Curt Schilling, 38 Studios, and Rhode Island

right, Dunning-Kruger Effect in action.

Will take this moment to state that I really want Firaxis or Reynolds to do an updated Alpha Centauri, my fave of all Civ games.

I enjoyed it so much I even read _The Jesus Incident_, its source material.

Schilling actually sort of played Maryland and Rhode Island against each other

this is exactly what happened, it essentially became a bidding war

you win this round, maryland. *shakes fist*

massachusetts comes out of this looking great too because our politicians our dumb but thankfully weren't dumb enough to call when rhode island raised

I really can't see Deval Patrick going for this at all

I mean, there's no casino component

hah yeah pretty much

curt schilling is the worst person.

― judas, a homo (elmo argonaut), Friday, May 25, 2012 11:37 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

$75 million loan is just a staggering amount, like how many fn people did they think this place was gonna employ

400-450 iirc

public documents from the RI EDC are online, who knows what's buried in the fine print

http://www.riedc.com/38studios-public-documents

i realize that fantasy genre shit with foofy names makes tons of money all the time, but it still cracks me up that this much coin was riding on something called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

as far as fantasy names go, that's super tame and boring tbh

One former employee told the video game blog Kotaku that 38 Studios workers learned of the payroll miss only when checks failed to hit their accounts. According to the employee, workers learned by word of mouth that their health insurance was to expire abruptly, Thursday night at midnight. "We found this out when an employee's pregnant wife was told by her doctor, this was on Tuesday 22nd May this week," the employee wrote.

ra salvatore made $5 million off this, lol

that to me is the worst shit, like it's one thing to hear "oh you're not getting paid in 2 weeks" and another to hear "oh that bill you thought you were gonna pay today? yeah that's not happening"

ironic that my video-game-loving son's public school may end up getting shuttered and consolidated because of a failed video game

schilling's the dope who drove this into a wall but carcieri's the moron who handed him the keys to his car, unfortunately I live in that car and, well, I don't really know where I was going with that metaphor

into a wall

Catherine Welch ‏@CWELCHRI
@RINPR Ex-38 Studio employee tells RIPR that Gov Chafee stonewalled the company
2:48 PM - 25 May 12 via web

i completely understand 38 employees being outraged at the sudden loss of their jobs but i honestly don't think chaffee is the appropriate focus for yr anger, dudes

he would not give us $78m more dollars

trying to make an MMO from the start seems like the worst business plan ever for a game company

i just don't know what oversight could the state have provided re: how the funding was dispersed, short of interfering with the actual development of the game?

are there any truly successful MMOs that aren't built on the back of existing IP and reputation

just imagine the RI general assembly getting involved in the development of an mmorpg

what on earth would that game be like

character class: potatohead

probably more interesting than a generic fantasy MMO

i hope this stops Delaware from staking its future on non-erotic Twilight fan fiction

just imagine the RI general assembly getting involved in the development of an mmorpg

what on earth would that game be like

― judas, a homo (elmo argonaut), Friday, May 25, 2012 4:30 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that is the game dont u see

Yeah, I'm wondering who made that call.

About starting with an MMO right out of the gate. Don't these people play Game Dev Story?

trying to make an MMO from the start seems like the worst business plan ever for a game company

― ciderpress, Friday, May 25, 2012 4:27 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are there any truly successful MMOs that aren't built on the back of existing IP and reputation

― ciderpress, Friday, May 25, 2012 4:29 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

yes its completely insane. how on earth did nobody in charge go WHOA WHOA WHAT THE FUCK before this money was given to schilling

new quest!
objective: bring me some stuffies & clamcakes from flo's

curt schilling with an entry into the nominative determinism hall of fame

someone probably said that already though

Scott MacKay ‏@ScotMackRI
Gotta love Rhode Island, only state that can take $75 million and turn it into a Schilling
11:19 AM - 25 May 12 via web

this is insane! i feel a little better about MN political culture now, at least we're gonna have a stadium out of the deal

yes its completely insane. how on earth did nobody in charge go WHOA WHOA WHAT THE FUCK before this money was given to schilling

― Hungry4Ass, Friday, May 25, 2012 4:35 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well you see ppl involved in state government are essentially the lowest form of life on the planet

lower than dwarves and endelrons? i dunno man

does this mean the state of rhode island is going to own *googles* Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Chafee:

