Rhode Island Wins Control Over 38 Studios' Assets

I suppose I'm being insensitive when it comes to all the employees at 38 Studios, but as a baseball fan who despised Curt Schilling when he pitched (mostly due to his attitude), it pleases me in part to read about his company's struggles.

Schilling was also a total hypocrite. He was one of those "small government" right-wingers constantly going on and on about how government should stay out of our business. But that didn't stop him from convincing Rhode Island to get into *his* business. His development studio wouldn't have even been able to get off the ground in the first place if he hadn't hit the state up for funding.

Thank you. As someone who shares your political views, I'm glad that someone else realizes he's a douchebag in more ways than one. This whole debacle is the karma principle working at its finest. (Granted, there are unfortunate victims in the actual developers here.)

Yes, the insane libertarian voices in my head are pleased at this cautionary tale of governmental investment in business. It is always important to note that government creates no wealth, and any time they give to someone, they must also take from others.

Private investors wouldn't touch the project with a 39 1/2 foot pole and someone says, 'hey, you know what we, guys who are not in business or capital finance and know practically nothing about it, should do? We should totally get into that in a big way using tax payers' money!'?

I'm always a little depressed when I'm right about stuff like that...

Actually, it is important to note that without some kind of centralized standard, there can be no wealth period, and a government is far more trustworthy than a mob at setting that standard. Furthermore, it is only because of governmental laws that you can keep anything at all without other people just taking it from you without consequence.

No it's not. Hobbes' war of all against all (there have been exceptions in history, but they are exceptions- I won't get into a conversation on polycentric order) is not in the least germaine to this discussion. Naive government meddling/engineering in an ecosystem as complex and poorly understood as a developing market place, especially one where:
1 - The price of failure is up to and including every last dime thrown into the project, every single time
2 - There's going to be a whole lot of those dimes at stake
3 - If the project fails retrieving any of those dimes is going to be tough
4 - The business model for the project is unlikely to succeed at best and an outright money pit at worst
5 - Taxpayers' money is on the hook
has no bearing on the question of the extent to which the state ensures order. Assuming one accepts justifications for the state, it's still clear they exceeded their proper role.

oblivion437: I was quite specifically replying to sandineyes, not you. If you look at both posts, you'll see that I was riffing on his "important to note" bon mot.

But since you bring it up, no the state very clearly did *not* "exceed their proper role". They had a program to attract businesses to their state, which is absolutely within a state's purview regarding their economic development, and Mr. Schilling decided to avail himself of that program. Mr. Schilling's effort failed, with the predictable consequence of his loan agent taking possession of the collateral he had offered. There is absolutely nothing about this in which Rhode Island "exceeded their proper role".

I can't reply to this at the length it deserves, but I'll sum up my objections in a few points

1 - Whether or not governments are justified in taking such action at all is not an uncontroversial proposition. Sandineyes and I both controvert it. Our disagreement is ideological not practical. Arguing about it is a waste of time. I think I'm right and you think you're right and there's precious little either of us could do to convince the other.
2 - Other than the people of RI, no one's lost more money on this venture than Schilling. He's paid for his sins. For me, the first one was hopping into bed with the government to realize his plans. But he's paid for that.
3 - The government of Rhode Island sank 75 million dollars into a project they obviously did not properly understand. That was them exceeding their proper role. They presumed to act on a decision requiring the wisdom of angel investors, venture capitalists and the existing business experts within an industry while possessing none of it. They proceeded to do so with money which was not theirs to spend. They were at most stewards of public funds. They are not going to get all that money back. Every dollar short of that is straight-up squandered; tossed into a money hole and burned. 38 Studios had yet to ship a single profitable game. They will never do so as KoA never recouped its original production costs.
4 - Them getting their money back is not a bad thing. That's perfectly all right. The current administrators in RI deserve credit for that. They certainly did better than Obama's people did with Solyndra.

I guess that's all I have to say for now.

Awww... but i wanted Rhode island to continue development of the game. It'd be the greatest state tourist add of all time!

"Come to rhode island, Slay dragons!"

OK, so now Epic Games / Impossible Studios needs to buy the rights to Amalur from Rhode Island. That would be...EPIC.