Chapter 53: The Storm Caused by the Broadcast of the Program (Seeking Recommendation Tickets!!)

  Rob Pardo was a fourteen-year-old high school student who became deeply engrossed in Tetris after playing it for the first time at an arcade near his school several months prior, to the point of being obsessed with it.

  His skills are quite good, and since the rumor that you can change the game to your own name if you reach 45 million points came out, Rob Pardo has been practicing tirelessly every day. However, he still falls a little short of achieving this feat, with his best score being over 40 million points.

  He was the highest scorer in that arcade he often went to play in, although he wasn't satisfied with his progress, but he still had a little pride.

  This time after school, Rob Pardo still came to his usual arcade hall. Because he was a regular customer, the boss was also familiar with him. Seeing him coming in, he smiled and greeted him, directly throwing him a game coin.

  "Count on me to deliver what I promised you, today I'll put in extra effort and strive for 45 million!"

  Rob Pardo also smiled a bit awkwardly, he broke through 43 million for the first time last night and had a good chance to reach 45 million to see if that small rumor was true, but because of one mistake, all his previous efforts were wasted.

  At that time, the boss of the store was also standing beside him, constantly encouraging him. He still remembers clearly that when he failed, the boss seemed to be more disappointed than him.

  Coins were inserted into the machine, familiar game music started playing in his ears, and Robert Pardo, who had already seen the pages countless times, began to play with some impatience.

  The initial level was too easy for him, and operating with one hand didn't pose any difficulty. The boss in his thirties even gathered around to watch him play the game.

  "Rob, did you know that the creator of 'American Block' was on a talk show?" The owner of the arcade started talking to Rob Pardo as he played through the previous difficulty without much effort.

  "Yeah, I heard that Jest seems to have been racially discriminated against too. This thing has been blowing up lately, and there's even a naked run bet or something." As a fan of American Blocks, Rob Pardo was naturally very concerned about this news. He not only knew that the company that produced this game was called Mars Entertainment, but also that the creator was Jest Lee.

  Even before that, Jester had advertised on TV and in newspapers, calling out to anyone across America who still had a passion for the video game industry to come to California and join his company, to make the best games and revive the glory of an industry that was almost dead.

  Rob Pardo was thrilled at the time, he was extremely enthusiastic about games and had even made an adventure game based on DND rules on his Apple II, which his friends also enjoyed playing.

  He then wrote a lengthy self-introduction letter, attached his own work and sent it to the address of Huo Xing Entertainment.

  However, after the passion had passed, he began to have some regrets. How could a letter written by a 14-year-old high school student be taken seriously? But what he didn't expect was that he actually received a reply from Jester Lee, the creator of "American Blocks", and it was in this letter that he learned that Jester was only a 19-year-old college student.

  In the letter, Jester first offered some encouragement, amazed that someone so young could create such a great game. He then said that at his current age, if he was still interested in video games after graduating from college and the industry hadn't completely disappeared by then, and Mars Entertainment was still active, he would be welcome to come work for Mars Entertainment.

  At the time, Rob Pardo received a reply and read the contents of the letter dozens of times in a row, according to his mother's words, he had never been so devout even when reading the Bible.

  Then, Rob Pardo became a die-hard fan of Jestar.

  "He was on a show called 'Chicago Morning' and it's going to be aired tonight on ABC, I heard he talked about games a lot during the interview." The arcade owner said with some excitement.

  "Is 'Chicago Mornings' going to be broadcast at night?" Rob Pardo's hands nimbly controlled a four-block connected square falling vertically, clearing four lines of blocks in one go. He had known beforehand that Jester was participating in this interview program, but he still found it somewhat unexpected when he heard the news from the arcade owner. The name of the show didn't seem to suggest that it would be broadcast at night, no matter what.

  "I'm not sure about this, but I heard that the show is going to be revamped and moved to prime time. It just so happens that this episode was hyped up because of racial discrimination, so maybe it was moved to prime time for ratings." The owner of this arcade store isn't very clear either, he can only make guesses and speak his own conjectures.

