Chapter 74: The Coming Internet Era
Chapter 74: The Coming Internet Era
After all, Blizzard had once clearly been the best game company in the world. More importantly, it was the company that created WoW, or World of Warcraft, which could be called the best in the world in the MMORPG field Insu was currently aiming for.
Of course, Blizzard went through many twists and turns before creating WoW, so he did not think there was a high chance the exact same events would happen in this world. Still, since he had memories of his previous life, he could not help being interested.
Insu would probably continue watching this RTS market closely from now on.
Insu’s development team did find a few bugs while conducting the Gold Master Test.
This much is fine.
However, none of them were particularly fatal, so they quietly moved past them. Then, in June 1993, TLF2 was officially released in America first.
Unlike the previous games, TLF2’s release was quite noisy.
Velocity carried out large-scale marketing, but that was not the only reason.
Before that marketing, they had continuously communicated online, gradually informing people that the release was approaching. After signing the contract, they even posted whether the contract had been signed and the expected release date.
[TLF2 official release D-1]
Daniel grinned as he updated the countdown and posted on the PC communication boards. Even after the test ended, he had continued using PC communication to interact with gamers and Parallel Soft fans.
He had received permission, but this post-test countdown and communication were not things Insu ordered him to do. Daniel simply found it quite fun.
Previously, recruiting testers had involved all sorts of procedures and a heavy workload, and above all, because it felt like work, it had been rather bothersome. But this kind of communication was different.
Even when he wrote only a few words, people reacted strongly, and seeing everyone grow impatient over the bits of information he casually leaked felt incredibly thrilling.
There was also the excitement of feeling like everyone saw him as someone important. Daniel had already taken pride in joining Parallel Soft, so he accepted this even more easily.
The mood continued rising, and recently, when he began this countdown just before release, it felt as though everything might explode.
It feels like a festival is about to begin.
Even magazines and other outlets, not just ordinary gamers, reacted to this atmosphere and came to the company for coverage. Thanks to that, TLF2’s release date became even more widely known and captured gamers’ attention.
Insu also kept connecting to PC communication and watching these reactions.
The response is seriously good.
To him, it was not an unfamiliar sight. In the future, using the internet to raise anticipation and announce release dates was a common method.
If we had proper internet, we could even do marketing like preorders.
It was just unfortunate that, despite having better knowledge in his head, he could not use it due to the limits of the environment.
But in truth, it was also because the mood and situation were already so good that he did not feel desperate.
Still, should we slowly try making something like a website?
In this world as well, the World Wide Web, the thing people called the internet and opened through Chrome, Edge, and similar browsers, had already been developed in 1990.
And internet access had arrived in LA starting last year.
Most decisively, a graphics-based browser had also been released early this year. Browsers had existed before, but their compatibility was extremely low, so they could not be used on most ordinary personal PCs. In practice, it was as if they did not exist.
In any case, the environment for using the internet itself had now been created.
However, that did not mean the PC communication era had instantly changed into the internet era.
The internet at this point merely allowed access to the World Wide Web. In terms of speed and environment, almost nothing had changed.
Users still had to connect by dialing through a modem, and naturally, the speed was the same as the modem’s limit. In other words, it was the same speed as PC communication.
On top of that, since it had only just opened, even the content was poor.
For now, ordinary users don’t have much reason to use the internet.
However, speeds would continue increasing, and the internet would provide much higher-quality content, including images. Access would also move away from dial-up connections and become always-on, like the internet he knew.
Most importantly, because it was not connected only to a closed PC communication server but instead had an open structure connected to the entire world, the transition to the internet would eventually happen for certain.
So he thought it would not be bad to create something like a website during this early stage, secure an image of being cutting-edge, and begin accumulating related know-how early.
It’s not like making a simple webpage is difficult.
At the moment, web languages like HTML were not well known, so many people considered them difficult. But from the perspective of developers making games in an era with almost no game engines or middleware, they would likely be able to make one quickly after learning just a little.
(Translator’s Note: HTML — HyperText Markup Language, the standard markup language used to structure webpages.)
Of course, he was talking about a simple introduction site, not a site with complex functions like those in 2025.
“So I’m thinking of making a simple webpage. What do you think?”
They had signed contracts with the distributors, a few people were on vacation, and the rest were coming to work for the Gold Master Test.
The remaining staff were also coming in at ten and leaving early at four due to accumulated fatigue, so color was slowly returning to their faces, and the development room was filled with a relaxed atmosphere.
“By webpage, do you mean something made with that markup language posted on the World Wide Web?”
The team members were slightly tense at the thought that something else was being started during this rare rest period. Insu wondered whether he needed to explain before complaints broke out, but fortunately, Brian, who was highly interested in networking, seemed to know about this field as well.
“Yes. It’s nothing that complicated. It would be like a simple document introducing what kind of company we are and what games we’ve made. The markup language Brian mentioned is basically like a highlighter.”
