CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
edited May 2012
I think the main thing of substance that we can take away from this whole thing with 38 going supernova, coupled with the recent SW:TOR team downsizing and the not so long ago closure of Dominus's dev house Pitch Black Studios, is that the industry as a whole is and will be very unwilling and uninterested in investing in the MMO space for quite some time. The age of WoW clones is coming to an end and people are finally realizing they can't just make an MMO and expect to match Blizzard, something they should have arguably realized years ago. It's going to take stuff like this to knock some sense into people.
Now, whether or not this means anything for the success/failure of stuff coming soon such as Guild Wars 2, Planetside 2, Secret World, The Elder Scrolls Online, etc, as well as more recent and older released MMOs like WoW, SW:TOR, Tera, Rift, EvE, Aion, EQ 1 and 2 and countless others, is still something we need to look at case by case as well as in general. I tend to think they'll mostly just truck on to whatever fates they earn themselves or maintain their status quo. But I think that going forward, we can expect, at least, the biggest investments in the industry and the bigger publishers and devs will not be going for the MMO genre any time soon. With the possible exception of EA pouring money into Project Copernicus when they inevitably grab the Amalur license for cheap. And maybe whatever Blizzard decides to do or not do with Titan and future WoW expacks.
In essence, Pachter was right, for once, and while regrettable, the 38 debacle will come to be seen in the history of MMOs as either a turning point from the constant appeals to 3 month themeparks we all know and generally feel disinterest towards, into a place where smaller budgets and studios can try and bring back niche titles and experiment with the old things that worked in the past and create new, genuine MMO games, or as a time when MMOs became untenable financially and stopped receiving attention on the whole by the industry, at least for the foreseeable future.
The 38 thing is going to ruin the general public's perception of investing in video game ventures for a while, at any rate. Nothing to be done about that. And of course it's horrible right now for the people in the trenches. This is probably the worst of all possible outcomes to be caught up in.
The notion that any company out there still thinks they can pull even half of WoW's numbers at this point is really hard to swallow. That's not to say there aren't people that delusional in the industry; but it's simply not going to happen.
However, that doesn't mean investment in MMO's need to stop or anything. They just need to be tempered with reality. There have been MMO's that have been around for years that have been profitable the whole time like CoX, FFXI, LotRO, etc. Sure, some have moved to F2P, and that's fine if it makes them more money; but these properties were still, at worst, breaking even. XI has been a constant flow of income for SE since day one, despite having a very "low" population compared to WoW.
I hope, really really hope, what companies take from this isn't that "hey, we can't compete with WoW, so screw it"; but they realize that there is plenty of market out there for MMO players; but they have to seriously assess both their income format (i.e. sub, F2P, payshops, tiered subs, whatever; there's no lack of options) and more importantly, what they're actually bringing to the table. Games like Firefall, Planetside 2, EVE, and others, are differentiating themselves enough to appeal to a whole set of gamers who aren't already playing, or jaded, by WoW.
Looking at WoW and being unable to compete and giving up on MMO's would be like putting out a FPS that only sells 1m copies compared to CoD's 10m and feeling like "welp, we should just stop making games". It is a nonsensical conclusion and counterproductive.
I mean, whatever. If I had to choose between getting pretty much no new MMO's or just more WoW-wannabies...I guess I"ll go with none. But companies are so afraid to take a risk that they're limiting what the genre can actually be. And the companies that are trying something different usually don't have the means to actually produce it, and support it so they come and go like a breeze in the wind. I really hope Planetside 2 and Firefall both do really well; they don't have to be blockbusters, but I hope they can support good numbers and make money; so that other companies will break out of the mold and try something interesting.
People generally aren't going to play more than one MMO and stealing users is hard. A large part of the appeal is also playing with friends which makes it harder to only survive on relatively few users as eople will move to where their friends are. It is possible to do well without a huge userbase, but it usually requires not spending $texas on the MMO. 38 Studios didn't do that. The amount of money they were spending on their MMO would have required a large userbase at least comparable to that of the more popular MMOs excluding WoW.
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
If Planetside 2 and Guild Wars 2 don't both become blockbuster hits, regardless of whether they need to be or not to be considered financially successful, then I'll eat my own hat.
