http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:02:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Academy and I agreed on 5 out of 6 categories. We agreed No Country for Old Men deserved Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor. We agreed Daniel Day-Lewis deserved the honor of Best Actor, and Marion Cotillard was last years Best Actress. We disagreed on Best ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2008/02/25/the-academy-agrees/ Ack - I've got to run and do some errands before the show tonight, so no commentary about my best picture selection this year. Here's how I rank the category: #5 - Atonement   #4 - Michael Clayton #3 - There Will ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2008/02/24/best-picture/ I don't have much time today to put my last two picks together, so I'm going to go easy on the commentary and just add a few notes to each. First up, my selection for best achievement in directing, in reverse order as usual: #5 - Jason Reitman, Juno ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2008/02/24/best-director/ Next up, my selection for best actor. My thiking, in reverse order: #5 - Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah Tommy Lee Jones plays the role of Hank Deerfield, a former military officer who investigates the disappearance of his son who has returned ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2008/02/23/best-actor-in-a-leading-role/ So far, this category has the strongest set of nominees. All five performances were exceptional, and ranking them was tough. After debating about a few choices in particular, I settled on the following ranking: #5 - Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age Cate Blanchett plays ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2008/02/23/best-actress-in-a-leading-role/ Tonight I finished Into the Wild, the last movie I needed to watch to make my selection for best supporting actor. So, here is my thinking, in reverse order as usual: #5 - Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton Tom Wilkinson plays the role of Arthur Edens, ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2008/02/19/oscar-time-best-actor-in-a-supporting-role/ Two years ago I began the annual tradition of ranking all the Academy Award nominees, in each of the major categories. My goal isn't to pick who I expect the winners to be, instead I select who I would have voted for if I were an academy member. This year, there ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2008/02/17/oscar-time-best-actress-in-a-supporting-role/ To make my life easier, I've merged my Game Ads Blog with my personal blog. From now on, everything I post will be hosted at: http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/. I've setup a set of URL rewrite rules so links to gameadsblog.com will continue working. I've also mapped the Game Ads Blog RSS ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2008/02/09/blogs-merged/ Yesterday Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) announced that it was forming a new in-game advertising business unit. The unit is to be headed by Darlene Kindler who was previously VP of Publishing for Adscape Media. The announcement did get some press - I saw it mentioned on Gamasutra & Kotaku - ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/10/09/sony-forms-in-game-advertising-group/ [Originally posted on MySpace] It's Tails! ... doin what he does. http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/09/21/tails/ Disclaimer: I work at Massive, but the opinions expressed here are solely my own views and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer. Today Massive released a study revealing that in-game advertising is surprisingly effective. It was conducted by Nielsen Entertainment and examined various ad campaigns that ran in ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/08/08/in-game-ads-really-work/ Nielsen has released its first set of "GamePlay" metrics [pdf]. Here's a quick summary of what they included: Console Usage Report Trend - June 2007   June Console % of Total Mins Used # of Sessions During Days Played Avg Minutes Per Session PlayStation 2 42.3 1.95 62 Xbox 17.0 2.17 62 Xbox 360 8.0 2.21 61 GameCube 5.8 1.76 55 Wii 4.0 1.78 57 PlayStation 3 1.5 1.95 83 Other 21.3 1.84 62 All 100.0 1.99 62 Console Usage Report Trend - May 2007   May Console % of Total Mins Used # of ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/07/29/nielsen-gameplay-metrics-out/ A small housekeeping notice: I'm now returning 403's to any client that identifies itself as "Twisted PageGetter". Last month, this aggressive spider was responsible for 35% of my page-hit traffic. I've seen no letup this month so now it's blocked. A quick search shows this is the default agent for ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/07/17/blocked/ Predicting the growth of the in-game market seems to be a popular activity these days. Over the past three months four large reports have been released. Let's take a look at what they've got. In April, eMarketer released a 14 page report that examined video-game related advertising from a