Curt Schilling's 38 Studios Struggling Financially 158
medv4380 writes "38 Studios, run by Curt Schilling, is having a hard time paying its bills and employees. The gaming community hasn't been happy with the company since the issue with an Online Pass for Single Player Content, which we discussed previously. Now, 38 Studios has bounced a check intended as a payment on its $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island. If the company defaults, Rhode Island taxpayers will have to cover the loan and interest, which could total nearly $100 million."
who? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Why do we care about this?
Re:who? (Score:4, Informative)
Curt Schilling.
Mr. Bloody Sock himself.
You need to get out of your basement once in a while.
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BMO
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A little bit of ketchup goes a long, long way.
Re:who? (Score:5, Funny)
You need to get out of your basement once in a while.
Isn't this really the sort of knowledge gained by spending more time in the basement?
Re:who? (Score:5, Interesting)
You need to get out of your basement once in a while.
Isn't this really the sort of knowledge gained by spending more time in the basement?
Schilling's Bloody Sock is one of the most famous incidents in American sports in the 21st century [wikipedia.org], and occurred during the most-remembered playoff series in baseball of the last few decades. Lots of people who aren't basement dwellers know all about it.
A basement dweller hears Schilling's name and remembers that only 4.9% of the runs that Schilling allowed over his career were unearned, which is the lowest percentage for any pitcher with a long career. We, er, *they* know that this means that ERA undervalues Schilling, because preventing unearned runs is a skill -- you do it by striking out batters, not walking anyone, and getting batters to hit fly balls rather than ground balls.
Basement dwellers, and a lot of other people, also know that Schilling has been a very outspoken conservative proponent of small government for many years. He'd say that a free-spending government corrupts the market, corrupts individuals, and leads to lots of waste. I guess he just went out and proved himself right!
Now if you'll excuse me, Mom says that lunch is ready. Hope it isn't PB&J again!
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A basement dweller hears Schilling's name and remembers that only 4.9% of the runs that Schilling allowed over his career were unearned, which is the lowest percentage for any pitcher with a long career. We, er, *they* know that this means that ERA undervalues Schilling, because preventing unearned runs is a skill -- you do it by striking out batters, not walking anyone, and getting batters to hit fly balls rather than ground balls.
Yeah, that's way more useful than being able to identify the classes of various starships.
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Ah, Sports Geeks. Gotta love them. It takes a lot of talent to turn what is normally a social bridge into a social liability.
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A basement dweller hears Schilling's name and remembers that only 4.9% of the runs that Schilling allowed over his career were unearned, which is the lowest percentage for any pitcher with a long career. We, er, *they* know that this means that ERA undervalues Schilling, because preventing unearned runs is a skill -- you do it by striking out batters, not walking anyone, and getting batters to hit fly balls rather than ground balls.
Yeah, that's way more useful than being able to identify the classes of various starships.
Of course it's not at all useful, which is the great beauty of it. Baseball probably has more nerd fans than any other American sport, in large part because it is an incredible generator of numerical data. Just look at Schilling's page at Baseball Reference [baseball-reference.com]. Look at all of those beautiful numbers!
A baseball game is largely a series of discrete events with a relatively limited number of possible outcomes. A typical baseball game has maybe 250-300 pitches thrown in it, each one of which has a measurable
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Baseball probably has more nerd fans than any other American sport
Stephen Jay Gould has written more on baseball than any other palaeontologist alive or dead. You should read his essay on the demise of the .400 hitter.
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BMO
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Basement dwellers, and a lot of other people, also know that Schilling has been a very outspoken conservative proponent of small government for many years. He'd say that a free-spending government corrupts the market, corrupts individuals, and leads to lots of waste. I guess he just went out and proved himself right!
This stuff about this person is all news to me, as I don't waste my time watching the idiotic and non-athletic children's game masquerading as a "sport" called baseball. However, I have notice
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Eh, given how hard it is to actually change the system, maybe it's easier to just drain it dry. :)
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No, it's an honest opinion, and probably shared by most everyone outside the USA. Are you some moronic baseball fan or something?
Honestly, watching paint dry is more exciting than that "sport".
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Baseball is very popular is Latin and South America. It also has quite a following in Japan and South Korea. As well as Canada. There are a significant number of people outside USA that like Baseball.
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And they play cricket thought the former British empire (excepting the USA). Doesn't mean the GP isn't correct about both sports.
I'd rather watch grass grow.