I do agree with Dude's assertions that giving up on MMOs based on this stuff happening now is dumb and that investment going forward needs to be tempered with reality. I just find it hard to believe after so long that, at least in the kinds of places where they have the money and resources to make great, AAA MMOs happen, that they won't ethier look at all this and turn those resources toward another deluded failure or towards another genre of game which would be easier to manage and profit from. The perception is that MMOs are hard to do and harder to fund. We know better, but that's the perception right now. And that perception isn't going away for a while unless the titles I just mentioned or others do absolutely batshit insanely awesome and can prove that both the MMO genre isn't dead and that we need to think about designing them differently then we have been. That's what needs to happen first.
I would say having the bank call you up wondering where their money is for the second mortgage you didn't know you had the definition of a blindside. Especially when the company flat-out said "We sold it".
We don't know all the details, just random postings on forums that state this and that with no sort of evidence. I would think if they told them "we sold it" the common response to that from an employee would be "how much?". Were they given fair market value for their home when the company agreed to sell it for them? Or just a cut of any profits? Nobody knows shit
I don't understand how you can be surprised by this - a real estate transaction is recorded. If you didn't actually sign paper work transferring it over, you still own the house and any associated mortgage. I think that part if it does exist is really the employee's fault. You should never skip reading the paperwork on something that expensive.
I think third parties usually handle this process for more large companies, because a large corporation doesn't want to keep track of houses on the books along with their offices and factories.
This was kind of my impression; like, the employees had to have known the houses hadn't sold, right? There's no way any sane person just signs all their home equity over to the company. Presumably the company offered to pay their mortgages until the sale or up to a certain amount, and in those circumstances purchasing an entire new home with a new mortgage seems pretty questionable, especially when the company is essentially a startup.
If they told the employees the homes (how many are we talking here, anyway?) had already sold, were they just fabricating all the documentation or something? There's a lot of holes in the story as we know it.
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
The whole reason why there's a huge interest in Guild Wars 2, and Blade & Soul in Korea is precisely because they're different with WoW. As it is when there's interest in any other FPS not named CoD.
Publishers can't seem to understand that if people wanted to play WoW or CoD, they'd play just that. Why the hell would they want to play poor clones of said games with tiny content? Why would they leave their friends to play a game with a minuscule population?
The whole reason why there's a huge interest in Guild Wars 2, and Blade & Soul in Korea is precisely because they're different with WoW. As it is when there's interest in any other FPS not named CoD.
Publishers can't seem to understand that if people wanted to play WoW or CoD, they'd play just that. Why the hell would they want to play poor clones of said games with tiny content? Why would they leave their friends to play a game with a minuscule population?
I'm actually considering making Guild Wars 2 my first MMO experience.
- 10GB of RAM is pretty cheap when you are making millions of sticks.
- BC with PS2 games would probably make them more money from higher system sales than they would lose from selling "remastered" PS2 games on the PSN. I doubt it would really impact PS2 games sales on the PSN that much. If your option is to buy "Awesome Rare PS2 RPG X" on ebay for $40 or on the PSN for $15, which are you going to pick?
I'm pretty sure the biggest giveaway that it's horseshit is 11.1 audio and a sixteen core CPU.
GK104 is on a 28nm process that TSMC just finally got to and has piss poor yields. Also runs at ~1Ghz, not 2.
Clearly stupidly fake. Not even slightly believable. GDDR6 doesn't exist, nobody can produce chips at 22nm unless they're named Intel, and everyone dropped the Cell because it's not a good architecture for this sort of thing. The list goes on.
- 10GB of RAM is pretty cheap when you are making millions of sticks.
- BC with PS2 games would probably make them more money from higher system sales than they would lose from selling "remastered" PS2 games on the PSN. I doubt it would really impact PS2 games sales on the PSN that much. If your option is to buy "Awesome Rare PS2 RPG X" on ebay for $40 or on the PSN for $15, which are you going to pick?
I'm pretty sure the biggest giveaway that it's horseshit is 11.1 audio and a sixteen core CPU.
11.1 audio is a thing. Not a very COMMON thing for any media to push but you can definitely run a 11.1 system. There's front/rear height channels and various other side surrounds that come into play.
I guess it's good to have the option but talk about niche.
edit:
Also that press release is filled with just enough PR-speak and Sony techno-garble that no one cares about to convince me it's real, It's a few weeks before E3 so you know this shit is printed and ready to be handed out to industry folks and it wouldn't be E3 without a big Sony leak before the show.
