The current year, 1996, was about three years away from the peak of the dotcom bubble in 1999 and 2000.
Three years.
It’s a short span, but in the IT industry, it’s an eternity. Just considering Moore’s Law, semiconductor performance would at least double in that time. And since this was a period of rapid technological advancement, it was more accurate to say the industry would improve by a factor of ten.
Click.
Even in the middle of my busy schedule, I took a moment to play a game and nodded in satisfaction.
‘Still... this much is more than enough.’
Honestly, it was plenty.
From a gamer’s perspective, this was already a time of innovation upon innovation. After all, what drives a bubble isn’t logic—it’s madness.
Thanks to me, the very generous investor, high-budget Evangelion was able to be released, and the launch dates of many games had been pushed forward—a very rewarding outcome.
For reference, just in the past year alone, games like Resident Evil, Super Mario 64, Pokémon Red & Green, The Elder Scrolls II, Mario Kart 64, Warcraft II, Diablo, Civilization II, and Metal Slug had come out.
Even I, who gets bored of games easily, couldn’t find a moment to feel tired of the massive IPs that kept emerging. If this had happened in the 2020s, picking Game of the Year would’ve been hellishly difficult.
I tend to get tired of games quickly, but of all times, now, with all this work piling up, there just had to be a flood of masterpieces. What a tragedy.
Click.
Seo Ji-yeon flopped onto my bed the moment she entered the room and mumbled:
“Ughhh, Ji-yeon’s gonna die.”
“Oh, you’re back?”
The self-proclaimed ‘angel’ who had spent the day tossing money around Silicon Valley grumbled as she stared blankly at the screen I was enjoying.
“Uuu, Miss needs to reflect! I’m running around suffering, and you’re just here playing alone!”
Hmm.
“Then wanna try doing my job instead? Like Ji-yeon says, there’s a lot of playing involved. You know, hanging out with the bank where Seon-jun oppa works in Europe, surfing waves of money on Wall Street, splashing around in suspicious black liquid with Si-hyun in Russia, and playing hide-and-seek in Korea while dodging ANSP surveillance....”
And if you get caught during hide-and-seek... you die. It’s like Squid Game, but real. Pretty exhilarating, honestly.