London Workshop Announced!

Newsletter subscribers got this news a little early, and here it is for everyone else!

Many details of the London event are now on the HDR Workshop page. Registration is in exactly 6 days (next Monday) at 10 AM London Time. You may remember the last one sold out in 11 minutes, so be ready. That page will have the order form “switched on” at 10 AM sharp. This time, we are on Rackspace servers, so we should be able to handle the surge without crashing!

Daily Photo – The Bay Beyond the Golden Gate

This spot up on the mountain, just north of San Francisco, is a very windy spot! Even when you have a sturdy tripod, the wind can knock it around quite a bit. In this one, I had to set up to shoot and then stand in front of the tripod, curling my body around the lens to try to block the wind.

It was a 5-exposure HDR, and I affixed a wide-angle lens so I could get the Golden Gate bridge on the left and the setting sun on the right. The skies were nice enough to cooperate with a nice palette of colorful clouds to trail across the sky. I’m not a big fan of shooting in the wind… it puts me on-edge a little bit. I do quite enjoy that feeling of popping back into my car after the event. The clunk of the car door shutting and the lack of the sound of the wind… that is a nice feeling.

As far as HDR settings go, I wanted to juxtapose it with this other sunset photo below. In this one, I took 7 exposures from +3 to -3, mostly because I was shooting into the sun. It also left me with more possible frames to correct the “ghosting” problem from the waves. Does this make sense?

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, Travel

Out of a Plane, onto the blog…

In a few weeks at Openca.mp (you guys are coming to hear my speech, yes?), I’ll be jumping out of a plane with the famous Golden Knights from the US Army! These guys are basically like the Blue Angels, but way more insane because they actually jump out of the planes.

If you jump over to the blog of Cali Lewis at CaliLewis.Me, you can read even more about it. I think she was a little freaked out by the idea of jumping, but she seems all for it now.

If you want to know more about the Golden Knights, you can visit them at http://armygk.com/.

And yes, I’ll have my camera and will be taking photos and video of the whole thing!

Daily Photo – The Inner Sanctum

Here is a cool and relatively unknown place in San Francisco. Can anyone figure out where this mysterious location is?

I went in here with my dad while we were looking for cool photo-ops. We weren’t so sure we were allowed in this place, but we just busted in quickly for a shot before anybody said anything.

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3X, San Francisco, Topaz Adjust, Travel

New Free Video Coming Soon

Tonight I edited together another video about how I took a photo in New Zealand. I’ll get it uploaded soon to share with everyone!  In the meantime, you can check out others in the Video section of the website.

Daily Photo – The Golden Gate Bridge at Dusk

I had spent the previous night up in Napa, visiting my mom and grandmother. This was a long day with a stop in Petaluma to see Leo’s operation, a fast hike through the Muir Woods, and then a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge to catch its majesty at sunset.

I’m sure locals know this spot very well, but I found it thanks to Google Earth. I knew it would be a cool spot, but driving to these spots is always a bit sketchy when you have never been there before. It appeared to be a simple jog off Highway 1, and it actually was. It’s nice when something that looks easy ends up actually being easy! This isn’t usually the case. Even better, the wind wasn’t howling a mile a minute, which I think can happen around here if you don’t watch out!

After I took this, I could hardly wait to get back home to process the final image. I don’t know about y’all, but I find the post-processing just as fun as the actual shooting… I really get a kick out of it!

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3X, San Francisco, Travel

The Auckland Photowalk

I knew a Type A personality would come along and create a Flickr Group for the Auckland Photowalk. Thanks for that – there is the link for everyone else that has yet to discover it. I am so lame and slow – it takes me a long time to process photos, but I will ! Thanks again everyone for the walk, the talk, and the pizza! I’d also like to thank Vivian Ho and Virginia Mui for helping me out with the whole event!

Christchurch Event Soon!

On the heels of the north island, the photowalk is moving to the south island and Christchurch on March 4. This talk will be a high-class event, complete with Wine and Cheese… but of course!