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I've never played Cricket or watched it really, but it seems like it'd be a fun game to play with some friends, much like baseball (or better yet softball). It'd be a good game for children or teenagers. But for watching professionals do it in a giant stadium? No way. I'm not totally opposed to all spectator sports; once in a while I find a good game of hockey quite entertaining. But that's a sport that requires real skill and athleticism, not just brute strength, and there's actually a lot going on du
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I've never played Cricket or watched it really, but it seems like it'd be a fun game to play with some friends, much like baseball (or better yet softball). It'd be a good game for children or teenagers.
Not in the US, it wouldn't. See, the cricket ball is hard. Harder than a baseball. It has a wooden core. People die from being hit by them. If Americans can't let children or teenagers play with real baseballs, cricket is right out.
(That said, I'm sure there is a soft version of cricket too, but it will have less to do with cricket than softball vs baseball. Without the hard heavy ball, glances will be near impossible, and bowling the wicket a very different ball game.)
Re:who? (Score:5, Insightful)
* Well, I know that there is a team called the "Red Socks" but I have no idea whether it's a baseball or football team, nor do I care about it enough to ask Wikipedia.
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Apparently it's really popular in South Korea, too. Go figure.
We also have it here in the UK; although we call it 'rounders', and it's usually played only by little girls.
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So apparently Japan, Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, and almost all of Latin America don't count. And to think, Europeans think Americans are insular...
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One would be hard pressed to come up with a story that is interesting to the whole world. Honestly, even setting aside the baseball angle, would your average Russian or Indian care about the bankruptcy of a small American video game shop?
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Now,
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The first sale doctrine thing had nothing to do with the company's failure. The game sold well (though it probably would have sold better had it not been sandwiched between Skyrim and Diablo). The reason the company is failing is because Schilling took on huge amounts of debt, and missed his original release target by two years.
The moral of this story, if there is one, is that you shouldn't loan money to capricious millionaires to help them fund their dream projects.
Weird definition of Latin America (Score:2)
According to Wikipedia:
Considering all Latin American countries baseball fans except South America but including Venezuela, that's gives us a rough estimate of only 37% of the Latin American population being baseball fans. You're not helping in your 'Americ
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And for the record, I'm from Germany and I don't give a shit about soccer, as well. That should serve to illustrate how I don't care about sports at all, given that most Germans are extremely enthusiastic about soccer
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It might help if the summary mentioned some games they'd produced, so we'd know whether to care.
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It's vaguely interesting to me because he used to be my aunt and uncle's next door neighbor in Kennet Square, PA. He seemed to be a nice guy, but his bulldogs were a bit over the top.
I heard he played some stick-ball game or something also, but I must admit I don't care about that very much...
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Sean Connery: 0 MLB wins
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Curt Schilling: 216 MLB wins
Sean Connery: 007 wins
Fixed.
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How about: As a successful major league baseball player, he's banged more ladies than Captain Kirk.
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And as a failed, state-backed video game company executive? Welcome to the world of "what have you done lately, not ages ago".
Schilling. (Score:5, Informative)
Jesus people.
It's Schilling.
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Shill (noun)
2. a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, [...]
So Schilling is a shill. Are you sure the spelling is a mistake? He is, in fact, shilling.
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That might work, I still contend that watching it would be boring though.
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Yeah, because derping around with fucking access keys for a CLI utility is such an efficient use of time...
So close (Score:2)
They should have had a deeper crafting system, and fixed some of the oddities. I would have bought ALL the DLC if they had done that.
Seriously, my smithing is maxed out to 10, and I'm getting bottom rung components when I break up top of the line armor and weapons? It's like I became a smithing god when crafting a weapon, but when it's time to disassemble something, I turn into a three year old with a mallet.
The detection skill was a good idea, though.
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I thought the demo looked pretty neat. That said, I didn't feel like paying AAA pricing for the game. If it was 40 I would have been all over it while I waited for D3.
Bad Investment --- again (Score:4, Insightful)
Is there ever going to be a time when the pols realize that throwing massive tax breaks at corporations is a bad idea for the state/city/country they're supposed to be representing?
And BTW everyone in MA and NY knows about Schilling, the bloody sock, the piano in the lake, and a record-setting choke which led to the end of an 86-year curse.
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Tax breaks are fine, when done so in an unbiased manner. However, when they favor a specific corporation, a specific person, or people over corporations, or corporations over people, then you will get circumvention or entities taking advantage of the situation. Simply remove the bias in law.
