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38 Studios' decision to relocate to Rhode Island to take advantage of a hefty public loan has garnered outrage from Rhode Island politicians and press, but Mr. Schilling's beantown brainchild is hardly the first MMORPG company to snatch at a tax break, loan, or grant. A quick look at the tenuous relationship between devcos and public incentive programs (along with a hefty dose of Friday ranting) in today's Loading... Monkey Business.

The
Pulse

You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse ( href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/">What
is The Pulse?).

Today's
top 5 Pulse results:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
   of Warcraft
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest II
3. Age of Conan
4. EVE Online
5. Rift: Planes of Telara (UP 57!!)

Biggest
movers today:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/306">Jumpgate
   Evolution
   
   - UP 11 to
   #19
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/34">City
   of Villains
   
   - UP 10 to
   #14
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aoc">Age of Conan
   
   - Down 5
   to #7

• size="-1">6/9
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">Mortal
  Online size="-1">
  (release)
• size="-1">6/29
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998"
  target="_blank">APB
  (release)
• size="-1">7/13
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1801"
  target="_blank">Mytheon
  (release)
• size="-1">7/27
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2461"
  target="_blank">Need
  for Speed World
  (release)
• size="-1">7/27
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2" target="_blank">StarCraft
  II: Wings of Liberty
  (release)

• size="-1">August
  17, 2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/140">City
  of Heroes: Going Rogue (release)
• size="-1">September
  7, 2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion">Aion:
  Assault on Balaurea (free
  expansion)
• size="-1">September
  30, 2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv" target="_blank">Final
  Fantasy XIV size="-1">
  (release)
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">October
  26, 2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/170">LEGO
  Universe (release)
  
  
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">November
  2, 2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
  Universe Online (release)
  
  

size="-1">Upcoming
Events

• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">8/18 -
  8/22 - href="http://www.gamescom-cologne.com/en/gamescom/home/index.php"
  target="_blank">Gamescom 2010
  
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">9/3 -
  9/5 - href="http://www.paxsite.com/paxprime/index.php" target="_blank">PAX
  Prime
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">9/3 -
  9/6 - href="http://www.dragoncon.org/" target="_blank">DragonCon
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">10/8 -
  10/10 - href="http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/">New
  York Comic Con
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">10/22 -
  10/23 - href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/?rhtml=y" target="_blank">BlizzCon
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;"> 3/24
  -
  3/26 (2011) - href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/" target="_blank">CCP
  FanFest
  

style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">HOT!
Visit href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/guides">Ten
Ton Hammer's StarCraft II Guides
portal to gain that competitive multiplayer edge, or to read our Wings
of Liberty
single player campaign mission walkthroughs!

Loading... as tantalizing as a blueberry progress bar.

A few years ago I took a trip to Singapore to check out RealU's Otherland project. What stuck with me wasn't the virtual worldy MMORPG (which we really haven't heard a word about since), but the tiny city state's idea of how to run their government. That is, run it largely as a business. The impressive skyline was spiked with cranes, and as we observed a massive cruise terminal development project in the city center, one of our guides noted that the government was heavily invested.

I was told that incentives such as tax breaks played as big a role in RealU's decision to locate in Singapore as did its "Asia light" status. English and Mandarin are widely spoken in Singapore, so marrying Western designers with lower cost Chinese coders and artists is much easier than it would be in, say, southern California.

That little snippet came back to me when I read about 38 Studios' plan to relocate to Rhode Island to take advantage of our littlest state's biggish $75M unsecured loan to high tech employers. The deal has drawn a lot of criticism from Rhode Island politicians and press due to its knee-jerk implementation and the fact that game development has a lot of similarities to a high-stakes game of poker. Plus, since as our forum poster Megaflux noted, Rhode Island is commutable from 38 Studios' current location near Boston, meaning if the intent is to draw skillful tech artisans (and their tax dollars) to Providence, it probably isn't going to happen short-term.

Such tax and grant snatches are nothing new to the MMO industry. Funcom, for example, opened a "studio" in North Carolina's golden triangle and has kept a token presence in the area since Age of Conan's harrowing launch. The Austin area has attracted large numbers of game developers largely due to the area's tech hotbed (literally) status. But Austin only became that way through tax breaks and a low cost of living - both functions of governmental decisionmaking.

Not to wax too libertarian on you, but the idea of running government as a business is something I simultaneously chafe at and somewhat admire. On one hand, after seeing all the financial mismanagement on the part of US state and federal governments over the past decade plus, I like the thought of hard-nosed financial types carefully controlling how our precious tax dollars are spent. After all, except for infrastructure-based revenue schemes, government doesn't make money - what it has, it takes (at gunpoint) from productive people and companies. That money should be spent and invested wisely, not used to create widespread dependencies or in one-off backroom deals.

