8 ms·

Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

20 points by keating 18y ago

keating 18y ago
A friend sent this to me. I thought it was a great lesson for entrepreneurs. If I could channel that kind of determination... If the above link doesn't work, try YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOw2yWMSfk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOw2yWMSfk The official site: http://bulletballgames.com http://bulletballgames.com
- getp 18y ago
  Determination? Or delusion?
  - DougBTX 18y ago
    The only difference between the two is whether you have success or not. (So get a small bit of success early on, and you'll come off as determined!)
    - getp 18y ago
      "The only difference"? Of course not.
    - neilc 18y ago
      Nonsense. Delusion includes the inability to accurately assess reality, which this inventor clearly has to some degree.
- rms 18y ago
  I emailed and told him that hitslog is messing up his site and Google Analytics is better; it took 3 minutes to load his site.
  - izaidi 18y ago
    Let's hope finding out he has a broken website isn't what pushes him over the edge.
  - keating 18y ago
    [ ] I really don't think... that's going to help. [ ] Yes! Of course! That explains everything! [ ] His site is messing up his site. [X] Item #5489342 on the "Barriers to BulletBall Success" list
ExplodingBob 18y ago
I believe him, Bulletball is going to be a success. Only it will be as the title of a mockumentery that the man unwittingly authorizes. Hours of film of the mentally tortured game inventor are edited into an 112 minute runtime box office smash, the man having signed away his rights for a small shooting fee, ostensibly for allowing them to document the rise of his sport, gets virtually nothing. In the end our tragic inventor takes his own life several weeks later with a shotgun recently purchased at a pawnshop, none of the hostages were harmed.
rms 18y ago
Well, that was depressing.
- mynameishere 18y ago
  No, it isn't. The guy is putting on a very effective act. There's no way he's spent 26 years "developing" bulletball. I'm sure he made that up (as well as other details) in order to add emotional appeal to his game. In fact, he's had some real success as a result of his unusual marketing skills: http://www.itstrulyrandom.com/2008/02/26/theres-a-new-game-called-bulletball-which-is-not-nearly-as-intense-or-harmful-as-it-sounds/ http://www.itstrulyrandom.com/2008/02/26/theres-a-new-game-c... Griffin has joined forces with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Veterans with Disabilities, and the Disabled-Athlete Sports Association to stage the first annual “Bulletball Tournament” which will feature the former Ms. Wheelchair America. The long term prospects for an obviously stupid game aren't good, but still...
Hates_ 18y ago
Peter Johns sums it up perfectly: "You can lose everything, but whatever you do, don't lose your mind."
mjnaus 18y ago
Come on, this is just bullshit. How the heck does some spend 26 years and a small fortune on putting together a simple table and buying some balls? My 14 year old nephew could have build him that table for 10 bucks and some ice cream...
- whacked_new 18y ago
  I'm not impressed, but after reading this article I have some respect for the guy. At least he went through lawyers, patents, and manufacturers. However minute, he must have done some homework about table size, ball size/weight/bounciness/color, and he's spent 100K on tours for his market research. If anything at all, he's got guts to make something that looks ordinary into something "professional." That said, I still don't get the difference between BB and BBE, nor the need for one. Having watched the video, visited the website, and read this interview, he seems to have internalized the answers to that question like a tape recorder.
  - kyro 18y ago
    I had the same question a while ago and found that the only difference between BB and BBE were the rules.
rms 18y ago
Interview with the BulletBall guy. He is much better off than TV suggests. http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2006/03/30/american-inventor-passes-on-bulletball-but-keeps-the-table/ http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2006/03/30/american-in...
- ejs 18y ago
  TV likes to sensationalize everything, I give this guy credit for taking the jump that many people would just never even try. From the interview link: "During the first 22 years since BulletBall’s conception, it was like a hobby, a game played among family and friends on weekends, during vacations, or summer picnics and parties. I actually invested too much of my life working for Corporate America 5-6 days a week, an average of 10 hours a day, for 25 years. If I had my priorities straight I would have understood years ago that "it is better to have tried and failed than not tried at all". Better late than never:)"
  - michael_dorfman 18y ago
    Still, it seems that there was about four years between the time he quit is job and when he appeared on the Reality TV show, and during that time he apparently spent about $30,000 on this-- I'm a bit surprised that he wasn't able to either a) find an angel willing to buy some equity (so that the inventor could devote himself to marketing this without having to live out of his car) or b) get a clear enough message that although he personally seemed enamored with it, this game idea wasn't going anywhere.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
- brent 18y ago
  What part of the article indicates that he is well off?
  - whacked_new 18y ago
    Not well off. Better off. American Inventor made him seem like a hopelessly deluded fellow. Deluded he may be, but he's not as insane as you would believe having watched only the TV show.
edw519 18y ago
The point isn't that the idea was bad. Anyone could see that. This was a demonstration of a level of passion and perserverence you rarely see any more. I'd like one good idea from this board and 3 people like him. Nothing would stop us.
- keating 18y ago
  Exactly why I posted it.
breck 18y ago
I live in a van down by the river!
axod 18y ago
Who thought up the name snotr.com? :/ Kind of an interesting name...
- blogimus 18y ago
  well, if you look at it from a certain perspective, snotr could lend a natural backward progression from flickr, eh?
9oliYQjP 18y ago
All he has to do is paint the balls with funny cartoon characters and start selling them in Japan. Kids can collect all 150 different balls. They'll be a hit there, and in a year and half after launch they'll be an even greater hit in the U.S..
zach 18y ago
Coincidentally, Nathan Myhrvold independently conceived of BulletBall three years ago in a roundtable with 7 PhD's. Boy, were they surprised when they tried to file for the patent. I guess it was an invention whose time had come.
gojomo 18y ago
The game doesn't look that bad... a sort of mix between air hockey, ping-pong, and handball. Though, just looking at him crouched over to play makes my back hurt. And enthusiastic players slapping away with their hands and forearms might cut or bruise themselves quite often on the table edges. And, it's got some problems as a bar or arcade game -- every point results in the ball rolling away on the floor somewhere to be retrieved, and there's no clear path to making it coin-operated.
- hhm 18y ago
  Well, you can pay to get balls to play with.
  - mudge 18y ago
    Yea, like darts.
mudge 18y ago
I found this interesting because I own the domain name bulletball.com
- keating 18y ago
  That's ironic in an Alanis sort of way.
gojomo 18y ago
Considering this some more, I think this guy is brilliant. He understood that for TV, what was needed was a melodramatic story. By playing up the 'insane dedication' angle, whether they loved or hated his invention, he ensured maximum memorable/emotional impact. And thus he's getting secondary news coverage, like here. I suspect he wanted that far more than their money, because if we assume (like he does) that Bulletball is fun to play, the real key to its success will be increased awareness.
mudge 18y ago
I finally got to the bulletball website. It looks like a fun game.
marcgriffin 18y ago
I am Marc Griffin, the inventor of Bulletball. Just wanted to say hi and glad to know people are still talking about Bulletball.... I guess the "act" was emotional enough afterall :) Go to DUSTWEB.com and there is even a video version of the game being developed! any questions and I can be reached at bulletballgame@yahoo.com P.S. Obviously I didn't go out and commit suicide after the judges ripped me apert on national tv. But it wasn't fun to go through either.