number of ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/07/12/numbers-game/ The underwater city of Rapture (from the upcoming game Bioshock) is a wonderful and mysterious place. Originally built for a utopian society, it had a wonderful art deco theme and beautiful architecture. But once Adam was discovered, the city suffered. Today it lies in a state of disrepair. Some areas ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/05/08/the-ads-of-rapture/ A roundup of some of the interesting items I’ve seen over the past week or so: Marketing in Second Life doesn’t work… here is why! From GigaOm, this is a really insightful post. Although the survey referenced is quite small (only 200 respondents), and I find the survey’s assertion a bit odd ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/04/08/second-life-statistics-secret-sauce-iga/ There's been a lot of hoopla today from various blogs and news sites about Xbox Live. c|net covered it, and it spread to Slashdot, Firing Squad, 1Up, Kotaku, Joystiq, Evil Avatar, and other sites quickly. There's just something about the words "Xbox", "Microsoft" and "Hack" that when combined cause ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/03/21/xbox-live-not-hacked/ Today Google confirmed that indeed it has acquired Adscape Media. As posted by Bernie Stolar on the Google Blog: ... we are so stoked to join Google -- because these guys get it, and are committed to helping us continue our mission. [Source] A FAQ has been posted, but doesn't offer financial ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/03/17/google-has-acquired-adscape/ Today Nielsen released a report on the recent rise in console gaming. Their findings, titled "The State of the Console", list the key takeaways: The console household universe has grown 18.5% since fourth quarter 2004, compared to a 1.6% growth in the total universe of television households. Two-thirds of all Men ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/03/06/nielsen-says-consoles-are-popular/ [Originally posted on MySpace] Well, the results are in. The winners were: Best Picture: The Departed Best Director: Martin Scorsese Best Actress: Helen Mirren Best Actor: Forest Whitaker Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin So how did I do?... Well, I got everything right. The academy on the other hand got 3 of the ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/02/26/oscar-results/ [Originally posted on MySpace] Finally, best actress... My picks, in reverse order... #5: Penelope Cruz – Volver I can't summarize the plot of this movie in just a few sentences, there are just too many important pieces and people that you need to know about. For my review, all you need to know ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/02/25/oscar-time-best-actress/ [Originally posted on MySpace] Next up, best actor... Here's my list, in reverse order as usual: #5: Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond Leonardo plays Danny Archer, a mercenary who overhears the tale of a father (Solomon) who's been separated from his family, and hid a huge diamond he found. Danny offers to help ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/02/24/oscar-time-best-actor-2/ Earlier this week, I noticed the following press release: Unicast by Viewpoint Releases InGame Advertising Product. Viewpoint is a technology company that has traditionally provided Internet ad technology. They provide both standard and rich ad formats (from banners, to floating ads, expandable ads, interactive ads, even full screen and AIM based ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/02/24/viewpoint-releases-in-game-ad-product/ A friend pointed me to an article from MTV News titled "Multiplayer: Is In-Game Advertising Really Such A Bad Thing" (it's buried in the middle of the page). The author Stephen Totilo talks about a recent demo he saw of the upcoming PC game, "Hellgate: London". Hellgate: London is a MMO ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/02/24/mtv-gamers-like-in-game-ads/ [Originally posted on MySpace] Next up, best supporting actress… I know everyone thinks Jennifer Hudson is going to win it this year, but what do I think? Read on... Here are my picks, in reverse order: #5: Cate Blanchett – Notes on a Scandal Cate Blanchett plays a young teacher (Sheba) who befriends ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/02/22/oscar-time-best-supporting-actress-2/ [Originally posted on MySpace] So, last year I decided that I would watch all the movies nominated for the top Oscar awards and pick my favorites. It was a lot of fun, so I've done it again this year. The next few posts are going to be all about what I ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/02/20/oscar-time-best-supporting-actor-2/ RED HERRING confirms this week that Google will indeed buy Adscape media for $23 million. This comes a month after it was rumored that Google was interested in purchasing the in-game advertiser. I wrote about this rumor last month. See the previous post: Rumor: Google to Buy Adscape. In that post, I ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/02/17/confirmed-google-buys-adscape/ As reported (paid subscription required) in the Wall Street Times yesterday, Google is considering acquiring Adscape Media. Last week I speculated that such an acquisition would be unlikely for Google. With all the press - let me take a closer look at Adscape and what might make them attractive to ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/01/22/rumor-google-to-buy-adscape/ Recently, I added my gamercard to my email signature at work. Other people took notice and asked me how I did it. It's not a difficult process, just a lengthy one. Step 1: Get a signature... Visit one of the free online gamercard services and signup. Options I know of: http://www.mygamercard.net/ http://www.glop.org/gamercard/ http://www.livecard.net/ When you signup, ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/01/15/put-your-gamercard-in-outlook/ From Andre @ Ozymandias: As promised, here are my game industry predictions for 2007 ... Google will show significant public interest in the gaming sector for the first time, including interest in acquisitions to bolster their Ad-sense business. The most likely target will be IGA Worldwide (to combat Microsoft’s ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/01/11/google-to-do-in-game-ads/ From Penny-Arcade, posted 10/19/1006 Make sure to download the accompanying podcast. I was laughing my ass off: 10/20/06 - Advertising In The Future (MP3) 10/19/06 - Advertising In The Future - by Tycho (blog) I'm not going to comment on the privacy concerns with in-game advertising just yet. Gamer privacy is a really important ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/01/08/advertising-in-the-future/ Hi! I created this blog so I had a place to comment on news and offer opinions on the world of in-game advertising. For some gamers, advertising in videogames is a polarizing subject. Some gamers feel that advertising pollutes the game experience while only benefiting the wallets of publishers. Others believe ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2007/01/06/welcome-2/ Welcome. I created this blog as a way to keep track of my interests, ideas, personal memories, achievements, and failures. As time passes, I plan to update this site with thoughts and opinions as they strike me. I have a poor memory, so perhaps this will help me keep things ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2006/08/27/welcome/ [Originally posted on MySpace] I just finished watching the Academy Awards... Good show this year, John Stewart did an awesome job - the Best Actress & Best Sound Mixer promotional ads were really funny.. =) I'm happy to see that 50% of the academy agreed with my selections. We both picked: Best Motion ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2006/03/06/5050/ [Originally posted on MySpace] Well, it's the last installment... I'm posting a bit late tonight (spent the evening snowboarding again) because we had to drop Striker off at the hospital. He landed on his wrist when trying to land a jump. Hopefully it's not broken and he can keep playing Geometry ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2006/03/02/oscar-time-best-motion-picture-of-the-year/ [Originally posted on MySpace] I didn't get a chance to post over the weekend - we got a ton of rain on Thursday, which required another evening snowboard trip Friday. Went cruising with a bunch of other Microsoft-ies on Saturday... Had a going away party for a friend on Sunday.... In ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2006/02/28/oscar-time-best-achievement-in-directing/ [Originally posted on MySpace] Pride & Prejudice = DONE... So, here are my thoughts about the nominees for Best Leading Actress: #5: Charlize Theron for North Country On the whole, I wasn't very impressed with Charlize in this movie. Her character did not provide her with enough fresh material to really shine... So ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2006/02/24/oscar-time-best-leading-actress/ [Originally posted on MySpace] Another night, another movie... Tonight I watched North Country which means I can bring you my picks for Best Supporting Actress... #5: Catherine Keener for Capote I remember Harper Lee as a mostly a sounding board for Capote's brainstorming sessions... Sure, there's a part of the movie where she ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2006/02/21/oscar-time-best-supporting-actress/ [Originally posted on MySpace] Tonight, my picks for best supporting actor... #5: William Hurt for A History of Violence I don't know what to make of this nomination. William Hurt is only in A History of Violence for one scene, perhaps less than 10 minutes overall. IMO, Ed Harris should have received the ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2006/02/20/oscar-time-best-supporting-actor/ [Originally posted on MySpace] It's Oscar time... Every year I have a few favorites going in, but I've never actually seen all the movies nominated. This year, I'm taking a few hours out of each night to screen movies nominated for the top categories. Over the next week I'll post my ... http://www.jeffcarnahan.com/blog/2006/02/16/oscar-time-best-actor/