Daily Photo – The Giants in the Muir Woods

When I was in California recently, I left Leo Laporte’s cottage to take some photos of the Muir Woods. If you have never been here, it’s a must!

Did you know this is where they filmed that speeder scene from Return of the Jedi? Very cool. I did not see any Ewoks in the forest, nor did they try to trip me by making me roll my robo-angle on strategically-placed logs. Those Ewoks… so small, crafty, and flammable.

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3X, San Francisco, Travel

The Best of Breed

If you have some more ideas, Tweet me at @TreyRatcliff!

I’ve been asking all my social media pals, photographer-friends, and others about some of the most successful and fun Twitter contests that have been run.  I was sitting down with my publisher at @Peachpit, because we need to Give Away a few copies of “A World in HDR“.  While we thought of a few ideas, I thought we would open it up the Internet to see what we can find!

Frankly, and this might offend some people, I think that straight give-aways are crass and obvious.  I think it can get you followers, but I can argue those are ill-gotten followers.  You may disagree.

I think there are more fun, engaging, and productive ways to run Twitter contests.  So, to that end, I’ve assembled some of the best below.  If you have MORE, drop me a note in the comments, and I’ll do a redux soon!  Also, please, tell me your favorite contest idea and we can try to do something similar for the new book!  I’ll probably have @Peachpit run the contests, since I don’t want to Tweet about give-aways once an hour on my personal Twitter account (@TreyRatcliff). Besides, you guys should follow Peachpit anyway, since they are a good company that publishes fantastic books.

1)  The Michelle

• So named, because it is the idea of Michelle Greer, a clever Twitter user and social media smarty-pants at Rackspace.
• We pick a non-photography related blogger who frequently uses pictures in their posts to act as a judge (who’s interested??)
• Judge announces a theme for the day (Landscape, architecture, etc) and announces via Twitter.  We’ll get that Retweeted widely and repeatedly.
• Contestant picks a photo that fits the theme, “Hey @TreyRatcliff and @Peachpit, this #hdr is inspiring (link).”  Note this does not have to be MY photo…it can be yours, or anyone’s!
• Judge picks the winner and uses it on their blog with attribution.  Winner gets a the prize!

Why I like this idea:

• People get to find and share great art online
• People get to discover new photographers and new sites that feature them
• I’m a big fan of Creative Commons (all my work is CC, no Commercial Use allowed without contacting us first).  I think bloggers out there should know about all the beautiful photos from photographers that are available.  And photographers who believe in creative commons LOVE to be featured on blogs.
• Everyone likes eye-candy on Twitter!

2)  The Trivial

• Thanks to Eugene, a frequent guest on this site!
• Send people on a scavenger hunt through a particular website to find something hidden
  • For example, we could ask, “How many nights in a row was Trey forced to eat borscht cooked by three Russian women in Argentina?”
• The contest judge accepts tweets with real, creative, or funny answers.
• The winner is selected randomly amongst those that got the right answer in 24 hours.

Why I like this idea

• It’s fun and game-like
• People get even more engaged in a website and might find some hidden gems
• You have 24 hours to play, and you don’t have to be “quick on the draw”

3)  The Macleod

• A frequent guest of the site, Barbara Youngleson, brought this one up.  Thanks Barbara!
• This idea appears to have come from Hugh Macleod, the clever cartoonist and consummate cooligan
• It works like this (more or less):
  • Purchase a book by any means, and send the PO over Twitter
  • A limited number of winners are chosen
  • Receive a second book, signed, for free.  Give one to a friend!

Why I like it:

• It is non-pushy
• It rewards people that are real-enough fans to buy the book in the first place!  Hehe.
• Hugh did it, so it must have some coefficient of cool

4)  The Threadless

• This idea is being successfully executed at Threadless.com
• If you see a Tweet you like, you can submit it to the contest
• It is then voted on by the Threadless community
• The best Tweets end up on T-Shirts and the Tweet author gets sweet cash.

