There is nothing more inherently unpopular these days than a successful business manager since they are inherently realistic and judgemental. The exceptions are the likes of Donald Trump, the Shark Tank gang, and the Mad Money guy because they happen to be on television. Most definitely, these types of personalites need not apply to run a government with this kind of unpopular personality. Unfortunately the opposite is true and popular personailties tend to be idealistic and have no capacity to successfully run the governments they get elected into.
The broadest lesson learned here, as I look at the big picture, reflects upon what is wrong with modern politics and western culture in general. Rewards and dollars are handed out in irrational proportion to one's popularity rather than based realistically on practical concerns, such as prior success in the field in question, and the value of their work towards improving the welfare of everyone. Hence actors, sports stars like Schilling, and musicians are paid inordinately for their contributions. Meanwhile those who shape the future are elected based on how popular their personality is rather than how fit they are to manage public institutions in order to improve the welfare of the public. The politicians we elect therefore end up being are idealists. Running a business is all about finding things that work and work most efficiently, and the person running it must be the ultimate realist. A politician like Schilling should not be running a business unless he is a figure-head there to raise public funds who defers a COO and CFO who know their stuff. This clearly was not the case in retrospect, but anybody worth their salt should have seen this coming. Governemnts need to get more businesslike, meaning realistic, and stay out of business investment until they are. Anyone comfortable now with how the stimulus trillions were spent? Anyone wonder why the economy is still moribund?
Schilling botched that opportunity, but you can help the state and it's taxpayers recoup some of the budget they lost via the inevitable chapter 11 process.
The sad part here is that this was a decent production, especially for a virgin effort, indicating that this studio had real potential. It just looks like a bad business plan and mismanagement of funds and resources led to cost overruns that did them in rather than a lack of talent. It gives you an idea though of just how much capital it takes to start-up in this industry, which is alot more than most would expect. Unless you have a bunch of Daddy Warbucks investors bankrolling you, you had better arrive lean and mean on this scene. Sadly the big studios backed by there big bankrolls have an oligarchy and will continue to produce mediocre prodcuts until better challenged by successful start-ups.The main media story is that Schilling got public funds with no loan repayment guarentees to bankroll this venture, which shows you just how good the governemnt is at business investing 101. Do not let them do this with your tax dollars! Most of the governor's senior staff who promulgated this fiasco have already resigned, and many would argue, so should he. I would say Chafee's re-election prospects are dismal at best right now.
An attorney showing up at work and going to meetings who is not on your side is no different than having the grim reaper show up at work. Big red flag there. I like the advice about finding a firm to take the case pro bono. I am continually hearing more instances of corporate bullying of this kind where small individuals or groups feel they can not afford to fight back due to the cost of hiring their own counsel. Everyone knows how deep corporate pockets are. There is a growing need for charitable interests to help fund these kinds of cases and to get the word out that you can fight back in order to protect yourself from this kind of abuse.
It is shameful and mindless to condemn an entire group for actions of just a few individuals within that group on matters unrelated to what that group stands for.
The original half-life was way ahead of its time. I still remember getting skewered over and over again by the huge plant thing in the beginning. It took countless plunges to Gordon's death down the shaft before I figured out how to work the exhaust fan puzzle properly. I also remember this as one of the first with enemies with decent AI. I remember thinking, did I really just get blown away by a hand grenade thrown on to the platform I was on from somewhere below? Fighting the aliens on the combine homeworld was surreal. Without doubt a classic first-person shooter. What stands out about HL2 in my memory is the feel of the cinematics and the feeling of immersion they generated. While this was also present in HL, the effect was a logarithmic scale bigger in HL2. Looking back on playing the HL2 series I still get this odd feeling like I am remembering a fond vacation experience. Although I can say that walking on those beaches was a bit treacherous. You definitely don't want young children observing you playing HL2 right before a planned excursion to any resort with a beach. I don't think I will look at a crowbar quite the same way again after playing the series. Oh, and that gravity gun rocked! I am waiting with much anticipation to see what they come up with for HL3.
With regards to the content of ME3, EA/Bioware is not ignorant of the fact that if they can make a product streamlined and deep enough in rpg that everyone will be satisfied and their profits will soar. But there a price to pay to make that branching rpg tree where every decision leads to different outcomes. It requires more programming, more storage space, and more time. Platforms are deficient in storage space compared to a pc, so marrying games to both platforms and pcs will "streamline" the pc product. Bigger corporations worship the ticking clock more, so you will see more of a strip-down of creativity/content with games made by them. Making the programming more efficeint is a function of mass production, so big corporations actually are at an advantage there for creating depth. So the two solutions that I see are to decouple rpgs from platforms and/or simply wait for platforms to support more gigs per program so that storage-hungry rpg content can be included. I think EA proved that it can get the job done already as they did with DAO, so it looks to me like the stripping occurred in order to get these games onto platforms which by current design are not very rpg friendly.
@towns forever: If you hate christianity due to a lack of political correctness, then I would hate to see what you think of Islam. I would strongly advise you to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Those charged with interpreting/teaching/ and professing the faith are usually old men with views a few generations behind the mainstream. In another view Christianity in an ancient religion struggling to overcome the inertia of time in a world that is evolving rapidly. In my estimation it's political correctness is usually 50 years behind the times, which means they will be moving on from the civil rights era and coming up on gay rights in about 10 years. The core message, however is humility in accepting that there is something greater and more perfect in the universe than you and then being willing to follow it, and to treat others as you wish to be treated by them. Back to relevant topic with my next post.
gsmull's comments