Allforce on
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
edited May 2012
My eyes glazed over as soon as I read "10 year life cycle." It reads like someone's glib in-joke.
edit: 20 gbs combined memory and dual 22nm GPUs haha oh god they're not even trying
Because removing it didn't noticably improve sales and it's a highly requested feature?
It's a highly requested feature right now. And yet they haven't bothered to put it back.
Quick question: Did the later BC models do software BC, as opposed to the hardware BC of launch models? I can't remember if they ever did that at one point.
Either way, I don't see them arbitrarily adding it back for the PS4. Then again, Sony. I've all but given up trying to put logic to their actions as of late.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Quick question: Did the later BC models do software BC, as opposed to the hardware BC of launch models? I can't remember if they ever did that at one point.
Yes
UnbreakableVow on
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Jesus Christ, even if that's a hoax, there's a lot to talk about.
- 10GB of RAM is pretty cheap when you are making millions of sticks.
- BC with PS2 games would probably make them more money from higher system sales than they would lose from selling "remastered" PS2 games on the PSN. I doubt it would really impact PS2 games sales on the PSN that much. If your option is to buy "Awesome Rare PS2 RPG X" on ebay for $40 or on the PSN for $15, which are you going to pick?
I'm pretty sure the biggest giveaway that it's horseshit is 11.1 audio and a sixteen core CPU.
Bullshit, ask Microsoft how they feel about Epic pressuring them regarding RAM for the 360. I wasn't expecting that issue to become relevant in any context, but, well, here we are. Furthermore, RAM in hardware like this isn't like the RAM you slot into your PC. Don't underestimate the complexity and cost of this shit. Going into a gig or two for a console system would've been goddamn great, but a claim of 20GB is insanity. Which is why I think it's a hoax for sure; the statistics were probably drafted by someone familiar with PCs but not console hardware.
If this is a hoax, kudos to them getting all the lingo right. "Future-proof" is something I can see Sony saying. They probably already have. And 10 year plans at this point are not unheard of from this company.
But hey, now I have something to look forward to at E3 this year - this being confirmed or denied.
GK104 is on a 28nm process that TSMC just finally got to and has piss poor yields. Also runs at ~1Ghz, not 2.
Clearly stupidly fake. Not even slightly believable. GDDR6 doesn't exist, nobody can produce chips at 22nm unless they're named Intel, and everyone dropped the Cell because it's not a good architecture for this sort of thing. The list goes on.
Yeah, Cell was the first thing I noticed. I'm going to agree that it is fake.
- 10GB of RAM is pretty cheap when you are making millions of sticks.
- BC with PS2 games would probably make them more money from higher system sales than they would lose from selling "remastered" PS2 games on the PSN. I doubt it would really impact PS2 games sales on the PSN that much. If your option is to buy "Awesome Rare PS2 RPG X" on ebay for $40 or on the PSN for $15, which are you going to pick?
I'm pretty sure the biggest giveaway that it's horseshit is 11.1 audio and a sixteen core CPU.
Bullshit, ask Microsoft how they feel about Epic pressuring them regarding RAM for the 360. I wasn't expecting that issue to become relevant in any context, but, well, here we are. Furthermore, RAM in hardware like this isn't like the RAM you slot into your PC. Don't underestimate the complexity and cost of this shit. Going into a gig or two for a console system would've been goddamn great, but a claim of 20GB is insanity. Which is why I think it's a hoax for sure; the statistics were probably drafted by someone familiar with PCs but not console hardware.
If this is a hoax, kudos to them getting all the lingo right. "Future-proof" is something I can see Sony saying. They probably already have. And 10 year plans at this point are not unheard of from this company.
But hey, now I have something to look forward to at E3 this year - this being confirmed or denied.
Seeing as half of these components do not and cannot exist anywhere on this earth, I would feel safe betting all the money in the world that this is a hoax.
Quick question: Did the later BC models do software BC, as opposed to the hardware BC of launch models? I can't remember if they ever did that at one point.
Yes
Sort of. They were able to software emulate some of the PS2 architecture, but other parts were still done in hardware. When they removed BC, it was because those last bits of PS2 hardware were removed from the console.