Why I like it:

• It’s incredibly fun and engaging.
• It’s super-viral.  I found out about it because someone nominated one of my Tweets: “If I get another dog, I shall name him ‘ROFL’.”
• Threadless is cool, and it is fun to be associated with a cool brand.

5)  The Moonfruit

• Moonfruit (a website buildin’ company) ran a good promotion where you can use the hashtag #moonfruit in any kind of Tweet
• They selected a random person every day and gave away a MacBook Pro
• It resulted in the #moonfruit hashtag being a trending topic and gaining over 30,000 followers

Why I like it:

• It was very easy to enter
• It was viral because you wonder why your friends are all talking about Moonfruit!

Today’s Photo – The Bar at Dosa in San Francisco

The photo today was taken at an awesome Indian restaurant in San Francisco called “Dosa”.  The manager was nice enough to allow me to move around and take a few photos after dinner.  I was dining with the marketing and PR team from Peachpit (@Peachpit), who is publishing the book.  Taking roll-call, we had Scott Cowlin (@ScottPeachpit), Sara Jane Todd (@SaraJaneTodd), and Laura Pexton (@Laura7).  We sat around all night talking about having some fun Twitter contests for people to give away books… so here we are, and you get to vote on your favorites!

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3X, San Francisco, Travel

Everyone always seems to like San Francisco, eh? It’s one of those places that people either have fond memories of, or an ongoing feeling like they need to go there.

I know some photographers are probably familiar with this tilt-shift type of shot. For those of you not familiar with it, there is a way to take photos and convert them into something that looks like a miniature. You can do it in-camera with a certain kind of lens, or afterwards with some post-processing. I don’t do a lot of tilt-shift stuff, but I thought I would share this one!

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D2XS, San Francisco, Travel

This was taken in North Beach, the Italian section of San Francisco. I thought this cool corner spot was a lot like a smaller version of the Flatiron building in New York. That reminds me… I have a cool shot of that I need to find and upload. I didn’t stop in this cafe below… but it looked like a nice place to hang out.

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, Travel

There is nothing as soul-scorching as the search for Venture Capital.

This is normally a photography blog, but since my real life is comprised of running the stealthy John Galt Games (not currently seeking VC funding, incidentally), we are intimately involved with the games industry, acquisitions, investment, and the like. We were invited out to the Rutberg Quarterly event, ponderously entitled “Emerging Opportunities at the Convergence of Video Games, Social Networks, and Media”, in San Jose a few weeks ago by Peter Daley, who likes us because he is a closet objectivist and has a penchant for disruptive technologies.

Rutberg & Co is a research-centric investment bank that focuses in the wireless and digital media space. In my judgment, they are a leader in the games space and I always enjoy listening to Peter’s ruminations and reading his reports. He was nice enough to share the following data with me.

Oh, and since this is supposed to be a photography blog, I put a picture from the tech-booming Bay area below as well as a picture of the “Capitalist” in Ukraine, where our company does a lot of games work with brilliant ex-Soviets that used to launch rockets with slide-rules.

Directly below is a list of VC deals in the games space + Mergers & Acquisitions activity in the games space:

VC Deals (in no particular order):

Company: Red 5 Studios, Aliso Viejo, CA
Investment: $ 8.9 million
Investor: Benchmark Capital
Description: Red 5 Studios is an online game studio which develops original MMO games.

Company: Digital Chocolate, San Mateo, CA
Investment: $ 22.5 million
Investors: Bridgescale Partners; Chengwei Ventures; DN Capital; Glynn Capital Management; Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Montagu Newhall; Outlook Ventures; Sequoia Capital; Sutter Hill
Ventures; WHI Capital
Description: Digital Chocolate is a developer of games and applications for mobile phones.

