• Ozz (unregistered)

    I'll leave a comment... after the game is released...

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    POW!

    Just like that, and this comment is already worth BILLIONS! That's what you get when you advertise in the right places!

  • Roy T. (unregistered)

    The funny thing is, someone asked me todo the exact same thing for him. Why do people keep expecting that programmers can make you millionairs! We are just tools! (like any employee is to a business)

  • (cs)

    This is truly a WTF. It does make me want to try "venturethevoid.com" though ;p

  • Rob (unregistered)

    I had exactly the same experience with some loony who wanted to start a hedge-fund based on his ideas for algorithmic trading and my programming. I did some proof of concept and not a single one of his ideas could be shown to turn a profit, yet he was convinced that once he had a programmer on the team he would magically start earning millions.

  • Craig Greenhouse (unregistered)

    First! Game Over :-)

  • (cs) in reply to Rob
    Rob:
    he was convinced that once he had a programmer on the team he would magically start earning millions.
    Japanese millions? Zimbabwean millions? This sort of thing matters.
  • Forte (unregistered)

    you don't row a canoe. you paddle it.

  • greg (unregistered)

    Wow. I had a job interview just like that before. "Idea Guys". These guys, however, were in the 'legitimate' 900 number 'service' industry. The disgusting thing is they are the ones who get venture capital.

  • (cs)

    First I build this thing that sends a well-formatted query to IP resolved from address 'thedailywtf.com', then this another thing takes the text that I got from the first thing and builds a visual map for a third thing to display on my computer screen.

    Then I write a comment in the third thing through a fourth thing that does all the IO handling that looks like a text box (the thing, not the thing) and click on the thing in the thing that looks like a button and POW, instant comment.

  • Drew (unregistered)

    Venture of the Void sounds like an interesting game. I'll have to go check it out. :)

  • ping floyd (unregistered) in reply to Roy T.
    Roy T.:
    We are just tools!
    Hey, you said it, not me... :-)
  • Eric (unregistered) in reply to Rob
    Rob:
    I had exactly the same experience with some loony who wanted to start a hedge-fund based on his ideas for algorithmic trading and my programming. I did some proof of concept and not a single one of his ideas could be shown to turn a profit, yet he was convinced that once he had a programmer on the team he would magically start earning millions.
    Step 1: Code algorithms. Step 2: ??? Step 3: PROFIT!
  • EatenByAGrue (unregistered) in reply to greg
    greg:
    Wow. I had a job interview just like that before. "Idea Guys". These guys, however, were in the 'legitimate' 900 number 'service' industry. The disgusting thing is they are the ones who get venture capital.

    Better than being in a really dirty business like banking.

  • idfk (unregistered)

    Popular MMOs don't advertise in-game. Google advertising themselves?? That would be like an Apple computer coming with a free "Switch to Mac" ad inside.

  • St Mary's Hospital for the Broken Ideas (unregistered)

    And Venture the Void ONLY has 25 players?

    Holy mother of God.

    I thought hundreds of pubescent would fall for that game. Especially before getting to know WoW.

  • Yup (unregistered) in reply to Forte

    Maybe that's why he never made it to his final destination.

  • St Mary's Hospital for the Broken Ideas (unregistered) in reply to St Mary's Hospital for the Broken Ideas
    St Mary's Hospital for the Broken Ideas:
    And Venture the Void ONLY has 25 players?

    Err:

    In total there are 3159 space cadets playing in 110 games.

    But the server is down :-D

  • (cs)

    If you look at craiglist there are always "idea" guys looking for programmers. And no, I'm not talking about the casual encounters section.

  • (cs) in reply to St Mary's Hospital for the Broken Ideas
    St Mary's Hospital for the Broken Ideas:
    And Venture the Void ONLY has 25 players?

    Holy mother of God.

    I thought hundreds of pubescent would fall for that game. Especially before getting to know WoW.

    That would be 25 paying players. Pubescents have lots of time to play games, but no money or credit cards. This is the same reason I decided not to start a Ragnarok MMO server, as the only assurance I was given about income was through "donations".

    My sister and I have played on other Ragnarok servers. None of the players I've known have donated, including ourselves. I doubt donations would keep something like that up.

  • mamelouk (unregistered) in reply to Eric

    I couldn't summarize it better

  • (cs)

    WTF...just WTF...is this real? Somebody tell me this isn't real...