20 points by keating 18y ago

A friend sent this to me. I thought it was a great lesson for entrepreneurs. If I could channel that kind of determination... If the above link doesn't work, try YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOw2yWMSfk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOw2yWMSfk The official site: http://bulletballgames.com http://bulletballgames.com

getp 18y ago
Determination? Or delusion?
- DougBTX 18y ago
  The only difference between the two is whether you have success or not. (So get a small bit of success early on, and you'll come off as determined!)
  - getp 18y ago
    "The only difference"? Of course not.
  - neilc 18y ago
    Nonsense. Delusion includes the inability to accurately assess reality, which this inventor clearly has to some degree.
rms 18y ago
I emailed and told him that hitslog is messing up his site and Google Analytics is better; it took 3 minutes to load his site.
- izaidi 18y ago
  Let's hope finding out he has a broken website isn't what pushes him over the edge.
- keating 18y ago
  [ ] I really don't think... that's going to help. [ ] Yes! Of course! That explains everything! [ ] His site is messing up his site. [X] Item #5489342 on the "Barriers to BulletBall Success" list

ExplodingBob 18y ago

I believe him, Bulletball is going to be a success. Only it will be as the title of a mockumentery that the man unwittingly authorizes. Hours of film of the mentally tortured game inventor are edited into an 112 minute runtime box office smash, the man having signed away his rights for a small shooting fee, ostensibly for allowing them to document the rise of his sport, gets virtually nothing. In the end our tragic inventor takes his own life several weeks later with a shotgun recently purchased at a pawnshop, none of the hostages were harmed.

rms 18y ago

Well, that was depressing.

mynameishere 18y ago
No, it isn't. The guy is putting on a very effective act. There's no way he's spent 26 years "developing" bulletball. I'm sure he made that up (as well as other details) in order to add emotional appeal to his game. In fact, he's had some real success as a result of his unusual marketing skills: http://www.itstrulyrandom.com/2008/02/26/theres-a-new-game-called-bulletball-which-is-not-nearly-as-intense-or-harmful-as-it-sounds/ http://www.itstrulyrandom.com/2008/02/26/theres-a-new-game-c... Griffin has joined forces with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Veterans with Disabilities, and the Disabled-Athlete Sports Association to stage the first annual “Bulletball Tournament” which will feature the former Ms. Wheelchair America. The long term prospects for an obviously stupid game aren't good, but still...

