episode_0043

Yoon-seo has been having a very happy time recently.

This was because, seeing the success of Doom, game companies sprang up like mushrooms, and games armed with all sorts of ideas were being registered on Pipes.

There was a flood of games, from easy-to-make JRPGs like Final Fantasy XIV and Four Monsters to FPS games with released source codes, including Doom!

The arcade industry is also starting to come back to life and new products are starting to come out. In particular, Kona O, which survived with tenacity and was in the card business, aggressively entered the arcade market.

In some ways, it was both fortunate and unfortunate that games and IPs that existed in the original world popped up in this world as well.

It was fortunate that some guaranteed fun stuff popped up, but I felt like I’d been spoiled… The curse of knowledge was in full effect, and the iron man was taking another questionable win.

Games that looked pretty good were taken to the production company and incorporated into KIN’s internal studio. Some people asked why they were doing such an inefficient thing, but it was done because recruiting talent and releasing sequels quickly were important issues.

Since ancient times, developers have been forced to work when money is poured in. Once they taste money, they give up the thought of leaving and do not shy away from crunch work. That is the nature of the human race.

“Aren’t we becoming a mid-sized company now?”

“It looks like a medium-sized company on the outside…but in reality, we’re a large company. We have a firm grip on the internet.”

It is no exaggeration to say that it has practically taken over the entire Internet, as it has spun off a subsidiary similar to Adobe, which only handles commercial software such as Flash and Photoshop, and its game studio alone is in charge of the game distribution network on the net and even touches GPUs.

And what does it mean that the scale has grown? That means that as the CEO, I have more work to do.

My head is going to explode trying to manage the entire business. I think it’s time to bring in a professional manager.

The IT bubble is about to burst, so we need to prepare for it…

It was a little funny to see Lehman Brothers put out a report saying that Amazon was close to bankruptcy. That’s your story, man.

***

“Isseoyaaa~”

“It’s heavy, Eunji…”

These days, Eun-ji is getting more and more clingy, which is really annoying. She clings to me to the point where I wonder if it’s okay for her to be this defenseless. If I weren’t a woman, I would’ve confessed to her right away.

Why don’t you just confess to me? Honestly, this is your own karma. If you were going to seduce me like this, you should have prepared yourself for a confession.

By the way, while I was spending money, I bought a fairly large house and was having trouble getting rid of it when Eun-ji and Jeong-ah moved in.

Eun-ji came because she was lonely, and Jeong-ah said she didn’t like Jeong-jun’s bachelor smell. Yu Ji-young also keeps asking if she’d like to move in.

I told him that it might be difficult because there weren’t enough rooms, but he said it was okay if I shared a bed with him. If I hadn’t been drinking coffee and my brain was overclocking at that time, I wouldn’t have been in my right mind and would have just pushed my head in and confessed.

It was a really frustrating situation to have flowers in both hands but not be able to hold them.

***

[The World’s Best Game Masters Tournament Held!]

“I’m busy updating my records?”

[You’re so bad.]

“Where should I go, you piece of shit?”

The amateur tournament hosted by KIN, which started with a neat and tidy catchphrase that scratched all gamers’ hearts, boasted literally crazy aggro.

Although the events were limited to rhythm games, StarCraft, and Work, the participation rate was crazy. Half-Life Speedrun was not an official event, but rather a charity event, which once again silenced those who opposed the game’s commercialization.

Of course, even though we rented a fairly large stadium, the seats were full!

Companies that saw the huge audience mobilization despite the three-day event thought this way.

‘It makes money!’

The appeal of being able to improve a company’s image and make money at the same time was enough to attract companies’ attention, and the number of companies sponsoring amateur gaming teams increased rapidly.

This is how the first professional gamer title came into being.

Of course, Yoon Yi-seo, whose big picture was right on target, was smiling.

And across the sea, Korea’s Starfan was coming back to life.

PC rooms began to get crowded again, and some of the larger ones were even holding their own competitions.

In fact, the competitions weren’t that professional yet, but gamers who occasionally watched North American gaming competitions on YouTube came together like the StarCraft blocking incident and even held the nation’s first StarCraft competition, albeit a one-time event.

The sight of the narrow hall, with no seats except the podium, being filled with people was enough to elicit exclamations.

Korean companies that had been keeping an eye on the situation in North America also began to competitively jump into the game and provide sponsorship.

And these sponsoring companies came together to create the Korea e-Sports Association.

That was KeSPA.

Oh shit. Aren’t you already feeling disgusted?

Of course, in this world, eSports has contributed somewhat to advancing into TV and has done some pretty interesting things… but it’s really disturbing to see the signs of idiots messing with the rules.

Still, eSports is pretty well established in Korea, even more so than in North America.

Through many competitions, many talented people have been discovered, and it was quite fun for Yoon I-seo to see the emergence of players like Kongkong, who were just the right fit.

It’s really unfortunate that the rhythm game competition can’t be held… but what can I do if it’s illegal to have a network connection on a game console?

Anyway, the game board was running pretty well. So far.

***

“I finished all the big work and it’s vacation time, so why don’t you go to Korea for a bit?”

“I should go see my parents too. Chuseok is coming up soon, so I have to hold ancestral rites and do other things.”

“You’re talking like it’s some ordinary holiday homecoming.”

“If you look at it broadly, it’s correct, right?”

“I can’t refute that!”

So it was decided that the Yoon Yi-seo division would go to Korea!

[Going to Korea]

I’m disappointed with North America’s gaming prowess.

Let’s go back to Korea, where there are many game gosu.

I don’t know when I’ll be back.

bye

-????????????

-WTF

-Yankees, are you awake? This is what we did three years ago.

Westerners who suddenly got NTR’d for their gaming skills suffered serious mental damage.

On the other hand, Korea was literally in a festive mood. As soon as Yoon Yi-seo’s article was posted, Korean gamers were already preparing to welcome them.

The flood of gamers who had calculated the expected arrival time by looking at the flight ticket times that Yoon Yi-seo had accidentally forgotten to blur out and were sitting at the airport was enough to surprise Yoon Yi-seo who had finished immigration and come out to the central hall.

Considering that just 3 or 4 years ago, there were more housewives shouting “”We condemn this no matter what!” than there were cheering people on, it was a huge step forward.

A sight that makes your eyes moist.

The pouring camera flashes seemed to brightly light their path ahead.

***

Yoon Yi-seo’s schedule upon returning to Korea was simple.

First, I went to a PC room with a slanted KIN sign that was run by Yooseop’s parents.

And so the day went by.

It was like this without any exaggeration.

I stayed up all night in the innermost corner, just like I did four years ago. But this time, instead of making games, I was playing games.

In the meantime, I discovered a bug and was trying to fix it naturally, but as a bonus, I got nostalgic when I saw the old editor that still exists.

By the way, there was also a crazy competition called [Beat the Developer] led by Lee Seo. Naturally, there were 30 wins out of 30 matches. There were many precarious moments, but in the end, it was Lee Seo who won all the matches and didn’t lose a single penny.

And the next day, while enjoying a cup of cheap coffee and a newspaper delivered to the PC room, Yoon-seo prepared to go out. In fact, the only thing she prepared was a briefcase.

Early in the morning, Yoon-seo caught a taxi and disappeared somewhere without anyone knowing.

And after lunch, Yoon Seo’s acquaintances in Korea were shocked.

“Jeong-ah! Turn on the TV! Quickly!”

“Umm…what is it…”

Jeong-ah, who had been half-asleep even after lunch because she had stayed up all night playing games with Yoon-seo, couldn’t resist Jeong-jun’s nagging and fumbled to grab the remote control and turn on the TV. The moment that happened, all of Jeong-ah’s sleepiness flew away.

“How can you so confidently stick your head in here after making something like that! And how can you air that entertainment stuff you made on a public broadcasting station!”

“Mr. Representative. You are the one who requested the witness appearance, and the broadcasting of the game competition on public broadcasting was done without any agreement with us. Instead of taking it out on me, ask the broadcasting company and the association that have eaten up the concept of copyright and intellectual property rights. Instead, I have a lot to say. Would you like to hear it?”

Yoon Yi-seo, 3rd time appearing on TV…!