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Is there ever going to be a time when the pols realize that throwing massive tax breaks at corporations is a bad idea for the state/city/country they're supposed to be representing?
Even if there is, it won't work.
Pennsylvania won't give tax breaks? I'll set up my company in New York!
East Coast won't give tax breaks? I'll set up my company in the Midwest!
U.S.won't give tax breaks? I'll set up my company in Canada!
Western Hemisphere won't give tax breaks? I'll set up my company in Laos!
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Um, the main issue here was not a tax break, but a government loan guarantee. At least as bad, if not worse, since the moral hazard is blatantly obvious to anyone with a modicum of sense: Heads, we pay back the loan and keep all of the profits for our shareholders; the citizens of the sponsoring state get bupkis. Tails we declare bankruptcy, and the citizens of the sponsoring state get stuck with the loss from the loan.
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Which will be right after we ban lobbying and right before we implement punitive measures for such actions.
I'm pretty sure the torches and pitchforks it'll take to implement the above changes would qualify as a preceding form of it being a bad idea for them. Those changes would never see the light of day without something big at stake for said pols.
When the shit hits the fan... (Score:2)
This is what it looks like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BZ_6PkeO_g8 [youtube.com]
"It's like you're running away."
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BMO
Kingdom of....what, exactly? (Score:2)
Sounds like anyone who avoided their game dodged a serious bullet, and now this is the logical result. Learn the lesson Mr. Shilling - you brought this entirely upon yourself.
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Actually, the combat in the game is one of the most fun action-RPG combat systems I've ever played. The story was also fairly interesting, and more mature than most.
I ended up clicking past the dialog like I usually do, because good for a videogame means "absolutely fucking terrible" by literary standards, so I lost the story, and the extremely limited enemy variety (there were about 10 monsters total when you discount reskinnings) meant that the combat, while really, really good, also lost its charm, so I
Hypocrite (n): (Score:5, Insightful)
"There can be no question our country is in the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. I also think there can be no question that it falls on us, the individuals, to find a way out of our own personal crisis." - Curt Schilling
It well and truly stinks that this man was ever allowed within ten feet of public funding in the first place. Even more confusing, though, is that he even pursued public funding in the first place.
It's enough to make one think that he never really believed the anti-gubmit pablum he was spouting in the first place.
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Why is that?
All of these anti-government types are like that. They love to suck that government teat and use all the services it provides, when it comes time to pay the tax bill that is when they start to complain.
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Nice generalization. Of course, most of us "anti-government" types, are not actually "anti government"! Instead, we favor a government limited to its proper functions, none of which involve the initiation of force against innocents.
And, to anticipate your brilliant retort - yes, I will take back whatever measly social security payments that remain when it is my turn, since the money was taken from me without my consent for all of those years. I will also use the public roads, which I never asked to be bu
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Except it's usually an accurate generalization, as wanting less government for the sake of less government is as sensible as wanting maximum government for the sake of it. That and the tendency of it to merely be an argument against spending one doesn't like. You never see cons
It's worse (Score:4)
So not only did he "negotiate" RI into loaning his startup $75M (which was a huge chunk of their $125M jobs-development budget, and was pretty controversial at the time), he did so claiming he'd sunk "$35-$38 million" of his own money into the company.
Turned out, the figure was closer to $3M, and he promptly paid himself back with the RI loan money, removing any personal stake in the success of his company.
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From the Wayback Machine [archive.org]:
At a news conference after the board meeting, Schilling said he’s been negotiating exclusively with Rhode Island for the last four months, and denied any intent to play one state off another. “This is a partnership,” he said. Under the terms of the deal, the state will issue $75 million in bonds, which would be purchased by private investors. 38 Studios is responsible for repaying the money, but if it can’t, the state would be responsible.
Regardless of who approached whom, Mr. Shilling was clearly willing to enter into a government-guaranteed loan, and spent several months securing the deal. If I'm mischaracterizing Mr. Shillings' political beliefs, I'm happy to be directed to a more thorough examination of his beliefs.
That said, given Mr. Shilling's political background and positions, I would indeed be surprised to learn he believes that government should take an active role in funding and guaranteeing loans to priv
The real story (Score:5, Insightful)
Paying companies to relocation is a win for owners a loss for working stiffs. In the best scenario, tax payers in the new community get the benefit of more jobs at the expense of subsidizing millionaires. The old community losts the jobs the new community gains.
In this case, not only did the new community not gain jobs in the long term, but they are now responsible for $100M in loans. Brilliant job.