  • mamelouk (unregistered) in reply to Eric
    Eric:
    Step 1: Code algorithms. Step 2: ??? Step 3: PROFIT!

    I couldn't summarize it better

  • Steerpike (unregistered)

    No one else got uncomfortable reading a story that was making fun of someone that seemed pretty clearly mentally ill?

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    POW!

    Just like that, and this comment is already worth BILLIONS! That's what you get when you advertise in the right places!

    POW!

    Just like that, my 401(k) is alreay worth NOTHING! Oh, wait, that's not because of this game.

    Never mind.

  • (cs)

    Jeff seems like the kind of character I'd expect to see on an episode of "Law and Order: SVU".

  • Dave A (unregistered)

    So thats how WOW started off? I bet Keith's kicking himself now...

  • Jay (unregistered) in reply to EatenByAGrue
    EatenByAGrue:
    greg:
    Wow. I had a job interview just like that before. "Idea Guys". These guys, however, were in the 'legitimate' 900 number 'service' industry. The disgusting thing is they are the ones who get venture capital.

    Better than being in a really dirty business like banking.

    Or government.

  • brillant (unregistered) in reply to axus
    axus:
    This is truly a WTF. It does make me want to try "venturethevoid.com" though ;p

    So advertising HERE will make them BILLONS! BRILLANT!

  • (cs) in reply to mamelouk
    mamelouk:
    Eric:
    Step 1: Code algorithms. Step 2: ??? Step 3: PROFIT!
    I couldn't summarize it better
    :: slaps forehead ::

    Now I know what I'm doing wrong! I have been following the wrong scheme all this time, never getting to the "Profit" phase!

    Step 1: Code algorithms Step 2: Test Step 3: Go back to step 1.

  • edgeCase (unregistered)

    Hmm, maybe Kevin should have asked for 2% of the proceeds Venture the Void is getting from thedailywtf.

  • CaRL (unregistered)

    My cousin's friend wanted me to make him a quick web site "just like ebay, only for used cars". His expectation was that we would slap it together in a few evenings by email -- him providing the design ("make it just like ebay") and me turning that into code by clicking the secret "create website" button or whatever it is we developers do.

    We would make millions. Well actually, he would, being his idea you know.

  • Mike (unregistered)

    OMG.. I think I might have worked for this guy. Though I got a (pithy) salary. Sounds like the same hare-brained thinking, though.

  • Zapp Brannigan (unregistered) in reply to Steerpike
    Steerpike:
    No one else got uncomfortable reading a story that was making fun of someone that seemed pretty clearly mentally ill?
    Let me see with a show of hands... Nope, just you.
  • (cs) in reply to Zapp Brannigan
    Zapp Brannigan:
    Steerpike:
    No one else got uncomfortable reading a story that was making fun of someone that seemed pretty clearly mentally ill?
    Let me see with a show of hands... Nope, just you.

    Holds hand up. Not just you.

  • (cs) in reply to Eric
    Eric:
    Step 1: Code algorithms. Step 2: ??? Step 3: PROFIT!

    Given the number of people here who are now checking out venturethevoid.com, perhaps this should be:

    Step 1: Get friend to interview somewhere WTFy Step 2: Get mentioned in passing on The Daily WTF Step 3: ??? Step 4: Profit!

  • Mark Draughn (unregistered) in reply to Steerpike
    Steerpike:
    No one else got uncomfortable reading a story that was making fun of someone that seemed pretty clearly mentally ill?
    Little bit.

    You can't always tell, though. Sometimes it's a fine line between genius and madness. I've run into a couple of guys who sounded only slightly less crazy than Jeff but had real money because a few of their thousands of ideas had hit it big. One of them even had a combination laboratory/machine shop/electrical shop in his basement, making him the closest thing to a mad scientist I've ever met.

    Then there are the marketing types, because sometimes it's a fine line between marketing and madness. They say the same kinds of things as Jeff, but they also tell you they have a digital artist, a Google senior researcher, the Department of Defense, and someone at Pixar interested in the project...

  • (cs)

    If it were me, the interview would have ended before it began, once I found myself looking up at a residential apartment building.

  • Zaratustra (unregistered)

    Thinking you can make a MMO in six months and rake the money in seems to be a prevalent disease in the industry.

  • Adam K (unregistered)

    This is exactly like my last job. My boss couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why his "stores" (which were just Amazon affiliates) weren't pulling in high page ranks for "shoes" and "baby products." After the second or third week I gave up trying to explain it to him and I blindly obeyed everything he wanted coded. Thankfully he paid well.

