The Fall of 38 Studios 172
An anonymous reader writes "Boston magazine provides the first reasonably satisfying account of the final year of Curt Schilling's video game company 38 Studios, which was heavily subsidized by a huge loan guaranteed by the state of Rhode Island. During his career as a baseball pitcher, Schilling helped lead three different teams to four World Series, resulting in three championships. He has so far been much less successful as a video game CEO; although he has some of the stereotypical qualities of a successful entrepreneur (passion, energy level, optimism, selling ability), his company seemed utterly lacking in controls, while facing a very tough industry and economy. Schilling apparently regrets the decision to bet the company on an MMO game, but otherwise seems to accept little blame for the demise. His company burned more than $133 million over six years, mostly for headcount, according to an analysis of public documents by Providence TV station WPRI."
So what's the purpose of this story again? (Score:3, Insightful)
Is it so we feel sorry for some rich dumb fuck who's greatest achievement in life is throwing a ball around, and who only got the chance to cause hundreds of hard working people to lose their jobs because America seems to reward the former attributes above all else?
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lose jobs that he gave them?
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This is the shit Republicans actually believe. The guy got a $75,000,000 loan from the government, blew it on terrible business decisions, and yet we're supposed to bow down and worship him for "giving" the employees -- employees that he fucked over (by cancelling health insurance without telling them, for instance) -- their jobs.
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You must be joking. Since when do Republicans believe that government loans to business are a good idea? In a cronyism sense both parties do this stuff, but as a philosophy? You're completely wrong; it's Democrats who want to have the goverment pick winners and losers in business. See Solyndra.
Re:So what's the purpose of this story again? (Score:5, Insightful)
Since when do Republicans believe that government loans to business are a good idea?
When they're the ones giving them out.
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You must be joking. Since when do Republicans believe that government loans to business are a good idea?
Since always. 38 Steps got its loan courtesy of Carcieri, the Republican governor of RI. The DOE loan program was started by Republican president George Bush in 2005, and it was his DOE that advanced Solyndra as a company worthy of a loan. By the time Obama signed off on it the process had been in the works for years. The only times Republicans don't believe loans to business are a good idea are when a, Democrats might get credit for doing something useful (See GM), b, they see an opportunity to blame De
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And those jobs were not gifts at all since all jobs are a trade of skills for money.
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No, I can go ahead and continue the fully-justified belief that Republicans do, in fact, venerate job creators who use government funds. Defense contractors, the banking industry, agriculture, etc.
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Enjoy living in your fantasy world. I must have missed the 'veneration' that Republicans hold for the job-creating prowess of defense contractors, banking, and agriculture. In the world I live in, aka the real one, Republicans are most frequently heard 'venerating' small businesses and their job-creating skills. While I realize it may hurt your eyeballs, not to mention cause your brain to go on tilt, to read this, you could try:
http://www.gop.gov/indepth/jobs
for a more accurate portrayal of who Republica
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Hmmm... must be an election year.
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Agribusiness is squarely Midwestern. Its bloc of supporters in Congress are representatives from farm states from both parties. For instance, when (oil state) Senator Tom Coburn proposed legislation to end the ethanol subsidy, a bipartisan group of Midwestern senators [huffingtonpost.com] came up with legislation that attempted to save a subsidy of some sort. This sort of thing happens all of the time. If you're a
Re:So what's the purpose of this story again? (Score:5, Interesting)
He didn't create much of it: he bought existing companies and then ran them into the ground. Big Huge Games had jobs and products before 38 Studios bought it, and would, in retrospect, have been better off if Schilling hadn't bought 'em.
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To be fair, Big Huge Games was going to be closed by THQ if they had not been purchased.
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Out of the goodness of his heart? Or did he employ those people for their specific skills? Employment is a trade of skills for money, not a benevolent gift by a kindly rich man. Why do so many righties forget that?