Company: Electric Sheep, New York, NY
Investment: $ 7 million
Investors: CBS; Gladwyne Partners
Description: The Electric Sheep Company designs experiences and delivers add-on software for 3D virtual worlds. The Company delivers strategic, creative, and technical insight and services to organizations, works with multiple virtual world platforms, and has developed many projects on behalf of brands.

Company: Double Fusion, San Francisco, CA
Investment: $ 26 million
Investors: Accel Partners, Hearst Corporation, IDG; Ventures Pacific, Jerusalem; Venture Partners, Norwest; Venture Partners, Sedona; Capital, Time Warner
Description: Double Fusion is a provider of in-game advertising and marketing solutions. The company’s technology delivers a range of advertising possibilities inside and around video game and casual game titles.

Company: Kongregate, San Francisco, CA
Investment: N/A
Investors: Independent investors
Description: Kongregate seeks to create an online hub for players and game developers to meet up, play games, and operate together as a community. By wrapping user-submitted Flash games with various community features, Kongregate’s site allows users to play great web-based games alongside friends.

Company: Cellufun, New York, NY
Investment: $ 3 million
Investors: Longworth; Venture Partners
Description: Cellufun is an ad sponsored mobile gaming portal providing free entertainment content and casual, connected, and multiplayer games for web-enabled mobile phones.

Company: Vollee, Hertzliya, Israel
Investment: $ 4 million
Investors: Benchmark Capital; BlueRun Ventures
Description: Vollee’s interactive video streaming platform delivers a catalog of PC and console titles with 3D graphics, artificial intelligence, and deep game play on mobile devices. Vollee packages the games it licenses from traditional publishers in an interactive mobile portal and partners with mobile operators to distribute and market the service to 3G subscribers.

Company: Exponentia, Vancouver, British Columbia
Investment: N/A
Investors: Emmis Communications
Description: Exponentia is a developer of mobile games and interactive applications for sports and entertainment clients that enable them to engage their fans across broadband and mobile devices.

Company: Atomic Moguls, Seattle, WA
Investment: $ 1 million
Investors: Amazon.com; Second Avenue Partners
Description: Operates a movie-based fantasy games website.

Company: GameGlance, Bangkok, Thailand
Investment: $ 2 million
Investors: Independent investors
Description: GameGlance is an in-game advertising network. GameGlance’s strategic planning, design, advertising, production, and gaming experiences have been applied across a number of gaming formats and categories.

Company: Areae, San Diego, CA
Investment: N/A
Investors: Charles River Ventures; Crescendo Ventures
Description: Develops technologies and content related to MMO video games

Company: Bunchball, Redwood City, CA
Investment: $ 2 million
Investors: Adobe Ventures; Granite Ventures
Description: Bunchball is a provider of social gaming services to personals sites, social networks, and online communities. Its hosted gaming service enables members to start and play games with each other, without leaving the customer’s site.

Company: OGPlanet, Torrance, CA
Investment: $ 1.5 million
Investors: Independent investors
Description: OGPlanet is a publisher of free online multiplayer games that generate revenue through the sale of virtual items.

Company: Mind Candy, London, United Kingdom
Investment: $ 7 million
Investors: Accel Partners; Index Ventures; NewMedia
Spark
Description: Mind Candy is an interactive entertainment company focused on puzzles and alternate reality games.

Company: Greystripe, San Francisco, CA
Investment: $ 1.2 million
Investors: Incubic Venture Fund; Monitor Ventures; WS
Investment Company
Description: Greystripe’s solution provides mobile content free to consumers in an ad-supported model. Greystripe operates an in-game mobile ad network and ad-supported mobile game distribution platform. Its advertising network takes full screen images, videos, and scrolling banners and dynamically delivers them into mobile games and applications.

Company: Trion World Network, Redwood City, CA
Investment: N/A
Investors: Doll Capital Management; Trinity Ventures
Description: Trion World Network is a publisher and developer of games and original entertainment.

