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[ragingduckd]

I just went looking for this article to confirm my recollection that Goko had indeed gone back to its investors for more funding (after their original $8M).  I happened to notice an amusing detail in this image that appears in the article:



Edit: You sort of have to squint to read it... or know in advance what you might expect to see in the chat box.

[Dsell]

"The reboot is an object lesson in how a company can fall in love with a technology that isn’t ready for prime time and what it should do for its investors and fans when its first plan doesn’t work out."

Iiiiiiiiiis it though?

[Schneau]

Very funny. Though, that image might not be supplied by Goko if it was grabbed by the blog itself.

[jl8e]

"The reboot is an object lesson in how a company can fall in love with a technology that isn’t ready for prime time and what it should do for its investors and fans when its first plan doesn’t work out."

Iiiiiiiiiis it though?

I think it's more an object lesson in how poor implementation can ruin any technology.

[DG]

Goko is doing this with a pretty small team. It has three full-time staffers in San Francisco and a content production team in Vietnam.

Doesn't sound promising does it? At least they are being sensible and launching Catan next which should be much simpler for them. Four player trading could be pretty slow though.

[serakfalcon]

I think it's more an object lesson in how poor implementation can ruin any technology.

100% This.

[ragingduckd]

Goko is doing this with a pretty small team. It has three full-time staffers in San Francisco and a content production team in Vietnam.

Doesn't sound promising does it? At least they are being sensible and launching Catan next which should be much simpler for them. Four player trading could be pretty slow though.

$8M funding = 3 employees for 1 year?  Damn... I should be working for Goko after all.

[SCSN]

lol, almost looks like Goko dislikes the point tracker but lacks both the self-assuredness to say so and the skills to fight it, so this passive-aggressive image is all they dare to do.

[Beyond Awesome]

lol, almost looks like Goko dislikes the point tracker but lacks both the self-assuredness to say so and the skills to fight it, so this passive-aggressive image is all they dare to do.

So, can we say that photo is a threat of sorts, or more or less Goko giving us the middle finger in a subtle way.

[LastFootnote]

Guys, you are reading way, way too much into this. The screenshot was likely taken by Gamesbeat, rather than Goko. Even if it was taken by Goko, it's a five-player game! Chances were really good that someone in the game was going to have the extension. It's just a coincidence. It's not always about you.

[Voltaire]

Even if it was taken by Goko, it's a five-player game! Chances were really good that someone in the game was going to have the extension.

You're right - at minimum, 1/5 customers of their customers need outside expertise to make the product they purchased usable.

[SCSN]

Guys, you are reading way, way too much into this. The screenshot was likely taken by Gamesbeat, rather than Goko. Even if it was taken by Goko, it's a five-player game! Chances were really good that someone in the game was going to have the extension. It's just a coincidence. It's not always about you.

I guess you missed the "almost" in my post. Forging amusing stories out of boring facts is one of the oldest and most entertaining applications of human creativity. Don't act like the guy in a movie theater who at the climax of an action movie dances around exclaiming that it's all fake, that it was recorded on a film set, that the heroine isn't really in danger.

[Ozle]

. Don't act like the guy in a movie theater who at the climax of an action movie dances around exclaiming that it's all fake, that it was recorded on a film set, that the heroine isn't really in danger.

Whaaat? It's all fake?!
Next time please use Spoiler tags

[GendoIkari]

Similar to what Dsell said, but this really pisses me off: "It learned the hard way that HTML5 just wasn't ready to scale as a high-performance game platform."

That's just terrible. Really bad reporting there.

First off, Dominion is hardly a "high-performance game." It's not like they were trying to make World of Warcraft in HTML5 or something.

Second, Goko barely uses anything at all about how HTML5 is supposed to work. So they use the canvas element to draw all their graphics. That doesn't mean it's an HTML5 platform. HTML5 is a huge set of elements and APIs designed to work with your browser to make an interactive web application.

Third, even to the degree that they do use HTML5, none of the problems with the website have anything to do with the platform they chose. Bugs, lack of security, lack of features, ignoring their customers, poor choices on UI implementation, etc... there is no reason at all to think that all of those same things wouldn't have existed had they chosen any other platform.

[Warfreak2]

$8M funding = 3 employees for 1 year?  Damn... I should be working for Goko after all.

$8M funding = exclusive licenses to make internet versions of Dominion and whatever other games they are going to strangle to death.

[Ozle]

$8M funding = 3 employees for 1 year?  Damn... I should be working for Goko after all.

$8M funding = exclusive licenses to make internet versions of Dominion and whatever other games they are going to strangle to death.

Then only have a few licences though?
Say they have 10 employees, i doubt pay would be over 1m a year.

Geez, if RGG got over €1m no wonder they sold up to such a shady vague proposal!

[Warfreak2]

They have over 150, and may God have mercy on our souls.

[Ozle]

"Goko’s main competitors are Electronic Arts-owned Pogo and Hasbro."

Hahahahahah, funniest thing all day.
I bet Hasbro are quaking in thier ivory towers!

[Kirian]

They have over 150, and may God have mercy on our souls.

I love how that article has screenshots from Catan World... from over a year ago.

Also, remember that they didn't originally have just three employees.  I mean... their website still shows all seven senior employees, of whom presumably at least four are gone, but they were there before.  And that list doesn't include the engineering staff, actual programmers, etc.  Or their "partners" like Agility and whatever other outsourcing they have done.

That initial round of funding is almost certainly gone.  I don't know how much more they were able to get--perhaps another $8M, but I wouldn't bet on it--and they are running on fumes right now.  Unless they can get something real, something not a beta, out within the next six or so months, they're dead as a company.  You can't run a company like this on one semi-sufficient product.

However, their licenses likely don't run out until 2016, and you can run a server for a single game with very little effort.  I fully expect Goko Dominion to remain until 2015 at least, though it will likely be just one person in charge of maintaining the server.

[ftl]

They have over 150, and may God have mercy on our souls.

I love how that article has screenshots from Catan World... from over a year ago.

That's because the article itself is from over a year ago.

[Dsell]

Also, remember that they didn't originally have just three employees.  I mean... their website still shows all seven senior employees, of whom presumably at least four are gone

It's six.

[Warfreak2]

That initial round of funding is almost certainly gone.  I don't know how much more they were able to get--perhaps another $8M, but I wouldn't bet on it--and they are running on fumes right now.  Unless they can get something real, something not a beta, out within the next six or so months, they're dead as a company.  You can't run a company like this on one semi-sufficient product.

At some point, incompetence ceases to be the most plausible explanation.

[LastFootnote]

At some point, incompetence ceases to be the most plausible explanation.

It's a common enough occurrence, though. Goko, like so many companies, decided to offshore a bunch of its programming because it's so much cheaper per man-hour. In my experience, that usually results in code that (sometimes) works, but is an unreadable mess. The higher ups in the business won't give the in-house programmers license to rewrite the code because that "would take too long". So the code remains nigh impossible to maintain and work is veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery sloooooooooooow.

[ragingduckd]

At some point, incompetence ceases to be the most plausible explanation.

If there was a "" button, I would use it now.

[Kirian]

Also, remember that they didn't originally have just three employees.  I mean... their website still shows all seven senior employees, of whom presumably at least four are gone

It's six.

...

...

What?