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What's the point of your comment again? Do you not like this story because it threatens your political views? That not all rich people are old fat evil guys sitting in their office lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills. When some people get money they want to make something other people will enjoy. It doesn't always turn out right for the people trying to do the nice thing. The world and the people in it are not black or white they are a wonderful and confusing shade of grey.
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When some people get money they want to make something other people will enjoy.
The problem is that he "got money", as you say, by borrowing $75M from the state government. If he had made a spectacular failure of a company with his own money or money from private investors, it would still be unfortunate but not nearly so infuriating and hypocritical as this. Of course, the way he treated his employees towards the end was unacceptable regardless of where the money came from.
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To be fair, he blew all his own money in the company too. $30M+. Dude's broke. He'll be living off his salary as an ESPN analyst.
Of course, there is a school of thought that suggests his claim to be broke will last only slightly longer than any pending lawsuits against him.
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Dude's broke. He'll be living off his salary as an ESPN analyst.
Clearly our definitions of "broke" are vastly dissimilar.
Let me know when he's working at fucking Walmart shagging carts for $8 bucks an hour wondering how he's going to pay for health insurance and food at the same time.
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To be fair, he blew all his own money in the company too. $30M+. Dude's broke. He'll be living off his salary as an ESPN analyst.
I've never understood people like this. Why not invest 30M and keep back 10M just in case?
Or do you have to be so blindly optimistic to be an entrepreneur that you can't begin to believe you'll fail?
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Why does the average American have over $8000 in credit card debt? Why does the government spend more money than it takes in to the point where the world is looking into alternate currencies for the central bank, almost guaranteeing the US will default on its debt when it can no longer just print money to pay them? Why do people risk everything in Vegas (or, hell, go to Vegas at all)? Why do my poor friends live on welfare and still scrape money together to buy lottery tickets every week (and seriously expe
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I don't think that it's a requirement, but I do think that it is a major contributing factor. With so much at risk, I think that optimism is definitely a prerequisite for entrepeneurship, since the knowledge necessary to cover all the myriad risks and turn it into a "sure thing" is tough to come by, and possibly impossible to have before plunging in and learning the business first hand.
The vast majority of new businesses fail within the first 4 years. A lot of people go in with less knowledge of the busines
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He is "ruined" in a fashion that many people would envy. He will have pensions from his sporting career that will make him wealthier than most Americans.
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The "nice thing" in this case, was trying to get as rich as Bill Gates with the first thing he tried.
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The world and the people in it are not black or white
Except for Republicans where 'you are either with us or against us'.
Re:So what's the purpose of this story again? (Score:5, Interesting)
Although the story doesn't mention it, unlike others, I'm guessing it's one more subtle jab to the fact that he [Curt Schilling] is vehemently opposed to government financial bailouts and stimulus funds, yet didn't bother to eschew a tax-payer backed state loan, let alone managed his company, from afar, in the same impetuous manner as those that required government aid in the first place.
Had Schilling really wanted to make Copernicus a reality, there were plenty of other alternative steps he and the management at 38 Studios could have taken. One option would have been to scrap the development of an MMO, something that, as the article noted, resulted in a number of years without revenue, and instead focused on an excellent single-player game from the get-go, so as to build up brand recognition before branching out. (While they, in a half-hearted attempt, did this with Kingdoms of Amalur, it really wasn't a good enough effort, which is evident in just about every facet of the game.)
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[Curt Schilling] is vehemently opposed to government financial bailouts and stimulus funds, yet didn't bother to eschew a tax-payer backed state loan, let alone managed his company, from afar, in the same impetuous manner as those that required government aid in the first place.
Furthermore:
Schilling apparently regrets the decision to bet the company on an MMO game, but otherwise seems to accept little blame for the demise.
So, it seems, like many executives, Schilling is acutely aware that success of a business depends on the whole team's effort. Blame is distributed and diluted. While the company operated, Schilling (and all the employees) drew salaries off the government teat under a program specifically designed to foster entrepreneurship by reducing individual risk. Schilling's successes, though, are down to his personal leadership, ability to inspire his team members, and his own personal skills.
