game trailblazer

Chapter 324 Arakawa's Decision

On the first night of the WCG finals, considering it was still Sunday, in order to let the players relax after fighting for most of the day, instead of continuing to arrange the game in the evening, a carnival-like event was held - Bright Star Game Night, except for the players In addition to them and the audience with tickets, there are WCG staff and more than 3000 invited lucky players.

The Bright Starlight Game Night kicked off at [-]:[-] p.m. Although the sky was still bright at this time, which did not match the word "night", the rich activities had already attracted everyone's attention.The largest activity area is on the stage in front of the audience area. A wonderful theatrical performance is being staged. Unlike the common theatrical performances at this time, the protagonists on the stage are mostly players with a strong desire to perform. He (she) ) or wear the costumes of the characters in the game to have a romantic dance, or sing aloud and sing a big skewer of game songs.The most interesting is the game skit, in which players dress up as characters in the game and perform familiar plots, such as dressing up as Li Xiaoyao, performing a "wired" fencing technique, or simply wearing red shirts and Blue overalls, wearing a blue work cap, with the cooperation of others, bouncing all the way to perform the first level of "Super Mario".

The interesting programs made the audience enjoy watching, especially the game short dramas. The players and actors on the stage performed very seriously, but limited by physical fitness and reality, some scenes in the game can only be shrunk if they want to show them. , For example, in the "Three Kingdoms" series, the generals are singled out. It is impossible for players to ride on tall horses and fight with real swords and guns. Although the model war horse with upper wheels cannot gallop and jump, with the help of the assistants in black, it can still turn around, turn around and so on.There is also "Super Mario". Although the physical fitness of the player in the red shirt and blue overalls is not bad, it is not easy to jump from the beginning to the end. The brick wall cannot be designed as high as in the game (that Ordinary people can't reach it at all), it can only mean meaning.

However, the shrunken performance did not arouse the disgust of the audience, and sometimes they couldn't help but interact with each other on stage. Maybe for them, being able to get involved with the game is already very interesting, let alone These game skits show the parts that everyone is very familiar with.

In addition to theatrical performances, the open-air theater on the square is also playing a cartoon produced by Oriental Shenyun, which introduces a brief history of the development of electronic games, from the earliest oscilloscope game "Tennis" to the latest DreamBox128 game The mainframe was originally assigned to the game museum to attract visitors. It was completed just in time for the WCG finals, so it borrowed flowers to offer a Buddha.

As a game carnival, games are naturally indispensable. In addition to the DreamBox128 game consoles all over the venue, arcade games are also an indispensable meal. Classic games such as the "Street Fighter" series, "The King of Fighters", and "Metal Slug" are also available. Many new works this year, such as "Dragon's Wrath", even include the latest game that has just been airlifted back from abroad.The sound of guns and guns and fists resounded over the square. People stood in front of every machine, and many of them held the only game currency in their hands, waiting for the people in front of the console to fail. Starlight Game Night has a special rule. Each person can only receive one arcade game coin. Each person can only play for half an hour at most on the DreamBox128 game machine. This is also to prevent players from being addicted to the game and ignoring other entertainment items. .

For some people, whether it is a cultural performance or a game that needs to wait in line, it is not as attractive as delicious food, so the place where they haunt most is in the tents that provide buffets on the square.Players who are attracted by the food are holding metal dinner plates and worrying about the tables full of exquisite food. They are hesitating whether to have a few mini cakes or a few pieces of crispy chicken first. Or simply have a small beef scone with a refreshing soft drink and enjoy the evening breeze, under the stars on a summer night.

……

In the following days, perhaps because of the summer vacation, the number of people who came to watch the competition did not decrease at all, and the number of people who came to participate in the dance machine competition and the starlight night activities also increased.At the scene during the day, the sound of guns and guns in "Special Warriors", the sound of people shouting and neighing in "Three Kingdoms 3", the sound of weapons being fired rapidly in "StarCraft", and the ball hitting the door frame in "FIFA2000" on the sound.On the square at night, under the starry sky, there are people singing and laughing near the stage, the figures jumping on the dancing machine, and the joy on the faces of the players who light up the lights and fight at night.

After several days of competition, the group matches of various WCG events have come to an end. Starting from the afternoon of August 8, the knockout rounds of various competitions kicked off again. "StarCraft", "Three Kingdoms 25", "Special Warfare" The top four players from "The Heroes", "FIFA3" and other projects have come on stage one after another. The top four players from "StarCraft" are the first to appear. The semi-finalists are two South Korean players, Park Taemin and Zhang Yishi.