  • Huhwut (unregistered)

    Call me a cynic, but this story (however good it may be) just feels like a good bait for free publicity to Venture the Void.

  • Someone That's Not You (unregistered)

    Ok look, he's not mentally ill, just stupid. It's a disease that 80% of humanity suffers from. We just happen to have social niches that don't put us into TOO much contact with them. Sounds like this guy just happen to find someone who's in the bottom of the barrel.

  • (cs) in reply to Adam K
    Adam K:
    This is exactly like my last job. My boss couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why his "stores" (which were just Amazon affiliates) weren't pulling in high page ranks for "shoes" and "baby products." After the second or third week I gave up trying to explain it to him and I blindly obeyed everything he wanted coded. Thankfully he paid well.

    If it paid well, your last job was probably NOT exactly like this.

  • Schnapple (unregistered) in reply to Steerpike
    Steerpike:
    No one else got uncomfortable reading a story that was making fun of someone that seemed pretty clearly mentally ill?

    I don't think he was mentally ill. He was introverted, not terribly bright, and a bit of a social retard, but I don't think he was literally mentally ill.

  • Schnapple (unregistered) in reply to Roy T.
    Roy T.:
    The funny thing is, someone asked me todo the exact same thing for him. Why do people keep expecting that programmers can make you millionairs! We are just tools! (like any employee is to a business)

    OK, so honest discussion question:

    You're someone who is not a programmer, but you have a brilliant idea. And just for fun let's say it really is a brilliant idea. Like, it's the next Google.

    But you don't have a lick of programming chops. And you know for a fact that you can't learn how to either (and again, just for fun, let's say that this is actually true - you're the kind of person who just doesn't have the mental capacity to learn programming).

    And you don't know anyone at all in real life who can program.

    And you have no money whatsoever or hope of being able to pull down venture capital.

    But you have this idea that is going to make Google look like a cakewalk.

    Is it really that insane of an idea to try and see if you can find a programmer willing to turn your idea into gold with the premise that you won't be able to pay them until you can make money, but once the idea is making money they'll be paid very well?

    And is it really that much of a stretch to think that you couldn't find someone willing to do this? Someone who's got programming chops but is financially secure? Someone willing to do this in their spare time (see: FOSS)?

  • anon (unregistered)

    I especially like that my virus scanner classified the VtV client as malware (based on heuristics).

  • jscott (unregistered) in reply to CaRL
    CaRL:
    We would make millions. Well actually, he would, being his idea you know.

    I actually like his idea: http://www.motors.ebay.com

  • Calli Arcale (unregistered)

    Okay, so there's a great WTF story in this, but am I the only one who thinks it's just totally cool that this guy was trying to canoe from Calgary to New Orleans?

    That takes GUTS. Very cool indeed.

    And I was impressed by the kids, fresh out of college, who paddled from St Paul to Hudson Bay last summer. Wow. Very cool. Now I want to go look at maps and try to figure out what route he took. From Winnepeg to the Twin Cities is fairly straightforward (Red River to Minnesota River to Mississippi River), but I'm not sure how you get from Calgary to Winnepeg by canoe. I have little doubt that its doable, though, provided one has enough time and doesn't mind a few blisters.

  • A.T. (unregistered)

    This venture the void game looks cool, but I don't want to pay 25$ for it. Can't you just tell Calvin to provide a free online account that will be financed with ads?

  • (cs) in reply to Schnapple
    Schnapple:
    Is it really that insane of an idea to try and see if you can find a programmer willing to turn your idea into gold with the premise that you won't be able to pay them until you can make money, but once the idea is making money they'll be paid very well?

    And is it really that much of a stretch to think that you couldn't find someone willing to do this? Someone who's got programming chops but is financially secure? Someone willing to do this in their spare time (see: FOSS)?

    Yes it is a stretch. Go to one of your favorite video games that actually lists credits. Something like Guitar Hero or Portal -- anything with credits. Now read them.

    Seriously, read them. I'll wait.

    You're back? Notice how many people are involved? Granted, that's for a polished video game, but the point is, it takes more than a single programmer with good chops, spare time, and a retirement fund. At some point you'll need more resources. What about customer support? QA? Accounting? This is why business plans exist.

Leave a comment on “Rolling in the Money”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article