Chapter 4: Doom (2)

I was preparing to create a game company, and it was going smoothly.

Um, I’ll correct myself.
It’s not that I’m leading the preparation, but Grok is mostly preparing.

As time went on, the popularity of Doom grew, and even game critics were springing up like bamboo shoots, so I could feel its popularity even if I just sat still.
I only have Doom now, but it seems people expect the games won’t stop at Doom.

Even though they know it’s hard for game critics to make money, game webzines and magazines are being created.

In the early days when games came out on PCs, the only way for game critics to make money was to serialize game reviews and guides in game webzines and magazines.
In South Korea, even if you wrote a review, it was only 20,000 to 50,000 won, and a guide started at 100,000 won, but 10,000 to 20,000 won per page?

It’s the same with game development, and I couldn’t expect money in the game industry, and I mostly worked with passion.

But that difficult time was also an era full of romance.
I can evaluate this way because I’m a gamer, right?

Anyway, I was having a busy time, such as interviewing a reporter from the newly created game webzine or contacting the critics.
That means that people are very interested in games.

It’s like the eyes of a giant bear-like orc in front of me are moist and sparkling like a fawn’s eyes.

“This… it’s an honor to meet you! The one who developed Doom…?”

“It’s Kuhn.”

“It’s Mr. Kuhn! It’s really an honor to meet you!”

“Hey. It’s not that big of a deal. I’m glad to meet you too.”

Seeing that he met me, the orc reporter with bulging muscles was flushed like a girl fan meeting an idol.
Looking at the thick hand he held out to shake hands, I briefly thought that I wouldn’t be able to use my hand again if I held it, but I shook it readily.

He has sweaty hands.

“I really don’t know how you made such a fresh game. This… this…! Huff… huff, I’m excited. I’m sorry. But I want to say that you made such a great game.”

It seems he’s really into games, especially Doom.
There’s nothing better than having a reporter who will promote your game be deeply into the game.

“My name is Robert Garon, a reporter from the newly established EGN. You can call me Robert.”

“I’m the one who developed Doom, Kuhn, even without saying.”

As soon as the introductions were over, Robert’s enthusiastic coverage began.

“Can you introduce the team of Doom?”

“It’s just me.”

“You did that game alone? That’s amazing… but then the volume of the official version won’t be very big, will it?”

A pretty sharp question.
It hasn’t even been a month since the game-like game appeared, and this is the question.
Certainly, the volume of a one-man game is bound to have limitations due to money and time, but that’s not a problem for me.

“No. You can look forward to it. And I’ll give you a different kind of fun in the next new game.”

“Wow! Did you make other games at the same time as Doom? Oh, I’ll ask questions about the new game after the questions are over.”

He took out a water bottle for a moment and moistened his mouth, and then opened his mouth again.

“So, how long did it take to develop Doom?”

“Hmm, about half a year? In fact, I finished it earlier than that, but I delayed it for various practical reasons.”

“Crazy! Oh, I’m sorry. But is game development usually that fast? There’s no comparison for games, but I know that the development period of most programs is much longer than that.”

“Um, as Mr. Robert said, there’s no comparison, so I don’t know. Maybe the game companies that will come out after Doom will tell you the answer.”

“Do you think other game companies will emerge?”

“Of course. It’s rather strange that games haven’t developed until now. Games will surely take on one side of the culture.”

In order to make money with games, the game industry needs to grow a little more.
The bigger the market, the more gamers will be created.

More than that, I’m looking forward to how the first game in this world made by the people of this world will be created.
What genre will it be?

FPS that followed Doom?
Perhaps an RPG that contains the history of the people of this world?

There must be people in this world who are developing games while watching Doom even now.
And today, I’m going to push their backs.

“Oh, and may I say a word?”

“Yes? Of course.”

He was embarrassed for a moment and sweated a little, but he quickly regained his stability, as if he had been eating the reporter’s food.

“I’m going to patent the technology created while developing Doom. And I’ll release the source code of Doom without exercising the patent rights.”

The heated atmosphere in the interview cooled down in an instant, and the conversation stopped.
Robert was so embarrassed that he just opened his mouth wide and wiped the sweat running down his forehead with a handkerchief.

“May I ask the reason…? And if you’re going to do that, do you really need to patent it?”

“First, to prevent someone from stealing the technologies of Doom and the games to come, and then registering the patent as it is. Second, I don’t want a company that has registered the patent to ruin the development of the game industry through patent lawsuits against other companies.”

Nintendo actually did that.
Nintendo registered a lot of technologies first, as they had 3,000 patents.
And in fact, this patent registration shined against the unscrupulous company, and I’ll explain the anecdote briefly.

There was a game company in Japan called Corob.
There were few games that were the bread and butter of this company, but there was a game called White Cat Project, and to explain how well this game did, this game alone earned an enormous amount of sales enough to compete with Konami and Square Edison, for phone games.

But this company tried to patent a system that used a touch screen under the name of Petitcon, and the problem was that it infringed on Nintendo’s patent.

Why is this a problem?

Because if this Petitcon was recognized as a patent, Corob could take the money from the patent instead of Nintendo.

So, they were severely educated by Nintendo and bowed their heads.

Isn’t that too much?
Corob had more than 100 VR-related patents, and there were suspicions that they were receiving high patent fees from companies entering VR on the grounds of patent infringement.

In the interview, it was mentioned that no one might claim ownership of the patents that had to be registered, or that they might target patents in that area.
Many people were worried at that point.

It might not be… M?L?U?

After that, the interview ended with a few more questions.
It was my first time to be interviewed by a reporter, so I was very tired.

I want to give myself the gift of rest today.
I prayed for Grok, who would be working hard even now.

“Don’t make a mistake! If you do, we’ll be closing from the start!”

“I know. That’s why I didn’t sleep last night and practiced, didn’t I?”

I had been having a decent job as a reporter in the entertainment department.
A life that was neither too stimulating nor too ordinary, just ordinary itself.

I wanted stability rather than challenge, and I chose it, and because of that, it seemed that there were no ups and downs in my life.
That was, until Doom came out.

At first, I ignored the craze of Doom.
I thought like this too.

Why are you so enthusiastic about just a game?

Isn’t that what games are like?

It’s like playing poker with friends while drinking alcohol and playing betting games.
I thought the trends of the world were fast enough to keep up, but the craze of Doom was a very fast storm for me, and it swept away my stability.

I played Doom, saying that I should try it, and from that day on, I fell in love with the game.
From that day on, I met a turning point in my life.

I took a day off and worried all day long.
Because it was the first and biggest challenge in my life.

Maybe I’m abandoning my current stable job and going down the road to ruin.
But I wanted to try this challenge once, and I wanted to check where the end of this road was.

Yes.
Like explorers exploring new lands.

I was in the process of pioneering and exploring a new place in my life.

As soon as the decision was made, I immediately submitted my resume to the new game webzine company’s recruitment, and in the end, I came in.

The problem is that there are only four employees, including me, but that will be solved soon.
I thought it was a funny thing that the fate of the company was on a new reporter.

Well, since it’s a newly created company, it’s only natural.

My heart is pounding like walking on a tightrope, as if I’m walking on a rope above a cliff, relying on one rope.
If I fail, many things I’ve built up so far will disappear.

But it’s not that bad.

The challenge that I’m trying for the first time was truly sweet.