And on the other hand, I don't like the thought of government investment in the private sector. To oversimplify, if a firm can't attract private investment, why should it be allowed to snatch up public funds? Tax breaks? Sure, absolutely. Research grants? Ok, provided that discoveries are made widely available to advance the state of the industry. Government as an investment and loan entity, or worse - as a donor? That's a little on the Orwellian side for me. I'd rather see government do a better job of keeping folks safe from lifelong exploitation in our medical and legal institutions, filling potholes, and enhancing power grids and Internet infrastruture. Let the private sector take care of making video games. We're pretty good at separating the wheat from the chaff.

But it takes serious cash to make games, and I don't fault 38 Studios for taking Rhode Island up on their offer. I'm just saying that if I were a Rhode Islander, I'd be upset. Would you? Let's get all political in the Loading... forum, blow off some steam, then have ourselves a nice weekend!

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day

From our GW2 General Discussion forum


Submit Your Questions for the GW2 Devs!


Next week, Team Ten Ton will head off to Germany for
Gamescom 2010, and we'll be seeing the first public demo of Guild Wars
2. Sardu has posted a thread on our GW2 community site forums asking
for your questions for ArenaNet. You know you want to be in on this, so
head over to post your questions
(as many as you like) today. We'll do our best to get them answered.
But hurry! You have until Monday, August 16th before we round up the
best questions in preparation for our trip to Gamescom.


==============================

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread


"When you get into the demo, you
should try to find a jar of bees, one of the newer blogs says you can
use it to throw at people! "

 - Fatemaster
==============================

New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer

4 new and exclusive
Ten
Ton Hammer
features
today!  59 Ten Ton Hammer
features
in August! 875
in 2010!

INTERVIEWS

Assault on Balaurea Interview with Aion Associate Producer Sean Neil

http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/features/interviews/pet-system-neil

Assault on Balaurea, the next chapter in epic war between Aion's Asmodian,
Elyos, and Balaur races, goes live next month. Among the full list of content and features this expansion brings to the
game, the pet system gives players one more way to enjoy their time in Atreia.
We wanted to learn more about the pet system so Ten Ton Hammer talked with Aion
Associate Producer Sean Neil to find out about these fun little creatures and
why players will want one of them for their very own.

MEDIA

City of Heroes: Going Rogue ViDoc #4 - Brave New World

http://www.tentonhammer.com/city-of-heroes/video/vidoc4

Paragon
Studios has released their 4th ViDoc for City of Heroes: Going Rogue.
The latest video provides a look at several of the new zones for the
game and additional story details for the Going Rogue expansion. Join
Lead Designer Melissa "War Witch" Bianco, Lead System Designer Matt
"Positron" Miller, and Art Lead David "Noble Savage" Nakayama as they
detail new Going Rogue features and explain how this expansion
reinvents the franchise.

FEATURES & GUIDES

Cataclysm: New Warrior Talents
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/cataclysm_warriors_talents

Warriors are undergoing substantial changes in Cataclysm that may
radically alter their playstyles. Ten Ton Hammer has the the latest info on talents and
an analysis of what's changing and how it affects you.

The Elder Dragons of Guild Wars 2
http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/previews/elder-dragons

The primary enemy in Guild Wars 2 will not be the Unseen Ones nor the
Charr themselves, who have now become a playable race. Instead we'll be facing
off against five amazingly powerful Elder Dragons who have ravaged Tyria, shut
down access to Cantha and Elona, and are wreaking havoc everywhere. Just who are
these nefarious dragons and what are they doing in Tyria? Find out here at Ten
Ton Hammer.

Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/hands-on-preview-part-1">Rift:
   Planes of Telara First Hands-On
   Preview - Part 1
2. DC Universe Online Hands On Preview
3. Aion: Assault on Balaurea Interview with Associate Producer Sean Neil
   
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/reviews/wings-of-liberty">StarCraft
   II href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/reviews/wings-of-liberty">:
   Wings of Liberty Review
   
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/news/scars-of-velious-reveal">EverQuest
   II href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/news/scars-of-velious-reveal">:
   Destiny of Velious Unveiled
6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/fanfaire2010/pool-party-video">Video:
   From the SOE Fan Faire 2010 Pool Party!
7. href="http://tentonhammer.com/interviews/soldier-connects-across-Star-Wars-Galaxies">Deployed
   - A Soldier Connects Across style="font-weight: bold;">Star
   Wars Galaxies
8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/previews/personality-and-immersion">Personality
   and Immersion in style="font-weight: bold;"> Guild
   Wars 2
9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/previews/thunder-bluff">WoW
   Cataclysm href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/previews/thunder-bluff">Beta:
   Thunder Bluff Preview
   
10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/champions-online/interview/shannon-posniewski/august2010">
    Serpent Lantern Interview with style="font-weight: bold;">Champions
    Online Executive Producer
    Shannon Posniewski href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/champions-online/interview/shannon-posniewski/august2010">
    
    

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
and the Ten Ton Hammer team