Company: WildTangent, Redmond, WA
Investment: $ 13 million
Investors: Granite Global Ventures; WPP Group
Description: WildTangent is an online game network in North America offering online and downloadable games from publishers; WildCoins, an arcade style, per session payment system; a virtual game console, which facilitates the discovery of and access to games; and in-game and around-game advertising solution.

Company: Sulake, Helsinki, Finland
Investment: $ 7.6 million
Investors: Movida Group
Description: Sulake is an online community, entertainment, and media company focusing on virtual worlds, casual multiplayer games, and social networking. Sulake operates the Habbo community.

Company: IGA Worldwide, New York, NY
Investment: $ 5 million
Investors: Intel Capital
Description: IGA Worldwide provides in-game advertising solutions. Its ad serving network enables advertisers to target consumers across a range of platforms and genres. They also provide strategic consulting services
including integrated product placement and co-promotion through its wholly-owned communications consultancy, Hive.

Company: Stardoll, Stockholm, Sweden
Investment: $ 6 million
Investors: Index Ventures; Sequoia Capital
Description: Stardoll is a paper doll dress-up community site. Stardoll allows users to create their own doll or choose from a collection of celebrity dolls and dress them in virtual fashions.

Company: TVHead, Mountain View, CA
Investment: $ 11.5 million
Investors: Apax Partners; Bay Partners; Mitsui Incubase
Description: Operates an on demand television gaming service

Company: Winster, San Mateo, CA
Investment: $ 1.5 million
Investors: U.S. Venture Partners
Description: Winster.com is a social community where players cooperate to help each other solve puzzles to win prizes.

Company: Double Fusion, San Francisco, CA
Investment: $ 5 million
Investors: Accel Partners; Jerusalem Venture Partners
Description: Double Fusion is a provider of in-game advertising and marketing solutions. The company’s technology delivers a range of advertising possibilities inside and around video game and casual game titles.

Company: Super Computer International, Atlanta, GA
Investment: N/A
Investors: Verizon
Description: Provides free online communication, collaboration, and community, which provide gamers with additional features for their multiplayer gaming interactions, a set of social networking tools and a range of gaming experiences.

Company: Three Rings Design, San Francisco, CA
Investment: N/A
Investors: Mercury Capital Partners
Description: Three Rings is a startup developer of persistent world online games.

Company: Terraplay Systems, Solna, Sweden
Investment: $ 3.2 million
Investors: Cisco Systems; IT-Provider; Nordic Venture
Partners; VPSA
Description: Terraplay operates the Global Gaming Network, a hosted service enabling game publishers, network operators, and service providers to link their games offerings to a global gaming community and deliver revenue-generating connected gaming services across all channels. The Global Gaming Network supports mobile connected gaming on all platforms, including storefronts, content download, community, in-game payments and multiplayer.

Company: Linden Lab, San Francisco, CA
Investment: $ 11 million
Investors: Benchmark Capital; Catamount Ventures; Globespan Capital
Partners; Omidyar Network; Independent Investors
Description: Develops massive multiplayer online role-playing games, including Second Life.

Company: Exent Technologies, Bethesda, MD
Investment: N/A
Investors: Cisco; Intel Capital
Description: A solutions provider for broadband-based monetization of new and existing PC and video games. Exent’s product line supports multiple solutions, including digital distribution of video games, platform enablement, in-game advertising and community building solutions.

Company: Telltale Games, San Rafael, CA
Investment: $ 0.8 million
Investors: Keiretsu Forum
Description: Telltale develops and deploys cinematic quality animation and storytelling technologies, to create interactive content. Telltale offers content development and custom publishing services to assist license-holders in adapting their properties for interactive delivery.

Company: Stardoll.com, Stockholm, Sweden
Investment: $ 4 million
Investors: Index Ventures; Independent investors
Description: Stardoll is a paper doll dress-up community site. Stardoll allows users to create their own doll or choose from a collection of celebrity dolls and dress them in virtual fashions.

