episode_0023

Brain freeze has set in.

Sea story.

This is the game that originally devastated the Korean arcades.

The slot machines that we usually think of when we think of pachinko are digitally transferred to give prizes instead of money, and the prizes are exchanged for money at a nearby currency exchange.

In fact, it is the root of all evil, similar to GangO Land pachinko in disguise as a game.

What was even more vicious than analog pachinko was that the owner could manipulate the odds using a notepad, and since all the machines were connected to a network in the first place, even the cash return rate could be controlled!

In other words, it is not gambling, it is just a scam where you can neither take nor lose.

That damned root of all evil was the one who devastated the arcades of the original world and also launched the Game Rating and Administration Committee, the true root of all evil in the gaming world.

For me, that was the reason why I felt my teeth chatter and my anger boil over the moment I saw it.

So what I’m trying to say is,

How the hell do you refute that?

In the original world, they tried to get over it somehow by making a joke about it, but in the end they couldn’t get over it and it blew up.

They were arguing about their own business, but then they exploded at an unexpected moment. In fact, aren’t the Jeommas highly intelligent characters hiding their power?

Let’s first somehow build a shield with some tricks… and then think about the rest later.

“That’s not a game, it’s gambling. You have to distinguish between them.”

“Then what is the difference between games and gambling? Games and gambling are no different in that you put money into vanity and think you are getting a non-existent achievement.”

“That’s nonsense. When you gather with relatives for the holidays, do you think it’s gambling if you play Hwatu without betting money? The fundamental difference between games and gambling is whether or not you get your money back.

Games are a service where you pay money to gain achievements and experiences, but gambling is a service where you pay money and rely solely on probability to gain or lose real money.

In other words, games and gambling are completely different categories.”

“That gambling machine also uses the points earned from playing the game to receive money from a nearby currency exchange. If that’s what the columnist said, then that’s also a game and they’re just exploiting it, so shouldn’t we just leave it alone and not call it gambling?”

The story is going a bit strangely. I don’t know if it’s intentional to shift focus here and there, or if they really can’t focus.

“The point keeps getting blurred. Only some arcades have such gambling. Don’t generalize such gambling to all arcades. Such gambling is not a game, it’s just a target for crackdown.”

They have firmly drawn a line and clearly distinguished the standards and differences between games and gambling. I think this will be somewhat of a patchwork.

This needs to be dealt with decisively. If you’re not careful, you might end up nitpicking and having your pants grabbed.

And… the story about the sea was passed over without any further discussion. They brought the bill and passed it on without even using it properly.

Oh, you idiots. I can refute you better than you.

The meaningless battle continued like that. When I looked at my watch, more than two hours had passed.

At this point, isn’t this a 150-minute discussion rather than a 100-minute discussion?

But the end is slowly starting to come into sight.

“In fact, the scariest part of games is violence. It is also connected to the effect on the brain, and when you play violent games, your actions and thoughts naturally change to violent ones. Especially when you think about children and teenagers whose brains are growing being exposed to these games, it is worrisome for the future of the country.”

“Does playing games make you violent? Does playing rhythm games make you good at music? Watching war movies makes the world filled with Hitler, and cruel detective novels like Sherlock Holmes are subversive books that are on par with communist books that mass-produce criminals all over the world!”

“Games are completely different from books and movies! Games are participatory, so this tendency is assimilated in the process of direct interaction!”

“That’s exactly the same logic as when the comic book burning took place 10 years ago. They said that comics are violent, and as evidence, they cited the intuitive direction of comics. So is that why the current generation that grew up reading comics is violent, criminal, and shows extreme phenomena?”

“Look at those young people riding their motorcycles down the street in the middle of the night and doing crazy shows! That’s what I grew up seeing! ”

Oh my, this was the Republic of Korea at the end of the century. I was underestimating the end of the century where only the strong would survive.

“How many people do you think do that? I don’t know how many times I have to tell you not to generalize so hastily.”

First, let’s skip over some of the jokes and prepare for Tai Chi.

“You said that games can make you violent. Are there any books or papers that support that? I will refute them one by one by looking at the experimental process.”

I promised to show you the true 21st century Tai Chi, trained with all kinds of materials from the future…

“We are ordinary people, so we don’t have to read the paper to know.”

“””Phew?!”””

No, I didn’t laugh. A few people in the audience laughed at the same time.

When I see the person behind me laughing, I can’t help but laugh too.

Yeah, you guys don’t think this is right either, right? Yes, the person laughing over there.

Sir, even though you’re standing next to me as if nothing’s wrong, I can see your face turning red and your body shaking.

Wow! A bald head can become a real tomato, not just on the face but on the top of the head as well!

In this way, 21st century Tai Chi was struck down by the extraordinary self-destruction.

Wouldn’t that make him a dark knight who would sacrifice his body for the game?

I don’t really remember what happened after that. Uh… maybe we just didn’t crush them?

When I came to my senses, the discussion was over and the group was disbanding.

Well, that’ll be fine!

***

What happened next… I started preparing my thesis again, occasionally contributed to Linux, and maintained games.

There were people who saw the rhythm game on Sound Live and asked if I could add their music, but I put it on hold because of many ambiguous issues like copyright issues and profit distribution.

By the way, I don’t know how you came across rhythm games. Because of traffic, Digital Inside has a policy that prevents you from uploading videos longer than a certain length.

Anyway, I’ve been in the most slacker state since high school!

When I see people say that they are doing the things mentioned above while preparing two papers at the same time as being idle, I feel like I have lost my mind.

The topic of the paper is something big, like detonating a bomb.

The first is 3D. To be exact, it is a 3D expression implemented on a home computer.

The second is a method to improve graphic performance. We will completely destroy all the graphic-related tricks and optimization techniques that are about 3 years faster than the original world.

In fact, the graphic improvements have already been applied to rhythm games BGA and Strikers. Thanks to this, I think that the color expression and optimization, etc. are among the best in the world in terms of performance.

Campus life is gone, but I’m still working hard at college. It’s hard to shake off the idea that I’m more capable than my major professors, but it’s still fun to get good grades.

Sorry, my classmates. Be the food for my superiority complex…!

It was also a pretty good experience to get a full scholarship and various benefits while keeping a record of 4.4 GPA. In my previous life, maintaining a 4.2 GPA was the limit, but seeing this makes me think that even if I exclude my ability, I have some privileges from my previous life.

Time passes faster than I thought, and before I knew it, it was winter vacation.

All of the senior members graduated, but going to work at the PC room did not change.

What do you do when you come to work and you’re not even making games?

Each person makes what they want to make. Im Jin-bae is busy improving SimCity, and Kim Jeong-jun is making Puyo Pu-O Tetris after I threw him an idea.

Next time you hold a competition with that, I will crush you unconditionally, Yu Ji-young. It has been said that a gentleman’s revenge is not too late even if it takes 10 years.

Recently, I occasionally challenged Yu Ji-young to a Tetris match, but I always lost by a narrow margin and had to give her some close-up drawing lessons as punishment.

By the way, I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with the word ‘adhesion’.

I keep bumping my arm or something while correcting someone’s drawing on the same tablet right next to me, and it bothers me more than I thought.

It’s such a shame that if I didn’t have a woman’s body, I would have considered it a plot and confessed to her.

‘Swoosh… How can someone who doesn’t even use makeup smell this good? I want to bury my nose in those defenseless, plump breasts and smell their scent all day long, just like in the manga… Huh?! What am I thinking!’

The fact that Yoo Ji-young was unconsciously running all sorts of delusional circuits was something that Yoon Yi-seo didn’t even know in her dreams.

Different dreams.

It was still too early for their thoughts to reach each other.

***

At that time, Yoon-seo and her group were enjoying a long-awaited rest.

Somewhere, people who looked down on them were multiplying.

Just looking at the speed at which it is increasing, it is even surpassing college students who are obsessed with money by reading the red book.

The reason they arose spontaneously was simple.

“Don’t interfere with children’s learning! Children have the right to focus only on their studies in a perfect environment!”

“I tried to do it just once, but it all went downhill in an instant! My family, and many other families, were torn apart like that! How long do I have to watch my child’s father disappear without a word!”

“What are you! You are talking about a wholesome paradise without games, you guys!”

Could this be a side effect of the TV debate reaching the highest viewership ratings in history, just as the PD had hoped?

Parents who hate games were becoming more and more vocal.

The sight of Yoon Yi-seo shouting out rebuttals in the hall, spitting and shouting as if she were having a protest, showed just how scary extreme parents can be if they put their minds to it.

“We shouldn’t be here like this! Our unity is good, but now it’s time to spread our justice to society!”

Oh, my. It finally came.

Yoon-seo, who was going out to get a newspaper after staying up all night like usual, couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw a group of middle-aged women lying down in front of the arcade.

The arcade gate was finally running towards the end.