Around this same time would have been the old flash cartoon, “The Decline of Gaming”, which accurately predicted the trend of all genres taking on RPG elements, perhaps even more than they thought possible. I’m not quite sure where this pessimism came from, as we were hot on the heels of all of the mega hits that came out in the late 90s, and everyone was quite aware of imminent releases of the early 2000s at this time, like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Final Fantasy X, and Metroid Prime.