Hates_ 18y ago

Peter Johns sums it up perfectly: "You can lose everything, but whatever you do, don't lose your mind."

mjnaus 18y ago

Come on, this is just bullshit. How the heck does some spend 26 years and a small fortune on putting together a simple table and buying some balls? My 14 year old nephew could have build him that table for 10 bucks and some ice cream...

whacked_new 18y ago
I'm not impressed, but after reading this article I have some respect for the guy. At least he went through lawyers, patents, and manufacturers. However minute, he must have done some homework about table size, ball size/weight/bounciness/color, and he's spent 100K on tours for his market research. If anything at all, he's got guts to make something that looks ordinary into something "professional." That said, I still don't get the difference between BB and BBE, nor the need for one. Having watched the video, visited the website, and read this interview, he seems to have internalized the answers to that question like a tape recorder.
- kyro 18y ago
  I had the same question a while ago and found that the only difference between BB and BBE were the rules.

rms 18y ago

Interview with the BulletBall guy. He is much better off than TV suggests. http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2006/03/30/american-inventor-passes-on-bulletball-but-keeps-the-table/ http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2006/03/30/american-in...

ejs 18y ago
TV likes to sensationalize everything, I give this guy credit for taking the jump that many people would just never even try. From the interview link: "During the first 22 years since BulletBall’s conception, it was like a hobby, a game played among family and friends on weekends, during vacations, or summer picnics and parties. I actually invested too much of my life working for Corporate America 5-6 days a week, an average of 10 hours a day, for 25 years. If I had my priorities straight I would have understood years ago that "it is better to have tried and failed than not tried at all". Better late than never:)"
- michael_dorfman 18y ago
  Still, it seems that there was about four years between the time he quit is job and when he appeared on the Reality TV show, and during that time he apparently spent about $30,000 on this-- I'm a bit surprised that he wasn't able to either a) find an angel willing to buy some equity (so that the inventor could devote himself to marketing this without having to live out of his car) or b) get a clear enough message that although he personally seemed enamored with it, this game idea wasn't going anywhere.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
brent 18y ago
What part of the article indicates that he is well off?
- whacked_new 18y ago
  Not well off. Better off. American Inventor made him seem like a hopelessly deluded fellow. Deluded he may be, but he's not as insane as you would believe having watched only the TV show.

edw519 18y ago

The point isn't that the idea was bad. Anyone could see that. This was a demonstration of a level of passion and perserverence you rarely see any more. I'd like one good idea from this board and 3 people like him. Nothing would stop us.

keating 18y ago
Exactly why I posted it.

breck 18y ago

I live in a van down by the river!

axod 18y ago

Who thought up the name snotr.com? :/ Kind of an interesting name...

blogimus 18y ago
well, if you look at it from a certain perspective, snotr could lend a natural backward progression from flickr, eh?

9oliYQjP 18y ago

All he has to do is paint the balls with funny cartoon characters and start selling them in Japan. Kids can collect all 150 different balls. They'll be a hit there, and in a year and half after launch they'll be an even greater hit in the U.S..

zach 18y ago

Coincidentally, Nathan Myhrvold independently conceived of BulletBall three years ago in a roundtable with 7 PhD's. Boy, were they surprised when they tried to file for the patent. I guess it was an invention whose time had come.

gojomo 18y ago

The game doesn't look that bad... a sort of mix between air hockey, ping-pong, and handball. Though, just looking at him crouched over to play makes my back hurt. And enthusiastic players slapping away with their hands and forearms might cut or bruise themselves quite often on the table edges. And, it's got some problems as a bar or arcade game -- every point results in the ball rolling away on the floor somewhere to be retrieved, and there's no clear path to making it coin-operated.

hhm 18y ago
Well, you can pay to get balls to play with.
- mudge 18y ago
  Yea, like darts.

mudge 18y ago

I found this interesting because I own the domain name bulletball.com

keating 18y ago
That's ironic in an Alanis sort of way.

gojomo 18y ago

Considering this some more, I think this guy is brilliant. He understood that for TV, what was needed was a melodramatic story. By playing up the 'insane dedication' angle, whether they loved or hated his invention, he ensured maximum memorable/emotional impact. And thus he's getting secondary news coverage, like here. I suspect he wanted that far more than their money, because if we assume (like he does) that Bulletball is fun to play, the real key to its success will be increased awareness.

mudge 18y ago

I finally got to the bulletball website. It looks like a fun game.

marcgriffin 18y ago

I am Marc Griffin, the inventor of Bulletball. Just wanted to say hi and glad to know people are still talking about Bulletball.... I guess the "act" was emotional enough afterall :) Go to DUSTWEB.com and there is even a video version of the game being developed! any questions and I can be reached at bulletballgame@yahoo.com P.S. Obviously I didn't go out and commit suicide after the judges ripped me apert on national tv. But it wasn't fun to go through either.