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My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

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Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#101

Post by rhaps0dy »

bikamonki wrote: post #73

The first time I saw a game of MTG I was instantly hooked. 20 years ago on my way to class I saw some guys playing the game and I stood there watching for a while. I was invited to play and that was it. Played for a few hours, skipped class, walked away with a deck, skipped many, many more classes thereon. Nothing had ever wrapped me in such a way, a delicious combination of fantasy, role playing, strategy, wits and…

Would that pay-to-play feeling have been less bad if the cult had been a nonprofit?

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#102

Post by bikamonki »

rhaps0dy wrote: post #101
bikamonki wrote: post #73

The first time I saw a game of MTG I was instantly hooked. 20 years ago on my way to class I saw some guys playing the game and I stood there watching for a while. I was invited to play and that was it. Played for a few hours, skipped class, walked away with a deck, skipped many, many more classes thereon. Nothing had ever wrapped me in such a way, a delicious combination of fantasy, role playing, strategy, wits and…

Would that pay-to-play feeling have been less bad if the cult had been a nonprofit?

A nonprofit? Makes no sense. A business is fine. The problem is when the business crosses that thin line and it becomes too aggressive in its profit-seeking. In MTG the game stopped being a casual thing and it became a competition (regulated and very profitable). To compete one needs powerful cards which become quite expensive due to its power and scarcity (which is artificial b/c many more could be printed). The original cult changed then, forever.

Social networks do the same. FB for instance, it did deliver value at the beginning. It was super useful and innovative to get and keep in touch with fam and friends. Then the brands came, then ads flooded. That killed the original value. I closed my FB account and no value was lost b/c nobody in my circle is using it anymore for that original purpose. In fact, I regained value (time and privacy). Now we share on Whatsapp groups (which I am sure will soon be flooded with brands and ads in order to make back the billions). We'll move our sharing to something else.

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#103

Post by izak30 »

MrEricSir wrote: post #75
izak30 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as the experience goes, one of the things I'd say over and over is that if you noticed my work, I did a bad job. I was building the automation, electronics, mechanics, and hardware and software systems to make things tick. I was typically working with about two other hacker-types. sometimes hardware and audio folks, sometimes web and software folks. So there was this beach on the top floor of a building downto…

> if you noticed my work, I did a bad job. Partial counterpoint: I didn't notice the cameras in the sandbox, so I happily covered them up by accident. It just "felt right" to me for whatever reason to decorate the corners. Oops.

For those who don't know: He's talking about the in the aforementioned "beach" room, which had a different name, meaning, and story. MrEricSir appears to be one of the top google results for "The Latitude Book 2" if you care to explore.

There was a hexagon shaped table with a sandbox. In each corner of the sandbox there was a digital camera (connected to a raspberry pi) that would photograph the sandbox throughout your appointment and then send the pictures to your personal account on our website. When you went back to the website to confirm that you had completed your experience, you were presented with a handful of sandcastle-POV photos that were just for you.

Yeah, I heard that a couple of times. That's part of why there were 6 cameras, with the hope that two or three would be working + get a decent shot.

Still, I'd say from a design pov, that _totally worked_. People behave different when they know they're being watched or evaluated. This was meant to be a private space for you, and the photos of that thing were meant to be a pleasant surprise.

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#104

Post by thehooplehead »

The initial description of the library had me thinking of 'the Man Who Was Thursday', a book which includes its own absurd secret society.

Also, anyone interested in real-world social games might enjoy Journey to the End of the Night (http://ichaseyou.com/). It's not a secret society, but it shares some elements of roaming through your city, playing a game with strangers, and creating your own adventures.

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#105

Post by izak30 »

kriro wrote: post #88
izak30 wrote: post #13

Ahoy! I just stumbled on this. I was the Director of Technology for this set of local bizareness for its last two years. I won't say "I'm happy to answer any questions" because I may avoid some. If you want to ask, maybe hit me up, Especially the tech, especially if you got to play and have a good idea of what we were doing. Also! I think I'm signed up to give a talk in May at ADG. If you're interested in this sort o…

How did you put that time on your resume? The article indicates that it was not wanted...which seems odd/possibly illegal.

Well, it's all public now, through various straight forward means like this article, public postings on the website by the owner, etc. This covers most of my NDA. At the time, most of the secrecy was for game mechanics. That's pretty moot now as well. I've had several jobs where nobody wants the specifics discussed, so I've gotten good at saying "Imagine if you had a shipping container with a lock that needed to open for a hundred different people at a hundred different times". You can zoom into and out of problems with fabricated scenarios.

The other side of this, is that for the 18 odd months that Book One was open I would just give you a card. From my POV, that was better than any description I could give. I gave them out like candy and I still only had about 50 or 70 people come through. I probably gave out a hundred and fifty invitations.

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#107

Post by izak30 »

mseebach wrote: post #97
kriro wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you put that time on your resume? The article indicates that it was not wanted...which seems odd/possibly illegal.

I can't speak for the GP, but there are plenty of jobs that expects you to euphemise items on your CV. At many consulting shops you will be violating your NDA if you name clients, but there are also many places that simply value discretion without legally requiring it.

Yeah, this is the exact right answer. The artists in the crew have the pieces in their portfolio. The techs are free to go into details when needed. For much else of the gig and things around it go discretion is the norm.

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#108

Post by GFischer »

bikamonki wrote: post #102
rhaps0dy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would that pay-to-play feeling have been less bad if the cult had been a nonprofit?

A nonprofit? Makes no sense. A business is fine. The problem is when the business crosses that thin line and it becomes too aggressive in its profit-seeking. In MTG the game stopped being a casual thing and it became a competition (regulated and very profitable). To compete one needs powerful cards which become quite expensive due to its power and scarcity (which is artificial b/c many more could be printed). The ori…

As another former MTG player, I think the scarcity is part of the experience, but I think they went way too far, because they are hunting "whales", which I was close to becoming but didn't because of a lack of money. The scarcity can be simulated without resorting to the money grabs they went for :( .

And it "works" for them, I think it's a huge part of the Hasbro money machine. As a game it was (is?) great, but the cost to buy in is way too great.

I guess I agree that your disappointment mirrors the one from the people at this "secret society" when they started charging a very costly membership.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/14/whales-and-why-social-game...

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#109

Post by lydialaurenson »

izak30 wrote: post #103
MrEricSir wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you noticed my work, I did a bad job. Partial counterpoint: I didn't notice the cameras in the sandbox, so I happily covered them up by accident. It just "felt right" to me for whatever reason to decorate the corners. Oops.

For those who don't know: He's talking about the in the aforementioned "beach" room, which had a different name, meaning, and story. MrEricSir appears to be one of the top google results for "The Latitude Book 2" if you care to explore. There was a hexagon shaped table with a sandbox. In each corner of the sandbox there was a digital camera (connected to a raspberry pi) that would photograph the sandbox throughout yo…

That's awesome. I was an early tester on Book 2 and I really wanted to take photos, but I didn't because I wasn't sure if it was against the rules. Really glad to hear that you added this detail so carefully!

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#110

Post by lydialaurenson »

thehooplehead wrote: post #104

The initial description of the library had me thinking of 'the Man Who Was Thursday', a book which includes its own absurd secret society. Also, anyone interested in real-world social games might enjoy Journey to the End of the Night ( http://ichaseyou.com/ ). It's not a secret society, but it shares some elements of roaming through your city, playing a game with strangers, and creating your own adventures.

+1 for Journey. It's awesome. The person who runs it, Thomas Lotze, was also a Society member and is quoted in my article.
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