Chapter 6 This is the mission!

  "I just saw you guys fully focused on playing 'Minecraft', hunger can be temporarily forgotten, I clearly felt that you guys felt joy from it, isn't this the essence of video games? Simply providing people with happiness!"

  "I was just thinking, a middle-aged person in their 40s and a game designer who has played countless games can still find joy and laughter from playing games. If that's the case, how can gaming ever die?"

  Jester's words were sincere, and this rhetorical question, like the previous one, plunged his father and Mark Senni into deep thought.

  How can the game die?!

  It wasn't until the first dish, goulash meat, was served that Jester's father finally broke the silence.

  "Actually, just now at home, I was discussing future plans with Mark... Atari probably won't have any more opportunities, I've been working there since '74, a whole ten years..." Jester's father sounded somewhat down and despondent, but Jester heard a different meaning in his father's words - he had already made up his mind to leave Atari.

  "Jester, what do you think about going to Japan?" Jester's father looked at him seriously and asked, "Sega's American branch has invited me, Mark, and many of the company's software and hardware engineers to go to Sega's parent company in Japan to continue developing game software and hardware. As you know, I love this industry, and if possible, I don't want to give it up."

  Jester's throat moved slightly, but he didn't directly open his mouth to dissuade him, because he knew that under the current circumstances, if one wanted to continue developing in the e-sports industry, going to Japan was the only way.

  But how could he let his own father go to Japan? So he furrowed his brow and thought seriously for a moment, organizing his words before speaking.

  "Dad, Grandpa is almost 80 years old and his body hasn't been very good lately. He has called several times wanting you to go back and see him, he misses you."

  Upon hearing Jester's words, Jester's father's expression changed drastically, and his eyes even welled up with a misty film in an instant. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to hold back his tears.

  Jester knew his last sentence had worked.

  His grandfather is old on the one hand, and on the other hand, his grandfather has always hated Japanese people. If his own father really went to Japan to work for a Japanese company, it's possible that the relationship between the two, which had already begun to ease, would never recover.

  But that doesn't mean he didn't love his father. Only Jester knew that every time he went to San Francisco, he would casually prepare gifts and when he came back, he would also ask about some news in a casual tone, just wanting to know how his grandfather's body was doing recently.

  Jester's father left home in his early twenties and has not returned for nearly twenty years, except when Jester's grandmother passed away and on her memorial day.

  It turns out that his father's conflict with his grandfather was just a difference in ideology between the two.

  Jester's father is a Chinese man, but he is completely different from Jester's grandfather or Jester's uncle.

  Jester's grandfather was born in China, grew up in China, and even made meritorious contributions to expel invaders. His feelings for his hometown are self-evident. His uncle left the country when he was over ten years old and had already formed his own worldview. He saw the beautiful mountains and rivers of his motherland and also experienced the hardships of his motherland. They knew what their motherland was like, and they recognized Chinese culture from the bottom of their hearts, everything about China.

  Just like the Chinese music master Jonathan Lee wrote in his song "My Chinese Heart", 'Although I wear Western clothes, my heart is still a Chinese heart, my ancestors have already imprinted everything with a Chinese seal', 'The blood flowing in my heart, surging with the voice of China, even if I am abroad, it cannot change my Chinese heart'.

  This song was a true reflection of Huang Zhan's inner heart at that time, so he was able to create it in one breath at the beginning, because it was all what he thought in his heart.

  But this is not only a reflection of Huang Zhan's inner self, but also similar to the grandfather of Jester, his uncle and others who left their hometown for various reasons in their early years, knowing where their hometown was, what it looked like, what was there, and what it represented.

  But his father was different, he was a typical second-generation immigrant, born in the United States, educated in the United States, grew up in the United States, saw everything American, loved American culture, and even liked American girls. You can't expect someone like him to infinitely love a country that has nothing to do with him except for blood ties.

  His father and his grandfather originally had a bad relationship due to their different views on life, especially after his father was rejected by his grandfather when he proposed marriage to a white girl. The conflict between them finally broke out completely.

  Mark Senny also noticed the strangeness between the two, and he was somewhat puzzled as to why Jester's father's mood had suddenly become so gloomy. In his impression, this colleague of his was extremely optimistic, and it seemed that nothing could make him look like this.

  Jester also noticed Mark Xeni, who could use family ties to persuade his father not to go to Japan, but this had no effect on Mark Xeni, he must have other excuses to persuade him.

  What is most powerful for ambitious young people in America?

  Undoubtedly, it is a dream.

  "The market in Japan is too small, Mark, several dozen times smaller than the US!" Jester's speech suddenly became very fast, his tone contemptuous, and a string of words shot out of his mouth like bullets from a machine gun.

  And the target was none other than Mark Sennett, who was still sitting there looking bewildered.

