All he has to do is paint the balls with funny cartoon characters and start selling them in Japan. Kids can collect all 150 different balls. They'll be a hit there, and in a year and half after launch they'll be an even greater hit in the U.S..
TV likes to sensationalize everything, I give this guy credit for taking the jump that many people would just never even try.
From the interview link:
"During the first 22 years since BulletBall’s conception, it was like a hobby, a game played among family and friends on weekends, during vacations, or summer picnics and parties.
I actually invested too much of my life working for Corporate America 5-6 days a week, an average of 10 hours a day, for 25 years. If I had my priorities straight I would have understood years ago that "it is better to have tried and failed than not tried at all".
Better late than never:)"
Still, it seems that there was about four years between the time he quit is job and when he appeared on the Reality TV show, and during that time he apparently spent about $30,000 on this-- I'm a bit surprised that he wasn't able to either a) find an angel willing to buy some equity (so that the inventor could devote himself to marketing this without having to live out of his car) or b) get a clear enough message that although he personally seemed enamored with it, this game idea wasn't going anywhere.
>After spending 20+ years (these were BulletBall years) as a manager making millions for major corporations across America, I decided in 2004 to "step out of the box" and work towards realizing my own dreams.
Not well off. Better off. American Inventor made him seem like a hopelessly deluded fellow. Deluded he may be, but he's not as insane as you would believe having watched only the TV show.
I believe him, Bulletball is going to be a success. Only it will be as the title of a mockumentery that the man unwittingly authorizes. Hours of film of the mentally tortured game inventor are edited into an 112 minute runtime box office smash, the man having signed away his rights for a small shooting fee, ostensibly for allowing them to document the rise of his sport, gets virtually nothing. In the end our tragic inventor takes his own life several weeks later with a shotgun recently purchased at a pawnshop, none of the hostages were harmed.
I'm not impressed, but after reading this article I have some respect for the guy. At least he went through lawyers, patents, and manufacturers. However minute, he must have done some homework about table size, ball size/weight/bounciness/color, and he's spent 100K on tours for his market research. If anything at all, he's got guts to make something that looks ordinary into something "professional."
That said, I still don't get the difference between BB and BBE, nor the need for one. Having watched the video, visited the website, and read this interview, he seems to have internalized the answers to that question like a tape recorder.
No, it isn't. The guy is putting on a very effective act. There's no way he's spent 26 years "developing" bulletball. I'm sure he made that up (as well as other details) in order to add emotional appeal to his game. In fact, he's had some real success as a result of his unusual marketing skills:
Griffin has joined forces with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Veterans with Disabilities, and the Disabled-Athlete Sports Association to stage the first annual “Bulletball Tournament” which will feature the former Ms. Wheelchair America.
The long term prospects for an obviously stupid game aren't good, but still...
Considering this some more, I think this guy is brilliant. He understood that for TV, what was needed was a melodramatic story. By playing up the 'insane dedication' angle, whether they loved or hated his invention, he ensured maximum memorable/emotional impact.
And thus he's getting secondary news coverage, like here.
I suspect he wanted that far more than their money, because if we assume (like he does) that Bulletball is fun to play, the real key to its success will be increased awareness.
Coincidentally, Nathan Myhrvold independently conceived of BulletBall three years ago in a roundtable with 7 PhD's. Boy, were they surprised when they tried to file for the patent. I guess it was an invention whose time had come.
I am Marc Griffin, the inventor of Bulletball. Just wanted to say hi and glad to know people are still talking about Bulletball.... I guess the "act" was emotional enough afterall :) Go to DUSTWEB.com and there is even a video version of the game being developed! any questions and I can be reached at bulletballgame@yahoo.com
P.S. Obviously I didn't go out and commit suicide after the judges ripped me apert on national tv. But it wasn't fun to go through either.
The game doesn't look that bad... a sort of mix between air hockey, ping-pong, and handball. Though, just looking at him crouched over to play makes my back hurt. And enthusiastic players slapping away with their hands and forearms might cut or bruise themselves quite often on the table edges.
And, it's got some problems as a bar or arcade game -- every point results in the ball rolling away on the floor somewhere to be retrieved, and there's no clear path to making it coin-operated.