It's a ver
Re:So what's the purpose of this story again? (Score:5, Insightful)
[Curt Schilling] is vehemently opposed to government financial bailouts and stimulus funds, yet didn't bother to eschew a tax-payer backed state loan
Which is why I don't blame Curt. Liberals love to jump on people like Schilling for being opposed subsidies and then taking advantage of the ones that exist. They are the first to say "we're all in this together" and suddenly forget that sentiment as soon as it applies to anyone who disagrees. Tough, we live in a society. That means people like Schilling, if they had their way would not get subsidies and neither would anyone else. They don't make the rules though and neither do I. I vote all the time to end this crap but It does not happen, in the mean time people like Schilling and I pay the same taxes to support it as everyone else; just be cause we don't think its a good idea does not mean we are any less entitled when society collectively decides to create an entitlement.
So what we really have here is a case where Government was gambling with public monies making loans. That is not the governments job, or it should not be. Capital risk belongs in the private market. There are two really important reasons for that. The first is that when things don't work out bankruptcy can destroy private debts, sovereign debts on the other hang around and drag on the economy forever. The second is that private financing means the people making the call and taking the risk have their own skin in the game. That tends to put the breaks on ideas where the risk is outsized compared to the potential reward; money gets allocated better.
People keep saying 38 Studios should have take a less aggressive path. They probably could not have raised 75M in the private markets and would have been forced to do just that. That would have put them on the path to grow by doing some number of less ambitious but likely more successful in ROI terms projects first. Who knows if government had not dumped a bunch of overly cheap money on them they might exist today.
Re:So what's the purpose of this story again? (Score:4, Insightful)
So you're saying it's the government's fault for making the money available, and the person who took the money has no responsibility?
Isn't that akin to blaming the person who left his car unlocked when it gets stolen?
Re:So what's the purpose of this story again? (Score:5, Insightful)
So you're saying it's the government's fault for making the money available, and the person who took the money has no responsibility?
-Yes and No-
He has responsibility for the business failing yes. He has no responsibility to public for the loss of the 75 million, that is what a loan grantee does after all. I also really do think that when government intercedes in the market place and makes money overly cheap, either via loan grantees or direct lending, it does lead otherwise savvy business people to make poorer decisions. It also enables unproven decision makers like these folks access to capital that nobody would give them otherwise. The outcome seems to be often calamity.
This is an example of someone who had they been forced by nature to swim in a smaller pond for a time, might have learned, grown, and installed a team around him of proven people. What that 75Million loan did is effective let him skip from the high school team and jump directly to majors. Things might have gone better with some time in AAA
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I'm not sure how any of this vindicates Curt Schilling's ethics, which is the matter in question here. Nobody forced him to do anything, of course he was desperate to keep his company going, but a lot of people have been desperate in the last 4 years to keep themselves fed, let alone their software companies in the black. Being ethical requires more than simply doing the cheapest and most effective thing for you at this moment.
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Utterly neglecting the FACT that Curt is a LOUSY businessman
Curt ACTIVELY SOUGHT OUT THE MONEY. It was NOT handed to him on a platter.
Can you BE MORE OBTUSE IF YOU TRY???
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Oh please. Someone is vehemently opposed to subsidies, yet takes full advantage of them only because they're currently legal. That's like someone being vehemently opposed to abortion, but having one every six months because they're legal. Last time I looked, part of opposing something meant you didn't partake in it yourself because you are *opposed* to it.
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Which is why I don't blame Curt. Liberals love to jump on people like Schilling for being opposed subsidies and then taking advantage of the ones that exist.
Nah, we love to jump on Cunt Schilling because he's a racist douchebag.
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Which is why I don't blame Curt. Liberals love to jump on people like Schilling for being opposed subsidies and then taking advantage of the ones that exist.
Most people consider hypocrisy unacceptable.
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I'm guessing it's one more subtle jab to the fact that he [Curt Schilling] is vehemently opposed to government financial bailouts and stimulus funds, yet didn't bother to eschew a tax-payer backed state loan,
Well then it sounds like he more than proved the point.
