

High-risk video game venture has Rhode Island, Curt Schilling reeling - olegious
http://boston.com/business/technology/articles/2012/05/18/high_risk_video_game_venture_has_rhode_island_curt_schilling_reeling/?page=full

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Steko
[http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/17/curt-
schillin...](http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/17/curt-schilling-
cash-and-credibility-crisis/KQPwPrKHUD4zJoTdT51C2I/story.html)

 _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.

------
debacle
Economic development agencies are, in my opinion, a terrible idea.

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...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdoms_of_Amalur:_Reckoning#Reception)

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.

~~~
rprospero
> If the people deciding where the money should go had any ability at all,
> they would be working in private investment.

Just curious: do you think that economic development agencies would be
improved if governments were willing to pay salaries equivalent to private
investment firms, thus attracting better talent?

~~~
debacle
See masterleep's comment.

Governments will always be bad with money because they never are dealing with
their own money.

~~~
jbooth
Private organization stakeholders aren't usually dealing with their own money
either, with similar results depending on the org. You know how much multi-
million dollar business gets done over a few grand worth of Yankees tickets?

This was a case of garden variety corruption, where the gov wasn't even
getting kickbacks, he just liked the Red Sox, Schilling's a hero in New
England, and he saw him as a fellow traveler conservative. If Schilling was
going to George Clooney's fundraisers, this deal doesn't happen.

~~~
debacle
Private investment management is usually performance based.

~~~
jbooth
If you're going to restrict it to specifically the investment business, then
yeah, typically. But pretty much anyone who purchases for a living is awash in
kickbacks, the kind of stuff you'd be fired from a government for.

FWIW I agree that the government shouldn't be in the investment game except
for strategic investments by the federal government (ball bearings, green
tech, DARPA, stuff like that). Certainly not video game companies.

There is still a role for development agencies, doing stuff like helping
streamline paperwork, advocating for sewer hookups, stuff like that. They
shouldn't be investors.

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bhickey
The deal was pushed through by the former Governor Don Carcieri while he was a
lame duck. The incoming governor, Chafee, tried unsuccessfully to block the
transaction.

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.

------
mkramlich
To Curt's credit he does/did own/run a board game company called Multi-Man
Publishing which was responsible for reviving Advanced Squad Leader,
considered by many to be a classic wargame. It's original owner was Avalon
Hill which ultimately got bought by Hasborg where it languished before MMP
licensed it. One of the really smart things MMP has done with ASL is create a
series of very simple introductory subsets of ASL called Starter Kits. Many
people love ASL but one of it's biggest flaws is that the total rules set is
so large and complex, accumulated over many years, that historically it was
very intimidating for potential new players. I don't think Curt directly
designed the Starter Kits, but the fact that he was an owner and allowed and
encouraged an environment and management team to do that, is a big positive
mark in my book.

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.

------
Impossible
Teaser trailer of the game available here.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nvnrP0j8U&feature=youtu...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nvnrP0j8U&feature=youtu.be)

Disclaimer: I'm an employee.

~~~
cma
Haha I like the Atlas Shrugged guy holding up the pillar--nice touch from a
bunch of moochers.

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aresant
Democrats created the pool of "job creation" money and their Republican
governor earmarked it for an idiotic venture.

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.

------
danso
Well, at least he knows how to capture the Zeitgeist:

[http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/18/facebook-curt-
sch...](http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/18/facebook-curt-schilling-
denies-paid-himself-back-with-money-thanks-supporters-ailing-studios-video-
game-company/EnqdY2flmq0Bf55m4YvdRM/story.html)

>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.

~~~
ricree
Is there any word on what the game's development costs were? I was under the
impression that it sold reasonably well, if not spectacularly so.

~~~
cpeterso
Considering they have been working on the Copernicus MMO since 2006 and
Kingdoms of Amalur in parallel, they have probably burned through a lot of
money.

Copernicus sounds cool, but I fear it will be another Daikatana.

~~~
mariusmg
Amalur was done by a different studio (Big Huge Games) which they acquired 2
years ago. 38 Studio are working on a MMO for 6 years and nothing to show...

~~~
cpeterso
_Convenient_ timing: 38 Studio just revealed their first video of _Project
Copernicus_ content:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nvnrP0j8U>

