Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

rollingstone.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 236 posts

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#71

Post by xg15 »

hnriot wrote: post #60
bsenftner wrote: post #25

As a long term developer of entertainment software, I totally agree with his point of view about the impact one's software has upon the lives of the user. The general acceptance goes that the crazies and depressed will be triggered by something and its not your fault if something provocative you worked on triggers an incident. That's what the group think tells us, but in ones personal reality it's not that easy to sh…

I totally disagree with his point of view. He could simply sell the game to an established company that is already set up to handle the responsibilities that come with running a business. Throwing away $50k/day is just a stupid thing to do.

As he wrote, he didn't put the game down because he was afraid of the money or didn't want to run a business, he was actually afraid of the effect the "addictiveness" of the game had on some of its users.

With that premise, selling to an established company would have been the most irresponsible thing he could do. After all, the biggest assets of the game are its large user base, the media hype and just that "addictiveness". So this would probably be the first thing any buyer would have exploited, making Dong's problem worse instead of better.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#72

Post by United857 »

ronaldx wrote: post #63
United857 wrote: post #57

Another plausible reason that I've not seen reported is that if he was indeed pulling in $50k/day, that makes you a target in Vietnam (average monthly salary $185). In that part of the world, being rich without having the right connections/protection can be very, very dangerous.

Do you have a source for this? I've only heard this said on HN and I doubt that it is significantly dangerous to be rich.

I've lived/worked/travelled in Asia for several years and still regularly visit family and friends.

Sadly Vietnam (and China, etc) don't really adhere to the rule of law except on paper, bribes and corruption are normal and it's really about the connections you have.

You really have to live there to appreciate that -- not just on a holiday for a week.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#73

Post by vinceguidry »

United857 wrote: post #57

Another plausible reason that I've not seen reported is that if he was indeed pulling in $50k/day, that makes you a target in Vietnam (average monthly salary $185). In that part of the world, being rich without having the right connections/protection can be very, very dangerous.

It's not that bad. Vietnam isn't prison.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#75

Post by MarkTee »

vetler wrote: post #68
brador wrote: post #41

No mention of the massive publicity boost from the Youtube let's play video of Flappy Bird by that strange Norwegian guy with millions of subscribers?

Who's this strange Norwegian guy?

I believe he's talking about PewDiePie, who's actually Swedish.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#76

Post by wahnfrieden »

Blahah wrote: post #70
hnriot wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally disagree with his point of view. He could simply sell the game to an established company that is already set up to handle the responsibilities that come with running a business. Throwing away $50k/day is just a stupid thing to do.

Others might say chasing $50k/day is a stupid thing to do. With enough money to live off, plenty of people seek happiness elsewhere.

Yes but let's be clear, he was making $50k/day with no effort of his own besides the work he did last year. There was no chase or action to give up, so his motives lied elsewhere.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#77

Post by rythie »

Blahah wrote: post #70
hnriot wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally disagree with his point of view. He could simply sell the game to an established company that is already set up to handle the responsibilities that come with running a business. Throwing away $50k/day is just a stupid thing to do.

Others might say chasing $50k/day is a stupid thing to do. With enough money to live off, plenty of people seek happiness elsewhere.

I expect that $50k/day drops off pretty quickly (most I know stopped playing after a few days), if he give got that - it was after all a estimate.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#79

Post by rottyguy »

"Growing up in Van Phuc, a village outside Hanoi famous for silk-making, Nguyen (pronounced nwin) never imagined being a world-famous game designer."

As Nguyen is a very popular Vietnamese name, I'd thought to bring this up.. It is not pronounced with an 'N'.. wikipedia has the correct pronunciation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#80

Post by sorahn »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #76
Blahah wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Others might say chasing $50k/day is a stupid thing to do. With enough money to live off, plenty of people seek happiness elsewhere.

Yes but let's be clear, he was making $50k/day with no effort of his own besides the work he did last year. There was no chase or action to give up, so his motives lied elsewhere.

People still have the game, his money was being made of in game ads, which are still running for the people that are playing. I'd say he's probably doing fine.
Post reply on HN