I like free markets. I have government in bed with big business.
Re:The real story (Score:5, Insightful)
An you know what the real irony is here?
Curt Schilling is a full-blown teabagger.
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BMO
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Curt Schilling is a full-blown teabagger.
Well, the whole Boston thing made that obvious :)
And yea... people are hypocrites, film at 11:00...
Why is it ironic? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Ironically perhaps, in relatively-socialist (relatively) Europe the EU has to approve any significant "state aid [europa.eu]"
The primary reasoning given is it distorts competition between companies (thus ultimately harming the consumer), but also recognised in the criteria - and what most often causes us to hear about it - is distorting competition between member states.
If a company relocates from A to B just because state aid is offered, there's a clear implication that the combined benefit gained by country B + compa
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Thanks for the insight. In some ways, Europe is ahead of us in understanding how free markets should work.
As surprising as a Hollywood divorce (Score:4, Informative)
All of us techies living in Mass. saw this coming. You had a sports celebrity non-businessman CEO on one side, and unsophisticated investors on the other who happened to be controlling $75 million of taxpayers' money. The agreement they signed pretty much compelled 38 Studios to build the payroll to an unsustainable level (since the state was trying to hoping to create a local tech industry) and thus burn money as fast as possible. Elementary budgeting and accounting skills were lacking.
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"unsophisticated investors" = dumbfuck jock sniffers.
People who worship jocks deserve to get viciously exploited for being craven fools. The taxpayers get fucked, but they relentlessly vote in people who in a decent society would be broken on the wheel for corruption.
Thank Goodness! (Score:5, Informative)
All I can say is good riddance. I'm glad that a shitty game with an even shittier DRM practice is not rewarded. We should be happy about this.
Remember all the hub-bub that KoA was getting about even though it was single player you couldn't get 1/3 the game unless you purchased new? Yet all of a sudden, even though it's average score was a 7, it was getting rave or good comments all over every game sites message board. The astroturfing was so obvious and egregious. And the problem was, it was so prevalent and everywhere people actually genuinely believed it was a good game.
What pissed me off more though is that everyone was carrying torches the day before it was released about the DRM, and then "they just bent over and took it."
So I say good riddances and thank god. Because if that game sold well, you know damn well that would open the floodgates to needing online passes for single player games forever on...consoles!
Ugh.
Re:Thank Goodness! (Score:4, Interesting)
... and then there was diablo 3.
requires online and unique serial (non transferable) to play single player.
Trust me, the rape never ended.
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Don't buy it either (Score:2)
There are plenty of games that are not like that. While some publishers are trying for that crap, others are not and some are emphatic about not doing it. So buy games that don't do that. IF we vote with our wallets, it will work itself out long term.
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The thing is, if:
It's a good game
Has no or minimal DRM (license key)
Costs $20
Will people suddenly decide to start paying for it instead of grabbing a torrent? Maybe 10-30%? You would, I would, probably our friends would. I'm not even sure what % of /. would pay for it, with the "all software should be free" contingent. Dang, now I'm all depressed.
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I agree with you. Problem is, when has voting with your feet or wallet ever changed anything? CoD petition? They all bought the damn game anyway. Shitty ME3 ending? Still a record seller and people whined AFTER they bought the game knowing the shitty ending. People are whining left and right about D3, yet they knew about this atrocity a full YEAR before it was even released. Yet they bought it anyway.
It seems the only way things are changed anymore is the outcry of bad press. So yes, we need to complain, an
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You're right. That's the problem. Blizzard knew we'd all complain, then take it up the ass anyway. They gambled. And I bet you then won already. If this was any other game, it would end up like Ubisoft and have sales for those games drop to almost nothing (that actually happened last quarter or year--forget when exactly).
Problem is, it ruins it for everyone. Witness the copying of the extra $50 elite for BF3. Who just promised us they would never charge for map packs or charge for a stats service.
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All I can say is good riddance. I'm glad that a shitty game with an even shittier DRM practice is not rewarded. We should be happy about this.
Have you actually even played Kingdoms of Amalur or are just ranting because of some stuff you read on the Internet? I have spent many hours playing and absolutely love it. It is quite the opposite of a "shitty" game.