  Rob Pardo had been thinking about tonight's show all day, and the thought of being able to see his idol on TV tonight was exciting him.

  However, possibly due to a lack of focus, Rob Pardo made a mistake when his score was less than 37 million points, resulting in the loss of the game. The owner of the arcade where he played also felt some regret watching him play.

  He also wanted Rob Pardo to confirm the rumor that 45 million points could change the name, and then let him leave his own name on a machine here, so that this street machine hall can make a name for itself, either to see the first machine with its own name or to challenge it.

  Because he was thinking about going home to watch his idol's show tonight, so after this game ended, Rob Pardo also didn't continue playing and went straight home.

  After dinner, Rob Pardo settled on a channel and stood guard in front of the TV, his eyes fixed and unblinking.

  He is looking forward to the broadcast of "Chicago Morning".

  This also made his mother very curious, why her child was different from usual today, not only did he come back much earlier than before, but he also showed interest in TV programs that he had never cared about.

  Finally, at almost eight o'clock, ABC's network broadcast of "Chicago Morning" finally began.

  The first time he saw Jester's image, it was as young as he had imagined, seemingly just a tall and robust nineteen-year-old boy.

  Rob Pardo couldn't help but get excited, clenching his fists tightly as he looked at his idol, anticipating what questions the host would ask.

  The conversation started with some guiding questions to let the audience have a preliminary understanding of Jester, such as his age and education.

  When Jester mentioned that his company was developing a home video game console, Rob Pardo jumped up excitedly. Ever since he became obsessed with "American Blocks", he had been dreaming of playing this incredible game at home too. Then he thought about the fate of those Atari consoles in stores now and couldn't help but sweat for his idol.

  Then Jester said he wouldn't drop out, and then laughed and sarcastically mocked many people's remarks that the video game industry was not dead yet, saying they were extremely arrogant, and even had many people cursing him to fail as soon as possible.

  If I failed, I would look for a job and write a resume. And to Oprah's question about being an ordinary person, my response is: I am not an ordinary person.

  Rob Pardo couldn't help but burst out laughing at Jeph's humor.

  At this time, his mother happened to pass by the living room and saw her usually serious son laughing out loud at the TV. She thought it was a comedy show and looked at the TV with some confusion. To her surprise, the TV program didn't seem to be a comedy show, but rather a talk show.

  "Can a talk show look this good?" Rob Pardo's curious mother also sat down beside her son and started watching.

  Then she was also attracted by the program unintentionally.

  And here comes today's program.

  First, the tape that triggered this conflict was released. When Rob Pardo saw the excitement of the trial play in the video, he saw the three new games from Mars Entertainment and Jest Lee, and he was so excited that his face turned red with excitement, constantly waving his arms slightly to express his emotions.

  He really wants to play those three new games.

  He is a die-hard fan of Joust, and he believes everything on the tape is true because he witnessed it with his own eyes when this place was the first to purchase "Joust" that day. The scene was just like what was shot in the video, people playing the game over and over again, seemingly unable to get enough no matter how many times they played.

  He waited in line for half a day to play Pong, and in Rob Fulop's eyes at the time, this was the greatest game in the world. Atari's outdated stuff wasn't even worth mentioning compared to this game.

  Burying it in the desert is a matter of course.

  Although he was also playing Atari's groundbreaking "Defender" at the time and similarly exclaimed that it was the best game in the world.

  It turns out that Rob Pardo was an Atari fan before, and he also believed in the advertisement at Christmas to buy the destined-to-be-historical "E.T."

  Afterwards, the audience on the scene questioned the authenticity of the video tape. Some were so excited that they cursed loudly and called him a cheat. Finally, with Henry Stewart's sentence "yellow monkey", the whole incident was pushed to **.

  Just after Henry Stuart shouted that yellow monkey, the scene quickly cut to a close-up shot of Jester.

  Rob Pardo, through the post-show edit, can clearly be seen that after hearing the loud voice of the yellow monkey, Jester's face instantly turned gloomy, his eyes coldly looked at Henry Stuart for a moment, but in an extremely short time, Jester's expression on his face returned to normal.