  "Mark, think about it. A home console, how many units can be sold in Japan at most? One million or two million? How many units can an arcade machine sell in Japan? One thousand? Three thousand? How many copies of a game cartridge can be sold in Japan at most? One hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Look at these numbers, they're not even worth mentioning!"

  "In Japan, this market is too small! So small that it's almost impossible to become an industry! Mark, what are you fighting for in such a field?!"

  Jester's face suddenly turned stern and he said some things that Mark Senni was very unwilling to hear.

  He bluntly questioned Mark Sweeney's dream, which is a very serious matter in America.

  This made young Mark Sennett somewhat indignant, as Jester's previous two questions had led him to believe that the other was a kindred spirit who firmly believed that the video game industry they loved would have a great future.

  "Jester!" Mark Senner cut in, his anger evident even in the refusal to use Jester's nickname, as if the friendly relationship they had built up through "Amerikanische Quadrat" was now irreparably damaged by Jester's scornful words.

  "The Atari 2600 sold over 20 million units, the Pong machine I designed shipped over 30,000 units, and one of Atari's best-selling game cartridges could sell between 1-2 million copies. At its peak, Atari made $2 billion in profit per year, more than any Hollywood studio, and you say this industry is too small to be a real industry? That's hilarious!" Mark Serny was arguing with Jester without mercy, but he didn't notice that after hearing his words, Jester's face didn't show any anger, instead, it revealed a hint of smile.

  "You also know, you're talking about the US, not Japan. The US market is big enough to independently create, develop and rise an industry." Jester interrupted Mark Sennett with a smile.

  As soon as Mark Senny heard Jester's words, his neck seemed to be strangled by someone, and his throat kept surging up and down, but he didn't continue speaking.

  His face suddenly turned somewhat gloomy, as if he was saying to himself, and also seemed to be saying to others in a low voice: "Yes, Japan is too small."

  "So, now we're back to the question I asked at the beginning, do you really think video games are dead?" Jester asked again.

  Without any hesitation, Mark Sennet said to Jester in a straightforward manner: "Although the current market is collapsing, I firmly believe that an industry that can constantly bring joy, laughter, and make people forget their sorrows, and get lost in it unintentionally, will never die!"

  Jester nodded, clenching his fists and holding them up in front of him. In his most resolute tone, he said to Mark Sennett: "If you think so, and I also think this industry has great potential, why not continue in the United States? You have to know that even if you go to Japan to continue making electronic games, if this industry really takes off, you'll still have to come back to the US. Japan is too small; it can't support a market of this size!"

  "Believe me, if you still believe that video games have a future, then stay in America. No matter where you go, as long as you're still in this industry, you'll definitely come back! Since the future will bring you back, why not leave now?"

  Mark Senny was stirred up by Jester's words, and his heart kept reminding himself that what Jester said was all right. Since he would definitely come back in the future, why not leave now?

  But thinking of the current state of the American game industry, that almost collapsed market, tens of thousands of game cartridges buried in the sand, home consoles being cleared out at discounted prices, arcade machines piled up in warehouses that can't be sold... The passion that had just been ignited seemed to cool down instantly.

  The greyish pallor on Mark's face deepened a few shades.

  He wanted to say something about not leaving America, but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth.

  He didn't want to leave America, but reality is hard to change by personal will.

  In fact, Tramiel's plan to thoroughly transform Atari into a computer company has been unfolding. Last month, the headquarters suddenly laid off thousands of game designers in research and development, and layoffs have also begun on the arcade side, with results expected by the end of this month at the latest.

  "When Nolan Bushnell created Atari, he wasn't much older than you or me. At that time, fewer than a thousand people in the whole United States knew what a video game was, but they were successful, selling tens of millions of Pong! Selling twenty million Atari 2600s! Making the concept of video games known to every American! So why can't we? Our situation is much better than theirs now! At least we don't have to explain to parents what a video game is when they buy Christmas presents for their kids!"

  Jester spoke loudly, saying excitedly and even stood up, waving his fists, his voice was almost a roar.

  The diners around them looked at Jester as if he were crazy.

  But Jester didn't care at all.

  Seeing Mark Senny still silent, Jester continued to speak.

  "This isn't a job! Mark, this isn't it! What we're gonna do is stand up and with our actions tell everyone that we can bring video games back to life, make them popular again, make them sweep America, put video games back on the track where they belong instead of being thrown in the corner like trash, so that decades later our descendants will only know from encyclopedias what their parents were doing when they were young."

  "They'd say, 'Oh, video games? What a waste of time!'"

  "This isn't a job, Mark."

  "This is mission!"

  "Your mission, my mission, everyone who loves electronic games' mission!"

  "It is calling us, those who truly love it."

  "Somebody has got to stand up and do something! Do you want to take a step forward and be a hero for just a few minutes, or be a coward all your life?"

  "You choose yourself!"

  He finished in a loud voice, almost bellowing, and sat down with a deep breath.

  And his father and Mark Senna stared at him with incredulous eyes.