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I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

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Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#141

Post by Keyframe »

joe_mamba wrote: post #14
raphinou wrote: post #12

When I was young I wrote to the Formula 1 team McLaren to ask if they could hire me for a student job. I didn't expect to get a reply, but I got one. The answer was negative, but I was happy. I never reflected about it until now, but maybe it learned me that asking doesn't cost anything, and that the worst thing that can happen is getting a negative answer? Not sure that was the turning point, but this is indeed my a…

>The answer was negative, but I was happy. For sure it was a nice experience, I would have done the same, imagine that kid you wrote back gets inspired, goes to study engineering then they come work for you instead of the competition. But nowadays is getting super rare to get human written rejection emails anymore, let alone to kids. >but maybe it learned me that asking doesn't cost anything, and that the worst thing…

5000 kids asking you for a job per month is a nuisance.

it's a great marketing platform, if anything. Strong brand loyalty going forward and costs you not much to do well, not to mention you can brighten a day or few for thousands of kids in all sorts of life situations.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#143

Post by stevage »

Nition wrote: post #104
nogridbag wrote: post #15

These letters matter a lot to kids. I sent my video game idea to Nintendo as a little kid and I had the same reaction seeing that envelope from Nintendo in the mailbox addressed to me. I think it was also a bit more special pre-internet as these companies felt a bit more magical and mysterious. You can only read about them through video game magazines and see their names in the credit scenes at the end of the games.…

In 1997 I typed up a letter to Maxis in Microsoft Creative Writer about how much I liked their games and wanted to move to America and work at Maxis when I grew up: https://i.imgur.com/1eHcead.jpeg Unfortunately I made the mistake of mentioning that it'd be cool if you could print out an image of your city in SimCity 2000, as you could in the previous SimCity game. That was enough to get me only this letter from lega…

> "it may be a little hard to understand"

Presumably they are implying that if they read creative suggestions, they open themselves to the possibility of being sued if they ever implemented anything similar to what was suggested. Doesn't sound too complicated to explain to a kid.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#144

Post by Nition »

stevage wrote: post #143
Nition wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 1997 I typed up a letter to Maxis in Microsoft Creative Writer about how much I liked their games and wanted to move to America and work at Maxis when I grew up: https://i.imgur.com/1eHcead.jpeg Unfortunately I made the mistake of mentioning that it'd be cool if you could print out an image of your city in SimCity 2000, as you could in the previous SimCity game. That was enough to get me only this letter from lega…

> "it may be a little hard to understand" Presumably they are implying that if they read creative suggestions, they open themselves to the possibility of being sued if they ever implemented anything similar to what was suggested. Doesn't sound too complicated to explain to a kid.

I always thought the catch-22 was funny where they say they saw that I was suggesting an idea ¾ of the way through the letter, so they chose to return the letter without reading it.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#145

Post by codazoda »

stevage wrote: post #142

> I've invented several patented board games that were shopped around but never sold. I'm curious about this - I thought it was a very expensive process to patent something.

Yup, me too. In fact, I might consider simple copyright for something like a board game. Granted, I’ve never registered an actual copyright either. I suppose I should try it out.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#147

Post by dfxm12 »

dhosek wrote: post #75
GuB-42 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I visited the Warner Bros studios, they had a huge pile of paper in a corner, representing all the unsolicited ideas they receive. They told us they took care to not even read the manuscripts. I don't remember if they return them unopened or destroy them, but otherwise if the ideas from the manuscript end up in one of their productions, they open themselves to legal trouble. It may happen even if it is a coincid…

Yeah, movies are kind of weird like that. If I steal your idea for a novel (but not your words), you can call me out as an asshole but you don’t have any legal recourse, but if the same thing happens with a movie, apparently it is possible to sue and actually win significant damages.

FYI, in many (most?) legal systems, you can sue anyone, for anything. To win the damages, you'll have to convince a judge or jury of said damages (or present a strong enough case to settle out of court).

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#148

Post by wordglyph »

foxglacier wrote: post #117

I suspect his persistent confidence was already there to lead him to write to Disney in the first place. As a kid, I had an idea like that and my Dad was going to write to the company but he never did, I never had the inclination to do it myself, and now I'm not an actor. It also takes some awareness to state your age at the start of the letter. That's what makes people respond so well to it. I would never have thoug…

Good insight. Yes, I do remember at the time, purposely thinking I must lead with my age knowing instinctively that somehow that would help me and they would be more likely to pay attention.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#149

Post by Nition »

Nition wrote: post #104
nogridbag wrote: post #15

These letters matter a lot to kids. I sent my video game idea to Nintendo as a little kid and I had the same reaction seeing that envelope from Nintendo in the mailbox addressed to me. I think it was also a bit more special pre-internet as these companies felt a bit more magical and mysterious. You can only read about them through video game magazines and see their names in the credit scenes at the end of the games.…

In 1997 I typed up a letter to Maxis in Microsoft Creative Writer about how much I liked their games and wanted to move to America and work at Maxis when I grew up: https://i.imgur.com/1eHcead.jpeg Unfortunately I made the mistake of mentioning that it'd be cool if you could print out an image of your city in SimCity 2000, as you could in the previous SimCity game. That was enough to get me only this letter from lega…

Since there doesn't seem to be any record in the Internet by the way, this is what printed cities looked like in SimCity 1 (these are my own scans of some printouts from 1996):

https://i.imgur.com/E9QgkCp.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/i3MYCZv.jpeg

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#150

Post by tombert »

nogridbag wrote: post #15

These letters matter a lot to kids. I sent my video game idea to Nintendo as a little kid and I had the same reaction seeing that envelope from Nintendo in the mailbox addressed to me. I think it was also a bit more special pre-internet as these companies felt a bit more magical and mysterious. You can only read about them through video game magazines and see their names in the credit scenes at the end of the games.…

When I was thirteen I sent an email to Tom Fulp (creator of Newgrounds.com) telling him I wanted to make my own website with Coldfusion (which I had learned about through a pirated copy of DreamWeaver) and MySQL, and asked if would help me make it. [1]

He responded back extremely politely and said that my idea seems like a great idea, but he's far too busy running Newgrounds to build any other websites right now, but once I build it he would love to see it.

I never ended up building the website, but I look back and think it was cool how encouraging he was to some random kid who emailed him.

Kids will pick the weirdest people as "heroes" sometimes, and it's cool when your heroes turn out to be decent humans. Sometimes just responding to an email is all it takes.

[1] I honestly do not remember at all what the website was supposed to be and I don't have the email anymore. Knowing thirteen year old me, it was probably a forum about Donkey Kong Country or something.

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