Company: Nephin Games, Galway, Ireland
Investment: $ 1 million
Investors: Independent Investors
Description: Nephin Games develops a marketing communications channel, accessible to mobile phone users, which enables brand to promote films, television programming, and consumer goods, while capturing consumer data and forming customer relationships.

Company: IGA Worldwide, New York, NY
Investment: $ 12 million
Investors: DN Capital; Easton Capital Group; Morgenthaler Ventures
Description: IGA Worldwide provides in-game advertising solutions its
ad serving network enables advertisers to target consumers across a range of platforms and genres. They also provide strategic consulting services
including integrated product placement and co-promotion through its wholly-owned communications consultancy, Hive.

Company: LiveHive Systems, Waterloo, Ontario
Investment: $ 1.8 million
Investors: Tech Capital Partners
Description: Provides two-screen, interactive solutions for the entertainment industry. LiveHive offers solutions for TV broadcasters, fantasy sports sites, and web portals.

Company: PlayFirst, San Francisco, CA
Investment: $ 5 million
Investors: Mayfield Venture Partners; Rustic Canyon Partners; Trinity Ventures
Description: Publisher of original casual games, available across multiple platforms, including PC, Mac, and mobile devices.

Company: Mind Candy, London, United Kingdom
Investment: $ 3 million
Investors: Index Ventures
Description: Mind Candy is an interactive entertainment company focused on puzzles and alternate reality games.

Company: Double Fusion, Jerusalem, Israel
Investment: $ 10 million
Investors: Accel Partners; Jerusalem Venture Partners
Description: Double Fusion is a provider of in-game advertising and marketing solutions. The company’s technology delivers a range of advertising possibilities inside and around video game and casual game titles.

Company: watAgame, Copenhagen, Denmark
Investment: N/A
Investors: Private Investors; SEED Capital; Vaekstfonden
Description: Develops and operates made-for-girls mobile and web entertainment concepts. The company partners with mobile networks and portals, media companies, brand managers, and agencies.

Company: Jagex, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Investment: N/A
Investors: Insight Venture Partners
Description: Develops and operates java-based online games. Jagex focuses on persistent character games with immersive environments, which are 3D and can be played in-browser.

Company: Quazal, Montreal, Quebec
Investment: N/A
Investors: Collar Capital; FondAction CSN; La Caisse de Dépôt et de Placement du Québec; Viavar Capital
Description: Delivers multiplayer technologies to the videogames market. Quazal provides game developers with an SDK that includes features such as real-time data propagation and synchronized game inputs. Quazal also provides a lobby server that host game communities on all gaming platforms.

Company: Cellufun, New York, NY
Investment: N/A
Investors: Vaux Les Ventures
Description: Cellufun is an ad sponsored mobile gaming portal providing free entertainment content and casual, connected, and multiplayer games for web-enabled mobile phones.

Company: Massive, New York, NY
Investment: $ 10 million
Investors: DFJ Gotham; DFJ New England; NeoCarta Ventures; Newlight
Associates; RRE Ventures; Tobat Capital
Description: Massive operates a network for dynamic video game advertising that allows for all forms of downloadable media and advertising content to be contextually integrated into the game environment, including image, audio, video, and game object formats.

Company: Xfire, Menlo Park, CA
Investment: $ 5 million
Investors: Draper Fisher Jurvetson; Granite Global Ventures; New Enterprise Associates
Description: Xfire is a free tool that tracks when and where gamers are playing PC games online. It works across game type, server browser, or gaming service that a player is using.

Company: Sulake, Helsinki, Finland
Investment: $ 23 million
Investors: 3i Group; Benchmark Capital; Elisa Group
Description: Sulake is an online community, entertainment, and media company focusing on virtual worlds, casual multiplayer games, and social networking. Sulake operates the Habbo community.

Mergers & Acquisitions:

Target: 19% stake in Neowiz
Acquirer: Electronic Arts
Transaction: $105 million (Announced 3/19/2007)

Target Description: Develops and publishes online games in Korea, marketing its products under its online game portal www.pmang.com.

