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.