I don't see anything wrong with telling people something doesn't work and then taking advantage of them when they do not believe you. Otherwise how will people learn?
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I'm guessing it's one more subtle jab to the fact that he [Curt Schilling] is vehemently opposed to government financial bailouts and stimulus funds, yet didn't bother to eschew a tax-payer backed state loan,
Well then it sounds like he more than proved the point.
I don't see anything wrong with telling people something doesn't work and then taking advantage of them when they do not believe you. Otherwise how will people learn?
Yes, of course he did it as a selfless act of political theatre. Of course he did.
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Didn't say it was selfless. Just said the end results were not really bad.
Something does not have to be selfless to be good. That's why the phrase "win-win" exists.
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2) He created a business venture that hired people in technical, well-paying jobs. Yea, they went under, but about half of new companies fail within 5 years. Without risk-takers and visionaries, we'd all be sitting around the stone circle talking about how Thag caught that scary squirrel with his bare hands
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- He put hundreds of people onto Rhode Island's unemployment rolls
- Certainly he hired those people but several of them are holding the bag on mortgages after 38 relocated them and then failed to sell their house
- "risk takers and visionaries" THIS IS VIDEO GAMES!!! WHAT SORT OF BENEFIT IS HE PROVIDING THAT EXCUSES THE LOSSES???
All you are showing is that you are unable to use the things that matter when you draw conclusions about what is going on. When those involved in the situation see misery and bankr
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And you're most likely not going to make an engineer a CEO(the vast vast majority of the time you're not). That's a business executive position, who are supposed to m
Congratulation (Score:3, Insightful)
After reading the article, I can only say one thing.
Congratulations mr. Shilling, for winning the "most arrogant douchebag of the century" award.
We've still got 82 years to go, but we're pretty sure nobody will even come close.
He wanted to outdo with half the money in half the time and no experience, what few experts dare to do.
My whole life was spent doing things that people didn’t believe were possible, because God blessed me with the ability to throw a baseball. And I carried that same mentality into everything I did here.
You weren't doing anything anybody thought impossible. Any league has a finite number of teams, one of which will win; this is not an impossibility.
Apart from being CEO at Microsoft, the ability to throw objects has no value outside the baseball field.
The mentality to do short bouts of activity for a few hours every week isn't necessarily the right mentality for anything else in live.
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well.. the real lesson is that you shouldn't have headcount for headcounts sake(headcount was necessary to qualify for the loan though but it seems they had headcount for headcounts sake even before that - this is why they hired people while they couldn't pay their bills).
also they didn't apparently have an idea about how to make the game fun(and/or perhaps an idea about how to make it properly scale to amazing mmo). it doesn't really seem that what it lacked was just money, but the right team from the day
No kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
Same shit with the "Make an MMO first because it makes you the most money!" thing. What a retarded, arrogant, idea. When you are new in business, best not to try and shoot straight for the most financially risky stuff because good chance you fail. Had he really wanted to make games and been smart about it he would have started small, maybe with something he could self-fund, and then as he learned moved on up.
Just as you don't start pitching for the majors, you don't want to start on an MMO. It is a shit ton of work, a lot of money, and easy to fuck up. Even for the big players it can happen. Look at The Old Republic. Bioware was doing the design and story on it, and they have a history of very solid single player MMOs, EA was publishing and controlling it, and they have a few MMOs to their name (Ultima Online, DAoC, and Warhammer Online) and yet they still screwed it up fairly badly and it is questionable if they'll manage to break even.
He just thought he was such an amazingly smart motherfucker that he'd go straight to the top, fuck all that noise of learning the business or anything. Instead, it was straight to the bottom.
Re:No kidding (Score:4, Funny)
Better Idea: Dancing with the Hollywood Squares (Score:2)
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It would also give basically free publicity, of an actually good kind. "Curt Schilling making a baseball MMO" gets you into both the tech press and the sports pages, and probably would build interest and anticipation even without having a product yet. "Curt Schilling is making a WoW clone" also produces some press, but more of the puzzled/curious kind.
