Rhode Island's Quarrel with 38 Studios

Back in May controversy hit Rhode Island as the "Project Copernicus" and its developer 38 Studios shut down and fired all 379 employees of the studio.

So why is this such a big political issue?

Well perhaps its because Rhode Island as just given the studio 75 million dollars in a grant consisting of tax payers money. Worst than that because the studio closed the tax playing public may now be stamped with another bill of 150.7 million dollars. Rhode Island wants nothing to do with paying the 150 million debt so the Rhode Island Economic Development Comission (EDC) has filed a law suit against the parties involved in the deal. This parties include Curt Schilling the 38 Studio founder, CEO Jennifer McLean, Wells Fargo Securities, Barclays Capitol and former EDC executive director Keith Stokes.

It remains to be seen if these parties will be held accountable for their actions or if the state of Rhode Island will have to look to their tax payers to pay off the bad grant.

Personally I think that the parties involved should be paying the bill and not the tax payers. Going along side with the financial crisis our country has been through due to bad loans by these organizations. The tax paying people have bailed out enough bad grants and loans, I dont think one more should be added to the list.

Video Games Hiring and Firing

There's been some rumors of video game companies in decline having to lay-off massive amounts of people. But from what I've personally seen it mostly just the social media games and their companies like Zynga. I think that we are seeing great changes in the way these games are being endorsed and the initial boom has finally passed and these companies weren't equipped to get the ball rolling.

I think that as a whole video games are in too much trouble but social media is changing. Different industries are beginning to utilize social media and Facebook which is the biggest user of these games is seeing a fall in the amount of people that play them. This could be to the introduction of different social media sites that people are using Facebook less to split time between another one such as Twitter or many other things.

One thing is for sure though, with these game companies failing we could see the end of a short lived gaming community through social media or a rise to a new company that brings them back into the limelight.

Is Hollywood's best actor America?

After reading the story of CIA agent Tony Mendez and his rescue of six American citizens trapped in Iran after escaping from the embassy being over run. The point of the story is that Mendez was able to do this because of using Hollywood to create a fake film crew and fake movie to grant him access to the country and create identities for the six escapees in order to get them out of the country. This is a prime example to how much power the entertainment industry can have. Does this also show a positive healthy relationship between Hollywood and the government?

People love movies, they love the actors, they love the false reality that they create. So when Mendez entered Iran to rescue the six Americans people were to infatuated with the idea of the movie and if they had a cast or if they were filming to take a closer look at who Mendez really was. I think that the governments relationship with Hollywood is a good one. The government holds what control it will over Hollywood but more importantly it can benefit both greatly. They seem to have a give and take relationship that has caused no harm to Americans yet so I say let the governments and Hollywood's relationship continue, its a good one.

Book are dying???

With the rise of things such as tablets like the iPad and the Android Galaxy and E-Readers like the Kindle and Kindle Fire it has given people who own these items the ability to search and buy e-books online. This has cause unrest for people who love to physically own books. Are books on the decline? are E-Books going to take it's place?

Hard back books are a luxury, they have sophisticated looks and are nice to hold. But now with E-Books are these hard back books going to die out and we lose this Luxury? Cover artist Chip Kidd thinks that hard back books are a luxury that will never die out. I would have to agree i think that e-books will continue to rise and more and more will reach the internet but nothing will replace the physical book itself.

Books are a special part of society and books will get lost over time in the wealth of books hitting the internet. As time continues physical books will just keep becoming more and more of a luxury.

Video Games are Evolving

With vast increase in technology many industries are benefiting from this growth. One industry that has been greatly benefitted is the video game industry. Developments and growth in the industry from electronic sports, to a drive to attract adults to the industry, to more and more realism and beauty produced from the games graphics. While these are just a few developing trends ill focus on these in this blog post.

First is the development of electronic sports taking video games and the skill individuals have in them to a whole new level. Companies such as Alienware are coming together to make five 10,000 dollar scholarships to give away to five electronic gamers who are excelling in their specific game or sport and still maintaining a high GPA at their college or university. This is cool to see the gaming community promote schooling and its importance.

Video games are no longer just aimed at kids anymore. Nintendo who is famous for titles such as Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda is starting to push for more adult oriented games. Titles such as Call of Duty, Dead Space 2, and Medal of Honor are very graphic violent titles that are not appropriate for those under the age of 18 which has cause both good and bad press for video games.

And lastly is the increase in graphic ability to create and produce very realistic beautiful images. The art that goes in to these games is intense and highly creative. People argue weather the games can be considered real "art." It just goes to show that as they develop and become even more realistic they may very well be considered great work of arts for history.