
Addmired (YC W08) launches super addictive iMob Online on iPhone App Store - rantfoil
http://www.imobapp.com/
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lyime
One of my friends is not happy right now.
[http://www.grabup.com/uploads/7670d4cf3feb6e5f53a469e59935e8...](http://www.grabup.com/uploads/7670d4cf3feb6e5f53a469e59935e8eb.png)

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alaskamiller
Switch the art and call it Earth 2025 or Utopia or Oilwar.

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unalone
Is it sad that I've played two of those games and recognized the names?

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alaskamiller
I think you're much younger than me so it makes me sadder.

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brl
Oh, fuck me. Why didn't I think of this idea. This game is going to knock the
ball out of the park.

Anybody who owned a modem in the 90s knows how dangerously addictive these
games are.

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Alex3917
"Anybody who owned a modem in the 90s knows how dangerously addictive these
games are."

As embarrassing as this is to admit, I was actually addicted to Idle RPG at
one point. This is the IRC game where you level up based on how long you can
go without saying anything.

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ivankirigin
Working on stuff that matters? [http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/01/work-on-
stuff-that-matters-...](http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/01/work-on-stuff-that-
matters-fir.html)

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blader
Making something people want?

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ivankirigin
Good point. If people make money by selling games, that's awesome.

But personally, I don't respect this kind of game. There are a lot more
interesting games to be made for the platform.

That's probably why I posted a dig. I like clean arcade games like iilwy,
stories with depth (e.g. oblivion), and things that get me excited like
zombies and FPS. For me, most social games on facebook are a whole world of
"who gives a fuck?". No offense.

Let me stress that they are fine businesses, just not my kind of game.

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gabrielleydon
yeah lets work on something that matters like mailing in twitter posts...

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blader
Ahahaha. Touche.

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alaskamiller
imob 10 respect points: $0.99

imob 75 respect points: $4.99

imob 200 respect points: $9.99

imob 400 respect points: $19.99

How delicious.

The only gripe is not discounting those points.

Edit: Oh, yeah, join my mob! 100260987

Edit: 5 minutes in and I'm addicted.

Edit: Typos in the FAQs.

Edit: This burns the battery faster than the Energizer bunny in bed.

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gabrielleydon
Typos=features

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Alex3917
Are you guys updating things on the fly? The minimum bank balance seems to
have just changed from 2,000 to 1,000. (And it still says 2,000 in the FAQ.)

Also, how does one gain mobsters? The FAQ seems to suggest it is by inviting
friends, but I see some level five characters with dozens of mobsters. I don't
even know that many people with iPhones. Are these just NPCs or what?

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gabrielleydon
there are issues for sure. the bank seems like something we should look at.
the forums are mentioning this too

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Alex3917
Someone attacked me right as I was putting all my money into the bank, and now
I have $-100,000.

Then I turned around and deposited my -$100,000 into the bank, so now my bank
balance reads $-184,000.

update: I quit the app and opened it again and now my bank balance is
positive. And somehow it has jumped to $171335824. Sweet.

update 2: The fact that you can gain XP by winning a fight on defense
seemingly makes the game unbalanced. You can just put all your points into
defense and none into attack, and then wait until other people attack you so
you can win the fight.

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alaskamiller
I attacked someone and it said I got some $70k and some odd change. But then
the connection died and when I logged in I had magically lost $10k of my
original :(

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gills
Wow, that looks very cool.

Most MMOs generate revenue through subscriptions. I see that the iMob game
itself and the gameplay are free. Are you selling in-game ads or something?

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gabrielleydon
You buy apps that unlock virtual currency so the entire game is open but you
have to pay to get ahead quicker.

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Dilpil
I recall hearing somewhere that YC doesn't fund games. I can see why they may
have made an exception here though.

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Tichy
I recall them saying explicitly that they also consider games. Isn't Draftmix
a game, too?

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pg
Sure, we fund games. We don't understand them as well as other types of apps,
but we'll consider them.

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SeaWolf
If you want to make a real killing make an iphone app that reads lpmud
code.... There was a huge following of MUD's in the 90's and I am sure you
could find a lot of worlds and items already created... just need an interface
to read the code. SeaWolf add me 151020688

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ssharp
I think these text-based iPhone games could be a pretty good thing. I have a
couple ideas bouncing around right now. I'll be following how much steam this
app picks up...though I'm sure if this idea does become popular, the market
will get flooded.

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pieter
I don't get why you need an iPhone app for this. Wouldn't an iPhone-optimized
site be enough? You'll also draw in more players, and it'd be easy to add a
desktop frontend.

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gabrielleydon
1\. itunes store distribution 2\. easy way to charge iphone users 3\. it looks
and plays way better than a iphone web app could

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unalone
I haven't downloaded this, because I've got an iPod touch and my college has
no wireless. Is there anything that I could do WITHOUT wireless, or would I
pretty much be screwed when I go back in a few days?

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gabrielleydon
the game continues while you are offline so if you go away you might have been
beat up a few times but you will be all recharged and ready to go.

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redlionjr
hi, i think i have found a way how to make alot of cash on imob by doing
nothing, all you have to do is wait for it to lag this means all your stats go
to - somthing, when it does quit the app then get it again but make sure you
turn the ipod off before getting the app back, it has worked for me 3 times
and i now have $9012657700 and im a level 8, i have told all my mates and they
have done the same and got the extra bit of cash.

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Jackh94
I found a way by getting a property then on settings go back in time and you
will have a lot of negative money I put this in the bank and by some glitch I.
Ould buy loads more property with negative money. So when I put the date back
to normal I had loads more money from the income.

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arasakik
This app is going to explode (in a good way).

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rantfoil
Seriously, Gabe and the addmired crew understand gameplay and virality in a
way that absolutely blows my mind. They're a team to watch in 2009.

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henryl
That's a lot of praise for a knockoff idea.

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rantfoil
a) They were first to market with a great game of this type on the iPhone. b)
The realtime mobile nature of this game transcends knockoff status. Try it.

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unalone
Realtime meaning what? Meaning you can do stuff based on time? Because that's
a concept that's been around for a little while, though never on a mobile.

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thorax
Check out this list of mobsters for lots of invites:

<http://ri.ms/mob>

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Kalebz
Imob is 1 of the most fun and adicting game I have ever played

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gabrielleydon
JOIN MY MOB! 100000288

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maxwell
"Invalid redemption code entered."

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atestu
Try "Friend Code" instead of "Redeem". Btw, mine is 100448262.

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ashleyw
Mines 100358785

I really suck at this game, I'm level 7 but I keep running out of money, and I
loose most fights! Very addictive though, checking it every 5 mins now,
hopefully I can break away else I'm not going to get anything done!!

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avantbard
My friend code: 100577628 =-)

This is fun.

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Abel
My friend code is 100580351

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kajude
Enter friend code 117908262 to get a MOB

