I once worked at a startup that was quickly running out of capital and likewise running out of time to make its outsize ambitions a reality. I could see the leadership starting to make moral compromises to the detriment of its workers, something of a recurring theme in my career and one reason I prefer freelance these days. At some point I had to draw the line and quit, but before I did, I think I got a window into the psychology of the management. They weren’t really evil, just a little too weak, a little too willing to pull the blinders over their eyes. They had this vision of the future and their place in it that was beautiful, beautiful enough that I could almost ignore the reality. Almost.

I mention this because even though HR is worse than they were, I do see echoes of their self-justifications in his. “As soon as we’re millionaires, we can make right all the wrongs that we may have to commit to become millionaires, and more besides, so it’ll be a net win for everyone!” (But what if we don’t become millionaires?) “Ha ha! Failure is not an option!” (Well… actually…)

Had we done the version of this story where HR was a pencil-pusher in human resources who gradually nudged out Hurricane’s CEO and his other rivals for the position, his use of this subtle magic, the kind that can’t be tracked and is only witnessed by a few who are then discredited, might’ve played a role in his rise. Heck, maybe even in this continuity, some high-profile failures in the gaming industry weren’t the accidents of incompetence that we think they are…