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Y Combinator backed MMO metaverse game is a blatant scam

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Re: Y Combinator backed MMO metaverse game is a blatant scam

#61

Post by rcxdude »

coldcode wrote: post #58

I know what building an MMO is like, having worked on one 10 years ago that was already 10 years old and still exists today (small audience though). Building something like these people are talking about requires more $ than a Marvel superhero movie to get anywhere. We could manage about 100 simultaneous players visible to each other in a reasonable time but no more; the internet is not fast enough to manage more tha…

Exactly, on the server side player interaction is an N² problem (where N is the number of players who are currently interacting). Each of N players need updates on the (N-1) other players they can see. And without strong in-game reasons not to, players will test the limits, no matter how efficient your code (see EVE where despite them making huge improvements to their servers and code as well as already using an extremely low update rate, player battles are still basically limited by how many you can get into a system before the server topples over).

Re: Y Combinator backed MMO metaverse game is a blatant scam

#62

Post by onli »

sanxiyn wrote: post #17
tobr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the reason for the rule is to avoid the submitter pushing through their viewpoint, this particular case shouldn’t be a problem. The “Y Combinator” part is a reason why it’s relevant to this site, and it’s not a viewpoint.

"Scam" is the problematic part. The article avoids the word in the title because the article itself says: > "I think we use the word scam as a colloquial term mostly and there's some nuance to this. I don't think either game's developers have the actual intention to not deliver." So it's not a scam, not to speak of blatant scam.

That's a quote in the article. He also said this:

> "I think for me, the base intent matters very little when the end result is the same and you've lied to everyone throughout."

If it's true that the game developers promised this:

> The campaign promises, among other features, "multiplayer with the population density of real cities" and a fully dynamic environment with no fixed interaction points.

Then it's clearly a scam. And both statements really are on the kickstarter. There is also this gem:

> We plan to expand to every internet connected device with a screen very soon!

Ridiculous.

Re: Y Combinator backed MMO metaverse game is a blatant scam

#63

Post by dvt »

esturk wrote: post #23
dvt wrote: post #8

I've been following the DreamWorld saga on YouTube for a hot minute now, mainly because I find it so interesting how they got through the YC vetting process when I myself have applied twice (maybe 3 times) and I also know plenty of people -- brilliant, motivated, entrepreneurial folks -- that applied many (many) times as well and were rejected (YC is mega-competitive after all). IMO, it's a bit insulting to the strug…

Just like brilliant people that gets rejected from prestigious universities and companies, there's bound to be undeserving people that gets in. Even if there's a vetting accuracy of 99.9% (for the sake of argument), there's still a chance that some lemon will fall through the cracks. So after 1000 seeds, there should be 1 lemon. Now does that make the program any less prestigious? No, but these things happen.

> Just like brilliant people that gets rejected from prestigious universities and companies, there's bound to be undeserving people that gets in.

This isn't that great of an analogy because there are plenty of "hard" cutoffs at both elite companies and elite schools. For example, no matter who you are, you'll never get into Yale Law with an LSAT of 125.

Re: Y Combinator backed MMO metaverse game is a blatant scam

#64

Post by sanxiyn »

serf wrote: post #46
cbsks wrote: post #5

Previously discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26898266 If a company promises more than they can deliver, is it a scam? What if they believe that they actually can deliver it?

>If a company promises more than they can deliver, is it a scam? I think I can squeeze water out of rocks. Pay me now to do it, and i'll figure it out. Everyone around tells me I can't, but I know I can. >What if they believe that they actually can deliver it? I absolutely believe I can do it if I set my mind to it. Fund my company so we can find out. Do you see any possible issues with this style of transaction?

Do you plan to license the technology or build water plants yourself? What is your advantage relative to desalination?

Re: Y Combinator backed MMO metaverse game is a blatant scam

#65

Post by bcrosby95 »

runawaybottle wrote: post #47
dvt wrote: post #8

I've been following the DreamWorld saga on YouTube for a hot minute now, mainly because I find it so interesting how they got through the YC vetting process when I myself have applied twice (maybe 3 times) and I also know plenty of people -- brilliant, motivated, entrepreneurial folks -- that applied many (many) times as well and were rejected (YC is mega-competitive after all). IMO, it's a bit insulting to the strug…

If you have to ask, I’ll go ahead and take a wild guess. I looked at the founder’s bios. A couple of white guys, think one worked at a few FAANGs - textbook archetype for ‘certainly people of this type know what they are doing’. Yeah, we do live in that world. This shit might be the most valid textbook case of white male privilege ever. Edit: I usually have a very high bar for throwing around while male privilege thi…

Plenty of articles, including this one, have interviewed insiders that have revealed that they got to skip the vetting process due to nepotism. You might want to re-asses your "high bar" and stop making "wild guesses".