I would imagine that between the EE and GS being integrated into a single chip as well as over a decade of manufacturing it wouldn't be very difficult or expensive to add PS2 BC to the PS4.
The PS1 BC is easy because it's all software.
PS2 BC for the PS4 would mean that Sony could sell PS2 games as pure disc images over the PSN without having to "remaster" them, the same way they sell PS1 games.
That spec sheet is bullshit, but yeah with 8 years of advances in computing hardware they probably would be able to emulate the whole thing in software now.
Of course, that assumes that Sony would want to put a large amount of man-months towards the task of QAing such functionality, which is just as bullshit of an assumption as that spec sheet.
I'm bothered that coming out of this the narrative will be how foolish it is for government to court the game development sector. It's an industry that would only benefit from a more diverse geographical presence, and one where upstarts should be supported where possible. Clearly Rhode Island's government weren't doing their due diligence, but I have no problem with the intent behind it (the good parts, not the do Curt Schilling a solid parts).
It is foolish.
1. Entertainment goods don't increase productivity or reduce inefficiency within the public sphere.
2. The labor practices of the gaming industry blow. You have a disposable workforce that become dependent on the state between contracts. Better hope your state has an income tax on the individual level.
3. The companies themselves are a crapshoot so good luck collecting taxes on non existent profit.
Every argument in favor of gaming reads like an endorsement for building stadiums for sports teams that hold cities hostage. Yes, I'm from Seattle so I'm bitter but god as my witness government support of business could go towards things that actually benefit a wide spectrum of people like infrastructure, education, something, anything that has a lasting effect on the area.
am I crazy for not seeing the problem with a proposed 10 year lifecycle on a console? I mean the 360 came out like seven years ago and 2-3 more years of useful life doesn't seem that outrageous
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
am I crazy for not seeing the problem with a proposed 10 year lifecycle on a console? I mean the 360 came out like seven years ago and 2-3 more years of useful life doesn't seem that outrageous
Ten years from now I think we'll be so far past the point of diminishing returns that it won't even matter.
am I crazy for not seeing the problem with a proposed 10 year lifecycle on a console? I mean the 360 came out like seven years ago and 2-3 more years of useful life doesn't seem that outrageous
Rough economic times plus diminishing returns. Add in that everyone will have just purchased new big screen TVs I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation stagnates a bit as well since there won't really be a reason to go past 1080p except for perhaps 3D.
I'm bothered that coming out of this the narrative will be how foolish it is for government to court the game development sector. It's an industry that would only benefit from a more diverse geographical presence, and one where upstarts should be supported where possible. Clearly Rhode Island's government weren't doing their due diligence, but I have no problem with the intent behind it (the good parts, not the do Curt Schilling a solid parts).
It is foolish.
1. Entertainment goods don't increase productivity or reduce inefficiency within the public sphere.
2. The labor practices of the gaming industry blow. You have a disposable workforce that become dependent on the state between contracts. Better hope your state has an income tax on the individual level.
3. The companies themselves are a crapshoot so good luck collecting taxes on non existent profit.
Every argument in favor of gaming reads like an endorsement for building stadiums for sports teams that hold cities hostage. Yes, I'm from Seattle so I'm bitter but god as my witness government support of business could go towards things that actually benefit a wide spectrum of people like infrastructure, education, something, anything that has a lasting effect on the area.
there's nothing wrong with providing general economic development grants/loans like this; cities and states do it all the time as a way of revitalizing areas or attracting new kinds of business (lately green energy and server farms for stuff like facebook are the du jour industries.) It's just that in this case the great state of rhode island seems to have picked a company with a spectacularly unrealistic business plan and then not followed up really at all.
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Posts
Now, whether or not this means anything for the success/failure of stuff coming soon such as Guild Wars 2, Planetside 2, Secret World, The Elder Scrolls Online, etc, as well as more recent and older released MMOs like WoW, SW:TOR, Tera, Rift, EvE, Aion, EQ 1 and 2 and countless others, is still something we need to look at case by case as well as in general. I tend to think they'll mostly just truck on to whatever fates they earn themselves or maintain their status quo. But I think that going forward, we can expect, at least, the biggest investments in the industry and the bigger publishers and devs will not be going for the MMO genre any time soon. With the possible exception of EA pouring money into Project Copernicus when they inevitably grab the Amalur license for cheap. And maybe whatever Blizzard decides to do or not do with Titan and future WoW expacks.