Insu then briefly explained markup languages. In 2025, the term was common sense to developers, but in this era, it was still a somewhat unfamiliar concept.
Even so, it was also simple enough to understand quickly once explained.
“We won’t start immediately. I’m thinking of making it after about two weeks of Gold Master Testing. And since we’ll make it very simply, investing only a few hours a day should be enough. Around one week should be plenty. Anyone interested, please write up a proposal.”
“Yes...”
Some responded with dubious expressions, while Brian, Yoonsu, and Daniel looked interested.
“If you purchase related books and submit the receipt, the company will cover the cost. Also, since this is a separate project and not game development, participants will receive additional compensation. If the result is excellent, I’m also considering a performance bonus.”
If this were Korea, he might have been able to subtly hand the work over to them, but this was America. Of course, America was not free of people abusing power, but the damage from being sued was considerable. More importantly, he did not want to lower the developers’ motivation with something he was simply throwing out as a preliminary move.
For now, perhaps because the company would buy books for free, not a single person declined to apply.
It’s really nothing much.
Even though Lee Suhyeon was a graphic designer, he went to a Korean bookstore just in case and looked through a book. Compared to things like the C language he had been studying lately, this looked genuinely simple.
“How much is this?”
“Thirty-two dollars.”
So he bought the book and headed home. If he studied it and found it harder than expected, he planned to simply consider it something he bought with his own money and keep looking through it. If it seemed manageable, he planned to submit it for reimbursement.
Insu had said he would cover the cost without any conditions to encourage the team members’ motivation, but from the team members’ perspective, they could not help reading the room. The Korean staff, like Suhyeon, tended to be especially prone to this.
But when Suhyeon tried it at home, it was manageable.
He had settled in somewhat as a graphic designer, but because he intended to keep working in game development, he wanted to gain abilities in areas other than drawing as well. That was why he studied programming languages, but it was harder than he expected.
He was somehow following examples and writing various things, but he had no sense of when he would fully absorb all this and become like the team’s programmers.
But this thing called HTML was much more manageable by comparison. If he went deeper, it seemed there were many things to learn, but seeing that he could make a passable webpage after only briefly learning from the book gave him confidence.
So he submitted the receipt to the company, and since Insu had intended to reimburse everything unconditionally anyway, he immediately accepted it. He merely found it a little unexpected because Lee Suhyeon was a graphic designer.
Well, if he’s motivated, that’s good for me.
Insu looked over the proposals submitted by the team members one by one. Perhaps because they had been developing games together for some time, everyone’s sense was not bad.
Lee Suhyeon’s proposal was especially good.
Is it different because he’s a graphic designer after all?
Thinking about it, Lee Suhyeon had a fairly wide range of experience even before joining the development team. Insu had planned to pull in designs he had seen in the future if the team members’ proposals were too crude, but it did not seem necessary.
The webpage work was handled by Lee Suhyeon and Brian. More precisely, it would be correct to say Lee Suhyeon did most of the work while receiving help from Brian.
The others were still testing for the moment, and the webpage they wanted to make consisted of only five pages. Since this was still an era when people used only HTML without JavaScript, even Suhyeon, who was not very familiar with development, took only five days to finish it alone.
(Translator’s Notes: JavaScript — Web scripting language used to create interactive behavior on webpages.)
That included planning, inspection, and even the time needed to upload it to the server.
They already had a relay server for TLF2’s multiplayer mode, so they simply uploaded it there as well. Since almost no one used the internet itself yet, they calculated that it would not cause any major problem.
Of course, if visitors began to increase, they would need to expand the server and so on.
“It looks good. Thank you for your hard work.”
“Ah. Yes.”
Insu connected to the internet, entered Parallel Soft’s address, www.parallelsoft.com, and slowly looked over the webpage. Suhyeon, who had been anxiously watching beside him, finally looked relieved when Insu smiled and praised him.
He had worked hard on it and had some confidence in the design, but it was his first time presenting a standalone piece of work. On top of that, he could not deny that it had been made rather quickly, so he felt uneasy.
It’s not like it has no old-fashioned feel at all.
But considering the era, it seemed exactly appropriate. If anything, making it according to the future style Insu remembered might make it feel too simple or empty.
There was no need to be too greedy. At this point in time, simply making a website like this was enough to feel ahead of the curve.
“I’ll write our company website address here, so check it out if you’re interested. For now, it’s only a simple introduction, but later we’ll probably be able to upload patches through this, announce news like we did through PC communication before, recruit testers, and things like that, so keep it in mind.”
As Insu spoke while looking around at the team members, his eyes met Daniel’s, and Daniel also met his gaze with an interested expression.
Insu did not know whether Daniel had originally been interested in this field, or whether he had become that way while managing QA and recruiting testers. But seeing his reaction made several plans come to mind.
No, rather than plans that came to mind just now, it was closer to something he had vaguely thought might be nice before becoming more concrete.
A portal platform.