The result of the first half of "StarCraft" was a bit unexpected. Many people saw that the four Chinese players were all in the upper half. At first, they had some regrets, but then they felt that as long as they cooperated well, they could get the other two in the upper half. It should be no difficulty, but unfortunately things are unpredictable, Ma Tianyuan went smoothly and won the first place in the group, but the Dutch guy with the ID "NTT" broke out with great strength, allowing many audiences to see the barbarism for the first time , Domineering, unreasonable European style of play, many opponents of "NTT" are trying to crack it, but unfortunately under the macro operation of "NTT"'s crazy violent soldiers, crazy mining, and a strong overall view, the economy is quickly pulled apart, Then it was completely crushed under the impact of the overwhelming force of "NTT".Only Ma Tianyuan was relatively lucky. Maybe it was because Anker Jacob Shaoen's condition hadn't adjusted well in the first match. With a little bit of luck, he won by a narrow margin. The only loss in the game.

The first game of the "StarCraft" knockout round was Ma Tianyuan vs. Zhang Yishi, and the second game was Park Taemin vs. Anker Jacob Shaoen. Ma Tianyuan's good luck helped him again, and he once again defeated However, Anker Jacob Shaoen's violent style of play hit a wall in front of the delicate Koreans. In the end, he could only compete with Zhang Yishi for the third or fourth place.

At 08:30 in the evening, the final of the WCG "StarCraft" project that everyone is looking forward to finally started. Three to 10 minutes before that, the match between Anker Jacob Shaoen and Zhang Yishi had already been divided. The Korean The delicate fighting once again restricted the "NTT"'s violent style of play. Anker Jacob Shaoen had no choice but to accept the result of No.4, and Zhang Yishi won the WCG "StarCraft" project the runner-up.

At night, under the dark night sky, stars are shining on the stage. On both sides of the stage are two transparent glass cabins. Computers, tables and chairs for online battles have been installed in the two cabins. Ma Tianyuan and Park Taemin here At that time, he had already walked down the stairs and walked into his own battle room.The projection screen hanging above the stage has been slowly lowered. After a flash of white light, the game options that the two are setting appeared. Ma Tianyuan chose the human race, and Park Taemin still used the Zerg race he was familiar with.

As the "Start" button was pressed, the projection screen went black, and soon the map screen from the referee's perspective appeared, and the game officially started...

Sitting on the sofa in the guest room of the BJ Hotel, Arakawa Minoru's mind was in a mess. He didn't know why he came to BJ, whether it was for the man's invitation or for himself, he couldn't tell the difference.If it was three years ago, no matter who sent him such an invitation, he would just laugh it off. At that time, although he was not the president of Nintendo North America, with the support of his old friend Howard Lincoln, he could decide. There are no fewer things than the president, and he is also a director of the company and has a certain influence on the board of directors. At that time, he naively thought that as long as he took care of Nintendo North America and helped Nintendo make more money, he would be able to climb up in the future. There are still many opportunities, maybe there is a chance to take over from the old man and become the president of Nintendo.

It's a pity that all these things are in vain now. His old friend Howard Lincoln has left. Arakawa got the position of President of Nintendo North America, which he doesn't care much about. On the surface, it seems that the old man seems to be planning to promote him, but anyone who knows the inside story will understand , this is not the case.Minoru Arakawa became the president of Nintendo North America, but his rights were smaller than before. Many specific affairs were taken over by people sent from the RB headquarters, and his position as a director was also removed. influence is further reduced.

If it is said that Arakawa was still holding on to hope at the beginning, his heart has been cold in the past few months. In the past, he was almost in charge of Nintendo North America's affairs. When Howard Lincoln was in power, because the two With a good relationship, he can still decide many things, but now that he is the president, he feels like he has become a mascot instead.When there is any major decision to be made, either Minoru Arakawa's subordinates make up their own minds, or the RB headquarters simply reaches out to him, and only some trivial matters will be handed over to him, such as pretending to be a press officer to post Speaking, sitting there like a statue at a new product launch.In short, if Arakawa suddenly ran away for a week one day, he would definitely be followed by a phone call before, but now he even suspects that no one will find out when he returns.

