High-risk video game venture has Rhode Island, Curt Schilling reeling

Schilling is a self-described conservative with a disdain for big government, which he considers intrusive and overbearing. He is a big believer in people helping themselves and solving their own problems.

A couple of lines from an old post on Schilling’s blog, 38 pitches, sums it up:

“If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.

“A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.”

Now Schilling is back with his hand out at a time when Rhode Island is dealing with double-digit unemployment and an economy so bad that many of its communities are in grave financial trouble. State officials are facing bigger problems than Schilling’s 38 Studios.

Christ what an asshole.

If the people deciding where the money should go had any ability at all, they would be working in private investment. Instead, what you have are politically motivated nit-wits spending someone else's money on pipe dreams.

Locally, we have IDAs (industrial development associations) who are allocating county grants to local organizations that aren't going to create value on the order of what the grants presuppose.

This is a gross malappropriation of taxpayer money.

With regards to Curt Schilling, you can't blame the guy. He's personally wealthy and wanted to make an MMO. That's the dream of almost any gamer out there, and Rhode Island was foolish enough to not do due diligence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdoms_of_Amalur:_Reckoning#R...

If you look at the lineup, you have RA Salvatore, Todd MacFarlane, and Grant Kirkhope (the guy who wrote the score to Golden Eye and Perfect Dark). I haven't played the game itself, but anecdotally I've heard it's a great game but with a niche audience. You can create a successful game studio on that, but you can't create a billion dollar company.

Meanwhile the legislature was bamboozled into increasing the EDC's development pie by exactly the amount given to Schilling. Topping it off, Schilling is anti-government in his political disposition -- arguing for personal responsibility and hard work. Today 38 Studios failed to make payroll.

When the dust settles I wouldn't be shocked to see some indictments come down.

But yeah, from the sound of the article, the way they went about trying to start that video game company was completely misguided. Backwards. Cart before the horse. They should have started small and scrappy, with a polished game prototype, with a real game designer behind it, that real users love on a small scale with modest placeholder graphics. Then incrementally flesh it out. Game industry is very much a hits-based market, with lots of fickle consumers. And very few of the people "designing" games are true game designers.

Disclaimer: I'm an employee.

And yet, I keep hearing in this year's campaign messaging that "bipartisanship" and "bringing the parties together" is what the future of our government needs.

http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/18/facebook-curt-sch...

>Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling used his Facebook page to make his first public comments since the news that his Providence video game company, 38 Studios, would be unable to make payroll this week.