4 ms·

It's pretty hilarious that first Stewart Butterfield tried to make an MMO (Game Neverending), failed at that, and ended up making a fortune on the spinoff, Flic

It's pretty hilarious that first Stewart Butterfield tried to make an MMO (Game Neverending), failed at that, and ended up making a fortune on the spinoff, Flickr. Then he tried to make another MMO (Glitch), failed at that, and ended up making a fortune on the spinoff, Slack. I hope he tries to make another MMO.

mettamage 7y ago
I feel naive for asking: how would you come up with Flickr as a spinoff for an MMO? A chat application, yea seems fair, but Flickr? I am seriously withholding my urge to spam question marks on this page as they are dancing around my head.
- Kiro 7y ago
  Is it so hard to imagine a photo sharing feature inside the game? MMOs can be anything.
  - Ensorceled 7y ago
    Yes. Can you please explain or give an example of an MMO where photo sharing is a major mechanic or important MVP feature?
    - Kiro 7y ago
      Why does it need to be a major mechanic? It was a feature in Game Neverending and they used that to build Flickr.
      - Ensorceled 7y ago
        I was replying to somebody who was annoyed that somebody was surprised there was a photo uploading and sharing feature. It’s a surprising feature because it isn’t a major mechanic.
    - Aromasin 7y ago
      I mean, if a developer made an MMO akin to the old Pokémon Snap game I'd be over the moon.
- Y-bar 7y ago
  I remember reading a story that it was a screenshot upload and sharing tool. But it’s a vague memory possibility based on hearsay.
- bschne 7y ago
  Caterina Fake talked about this on Tim Ferris' podcast [1] and Gimlet's "Without Fail" together right, they applied for a government start-up grant when building the MMO and didn't get it. However they had accidentally chosen to automatically resubmit the application a year later. Around the time the MMO failed, they received the grant from the second application. They had something vaguely similar to photo-sharing chat in the game, related to discussing inventory items, and decided to transition to that as a photo-sharing IM client and use the grant to get it off the ground. > As part of the game, they’d developed this interface where players could create an inventory of objects that they would pick up. That inventory looked like this sort of shoebox of photos. You could drag those photos into group conversations for other people to see and you could annotate them. And you could share the photos with other people. And that was the idea that Caterina and the people on her team wanted to transition to. (from 2.) As an aside, I highly recommend listening to the full interviews, as she has an interesting background and some good perspectives on tech in general. She also just launched a podcast that considers the ethics of some new tech developments [3]. --- [1] https://tim.blog/2019/02/21/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts-caterina-fake-360/ https://tim.blog/2019/02/21/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts... [2] https://gimletmedia.com/shows/without-fail/rnh444/the-accidental-technologist-caterina https://gimletmedia.com/shows/without-fail/rnh444/the-accide... [3] https://shouldthisexist.com/ https://shouldthisexist.com/
- james_pm 7y ago
  For the longest time, Flickr had URLs ending in .gne which was thanks to it's start as Game Neverending.
nstart 7y ago
I just want him to set aside a fund for remaking glitch. The most ambitiously cooperative mmo I ever played. I miss it everytime I think about it :(
- viig99 7y ago
  I wish i can play glitch again!
oliyoung 7y ago
Guy Raz's podcast How I Made This does a whole episode on it, it's excellent https://www.npr.org/2018/07/27/633164558/slack-flickr-stewart-butterfield https://www.npr.org/2018/07/27/633164558/slack-flickr-stewar...
ricklamers 7y ago
I think this might actually be a really nice insight: they adapted by shifting their focus based on user/customer feedback/learnings to the extent of completely changing the core of what they are doing/making. This level of adaptability might explain part of their success. Rather than naively sticking to your original vision, identifying where you have the opportunity to create value and changing direction based on that insight.

mettamage 7y ago

I feel naive for asking: how would you come up with Flickr as a spinoff for an MMO? A chat application, yea seems fair, but Flickr? I am seriously withholding my urge to spam question marks on this page as they are dancing around my head.

Kiro 7y ago
Is it so hard to imagine a photo sharing feature inside the game? MMOs can be anything.
- Ensorceled 7y ago
  Yes. Can you please explain or give an example of an MMO where photo sharing is a major mechanic or important MVP feature?
  - Kiro 7y ago
    Why does it need to be a major mechanic? It was a feature in Game Neverending and they used that to build Flickr.
    - Ensorceled 7y ago
      I was replying to somebody who was annoyed that somebody was surprised there was a photo uploading and sharing feature. It’s a surprising feature because it isn’t a major mechanic.
  - Aromasin 7y ago
    I mean, if a developer made an MMO akin to the old Pokémon Snap game I'd be over the moon.
Y-bar 7y ago
I remember reading a story that it was a screenshot upload and sharing tool. But it’s a vague memory possibility based on hearsay.
bschne 7y ago
Caterina Fake talked about this on Tim Ferris' podcast [1] and Gimlet's "Without Fail" together right, they applied for a government start-up grant when building the MMO and didn't get it. However they had accidentally chosen to automatically resubmit the application a year later. Around the time the MMO failed, they received the grant from the second application. They had something vaguely similar to photo-sharing chat in the game, related to discussing inventory items, and decided to transition to that as a photo-sharing IM client and use the grant to get it off the ground. > As part of the game, they’d developed this interface where players could create an inventory of objects that they would pick up. That inventory looked like this sort of shoebox of photos. You could drag those photos into group conversations for other people to see and you could annotate them. And you could share the photos with other people. And that was the idea that Caterina and the people on her team wanted to transition to. (from 2.) As an aside, I highly recommend listening to the full interviews, as she has an interesting background and some good perspectives on tech in general. She also just launched a podcast that considers the ethics of some new tech developments [3]. --- [1] https://tim.blog/2019/02/21/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts-caterina-fake-360/ https://tim.blog/2019/02/21/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts... [2] https://gimletmedia.com/shows/without-fail/rnh444/the-accidental-technologist-caterina https://gimletmedia.com/shows/without-fail/rnh444/the-accide... [3] https://shouldthisexist.com/ https://shouldthisexist.com/
james_pm 7y ago
For the longest time, Flickr had URLs ending in .gne which was thanks to it's start as Game Neverending.

nstart 7y ago

I just want him to set aside a fund for remaking glitch. The most ambitiously cooperative mmo I ever played. I miss it everytime I think about it :(

viig99 7y ago
I wish i can play glitch again!

oliyoung 7y ago

Guy Raz's podcast How I Made This does a whole episode on it, it's excellent https://www.npr.org/2018/07/27/633164558/slack-flickr-stewart-butterfield https://www.npr.org/2018/07/27/633164558/slack-flickr-stewar...

ricklamers 7y ago

I think this might actually be a really nice insight: they adapted by shifting their focus based on user/customer feedback/learnings to the extent of completely changing the core of what they are doing/making. This level of adaptability might explain part of their success. Rather than naively sticking to your original vision, identifying where you have the opportunity to create value and changing direction based on that insight.