In essence, Pachter was right, for once, and while regrettable, the 38 debacle will come to be seen in the history of MMOs as either a turning point from the constant appeals to 3 month themeparks we all know and generally feel disinterest towards, into a place where smaller budgets and studios can try and bring back niche titles and experiment with the old things that worked in the past and create new, genuine MMO games, or as a time when MMOs became untenable financially and stopped receiving attention on the whole by the industry, at least for the foreseeable future.
The 38 thing is going to ruin the general public's perception of investing in video game ventures for a while, at any rate. Nothing to be done about that. And of course it's horrible right now for the people in the trenches. This is probably the worst of all possible outcomes to be caught up in.
However, that doesn't mean investment in MMO's need to stop or anything. They just need to be tempered with reality. There have been MMO's that have been around for years that have been profitable the whole time like CoX, FFXI, LotRO, etc. Sure, some have moved to F2P, and that's fine if it makes them more money; but these properties were still, at worst, breaking even. XI has been a constant flow of income for SE since day one, despite having a very "low" population compared to WoW.
I hope, really really hope, what companies take from this isn't that "hey, we can't compete with WoW, so screw it"; but they realize that there is plenty of market out there for MMO players; but they have to seriously assess both their income format (i.e. sub, F2P, payshops, tiered subs, whatever; there's no lack of options) and more importantly, what they're actually bringing to the table. Games like Firefall, Planetside 2, EVE, and others, are differentiating themselves enough to appeal to a whole set of gamers who aren't already playing, or jaded, by WoW.
Looking at WoW and being unable to compete and giving up on MMO's would be like putting out a FPS that only sells 1m copies compared to CoD's 10m and feeling like "welp, we should just stop making games". It is a nonsensical conclusion and counterproductive.
I mean, whatever. If I had to choose between getting pretty much no new MMO's or just more WoW-wannabies...I guess I"ll go with none. But companies are so afraid to take a risk that they're limiting what the genre can actually be. And the companies that are trying something different usually don't have the means to actually produce it, and support it so they come and go like a breeze in the wind. I really hope Planetside 2 and Firefall both do really well; they don't have to be blockbusters, but I hope they can support good numbers and make money; so that other companies will break out of the mold and try something interesting.
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I do agree with Dude's assertions that giving up on MMOs based on this stuff happening now is dumb and that investment going forward needs to be tempered with reality. I just find it hard to believe after so long that, at least in the kinds of places where they have the money and resources to make great, AAA MMOs happen, that they won't ethier look at all this and turn those resources toward another deluded failure or towards another genre of game which would be easier to manage and profit from. The perception is that MMOs are hard to do and harder to fund. We know better, but that's the perception right now. And that perception isn't going away for a while unless the titles I just mentioned or others do absolutely batshit insanely awesome and can prove that both the MMO genre isn't dead and that we need to think about designing them differently then we have been. That's what needs to happen first.
This was kind of my impression; like, the employees had to have known the houses hadn't sold, right? There's no way any sane person just signs all their home equity over to the company. Presumably the company offered to pay their mortgages until the sale or up to a certain amount, and in those circumstances purchasing an entire new home with a new mortgage seems pretty questionable, especially when the company is essentially a startup.
If they told the employees the homes (how many are we talking here, anyway?) had already sold, were they just fabricating all the documentation or something? There's a lot of holes in the story as we know it.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Publishers can't seem to understand that if people wanted to play WoW or CoD, they'd play just that. Why the hell would they want to play poor clones of said games with tiny content? Why would they leave their friends to play a game with a minuscule population?
I'm actually considering making Guild Wars 2 my first MMO experience.
We looking at $599 US dollars again?
That much RAM and pushing those graphics? $999 US dollars!
Also calling BS on the PSX/PS2 disc support.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
The additional system RAM is limited to only be accessible for DLC usage.
The more you spend, the better your game runs.
Yeah, same here, since they much prefer you buy the digital version.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
- 10GB of RAM is pretty cheap when you are making millions of sticks.