Acquirer Intent: To expand the existing co-development and publishing relationship and bring new titles to new markets in Asia.

Target: AdScape Media
Acquirer: Google
Transaction: $23 million (Announced 2/15/2007)

Target Description: Adscape Media offers dynamic delivery of in-game advertising with plot and storyline integration.

Acquirer Intent: To add value to users, advertisers, and publishers through the addition of Adscape Media’s technology and team to Google’s current advertising solutions for advertisers and publishers.

Target: Skyworks
Acquirer: Gottaplay Interactive
Transaction: N/A (Announced 8/14/2006)

Target Description: Skyworks Technologies develops video game content to engage mass audiences across multiple platforms including online, web downloadable, hand held video game consoles, and mobile phones.

Acquirer Intent: To achieve core business strategy of being a cross-platform gaming leader, and to leverage Skyworks’ library of over 100 casual games for both online and mobile delivery through in-game advertising, subscription fees, and downloadable game revenues.

Target: Atom Entertainment
Acquirer: Viacom’s MTV Networks
Transaction: $200 million (Announced 8/9/2006)

Target Description: Provides marketing and distribution solutions of broadband entertainment, including online games, on-demand viewing of film, and animation titles.

Acquirer Intent: To advance its multiplatform strategy of building a universe of music, gaming, entertainment, news, and interactivity for targeted audiences.

Target: Eiko
Acquirer: Double Fusion
Transaction: N/A (Announced 5/10/2006)

Target Description: Eiko Media is a marketing agency that specializes in the promotion and utilization of emerging technologies to build marketing and branding campaigns.

Acquirer Intent: To offer the fullest range of marketing solutions, from dynamic in-game spot buys to fully-realized in-depth product placements with measurement and dynamic features.

Target: RedOctane
Acquirer: Activision
Transaction: N/A (Announced 5/9/2006)

Target Description: RedOctane is a publisher, developer, and distributor of interactive entertainment software, hardware, and accessories.

Acquirer Intent: To achieve an early leadership position in the fast-growing music-based gaming genre.

Target: Massive
Acquirer: Microsoft
Transaction: N/A (Announced 5/4/2006)

Target Description: Massive operates a network for dynamic video game advertising that allows for all forms of downloadable media and advertising content to be contextually integrated into the game environment, including image, audio, video, and game object formats.

Acquirer Intent: To broaden it’s commitment to providing advertisers with a highly effective means of reaching specific demographic groups of consumers in the rapidly growing and interactive medium of online gaming, incorporate dynamic advertising into other online environments, such as Windows Live and MSN, and to make it available on the adCenter advertising platform.

Target: Xfire
Acquirer: Viacom’s MTV Networks
Transaction: $102 million (Announced 4/25/2006)

Target Description: Xfire is a free tool that tracks when and where gamers are playing PC games online. It works across game type, server browser, or gaming service that a player is using.

Acquirer Intent: To build a universe of music, gaming, entertainment, news, networking, and interactivity for focused audiences as part of its multiplatform strategy.

Target: IGN
Acquirer: News Corporation
Transaction: $650 million (Announced 9/8/2005)

Target Description: IGN Entertainment is a leading Internet media and services company focused on the video game and entertainment enthusiast markets. The company’s network of videogame-related properties provides a video game information destination that attracts a concentrated audience of young males.

Acquirer Intent: To become a leading and profitable Internet presence by enhancing its online reach and furthering its strategy to leverage the unique competencies the company enjoys with its news, sports, and entertainment assets to create a leading Internet destination.

Target: Neopets
Acquirer: Viacom’s subsidiary MTV
Transaction: $160 million (Announced 6/21/2005)

Target Description: Neopets owns and operates a virtual pet site on the Internet offering games, trading, auctions, greetings, and messaging.

Acquirer Intent: To move forward in its multiplatform strategy in addition to aligning its audience with MTV Network brands.