I played the console version, so I can't really speak of the DRM. It doesn't seem to have any more than any other console game. There is one quest (House of Valor) that is unlocked with a key you get when you buy it new, but you can get it as DLC. I bought it used for pretty cheap. Loved t
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Nixoloco, you are the only one who gets a pass on this because from your UID it doesn't seem like you're a paid astroturfer. So I'll give you your opinion. Not everyone likes the same games. For example, I loved the 2008 Alone in the Dark. Loved it. But the press gave it like a 3 or 5 IIRC.
But fact is, the average for that game was a 70-75. So I can't give you a pass. It was a mediocre game and people knew it. But you're allowed a different opinion.
And how can you argue about online passes on console SINGLE
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This has, strangely enough, next to nothing to do with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. 38 Studios didn't make that (exactly), they took an existing game that Big Huge Games was in the process of making and basically shoehorned their existing Amalur content into it.
This is also why they're still losing money - they're trying to create a World of Warcraft killer, and they have nothing to show for it. Instead they had to buy another company's game and release it as their own.
It's also unclear how much of the DR
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If you think resellers should be able to purchase used games for 10$, re-price them for $30-40 and take in double the profit compared to brand new game you're insane.
Uh, yeah.... then I'm insane. Or, at least, have an insane desire to be able to sell old stuff I don't use; perhaps on Craigslist or for store credit at a Gamestop clone. Whatever; it's my item, so it's my rules.
Or, are YOU insane for thinking it's ok for products to be purchased once, and from that point on have absolutely zero (not depreciated... but ZERO) monetary value? Hmm. If I bought a lawnmower, but then moved to a place without grass, I guess I'd still be insane for wanting to sell my lawn m
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Thank you. You couldn't have illustrated my points any better. You are the entire summation of what's wrong.
So tell me, do you work for EA or 38 studios? Or did EA/38 hire an astroturfing firm to do the dirty work for them, and you are hired by them?
Your first point: protection against double dipping. Did you miss the point that gamestop's revenue for used games is only 30% of its entire revenue. That 60 some percent is NEW sales? Guess you missed that.
Point two: you said it yourself. Always online DOESN'T
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I'm not a fan of the DRM crap either, but lets be fair here. The pass they included wasn't for 1/3 of KoA, it was for a short quest line that took maybe 2-3hours to complete. It was nothing really special or essential for the main story of the game. I wasn't happy about it, and I certainly wouldn't have bought the game had I known they were doing it, but lets not accuse them of preventing used game buyers from finishing the game just yet. As for KoA itself, I actually thought it was pretty good. Kind of like Fable, except way longer with a bunch more weapons. The main issue is that it was released fairly close to other high profile games. Lets be honest here, if you only had enough time/money for either Skyrim or KoA which would you choose? I think the sales numbers speak for themselves.
I agree with you, except I don't like the gameplay in the Elder series. KoA has amazing game play and movement. It actually feels like an action game. The world is just so massive, that one locked quest (House of Valor) is miniscule. As you say, it isn't part of the main story line and it is far from 1/3. There are 100s of quests in the game.
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Requiring the user to buy a game new AND even worse require online activation for a SINGLE player game on a CONSOLE is never acceptable. Period. Full-stop.
As a RI'er (Score:2)
And how curious - I wrote a blog post with a pro forma estimate of how much they should have burned through using 20 employees as my benchmark. It's been in operation for about a year now, and they did make $60 million on that game, probably half that was profit So Schilling got his $30 million investment back. But then there's the matter that of the $75
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Fellow RIer here... The best strategy as a resident would probably have been to invest in the bonds themselves, if possible...it would have been the perfect hedge. Heads, we win...tails, we don't lose.
Cheque has now cleared (Score:2)
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/18/38-studios-successfully-pays-1-125-million-to-rhode-island/ [joystiq.com]
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It was in a display case in cooperstown last time I visited there.
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But I'm sure Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri has a lot of experience funding tech startups...
From TFA:
Chafee opposed the loan guarantee as a candidate for governor.
Re:so he bounced a check.... (Score:4, Informative)
See that's the problem. He took, how much, $75 million, of the state of Rhode Island's money (as a loan.) And spent it. It's gone. If you seize the company and put it up at auction, all you're going to get is a bunch of scratched-up aeron chairs and three-year-old computers. The state is out the money.