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Lesson: Your ability to throw a curveball... (Score:2)
Does not predict success as a tech CEO, particularly when you are a right wing ultra-religious asshat.
Wrong, Brett Close Was the CEO (Score:2)
It lacked MMO development experience at the top. “Curt was not the CEO,” Dagres says, “but you could see he was quite involved and had a lot of control. I was a little nervous.” He also took note that the COO was Schilling’s relative.
I wrote out what I think should be done in my journal [slashdot.org] but of course the formatting looks like crap with italics. I think Rhode Island should get what they paid for and do what they want with most of the assets (including the source).
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FYI, Brett Close was the original CEO, staying for about half of the company's lifetime, Jen MacLean was then CEO until about a month before the end, when she left for maternity leave (which officially was unrelated to the company's financial issues).
Curt was indeed very involved, but involved does not equal control -- he showed up and gave motivational speeches frequently, but that's not the same as setting deadlines or making decisions.
No profits = no accountability (Score:1)
The companyâ(TM)s death was grisly: Before going under, it defaulted on the $75 million guaranteed loan that the state of Rhode Island had used in 2010 to lure it to Providence. As the money ran out, the company encouraged its 379 employees to continue coming into work, even though it knew it could not pay them. Staffers realized theyâ(TM)d been stiffed only when they noticed the money missing from their bank accounts. A pregnant woman had to find out from her doctor that her healthcare benefits had been cut off.
- like all the other government loan guarantees, and all other types of moral hazards created by the government, this business was failing with a much bigger bang because of them.
Without gov't loan guarantees, the guy couldn't spend that much money on a losing business, the tax payers wouldn't be footing the bill, the taxes didn't have to be collected, the money could have stayed in the private hands, banks or VC firms, the risk would have been managed better.
Companies must go bankrupt, they must blow up,
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If only the American economy actually worked that way. Instead we have socialism for the rich and socialism for the poor all funded off the backs of the middle class. The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of others people's money. The middle class can't carry both the rich AND the poor.
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Probably true. I just wonder which will get thrown overboard first.
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There are some areas where government is right to interfere. Just think about things people can't do without. Like food or power.
If the government just let market forces take over, then most food and power would be produced in neighboring countries. Which wouldn't be that bad if nothing changed.
But what happens if the neighbors notice that your country is missing such critical items? They can raise prices to whatever they want, and there is not much you can do about it until you rebuild your own power plant
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So why are there still US farmers? There have been subsidies in place for nearly 100 years, and the farmers haven't moved out of the country yet.
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Curt Schilling ACTIVELY SOUGHT OUT THE MONEY after EXHAUSTING OTHER REVENUE SOURCES.
Tell us more lies about how the state pushed money into his hands
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Can you read THE SUBJECT OF THIS STORY???
38 studios failed BECAUSE CURT SCHILLING IS A BAD BUSINESSMAN
Telling us that it's Rhode Islands's fault is BOGUS
As to your complaints about POLITICS: READ THE TITLE TO THIS STORY.
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Yeah right the government should stop paying for NASA
they should stop paying companies to design better asphalt
they should stop paying for software at all, because you can get it for free on the internet
in fact you give a great reason for dissolving the government entirely
it's just not right for them to be spending money
Can't stop reselling in the EU (Score:2, Offtopic)
I note that recently the Court of Justice of the European Union rejected an attempt by Oracle to stop the sale of secondhand licences on software downloaded over the internet. [theregister.co.uk] It seems to me that reselling of games software should also be allowed under the same ruling.
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Whoops ... I got this story mixed up with the one about Gamestop! I'll repost.
Jocks & Nerds (Score:1)
Look we don't go trying to play sports or get laid so hopefully this jock has learned his lesson and will stay out of the computer business.
Re:Jocks & Nerds (Score:5, Interesting)
This "jock" is probably a bigger gaming nerd than you ever were -- he was leading a major guild in everquest one back when playing professional baseball (as pitcher, he had plenty of off days when he could lead raids!), and he's still got active max level characters in several MMOs.
