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Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

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Re: Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

#21

Post by jazzychad »

Fjslfj wrote: post #15
robotkad wrote: post #14

Sorry to rain on the parade, but isn't this simply a clone of Pokemon? You start by selecting one of three monsters (they even resemble the starting three from the orignal game). The battle screen and fight dynamic looks almost identical. Am I missing something?

I have to agree with this. It's obvious these guys are smart and savvy. Couldn't they have come up with a new, brilliant idea instead of a Pokemon clone? I hope this gets acquired so they can spend their 20s doing something more meaningful.

New and brilliant ideas are much more difficult to gain traction. Great execution on a "cloned" idea is much easier. How many Groupon clones are there? How many of them are making a lot of money? (Hint, a lot). How much money is spent on Pokemon and related collectible card games? (Hint, also a lot).

Meaningful is in the eye of the beholder.

Re: Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

#22

Post by brackin »

jazzychad wrote: post #21
Fjslfj wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree with this. It's obvious these guys are smart and savvy. Couldn't they have come up with a new, brilliant idea instead of a Pokemon clone? I hope this gets acquired so they can spend their 20s doing something more meaningful.

New and brilliant ideas are much more difficult to gain traction. Great execution on a "cloned" idea is much easier. How many Groupon clones are there? How many of them are making a lot of money? (Hint, a lot). How much money is spent on Pokemon and related collectible card games? (Hint, also a lot). Meaningful is in the eye of the beholder.

The point is Groupon Clones did something Groupon wasn't doing (targeting countries Groupon wasn't targeting) meaning Groupon isn't entitled to be the market leader and the other startups are free to create one for their country.

Pokemon is not making a social web game, this is a big difference to the Groupon situation in my opinion as they are different things. I wouldn't say it's a copy just the story/theme is inspired by Pokemon.

Re: Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

#24

Post by pclark »

robotkad wrote: post #14

Sorry to rain on the parade, but isn't this simply a clone of Pokemon? You start by selecting one of three monsters (they even resemble the starting three from the orignal game). The battle screen and fight dynamic looks almost identical. Am I missing something?

Does apologising before criticising someone's creation make you feel less guilty about doing it?

Re: Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

#25

Post by pgbovine »

Fjslfj wrote: post #15
robotkad wrote: post #14

Sorry to rain on the parade, but isn't this simply a clone of Pokemon? You start by selecting one of three monsters (they even resemble the starting three from the orignal game). The battle screen and fight dynamic looks almost identical. Am I missing something?

I have to agree with this. It's obvious these guys are smart and savvy. Couldn't they have come up with a new, brilliant idea instead of a Pokemon clone? I hope this gets acquired so they can spend their 20s doing something more meaningful.

time to cue the cliched "isn't google just a clone of altavista" or "isn't facebook just a clone of myspace" rebuttals.

Re: Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

#26

Post by teej »

citricsquid wrote: post #20
robotkad wrote: post #14

Sorry to rain on the parade, but isn't this simply a clone of Pokemon? You start by selecting one of three monsters (they even resemble the starting three from the orignal game). The battle screen and fight dynamic looks almost identical. Am I missing something?

Arguably their unique take is the Facebook side of it, does Pokemon exist on Facebook like this does?

There's at least two. One is called Monster Galaxy by Gaia Online which launched in December (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=129748227041...). There's another, the name of which I don't remember, that did a ton of Facebook advertising in the last 12 months.

Re: Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

#28

Post by robotkad »

citricsquid wrote: post #20
robotkad wrote: post #14

Sorry to rain on the parade, but isn't this simply a clone of Pokemon? You start by selecting one of three monsters (they even resemble the starting three from the orignal game). The battle screen and fight dynamic looks almost identical. Am I missing something?

Arguably their unique take is the Facebook side of it, does Pokemon exist on Facebook like this does?

Does it matter? Hasbro didn't think so when Scrabulous became one of the top games on Facebook.

Nintendo protects the Pokemon brand very aggressively.

Re: Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

#29

Post by codexon »

Fjslfj wrote: post #15
robotkad wrote: post #14

Sorry to rain on the parade, but isn't this simply a clone of Pokemon? You start by selecting one of three monsters (they even resemble the starting three from the orignal game). The battle screen and fight dynamic looks almost identical. Am I missing something?

I have to agree with this. It's obvious these guys are smart and savvy. Couldn't they have come up with a new, brilliant idea instead of a Pokemon clone? I hope this gets acquired so they can spend their 20s doing something more meaningful.

It's obvious these guys are smart and savvy. Couldn't they have come up with a new, brilliant idea instead of a Pokemon clone?

His first and only other "company" was a Gaia online type website.

Re: Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

#30

Post by noahth »

ThomPete wrote: post #18
webwright wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are still MINTING money on Facebook. I imagine the top 5 grossing facebook games make the top 5 grossing iPhone games look like adorable little hobbies. The #40 game on Facebook has 6M monthly active uniques. THe #120 game on Facebook has 2M MAU. How many iPhone games have those kind of numbers? Platform quibbles aside, I imagine it's the fastest/cheapest way to get tens/hundreds of thousands of users to test…

Are they? Who else other than Zynga is. Making money?

Yes. Quite a few of us.
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