent of Ubisoft -- which the magazine ranked at No. 6 -- and took over publishing rights of Valve Software's Half-Life 2 from Vivendi Universal Games, which ranked at No. 12.

But, the magazine said, EA faced strong competition from the other top 5, especially Activision and Microsoft.

Activision, publisher of Doom 3 and the Tony Hawk series, saw one of the biggest increases, from No. 7 to No. 2, this year as it added three new development studios: Toys for Bob, Beenox and Vicarious Visions. "Activision's policy of leaving studios more autonomous after purchasing them works just as well as EA's consolidation method," Game Developer noted.

Though it was Activision that bumped last year's No. 2., Microsoft Game Studios, down a spot, the magazine expects the company behind the Xbox and Halo to rebound. With a determined fall lineup that includes the release of the Xbox 360 and a bevy of "well-reviewed first-party games," Microsoft's switch from PC to Xbox game development has resulted in a swift ascension to the upper echelon of publishers. Expect a stronger commitment to the Japanese games market with the 360, as well, the magazine said.

Nintendo's claim of the No. 4 spot can largely be credited to the strong performance of its Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance platforms, while Sony slipped to No. 5 this year despite the critical success of games like God of War and Ratchet and Clank 3.

Take Two Interactive, which publishes Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series, saw a drop to No. 10, partly due to the controversy surrounding Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' "Hot Coffee" sexual conten mod and resulting political and economic fallout. And since Take Two also publishes value-brand games developed by Global Star, its ranking has suffered because the magazine's list takes into consideration average review scores of the publishers' games. But a strong showing from Take Two's new sports game line -- 2K Sports, formerly Sega's Visual Concepts -- means that "next year is anyone's game," the magazine said.

In selecting its list, Game Developer used more than "raw revenue vales" to determine the rankings. Six criteria determined a company's placing: annual turnover, number of title releases, average review score, producer quality, reliability of milestone payments, and quality of staff pay and perks.

"This year's research reflects the continuing

Here's a response to this article. A bit on the lighter side. http://my.ampednews.com/blog/view/6/

It's not a common thing for large companies to sponsor players, but it is common for them to sponsor the actual LANs that the players compete at. It does happen of course, just look at Jonathan "Fata1ity" Wendell. He has had sponsorship for quite some time now.

I'm sure it will become more common, but the poster of the article makes it seem like video games is going to explode into a major sport. I do not see this happening in the US anytime soon. People have been perdicting that it will in the US for a few years now and there are no signs of a major increase in the sport. I say this from my experience writing for Amped News for about a year. LANs are fun, but I personally do not find watching others play video games to be that exciting.

And you would be wrong

You're a fucking douche, man. Actually, no, I take that back. You're one of the biggest douches in the entire universe. In all this time you've spent whining like a fucking 3 year old, you could have bought 2 copies of HL2 and a box of kleenex to wipe away your teers. People like you make me sick.

Oh, feel to pirate the game though....http://ampednews.com/?page=articles&id=3 141

I'm the main Battlefield editor over at AmpedNews so I keep up with gaming trends and personal since I cover the main online gaming leagues. One thing I have noticed about the female gamers is the attention they get from others playing in the online leagues. One in particular, who is on my Amped staff, is constantly getting attention from the male gamers.

It takes a certain type of girl to deal with the type of stuff that she handles all the time. She cannot get onto IRC without some male gamer wanting to bother her. I'm sure there are other gamers that I have played with regularly that are female, but choose not to say it. Mainly to avoid all the harrassement from the other online gamers. My point is, not only are girls different, but they have to be ready to put up with a community that is mostly made up of horny male teenagers.

Note: Answer for non-counterstrike players: Yes, most any "pro" gaming match has a demo, which you need counter-strike to watch, but is
also incredible because you can rewind and watch shots and strategies over and over
again, more in depth than any professional sport, as there are an infinate number of
angles. You are even able to watch in first person, to see exactly where they were aiming (think helmet cam).

In most big name pro competitions, people flock to get as many demos as possible and make movies
out of them, which end up as avi's. There are already a couple here (ampednews.com)

Interesting note about this year's competition:

team 3d (who is sponsored by both Subway and Geforce) was talked about as one of the best clans, but finished in a dismal 13-16th
last year 3d and sK (this year's runner up) fought it in the finals with sK winning