He's a hard-core player of tabletop boardgames, and rescued the company that publishes the advanced squad leader franchise when it was having financial problems; he sometimes wore t-shirts from boardgame conventions around the office, and occasionally stayed late to play boardgames with employees.
I'm hoping he hasn't learned his lesson, because 38 studios was a great place to work, and I'd be happy to work for him again if he starts another company.
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I'm hoping he hasn't learned his lesson, because 38 studios was a great place to work, and I'd be happy to work for him again if he starts another company.
Of course it was a great place to 'work': you got paid and didn't have to do shit.
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I'm hoping he hasn't learned his lesson, because 38 studios was a great place to work, and I'd be happy to work for him again if he starts another company.
Of course it was a great place to 'work': you got paid and didn't have to do shit.
_this_. everyone liked him since he was spewing money everywhere, hiring too much at the wrong stage of development for funs sake and so forth, too bad he didn't in the end actually have that money. 38 studios was probably a great place to hang out.. work..? not so much.
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I'm sure there might be many things the guy can do. Hit a ball. Throw a ball. Level up an Orc hunter. Sure. Running a multimillion dollar software studio? Not so much.
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In other news: making games is much harder than playing them.
Remember Casey at The Bat? (Score:2)
This loss reminds me of an old Disney cartoon as saw as a kid. Casey at The Bat.
http://youtu.be/erfSed2MUsA [youtu.be]
Great Power points though (Score:3)
In fact I have long suspected that these guys don't usually want a product out as then the product would potentially drive the success well beyond their simple abilities.
The real drag in these situations is that not only do they waste taxpayer's money but they drive legitimate start-ups out of business; this is through their eating much of the available investment money, eating up the local talent, overpaying for rent, and then leaving a sour taste in everyone's mouths in the area for tech start-ups with the whole once bitten twice shy thing. In my area there was a famous flameout of an educational business. Same deal these guys literally had top government education people working for them "on secondment". Then boom it all blew up over a decade ago. The lawsuits and criminal charges are still working through the system.
Any good tech business need some business savvy people near the top; but It all boils down to whether there are tech people making the decisions. The showmen should be the head of marketing, not the head of the company.
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Partisan Politics (Score:4, Insightful)
The comments venturing over into partisan politics are getting lame and mean spirited. This is a story about a tech failure and an unqualified CEO. Comments about that are interesting. All the "Republican this" or "Democrat that" replies are irrelevant and pointless.
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Politics are already involved. People like you who desire to remove the political implications from arguments are the real problem here.
This question is based in semantics (Score:2)
He may have all the superficial characteristics of an entrepreneur, but the difference ends up being what you mean by the word "lead". TL;DR: enthusiasm may win a game. It doesn't build a business.
A pitcher LEADS a team through his performance. Perhaps even through his attitude. He doesn't manage the team, he doesn't recruit talent, he doesn't set salaries, he doesn't run practices.
To have a successful business, you CANNOT lead simply through your own performance - you have to do all those other things
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Erm, hate to burst your bubble, but Curt already has experience running a business, he's the founder of Multi Man Publishing, who produce boardgames and started out as a hobby project of his when he bought a license for some Avalon Hill properties after the Hill was bought up by Hasbro.
Mart
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Yeah that hobby project experience comes in real handy when the head count passes the 100 point.
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Actually, no, you're entirely mistaken. From Brian Youse, one of the ACTUAL founders of MMP: (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/9253202#9253202)
"...MMP began in 1994 when we released Backblast, an ASL fanzine, and was comprised of four AH ASL playtesters and a guy who had some layout skills. Avalon Hill had made the decision that ASL was "dead" and we wanted to keep seeing some new scenarios, etc.
Curt didn't become involved until sometime around the end of 1995 when he was also attempting to buy the rig
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Eh, that's close enough to count as a founder to me, even if not the actual founder. I don't remember seeing much MMP activity until 1995 anyway.
