Matt Raoul's Barbarian Blog

Dream a little dream...of flying space tigers

matt@barbariangroup.com(Matt Raoul) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:51:51 -0500

OH boy oh boy oh boy. Are we ever excited about this one. For about a year we have been hard at work creating an awesome experience for Pepcid Max alongside JWT and we are finally thrilled to announce the launch of Max My Dream !!!

‘Max My Dream’ visualizes the sweet dreams you have after a peaceful night’s sleep with Pecid Max. Wether you are dreaming about puppies in space or political discourse, ‘Max My Dream’ visualizes everything. Yeah, everything. We were thrilled with the challenge and really pushed the tech and visual design to achieve our goal. So get ready, we are gonna get really into it here, but it’s really freaking awesome.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Except only Automobiles.

matt@barbariangroup.com(Matt Raoul) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:48:40 -0500

As any really cool dude will tell you, it’s hard to schedule nights to play video games online with friends. Who wants to play what? When are you going to be home? Are you going to fall asleep at the controller at 1AM and just start mumbling about waffles? (This is a true story.) We play a lot of video games around here, which is why we were thrilled to have the opportunity to work with EA and the Need for Speed team on their latest racing game, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, and its new game to web feature, Autolog.

Fans of the series need no explanation, Hot Pursuit is awesome. Cops and racers, expansive and beautiful environments, the sickest cars, white knuckled races, the thrill of the chase, the sweet smell of burning rubber through the countryside… Annnnd I’m back. Yeah it’s awesome, and with Criterion Games (of Burnout fame) as the development studio, it’s going to be a winner.

New this time to the Need for Speed franchise is an exciting set of social features called Autolog. Autolog powers Hot Pursuit, tracking your career progress, accomplishments, fastest times, friends activity and more. Autolog’s recommendation engine listens to what you and your friends are doing within the game to deliver personalized events and races. Autolog’s features come to life not only on the console, but also on the web. With EA, TBG created a site for Hot Pursuit where you can interact with Autolog in nearly the same way you do on the console. For example, selecting race recommendations to play later based on your friends performance, talking smack on your friend’s wall about their (lack of) driving skills, and comparing statistics between you and your buddies’ racing careers. It’s pretty awesome. No longer do you need to be online at the same time to race your frienemies. It’s a brand new way to play with your friends, and we know it’s going to be huge.

Like a rare albino marmoset, we are super stoked to get this out in the wild and are truly proud to be working with EA as they introduce a new kind of social gaming. Go out, get the game, use Autolog, and we’ll see you in Seacrest County. Well, in our rear view mirror that is. RACING HUMOR!!!!!

No really, eat our dust.

Need for Speed – Hot Pursuit

Roofies 2: We Are Not Alone

matt@barbariangroup.com(Matt Raoul) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:44:30 -0400

Well, here we are again folks. Another month, another night of debauchery on our roof. Roofies 2 happened this week, and once again some great friends came out to hang out on our roof, enjoy some booze and snacks, and discuss such things as politics, sustainable agriculture, and Rupert Wainwright movies. You’re googling that aren’t you? No need, his best piece was Blank Check.

ROOFIES: The Aftermath

matt@barbariangroup.com(Matt Raoul) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:56:19 -0400

Before we get into things here, let’s lay some ground work. A little backstory, if you will.

1) TBG has recently moved to a brand new NY Office, nestled in lush TriBeCa. It is a very nice office.

2) It has recently been hellishly hot in NY. Blah blah record highs blah blah. I’m surprised Con Ed made it through the summer.

3) We finally had some nice weather that didn’t make you want to throw up as soon as you went outside.

Taking all of these things into account, The clear next step was to throw a party on our awesome new roof deck. Oh did I mention that? yeah I guess that is important. I suck at blogging…

You sound like you're from London!!!

matt@barbariangroup.com(Matt Raoul) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:00:35 -0500

The best things come in eights. Hotdog rolls. Octopus legs. Sides of an octagon. Pizza slices. Cheese wedges. Loopwheeler hoodies per day. What? Oh yes…Only eight loopwheeler hoodies are made each day. Thus is the allure of the AW77 Loopwheeler, the star of the Nike Sportswear line. And now, Nike wants everyone to know just how much they care about these hoodies and how they have perfected them since their initial design in 1977. The same year that Elvis performed his last-ever concert. Coincidence? Yes, completely.

Enter AW77 Stories, our new site for NSW in conjunction with Vice. London stories serves dual purpose, much like swiffers. It showcases the AW77 along with several other products from the NSW line in situ. All products are modeled on subjects that live in a giant, interactive panorama. Further inspection unveils some beautiful shots of the products awesome details. We all really dug the two-color pocket zips.

The site also showcases several London influencers, curated and shot by Vice.