I find it inconceivable that the state and the company couldn't have worked something out to keep them afloat until the money started coming in. It really seems like there was a generous helping of incompetence in the leadership on all sides here. Considering it's Rhode Island I wouldn't be surprised if political corruption wasn't involved somehow. I want to hear details from the execs who left.
It's starting to sound like Mr. Schilling was so ideologically blinded in his politics that he refused/neglected to let his company renegotiate their loan/finances with the State of RI, even though their MMO was taking longer than expected and the company was in danger. I doubt the state wanted the company to fail and to lose 350 jobs and any chance that they would be paid back. They could have worked something out.
Maybe everyone will be hired back on if they get any KoA money. The MMO always sounded promising since I first heard about it 6 years ago.
And the problem with highly addictive games like this and most MMO's is people keep playing them past the point where they're still having fun, and then become bitter, jaded and cynical. Then they take to forums complaining about how much they hate the game they can't back away from and demand the developers make it different so they can have fun again..
That guy is onto something. If you don't feel like following the link, here's the gist of it: Blizzard is counting on the real money auction house as a major source of income. They cannot tolerate hacked and duped items that were rampant in D2, so everything has to happen on Blizzard's servers.
So, Blizzard, if you're REALLY interested in what best serves the fan and not your wallets, let people play offline with the understanding that they're automatically permabanned from using the auction house. Afraid too many people wil take you up on that, hmmmm?
ggregd's comments