Arakawa really knows that he is actually a very ambitious and adventurous guy. At first he studied civil engineering in college, and later went to the MIT Department of Civil Engineering to study for a period of time. I joined Marubeni Trading Company in charge of overseas real estate business, and later met my current wife, Yoko, who is the eldest daughter of my father-in-law Yamauchi Hiroshi.

At that time, Arakawa knew nothing about games. He didn't even think that he would give up his position as the regional director of Marubeni Trading Company. Hope he jumps over to help.Arakawa thought about it for a long time at the beginning. After all, the game industry is too unfamiliar to him. In order to win him over, and of course also to expand North America, the world's largest consumer market, Hiroshi Yamauchi promised him the business director of Nintendo North America. seat.

Hiroshi Yamauchi's promise is about the same as Arakawa's seat at Marubeni Trading Company, but the gap between the two is not a little bit. Marubeni Trading Company's side is already a mature business, and he just needs to proceed step by step, while Nintendo's side , or zero in North America, everything needs him to start from scratch.In the end, the adventurous gene in Mino Arakawa's character prevailed. He gave up his comfortable job and jumped to Nintendo. With the help of a few friends, he began to form Nintendo's North American business department.At that time, everything was sketchy, and even the office was just a garage of less than 20 square meters near Raymond. The first batch of game substrates shipped from RB took up more than half of this office and warehouse. So much so that they have to stand to work, in order to save as much space as possible.

After several years of hard work, Nintendo's North American business department gradually developed into a North American company. Arakawa also left the cramped garage and moved to a more spacious office, and no longer had to compete with the warehouse for space.Thanks to his efforts, not only did Nintendo's game substrates achieve good sales in North America, but they also introduced home consoles such as the Nintendo Famicom and Super Nintendo to North America, and also achieved good results.It was also him who, together with Howard Lincoln, snatched the adaptation rights of "Cube" from Sega, allowing it to settle in GameBoy, laying a solid foundation for the glory of Nintendo's portable handheld market.

Later, when Nintendo was in trouble, it was Minotaur Arakawa who made the bridge and made great contributions to the birth of the N64, and through ingenious marketing, made the N64, which was a disastrous failure in the RB market, the most successful product in North America, and sold tens of millions. Taiwan, without his efforts, perhaps Nintendo would not have survived the moment of GameBoy's re-brilliance.

But these seem to be floating clouds to Hiroshi Yamauchi, at least Arakawa sees it this way, otherwise, based on the hard work he has made over the years, who can compare to him in Nintendo, logically speaking, the president of Nintendo This position should be guaranteed, but let alone the president of Nintendo, even the president of the North American company may not be able to sit for long.

To make Arakawa Minoru resist Hiroshi Yamauchi, he doesn't have the courage at all now. Some time ago, when Howard Lincoln was still the president of the North American company, he tried cleverly, but unfortunately he was dismissed lightly by the old man, and Return him to the current situation.Arakawa understood what the father-in-law meant. Yamauchi Hiroshi hoped that after a period of transition, he could take the initiative to resign, but he was still a little bit reluctant.

If the situation continues like this, Arakawa Mikhai may really want to resign after a while, but he did not expect to receive a call from that man, which revived his already stagnant heart. Maybe his hope has not been completely lost. .Arakawa Minoru has been in ambivalence during this period of time. He understands that there is no such thing as showing favors for no reason in this world, especially in shopping malls. Once someone offers you something, then he must be asking for something.

Arakawa really doesn't know what that man's thoughts are, but he guesses that nine out of ten it has something to do with the competition in the home game console market. He also agreed with the so-called news that "Nintendo, Sega and Sony are going to merge" some time ago. After seeing it, he can only sneer at such an unreliable guess, but maybe some people don't think so.

While hesitating, Arakawa still came to BJ, maybe he hoped to give himself a chance, a chance to get rid of the current situation, but once he sat down to rest for a while, he started to think wildly again.To be honest, Arakawa had no intention of betraying Nintendo's interests. If the other party had such a plan, then he would not be able or able to continue the negotiation with the other party.

Went to the bathroom and washed his face to clear up the chaotic thoughts in his mind. Arakawa sat down on the sofa again and took a deep breath. He had already made a decision in his mind, so he picked up the phone next to him and dialed Called a familiar number and went out.

Not long after the call was connected, Arakawa said into the microphone: "My name is Arakawa, please help me find Mr. Zhang Lexing..."

(End of this chapter)