Gawker: valleywag, blake commagere

Zombies creator OK with being "the jackass" on Facebook

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:20:00 EDT

Blake Commagere created the all the widgets you hate most on Facebook — the Zombies, Werewolves, Vampires and Slayers. The ones that spam you with bites and inspired knockoffs like Pirates and Ninjas that everyone also hates. You'd think Blake would hide from publicity given his monstrous creations, but no, today we found him giving an interview to Silicon Alley Insider, saying how "totally wrong" people are who (like us) say that Facebook apps should be useful instead of annoying.

For people to say that only utility apps are going to rule on Facebook –- anyone under that impression is totally wrong. Because utility is boring. Looking for a job? Who gets excited about that? And who does it every weekend? And at the end of the day that’s not as exciting as interacting with people. It’s weird to me that entertainment within Facebook is kind of being batted to the back, as if it isn’t monetizable. I don’t think anyone would say that about Hollywood or the traditional video game industry.

Like Slide's Keith Rabois, who has made the "fun is big business" argument before, Blake would have a point if Zombies, Werewolves, Vampires and Slayers were anywhere near as fun as Hollywood or traditional videogames. But they aren't. They're more like spitting on the wall at the same times as your friend and seeing who's loogey reaches the ground first. Or trying to not bite your fingernails.

Our suspicion? That Commagere knows this and has intentionally created the most annoying things on the Internet since HampsterDance.com as some sort of Faustian deal with the devil. He even hinted at this in his interview:

If I’m going to get remembered as 'you're the jackass that did that the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen,' I’ll still take that over falling into obscurity.

Boyo, if you're so caught up in an existential crises that you have to take it out on all of us, why not just read Ozymandias a few times and call it a night? That seems easier (and a lot less painful for the rest of us).

$35 million round wasn't enough for RockYou

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:20:00 EDT

Online widgetmaker RockYou is still looking for another $5 million to $15 million in funding, even after it took $35 million last week, at a $300 million valuation. That money was for doubling its staff, moving to a larger office in Redwood City and acquiring more widgets — those annoying add-ons to social-network profiles — for its portfolio, RockYou CTO and founder Jia Shen told Silicon Alley Insider — but it's not clear what the extra cash is for. In March, rumor had it RockYou's lastest funding round would set its value near $400 million, but thanks in part to a sliding ad market and a developer-unfriendly Facebook redesign, investors are said to have turned skeptical, sending the startup's paper value down by $100 million to $150 million.

Despite the blow from Facebook, Shen told SAI that unlike its closest competitor, Max Levchin's Slide, RockYou intends to keep developing for the platform. RockYou will need to — especially if developer Blake Commagere wrestles back control of his popular Vampires and Zombies apps. (Photo by califrayray)

Blake Commagere, RockYou ready to start biting over Vampires, Zombies, and Werewolves

Owen Thomas — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:20:00 EDT

Who owns the most annoying applications on Facebook? It seems incredible that anyone would want to take credit for Vampires, Zombies, and Werewolves, three of the most useless and yet most used applications on Facebook. And yet Blake Commagere, their developer, and RockYou, the company which markets those apps, and is happy to take credit for them when raising venture capital, are getting ready to deploy lawyers to settle the question over their ownership, we hear. Adonomics, the Facebook-app measurement firm, somewhat questionably estimates the three applications' value at $6.5 million — but attributes their ownership to Commagere.

Commagere, in the past, hasn't helped clarify matters. Last year, he told GigaOm that RockYou hosted his applications and provided some cross-promotion, then hastened to give the company more credit:

At this point I’ve partnered with them on the app and they are contributing far more resources than just infrastructure. It’s eased my pain of looking for more programmers and I’m now enjoying being able to focus more on the creative aspect of it.

He must now regret those comments, which won't help his case in breaking free from RockYou — if that's even his goal. Talk about your words coming back to bite you.