Re: Y Combinator backed MMO metaverse game is a blatant scam

#66

Post by new299 »

dvt wrote: post #8

I've been following the DreamWorld saga on YouTube for a hot minute now, mainly because I find it so interesting how they got through the YC vetting process when I myself have applied twice (maybe 3 times) and I also know plenty of people -- brilliant, motivated, entrepreneurial folks -- that applied many (many) times as well and were rejected (YC is mega-competitive after all). IMO, it's a bit insulting to the strug…

The statements regarding YC in the article don't make a whole lot of sense to me. Firstly:

> Y Combinator has a rigorous vetting process topped off by an exclusive demo day with "selected investors."

I don't think anyone whose been through the YC interview process would describe it as rigorous. It's streamlined, and I suspect design it minimize false negative rate while spending a minimal amount of time reviewing companies. They have a huge number of companies to evaluate. Personally can't imagine they spend more than 30mins evaluating each company (including the interview).

Then later in the article:

> The most serious accusation is that DreamWorld only got its Y Combinator backing through nepotism. According to Upton, a senior employee at Y Combinator claims that Bellack has a friend in the accelerator who helped greenlight DreamWorld without the appropriate due diligence

I don't know what "appropriate due diligence" is here. I don't think YC generally check references, or dive into code... maybe a quick look at the demo in the 10m interview? It probably helps knowing people on the panel.

> "[DreamWorld] wasn't vetted. They apparently had nothing to show on demo day, and they were still allowed through."

Doesn't make sense to me. Do YC ban companies from demo day if they don't have enough to show? It's not part initial DD? Have they raised from demo day investors?

Re: Y Combinator backed MMO metaverse game is a blatant scam

#67

Post by angrais »

coldcode wrote: post #58

I know what building an MMO is like, having worked on one 10 years ago that was already 10 years old and still exists today (small audience though). Building something like these people are talking about requires more $ than a Marvel superhero movie to get anywhere. We could manage about 100 simultaneous players visible to each other in a reasonable time but no more; the internet is not fast enough to manage more tha…

Could you explain how world of Warcraft works then? You can certainly have more than 200 in one place at once... Are they doing some tricks to make this appear as if it's working but in reality it is not?

Would love to hear your opinion.

Re: Y Combinator backed MMO metaverse game is a blatant scam

#68

Post by MattieTK »

coldcode wrote: post #58

I know what building an MMO is like, having worked on one 10 years ago that was already 10 years old and still exists today (small audience though). Building something like these people are talking about requires more $ than a Marvel superhero movie to get anywhere. We could manage about 100 simultaneous players visible to each other in a reasonable time but no more; the internet is not fast enough to manage more tha…

This was part of the exciting suggestion of the original Stadia trailers: with the entire game and all the interactions happening in Google datacentres, you would only need to receive a rendered version, and suddenly all this would be possible.

Of course none of that has happened and Google folded their games studio, which is par for them, but does go some way to reinforcing this point that there's a reason this stuff isn't done.

Re: Y Combinator backed MMO metaverse game is a blatant scam

#69

Post by new299 »

kleinsch wrote: post #57
dvt wrote: post #8

I've been following the DreamWorld saga on YouTube for a hot minute now, mainly because I find it so interesting how they got through the YC vetting process when I myself have applied twice (maybe 3 times) and I also know plenty of people -- brilliant, motivated, entrepreneurial folks -- that applied many (many) times as well and were rejected (YC is mega-competitive after all). IMO, it's a bit insulting to the strug…

Yea, I’ve found it interesting reading about YC companies from this batch that include: - A scam MMO - Terminal autocomplete as a service - A Splitwise clone - An app that puts your next meeting in your menu bar (for $10/month!) YC gets 5K+ applications/cycle, accepts 1-3%, so they rejected 4500+ companies for these?

I have some sympathy for the difficulty evaluating tech plays when "an RSS search engine" turns into twitter.

These ideas are the starting point, but it's difficult to tell what they might turn into. Quite possibly they evaluate the ability of the founders to shape the company into something interesting during the program.

But more than that, they're probability are trying to figure out how well the founders will perform at demo day, after they've helped them polish the play.

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