- BC with PS2 games would probably make them more money from higher system sales than they would lose from selling "remastered" PS2 games on the PSN. I doubt it would really impact PS2 games sales on the PSN that much. If your option is to buy "Awesome Rare PS2 RPG X" on ebay for $40 or on the PSN for $15, which are you going to pick?
I'm pretty sure the biggest giveaway that it's horseshit is 11.1 audio and a sixteen core CPU.
Well, as it's been said a trillion times in the past, consoles don't use off-the-shelf RAM. But yeah, that's a weird amount.
Why would they put it back in?
Clearly stupidly fake. Not even slightly believable. GDDR6 doesn't exist, nobody can produce chips at 22nm unless they're named Intel, and everyone dropped the Cell because it's not a good architecture for this sort of thing. The list goes on.
11.1 audio is a thing. Not a very COMMON thing for any media to push but you can definitely run a 11.1 system. There's front/rear height channels and various other side surrounds that come into play.
I guess it's good to have the option but talk about niche.
edit:
Also that press release is filled with just enough PR-speak and Sony techno-garble that no one cares about to convince me it's real, It's a few weeks before E3 so you know this shit is printed and ready to be handed out to industry folks and it wouldn't be E3 without a big Sony leak before the show.
edit: 20 gbs combined memory and dual 22nm GPUs haha oh god they're not even trying
It's a highly requested feature right now. And yet they haven't bothered to put it back.
Quick question: Did the later BC models do software BC, as opposed to the hardware BC of launch models? I can't remember if they ever did that at one point.
Either way, I don't see them arbitrarily adding it back for the PS4. Then again, Sony. I've all but given up trying to put logic to their actions as of late.
Yes
While this is true, Sony is big into proprietary technology. And you can count on the cost being put on the users. Bullshit, ask Microsoft how they feel about Epic pressuring them regarding RAM for the 360. I wasn't expecting that issue to become relevant in any context, but, well, here we are. Furthermore, RAM in hardware like this isn't like the RAM you slot into your PC. Don't underestimate the complexity and cost of this shit. Going into a gig or two for a console system would've been goddamn great, but a claim of 20GB is insanity. Which is why I think it's a hoax for sure; the statistics were probably drafted by someone familiar with PCs but not console hardware.
If this is a hoax, kudos to them getting all the lingo right. "Future-proof" is something I can see Sony saying. They probably already have. And 10 year plans at this point are not unheard of from this company.
But hey, now I have something to look forward to at E3 this year - this being confirmed or denied.
Yeah, Cell was the first thing I noticed. I'm going to agree that it is fake.
Seeing as half of these components do not and cannot exist anywhere on this earth, I would feel safe betting all the money in the world that this is a hoax.
Sort of. They were able to software emulate some of the PS2 architecture, but other parts were still done in hardware. When they removed BC, it was because those last bits of PS2 hardware were removed from the console.
The PS1 BC is easy because it's all software.
PS2 BC for the PS4 would mean that Sony could sell PS2 games as pure disc images over the PSN without having to "remaster" them, the same way they sell PS1 games.
Of course, that assumes that Sony would want to put a large amount of man-months towards the task of QAing such functionality, which is just as bullshit of an assumption as that spec sheet.
It is foolish.
1. Entertainment goods don't increase productivity or reduce inefficiency within the public sphere.
2. The labor practices of the gaming industry blow. You have a disposable workforce that become dependent on the state between contracts. Better hope your state has an income tax on the individual level.
3. The companies themselves are a crapshoot so good luck collecting taxes on non existent profit.
Every argument in favor of gaming reads like an endorsement for building stadiums for sports teams that hold cities hostage. Yes, I'm from Seattle so I'm bitter but god as my witness government support of business could go towards things that actually benefit a wide spectrum of people like infrastructure, education, something, anything that has a lasting effect on the area.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Ten years from now I think we'll be so far past the point of diminishing returns that it won't even matter.
Rough economic times plus diminishing returns. Add in that everyone will have just purchased new big screen TVs I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation stagnates a bit as well since there won't really be a reason to go past 1080p except for perhaps 3D.
there's nothing wrong with providing general economic development grants/loans like this; cities and states do it all the time as a way of revitalizing areas or attracting new kinds of business (lately green energy and server farms for stuff like facebook are the du jour industries.) It's just that in this case the great state of rhode island seems to have picked a company with a spectacularly unrealistic business plan and then not followed up really at all.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat