113. Blizzard’s Future
After a long flight, Hoyoung arrived in Anaheim.
Anaheim, California, was at the far west end, so Ho-young flew across the United States from New York.
As Hoyoung got off the plane, he thought, ‘If Smith had been there, he would have grumbled.’
“boss! Here it is.”
As Ho-young left the exit, several young men greeted him.
“That bastard’s boss… just call it easy. Not even the mafia.”
“no! The other day, a person named Smith begged me to call him Boss. And we also feel that this side sticks to our mouths more.”
“smith···. I know. Do what is comfortable for you.”
Hoyoung felt like a headache, but since it wasn’t important, he decided to just let it go.
“Yep. You can follow me. boss.”
Of course, it was the three members of Blizzard who came to greet Hoyoung.
Alan Adham, Michael Morhaime, and Frank Pearce were working together to develop the game, just like when Hoyoung visited a few months ago.
“Could you wait here for a moment? I’ll get the car right away.”
“yes. All right.”
When Alan Adham disappeared, Miru opened her mouth with a shy expression.
“I can’t even remember how long it’s been since we’ve waited for a car together at the airport.”
“Come to think of it, it really is. The manager always did the driving. Speaking of which, should we get a separate driver now? It’s because the manager can’t drive the car forever.”
“no. It’s comfortable for me to drive. If one person increases, there is also a safety issue.”
“All right. Instead, you must tell me whenever you are having a hard time.”
“Yep.”
Mi-ru greeted her brightly, and Ho-yeong also smiled in a good mood.
Then Alan Adham pulled his car out of the parking lot.
The car was a huge 12-passenger van.
“boss! Here it is. Get in this car.”
“What is this van?”
Hoyoung got into the van and looked around.
“I hired a lot of new people at Blizzard, but there are a lot of employees who live in the same direction as me, so I decided to take them all in at once.”
“Did you buy it with your own money?”
“sure. I was going to go, but I bought it.”
“Hmm···.”
“Why is that?”
Adham glanced at Hoyoung’s expression in the room mirror and noticed that he had done something wrong.
After thinking for a moment, Hoyoung opened her mouth.
“Sell this car to me.”
“yes?”
“I didn’t care about employee welfare at all. I will buy this car at the price of a new car and let the company run it. And immediately hire a chauffeur to drive this car during rush hour.”
Everyone didn’t understand Hoyoung’s words, so he didn’t answer for a while.
Then, among them, Michael Morhaime was the first to grasp the situation and spoke.
“Thank you, Boss.”
“no. I should have cared about it first, but I’m sorry I didn’t. If you need anything in the future, please contact me right away.”
“yes. All right.”
The youths of Blizzard had smiling faces.
Seeing them, Hoyoung was also happy.
‘It’s strict, but I can’t make you pay attention. It’s my job to make sure Blizzard doesn’t care about anything but games.’
Before they knew it, they arrived at Blizzard.
“It seems like you’re new here, but you’ve moved companies.”
“yes. The number of employees also increased a lot, and when good conditions came out, I moved right away.”
“Good job.”
The Blizzard of today is not the humble Blizzard of a few months ago.
Back then, I didn’t want to show the shabby look of Blizzard, so I had meetings at the cafe, but now it was a neat building that I wouldn’t be ashamed to come from anywhere.
“ruler. Come this way.”
Hoyoung followed them into the furthest part.
Blizzard already had about 20 employees.
“How are you? It’s all thanks to Boss’s investment that it’s been able to grow to this size. And if you look around, there will be a lot of empty seats. We plan to hire about 30 more staff within this year.”
“good. Salary treatment can be paid to the extent that it is said to be good in the industry. Instead, we need to hire people with the same quality.”
“of course. We are not hiring anyone.”
Michael Morhaime’s expression showed his pride for Blizzard.
Hoyoung liked his face.
“good. So, can we see what games have been released and are still being developed?”
“of course. Alan will be preparing the relevant materials.”
After waiting for a while, Alan prepared two files and entered the conference room.
“Sorry for making you wait so long. I should have prepared in advance, but it was late to reflect and bring it because there was a correction right before.”
“no. What is that?”
Hoyoung smiled at them and opened the first file that Alan gave him.
The first file had [PUBLISHED] – released – written on it.
“Let’s start with this file. RPM Racing, Lost Vikings. Rock ‘n’ roll racing. These are the three games that have been released so far.”
“That’s right. Rock ‘n’ roll racing is practically the successor to RPM racing.”
Hoyoung felt a sense of incongruity for a moment.
‘Lost Vikings, or Lost Vikings, was originally a game to be released next year. And RPM Racing is a game that will only be released the following year. But has it already been released? Am I misremembering?’
Hoyoung thought it was necessary to clear up the confusion for a while.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
“yes. If you want to go to the bathroom, go out and it’s at the right end of the hallway.”
“thank you.”
Entering the bathroom, Hoyoung looked up the exact year the Lost Vikings and RPM Racing were released through Gaia.
‘Lost Viking is 1992, RPM Racing is 1993. My memory is not wrong.’
Hoyoung could feel his heart pounding the moment he checked the release year of the games.
‘Could it be that making me focus solely on the game has such an effect?’
Hoyoung quickly left the bathroom and returned to the meeting room.
And as soon as I sat down, I opened another file.
Michael Morhaime and Alan Adham couldn’t comment on Hoyoung’s behavior as they seemed urgent.
Another file Alan prepared was [DEVELOPING] – under development.
“Blackthorn!”
Hoyoung involuntarily shouted, startling Michael Morhaime and Alan Adham.
“I’m sorry, but what’s wrong?”
“The name of the game Blackthorn is also problematic? I told you to do it under a different name.”
The conversation between the two brought Hoyoung to her senses.
“sorry. I thought it was a good name, so I stopped thinking about it, no problem.”
“phew···. okay. Fortunately, the.”
Michael Morhaime swept his chest.
Hoyoung pretended to be calm on the outside, but inside he felt his heart beat faster than before.
Black Thorn is a game released in 1994. It’s a game that started developing at the end of 1993 and produced it in just 6 months, but it was a game with more important meaning than the game itself.
“Then, by any chance, who is in charge of producing the music for this game?”
“Music? Hmm, who was it? Hey Alan Black Thorn, do you remember who is in charge of producing the music?”
“You’re the one I brought with you a while ago.”
“Oh right! I remember that temporary worker. My name is Bill…”
Hoyoung couldn’t wait for Alan Adham to recall his memory and spoke first.
“Bill Roper?”
“Five! you’re right. How does the boss know? That employee’s name is Bill Roper.”
For a moment, Hoyoung seemed to be thrilled.
The name Bill Roper was known to all future gamers.
He was an excellent planner who planned StarCraft and Diablo, and he was the man who served as the president of Blizzard North, which was to be created in the future.
In fact, later he left Blizzard and made a game called Flagship Studio, made ‘Hellgate London’ and looked bad, but his performance until the early 2000s was excellent enough to be compared to Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto.
“Aren’t you a man with a chubby physique who graduated from a music school by any chance?”
“you’re right. How do you know him?”
“I have heard from someone I know. I remembered it because it wasn’t a common last name, but it’s a mysterious relationship.”
“Is that so? Certainly Roper is not a common surname.”
Hoyoung was sure of Bill Roper’s appearance.
‘It was the right choice for Blizzard not to worry about money at all and to focus on the game.’
Blizzard in his previous life was in a situation where both Michael Morhaime and Alan Adham could not concentrate on game production due to financial problems until they were merged with another company.
And as more time passes, the parent company changes to Vivendi and Activision, and regardless of their intentions, they are encroached on by Chinese capital.
‘This time, Blizzard will not have enough time to continue making only the games they want.’
Hoyoung thought he had shown Blizzard the right path.
“Shall I bring Bill Roper?”
“no. It doesn’t have to be. Hmm···. But it might be better to moderate him in the future.”
“Him? Is he a sound engineer?”
“Have a conversation with him and gauge his ability. He probably has good skills as a game designer as well.”
“yes. We will watch closely.”
“And remember that as you accumulate years of experience, you will stand out as a producer who coordinates and leads multiple teams rather than as a designer.”
Alan hesitated at Hoyoung’s words, but eventually nodded.
Hoyoung’s words had a strange power to make people believe.
Hoyoung was more excited about the future Blizzard.
“Is this all the games currently being prepared?”
“Well, there is one more game.”
“Is that so? Show me that too.”
“However, it is only a draft, so I was going to tell you when it is a little more finalized.”
“A rough draft, or just an idea, is fine. Please tell me anything.”
Hoyoung was full of anticipation.
What game will come out of Alan’s mouth?
“It’s kind of a war game. However, the war is not imitating the war that took place in reality, or unfolding against the backdrop of reality.”
“Then where is the background?”
“It may sound out of the blue, but the background of the war is a fantasy world.”
“fantasy? You mean that fantasy with elves and dwarves?”
At Hoyoung’s question, Alan seemed to have lost his confidence.
“Is it too out of the blue? I originally wanted to set it in real-life history, but there were opinions from a few staff members. As expected, to real history…”
“no! A fantasy war game. Really good. I think it would be good to start production from that game as soon as possible.”
“Is that so?”
Alan’s expression brightened a little at Hoyoung’s strong affirmation.
In fact, as soon as Hoyoung heard the story of a war in a fantasy world, he wanted to shout out the title of the game, but he held back.
“To elaborate, the game we are making now will be a game depicting the conflict between the two races in the world we are thinking of. Players can choose to play as one of two races…”
Even after that, Alan continued to explain the game, but it did not reach Hoyoung’s ears.
and after a while
Hoyoung could hear the name of the game he had been waiting for so long from Alan’s mouth.
“… I’m going to make a game of this type. In fact, the planning was roughly done by myself, so there are many weak parts. The name of this game is Warcraft.”
Warcraft!
It was the moment the name of the game that made Blizzard a first-tier game company came out of Allen’s mouth.