"If the company's not going to be profitable and can't give us the confidence [it can get] on solid footing, then we have to deal with the ramifications," Chafee said. "Industry experts tell us this is very, very expensive and it's not only the cost of producing the game, but then maintaining it once it's released, and then tens of millions of dollars to market it. I think the Red Sox lost Babe Ruth because the owner invested in a play called No No Nannette. And the play failed and he had to sell Babe Ruth. This is very very similar. The game failed. That was integral to the success of the company."

seems like 38 was in the process of developing another mmorpg as this all went down.

also:

Gov. Lincoln Chafee said today that 38 Studios is back in default with Rhode Island because the video game company violated its loan agreement by not informing state officials about yesterday’s mass layoffs in advance.

they've been developing that mmo for years, and in fact their single released game was one they got from buying out another studio because they had to release something

What the hell wrong with these people; make a match-3 iPhone game to start or sumthin, then work up a bit.

It's really not that hard to figure out; bit easier than making a MMO or three out of the gate.

http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/05/38-studios-bond.html

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A gaggle of lawyers from Cranston to Los Angeles -- including a former R.I. lieutenant governor -- shared close to $545,650 in payments from the state-backed sale of $75 million in taxable revenue bonds for former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's collapsed video-game venture, 38 Studios.
The local payments from the 2010 bond sale included $124,790 to Adler Pollock & Sheehan, as legal counsel to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation; $36,990 to Taft & McSally as the state's disclosure counsel; $120,620 to First Southwest Company as financial adviser to the EDC; $190,000 to Moses & Afonso as bond counsel to the EDC; and a $12,250 "partial payment'' to Pannone Lopes Devereaux & West as local counsel to the "placement agent."
The lawyers involved in the bond sale approved by the EDC when Republican Governor Donald Carcieri chaired the board included: former Republican Lt. Governor Bernard Jackvony at Pannone Lopes Devereaux & West, according to recently released EDC documents.
At Taft & McSally, they included Robert Murray, a chief of staff to another former Republican governor, Edward D. DiPrete.
At Adler Pollock, they include the EDC's long-time legal adviser Robert Stolzman, and at Moses & Afonso, lawyers Antonio Afonso Jr. and Paul M. Harley.

^^ for ppl wondering how this could happen

this entire thing is one of the dumbest ideas ever

http://blogs.wpri.com/2012/05/25/salvatore-defends-38-studios-its-game-would-blow-you-away/

for that kind of money it better do more than blow me right fellas

somehow extra depressing that you only need $500k of corruption on a $75mn package.

RIP Rhode Island, you will now be known as Connecticut East.

Actually, I was biking home yesterday afternoon and some a-hole in a minivan with RI plates cut me off really closely and I wished bad things on the state. This is all my fault.

diagnosed with cancer, and the fact that he doesn't want to talk specifics leads me to fear the worst :/

Game is on Steam, finally. Was on sale this weekend.

I mean, I don't even care about Schilling beyond schadenlols and I thought responding to "dude has cancer" with "plus his game came out" was cold

i took it as a pvmic but idk

It's a horrible diagnosis, but one of the things I've been curious all along is what the actual thing that effectively started all this downfall was like as a game.

I'll grant my juxtaposition could have been handled better.

Sort of. That one that actually came out was developed by another studio that got swallowed up by Shilling's studio during all this, and it was already mostly done. I believe they rebranded it to fit into their fictional universe, the main game of which never came out.

Really? IP acquisition is weird. I always thought that his studio led with the design and brought in all the nerdcult names to work on it. Like, this thing was a piece with the MMO.

http://deadspin.com/various-lowlights-from-curt-schillings-failed-38-studio-1732879364

Chas Pierce paying attention to this loony

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a47895/curt-schilling-senate-elizabeth-warren/

and Taibbi!

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/curt-schilling-is-the-next-donald-trump-w435754

Curt Schilling...Mike Pence...is there a right-wing American fucknut called Pound, by any chance?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Ezra_Pound_1963b.jpg

in many ways the ur-fucknut

TY. Eric Morecambe behind EP, too.

hahaha is that actually Eric??

http://deadspin.com/detective-curt-schilling-is-on-the-case-of-the-hoboken-1787242420

next trump http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2016/09/28/curt-schilling-run-president-haha-sure

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--JYqz9Ent--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/r7t7jjyzhcggacqjivbc.jpg

lmfao

he still hasn't deleted it

Gotta go on Twitter and thank him for the display name