  He even flashed a faint, rather bizarre-looking smile that seemed like a skin-deep grin.

  "Are you daring enough to make a bet with me?" Jester said to Henry Stuart on the show.

  Finally, Jest announced the content of the bet. He will hold a player trial in Chicago at the end of July to see if his game is popular or not, and whether the video tape was fake or not. If he loses, there will be a crowd in front of the door before the trial, and he will run naked around the Art Institute of Chicago three times. If he wins...

  Rob Pardo didn't care about any of this, he didn't even think his idol would lose, and there was no need to worry, the only thing he cared about was the new game trial in Chicago at the end of the month!

  When Jester spoke out this message, his eyes showed a gleam of desire for the first time.

  After the program ended, it was time for commercials. Robert Pardo originally wanted to go back to his room directly, but after glancing at the commercial, he couldn't move his eyes away.

  The advertisement is about Juster's nationwide tour, which will select 20 major cities across the United States and last for half a year. During this tour, information on several "cross-era" games currently under development will be continuously released, and if possible, trial versions will also be launched for players to experience.

  Seeing this message, Rob Pardo felt a surge of hot blood constantly stirring in his heart, and this hot blood kept stimulating him. I must go to participate in this trial!

  Must go!

  Then he turned his head and saw his own mother sitting beside him, without knowing when she had sat down.

  No one knows a child better than their mother. When his mother saw Rob Pardo like this, she immediately guessed what he was thinking. His mother just smiled and didn't say yes or no, but said lightly: "This program is not bad."

  Rob Pardo, who knew his mother best, heard his mother's words and his two arms involuntarily excitedly swung with force for a moment, and a smile appeared on his face in an instant.

  He knew his mother had agreed.

  The next day.

  Yesterday's program on ABC's nationwide broadcast still caused a huge stir, after all, it was only rumors before that Jester, who has been in the spotlight recently, had suffered racial discrimination, but yesterday's show actually aired the scene where he was racially discriminated against.

  In America, racial discrimination is at least forbidden on the surface, in other words, it can only be done but not said.

  The show sparked protests from Asian-American groups, particularly Chinese-American groups, and even African-American groups, who are often subject to the most racial discrimination, also voiced their support. Almost overnight, Henry Stuart, previously just a small-time TV director, became a household name across America, albeit an infamous one.

  For this kind of street rat, whether it's sanctimonious or truly righteous, neither will miss the opportunity to kick someone when they're down.

  Although he held a press conference on the second day of the incident and apologized for what happened before.

  But the problem is that unscrupulous media will not let go of such a hot topic, and they have begun to verbally attack him.

  Of course, it also helped to further boost Jester's reputation.

  Moreover, although the previous tape was real, it was really too fake. Many people who had not witnessed the commotion caused by "The American Block" were extremely suspicious of this. In their eyes, Henry Stuart's racial discrimination behavior was very inappropriate, but Jester's fabrication and deception were also very immoral.

  So some media, especially Just in the interview with a sarcastic tone mocking those investment institutions that said the electronic game industry is completely finished and will exit the historical stage.

  So, these people's counterattack came on the second day.

  The Wall Street Journal was the first to run a story that brought the Mars Entertainment tape scandal to public attention.

  PS2: Rob Pardo, Blizzard's ace designer, known as the soul of Blizzard, was the lead designer for StarCraft: Brood War, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. He was also the lead designer for World of Warcraft's original release and The Burning Crusade expansion. He was a producer on Diablo 3 and Hearthstone originated from his idea. In 2006, due to the massive success of World of Warcraft, he was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

  PS3: All-the-best is Rob Pardo's nickname at Blizzard.

  PS4: Rob Pardo, who had worked at Blizzard for seventeen years, left the company this year. He previously served as Blizzard's executive vice president and chief technology officer.

  PS5: When I saw this news at that time, I let out a sigh. As a decade-long Baizhan (a term used to describe someone who has been single for a long time), it's hard to accept emotionally.