Target: MiXTV
Acquirer: Zone4Play
Transaction: Stock (Announced 3/11/2005)

Target Description: Provides an end-to-end solution to deliver multi-player interactive TV applications to all analog, digital, terrestrial and DBS-based networks.

Target Description: Provides an end-to-end solution to deliver multi-player interactive TV applications to all analog, digital, terrestrial and DBS-based networks.

Target: Stadeon
Acquirer: Yahoo!
Transaction: N/A (Announced 3/4/2005)

Target Description: Stadeon enables players to use mobile devices while competing with players on PCs.

Acquirer Intent: To strengthen its online games business by expanding into mobile phone games.

Filed under the categories: California, Musings, San Francisco, San Jose

The weather in San Francisco was not the most cooperative for every kind of picture I wanted to take, but I did come away with a few interesting ones. I went a little Orton on this one, but I like the the results and the colorful glowing houses dotting the coast.

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, Travel

Whenever I shoot San Francisco, I think it JUST might be the very last shot before the big one hits. They say they pyramidal Transamerica building is fairly earthquake-proof, but I don’t really believe it.

I think if there was a big one, I would just climb out the window and slide down the outside, just in case. That seems like a pretty solid plan.

Filed under the categories: California, Musings, San Francisco, Travel

I have just joined MyBlogLog, so feel free to click here to join my community.

I had to spend about $300 in order to pay all the homeless people to get out of the way of this shot, but I think it was well worth it.

I like how cities are doing this artistic stuff and contracting with local artists. I’m not a fan of tax-supported public art, however. I heard that in Iceland that if you are a recognized, but unemployed artist, that the government will actually give you a regular stipend. Anyway, I digress.

Each corner of Union Square here in San Francisco had some uniquely painted heart. I thought this one was the coolest with the sky that day, so I had to grab a shot.

Filed under the categories: California, Musings, San Francisco, Travel

I am here in San Francisco for the Game Developer’s Conference. Believe it or not, I’ve had over 45 meetings so far and it’s only four days into the event. I’m so tired that I could barely even refuse when my friends at CCP Games in Iceland invited me to their little party tonight after dinner. Little did I know *what* kind of party it would be.

I show up, and it turns out that I am suddenly in this goth-vampire club in SOMA and the CCP guys have called in the cavalry of SF goth girls, vampiric wraiths, suicide girls, and the kind of people that sleep on leather sheets. I honestly don’t know where they found these people or where they were able to purchase insurance for this event.

The party was to celebrate Eve Online and its amazing success with over 180,000 players. They are also making a new announcement soon about something new they are doing (did they announce it somewhere)? Hilmar could have just thrown a little party in his hotel room and we could have ordered room service and had pillow fights, but he went with Reynir’s suggestion and decided to get whipped by women with a lot of iron in their blood.

I did not stay for too long because I started seeing strange things that can only be described properly with grunts and wild gesticulations. It shocks me how much these Nordic types can drink. The drinks were free, so it was like a non-stop Italian soccer match around the bar. None of them understood why I just ordered a Sprite. They looked at me like I didn’t like rotten shark.

Below you can see Reynir, the founder and visionary of Eve, with the dark hair. You can also see Hilmar, the CEO of CCP, with the sadistic faces and shock of red hair.

Below you can see Hilmar taking out years of frustration on Reynir. It was all in good fun until he sucker-punched him in the kidneys.

You may think that the face below is of Hilmar in pain, but this is how Hilmar usually looks. This is my payback to Hilmar for forcing me to eat Rotten Shark and Lamb Heart in Iceland.

All of this reminds me of my time in Iceland (other Iceland pics here), where I had a great time visiting their studio and the city. I think I know where they get their unique vision; everything there is so isolated from the self-replicating creative patterns in the rest of the world. Plus, they are surrounded by unique Eve-like architecture like the building below. How can you not want to make cool games when you have stuff like this you see every day?

Filed under the categories: California, Musings, San Francisco, Travel