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Yes, I would have. I'm quite concerned about the increasingly nasty tone on HN, of which your comment is a startling example. I've read a lot of the comments

by pg 17y ago

Yes, I would have. I'm quite concerned about the increasingly nasty tone on HN, of which your comment is a startling example. I've read a lot of the comments on HN over the last 3 years and I've seen few so venomous. And ironically, completely mistaken. Pocket Fun Games has two founders, one of them male, and they are one of the most profitable companies from their YC cycle.

culvercity 17y ago
Don't take MY word for it, I'll quote Pocket Fun Games directly: "Magic Wars has just had a great article written by techcrunch.com (thanks to the ppl who left such nice comments!) As a single developer, I don’t have any money to spend on advertising MW so i’m really relying on this kind of press to help the app grow." Note her use of "I" everywhere instead of "we", and the press coverage that mentions her as the only maker of the game. All three of: the web site, twitter feed, and blog have not been updated in more than 6 months. If you're claiming this as one of your top successes, it doesn't sound very complimentary to the rest of the companies. Anyway, relative success is a facile claim when it's well-known most of them will be pre-revenue for a long time, hence any amount of virtual gold sales compares favorably to zero. Her being a single founder would poke holes in both of these pieces of advice: that the most important thing is to get a co-founder; and not to get one just for the sake of getting one -- apparently, a single founder who doesn't need a second one to DO the work still finds it useful to add a buddy to the application form to get past your anti-single-founder bias. If a reality check sounds like "poison" or "venom" to you, that may be an indication you spend too much time in a bubble. A lot of people are artificially nice to you in an attempt to curry favor, because they think you're their shot at striking it rich. Having people around who go to the trouble of calling you out on things -- rightly or wrongly -- is invaluable, because it's an opportunity for perspective. (You know who never gets called out on anything? Grandpa. Because he makes himself such a pain to disagree with, everyone eventually just pretends like they agree in order to placate him; and with no challenge and no-one to get him out of his rut, he withers away.) Sure, with volume investing, you'll eventually hit it big -- but that's like entering the Frito-Lay sweepstakes 1.65 million times. It doesn't take any particular skill.
culvercity2 17y ago
Don't take MY word for it, I'll quote Pocket Fun Games directly: "Magic Wars has just had a great article written by techcrunch.com (thanks to the ppl who left such nice comments!) As a single developer, I don’t have any money to spend on advertising MW so i’m really relying on this kind of press to help the app grow." Note her use of "I" everywhere instead of "we", and the press coverage that mentions her as the only maker of the game. All three of: the web site, twitter feed, and blog have not been updated in more than 6 months. If you're claiming this as one of your top successes, it doesn't sound very complimentary to the rest of the companies. Anyway, relative success is a facile claim when it's well-known most of them will be pre-revenue for a long time, hence any amount of virtual gold sales compares favorably to zero. Her being a single founder would poke holes in both of these pieces of advice: that the most important thing is to get a co-founder; and not to get one just for the sake of getting one -- apparently, a single founder who doesn't need a second one to DO the work still finds it useful to add a buddy to the application form to get past your anti-single-founder bias. If a reality check sounds like "poison" or "venom" to you, that may be an indication you spend too much time in a bubble. A lot of people are artificially nice to you in an attempt to curry favor, because they think you're their shot at striking it rich. Having people around who go to the trouble of calling you out on things -- rightly or wrongly -- is invaluable, because it's an opportunity for perspective. (You know who never gets called out on anything? Grandpa. Because he makes himself such a pain to disagree with, everyone eventually just pretends like they agree in order to placate him; and with no challenge and no-one to get him out of his rut, he withers away.) Sure, with volume investing, you'll eventually hit it big -- but that's like entering the Frito-Lay sweepstakes 1.65 million times. It doesn't take any particular skill.
culvercity3 17y ago
Don't take MY word for it, I'll quote Pocket Fun Games directly: "Magic Wars has just had a great article written by techcrunch.com (thanks to the ppl who left such nice comments!) As a single developer, I don’t have any money to spend on advertising MW so i’m really relying on this kind of press to help the app grow." Note her use of "I" everywhere instead of "we", and the press coverage that mentions her as the only maker of the game. All three of: the web site, twitter feed, and blog have not been updated in more than 6 months. If you're claiming this as one of your top successes, it doesn't sound very complimentary to the rest of the companies. Anyway, relative success is a facile claim when it's well-known most of them will be pre-revenue for a long time, hence any amount of virtual gold sales compares favorably to zero. Her being a single founder would poke holes in both of these pieces of advice: that the most important thing is to get a co-founder; and not to get one just for the sake of getting one -- apparently, a single founder who doesn't need a second one to DO the work still finds it useful to add a buddy to the application form to get past your anti-single-founder bias. If a reality check sounds like "poison" or "venom" to you, that may be an indication you spend too much time in a bubble. A lot of people are artificially nice to you in an attempt to curry favor, because they think you're their shot at striking it rich. Having people around who go to the trouble of calling you out on things -- rightly or wrongly -- is invaluable, because it's an opportunity for perspective. (You know who never gets called out on anything? Grandpa. Because he makes himself such a pain to disagree with, everyone eventually just pretends like they agree in order to placate him; and with no challenge and no-one to get him out of his rut, he withers away.) Sure, with volume investing, you'll eventually hit it big -- but that's like entering the Frito-Lay sweepstakes 1.65 million times. It doesn't take any particular skill.

by pg 17y ago

culvercity 17y ago

Don't take MY word for it, I'll quote Pocket Fun Games directly: "Magic Wars has just had a great article written by techcrunch.com (thanks to the ppl who left such nice comments!) As a single developer, I don’t have any money to spend on advertising MW so i’m really relying on this kind of press to help the app grow." Note her use of "I" everywhere instead of "we", and the press coverage that mentions her as the only maker of the game. All three of: the web site, twitter feed, and blog have not been updated in more than 6 months. If you're claiming this as one of your top successes, it doesn't sound very complimentary to the rest of the companies. Anyway, relative success is a facile claim when it's well-known most of them will be pre-revenue for a long time, hence any amount of virtual gold sales compares favorably to zero. Her being a single founder would poke holes in both of these pieces of advice: that the most important thing is to get a co-founder; and not to get one just for the sake of getting one -- apparently, a single founder who doesn't need a second one to DO the work still finds it useful to add a buddy to the application form to get past your anti-single-founder bias. If a reality check sounds like "poison" or "venom" to you, that may be an indication you spend too much time in a bubble. A lot of people are artificially nice to you in an attempt to curry favor, because they think you're their shot at striking it rich. Having people around who go to the trouble of calling you out on things -- rightly or wrongly -- is invaluable, because it's an opportunity for perspective. (You know who never gets called out on anything? Grandpa. Because he makes himself such a pain to disagree with, everyone eventually just pretends like they agree in order to placate him; and with no challenge and no-one to get him out of his rut, he withers away.) Sure, with volume investing, you'll eventually hit it big -- but that's like entering the Frito-Lay sweepstakes 1.65 million times. It doesn't take any particular skill.

culvercity2 17y ago

culvercity3 17y ago