
Think you're dedicated?  Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme - keating
http://www.snotr.com/video/1133
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9oliYQjP
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..

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rms
Interview with the BulletBall guy. He is much better off than TV suggests.

[http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2006/03/30/american-
in...](http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2006/03/30/american-inventor-
passes-on-bulletball-but-keeps-the-table/)

~~~
brent
What part of the article indicates that he is well off?

~~~
rms
>After spending 20+ years (these were BulletBall years) as a manager making
millions for major corporations across America, I decided in 2004 to "step out
of the box" and work towards realizing my own dreams.

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ExplodingBob
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.

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mjnaus
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
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
I had the same question a while ago and found that the only difference between
BB and BBE were the rules.

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rms
Well, that was depressing.

~~~
mynameishere
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-c...](http://www.itstrulyrandom.com/2008/02/26/theres-a-new-game-called-
bulletball-which-is-not-nearly-as-intense-or-harmful-as-it-sounds/)

 _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...

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gojomo
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.

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edw519
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
Exactly why I posted it.

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zach
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.

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

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

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marcgriffin
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.

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

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gojomo
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
Well, you can pay to get balls to play with.

~~~
mudge
Yea, like darts.

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breck
I live in a van down by the river!

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

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

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

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keating
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>

The official site: <http://bulletballgames.com>

~~~
rms
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
Let's hope finding out he has a broken website isn't what pushes him over the
edge.

