Kickstarter project offers refund if Facebook buys it for $2 billion
Echoing some people's disappointment with Oculus, a game called Terribands reassures those who might worry it will sell out for a fortune. On the other hand, it also admits it's "a terrible game with a terrible name."
Do good and the universe will repay you for your goodness. That's today's aphorism of dubious worth.
Yet some people like to believe it's true. They hope that paying it forward will lead to being paid back, until we're all being constantly paid simply for being good people.
Those who offered up their personal funds to a Kickstarter project called Oculus had doubts about the existence of goodness. The startup was bought by Facebook for $2 billion and the original donors received not a grote.
How long could it be before another Kickstarter project came along and offered to repay investors' money if Facebook bought it for a similar amount?
May I present Terribands? This is a party game that wraps itself around the concepts of honesty and honor.
Its Kickstarter campaign is headlined: "Terribands -- A Terrible Game With A Terrible Name."
It's a simple guessing game. You have some words attached to your headband and others try to act those words out, so that you can guess what they say. It's not exactly an unfamiliar concept.
However, its creator, Eric Calisto, promises that "you will not only receive consistent updates, but honest updates as well."
Importantly, though, he also declares: "If I get acquired by Facebook for $2 billion you will get your money back!"
He admits he created the game to "keep me sane." Yes, of course he's going through graduate school.
The rules of the game show that Calisto isn't merely disarmingly honest, but possessed of a refined sense of humor. For example: "Least intelligent player goes first." Which is just as it should be, and so rarely is.
Calisto is clearly a man of modest ambitions. He is only trying to raise $10,000, which is a very small price for sanity these days.
One can only wish him well and hope that we're all soon going to parties, enjoying words like "Your Ex" on our headbands.
I do have some inner qualms, however.
What if Facebook buys Terribands for $1.9 billion? Or what if Google, spooked that Facebook is showering its money like a Super Bowl-winning cornerback in a nightclub, buys Terribands for $2 billion instead?
I can only hope that Calisto won't, in these circumstances, turn into a terrible person with a terrible game with a terrible name.