And you're still selling him short. Curt was fairly active in the day-to-day activities of the company, he did not just bring in the cash.
Note, for the slow among us, I'm not saying he's a good businessman. Just that 38 Studios is not his first venture. And veteran ASLers will not be surprised at the failure mode of 38 Studios, Curt's been enthousiastic about more
Games developed: none I'd heard of (Score:2)
Fascinating psychology (Score:5, Insightful)
What's fascinating about this is that Curt Schilling (and apparently many Slashdot readers) think that you can IGNORE poor business practices by PRETENDING it's the fault of those who make those poor business practices available.
To these people it's not Curt's fault he took the loan, it's the fault of the people who offered it to him.
Equally fascinating is the implication that Curt Schilling is DUMB AS A STUMP if he JUST CAN'T STOP HIMSELF FROM TAKING THAT MONEY.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Score:2)
I didn't know if this company had ever shipped a product. I like playing PC games and I had not heard of them, so I thought I would investigate. I discovered they released a game called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. So, I decided to look into what it was all about.
It's another elves and demons knockoff of the Lord of The Rings books or The World of Warcraft game. There are a bunch of games like that. It appears to me a "Me Too" game. I found nothing to make me choose it over World of Warcraft and I read al
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it's a me too game all right.
but fyi - they bought a different studio to make the reckoning. the original 38 studios never shipped anything, but apparently they had some test versions running at least..
I knew (Score:2)
When is someone going to jail? (Score:2)
Most jurisdictions consider that a criminal offense.
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well why do you think one of the bosses bailed out of the firm earlier in the spring?
cycle of life ... (Score:2)
Textbook Dunning–Kruger Bias (Score:2)
You couldn't wish for a more textbook example of narcissism-derived Dunning–Kruger bias [wikipedia.org].
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38 steps, that's how far !!
Glad it stopped there - one more, and Mr. Memory would've been toast!
Project Copernicus (Score:2)
Anyone knows what happened to "Project Copernicus"?
It supposed to be the mmo that beats all other mmo but I've yet to see its debut
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Jesus did one more than that.
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"It's way too easy to contribute to making the world shit and then deflect all responsibility" - Anonymous Coward
Indeed.
Re:1/4 of the RI budget deficit (Score:4, Informative)
The loan wasn't given out under Chafee, it was given out under his predecessor. Chafee was only governor during the time the company was publicly imploding. Try researching things before posting next time, ok?
why don't you do some research yourself? (Score:1)
I did, and I quoted it: Chafee put his name on the agency, meaning that he believes in these kinds of programs in principle. The idea that such an agency under Chafee will make any better investment decisions than it did under Carcieri is silly; the problem is that such agencies exist and have the power to give away large amounts of tax dollars in the first place.
And if you do your research, you'll see that Chafee failed to minimize losses and instead jus
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Don't be so fucking dumb. It's not like you can walk into office with a bottle of Tippex and erase all the checks that your predecessor wrote; they've already been cashed.
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"he could have prevented the company from completely self-destructing,"
WOW someone is arguing that the state should be MORE involved in business.
"to prevent a repeat, he should have shut down the agency responsible for it. Instead, he is just moving out his predecessor's staff, moving in his own, "
So you say the governor can abolish agencies he doesn't like because he feels like it?
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Obama voted for TARP as a Senator. And he used TARP funds to bail out the auto industry, which he has been taking credit for in campaign ads.
Not that anyone in America cares about facts during this election cycle.
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Because that's pretty much the only stuff you got money for in the IT world a few years ago. Seriously. Walk into some investor's office and tell them you're gonna make a computer game, they'll wait until you add "and it's an MMO like WoW" and suddenly their eyes will light up and they shower you with money. For some odd reason they seemed to think every MMO is an instant success like WoW. For some odd reason they thought the market wasn't saturated. It seems they had no idea how the success of WoW came to
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Choosing an impossible project is not exactly good business practice.
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Considering that most of the money is from the US taxpayer, I guess it would fit to give it to the public...