Re:so he bounced a check.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I honestly don't see the problem here. What was the state of RI doing giving venture capital to a start-up business in the first place? Most new businesses fail, so VC is basically a big gamble; you're hoping the company is going to take off and you, being part-owner, will make a ton of money, the way the Facebook owners have done. Giving a loan to a start-up is utterly stupid, and normally it's only done when the company is going to use it to buy a lot of capital equipment, which of course becomes collateral and the bank can seize in the case of default. You'll never find a bank willing to loan you millions to fund a start-up that doesn't have any significant capital equipment (or probably any start-up at all; it seems to me that most business loans are only given to companies that have already "started up" and are successfully operating, but want to grow and need capital equipment to do that; banks don't like to make loans without collateral).
So again, I fail to see the problem. The people of RI were stupid in giving this company so much (or any) money with no collateral except Aeron chairs, and were stupid to be in the business of angel investing. They deserve to lose their money for their stupidity. Maybe next time they'll do a better job electing leaders. At least the federal government investing in firms like Solyndra makes some kind of sense: Solyndra had tons of capital equipment (you can buy some of it on Ebay right now), and its business was something that seemed to be of genuine national importance (developing alternative energy technology). But a video game company? WTF? Not only is that not important, it's not even something we have a shortage of. There's tons of video game companies out there.
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Because he promised them he would create lots of jobs in the fastest-growing entertainment industry, maybe even making them believe the RI could become the next Austin for game companies.
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Anyone can make claims like that for almost any business. "We'll create lots of jobs!!" That doesn't mean the government should be funding every harebrained private business venture out there. It makes some sense if the industry, regardless of any jobs it creates, is of strategic national importance (e.g., having viable electric vehicles would greatly reduce or even eliminate our dependence on foreign oil, so even if they were built all by robots it'd be strategically important to the nation and the econ
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Once again, that is what VCs do. What, you expect him to tell them "This company has a 5-10% chance of ever making money at best."? Like grishnak said above, government has no business in going after risky ventures. The people should be angry at the government who approved the deal.
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> The people of RI were stupid in giving this company so much (or any) money with no collateral
> except Aeron chairs, and were stupid to be in the business of angel investing.
That's a problem if you are one of the people in Rhode Island, or one of the people who Schilling employed (now holding a rubber check), or somebody that extended credit or resources to a (now broke) startup, or even one of the people who bought a great computer game that now has no support or upgrade path. Being stupid is not
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The problem is that people need to be responsible for their actions. Obviously, sometimes bad things happen, and that's why good societies have safety nets, etc., but overall the people of society are responsible, collectively, for choosing their own leadership, which runs the society and makes decisions on their behalf and for their welfare.
If the people of a region are too stupid to pick good leadership, and instead pick incompetent or corrupt leadership, what are you going to do about it? What is your
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That's what revolutions are for. If your government really sucks that bad, then you need to take to the streets and force a change; just ask the people of Tunisia.
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I can feel empathy for the employees, they are in the worst position. People who bought the game, they're out $50, so it sucks but it isn't that big a deal; it's a tank of gas. Everyone else that put money into the company knew it was a risk, and the word risk means it may not go your way. I don't need hindsight to know not to invest money in a startup, because to do so you just write off that money the second you cut the check. You're playing the lottery on getting any money back. If there was malfeas
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This could be a success actually. Not for RI, but for the gaming community. I have to wonder how much $ and effort went into handling the flack from deciding to require take Ubisoft's approach to DRM (online and yes if they can help it), without having feet to stand on first. I wonder how many smaller capital firms and individual loaners are also listening to the band play on. $75 Million is not a small ship. Thinking about dusting and polishing the old shovel for this dig.
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Doesn't matter; the people behind those closed doors were duly elected by the people of Rhode Island. They're on the hook for their own stupid decisions in the voting booth. Hopefully next time they won't make that mistake again, but I wouldn't be too sure.
Everyone has the government they deserve.
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The Providence Mafia is a pale shadow of what it used to be.
Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio, the head of the mob, got sentenced to 66 months in prison last Friday. He's 84.
Nobody knows what "Baby Shacks" actually means, btw.
All the old ones that more or less knew what they were doing are dying out. The younger ones...not so bright.
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BMO
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All the old ones that more or less knew what they were doing are dying out. The younger ones...not so bright.
That seems to be the case for most of the US population, not just mobsters.
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I'm a little unclear on why so much.
I'm still not sure why they gave them a loan to begin with. Don't most "Tax incentive packages" involve a grace period of simply not paying local / state/ real estate taxes ? Since when do they flat out become the venture capitol ?
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There was an attempt in the legislature to cap the amount of money available to any one company, and it would have succeeded if the EDC Director Keith Stokes (who resigned last week) hadn't persuaded them to "hold off a little while, we're working on something".