RockMan.EXE
Picture this. You're woken up in time for school by Alexa. While you walk to school with a friend, you talk about the recent cyberterrorism attacks, in which a Stuxnet-like LLM is being used to hack people's new bluetooth-enabled ovens with their smartphone. One of the conversing parties - aside from you and said friend - is your Alexa, another is your friend's Siri.
This was predicted in 1999 by Capcom's MegaMan Battle Network (RockMan.EXE in Japan), an RPG based on the Capcom 2D platformer MegaMan, revamped for the 90s. It's much more exciting. (Edgy and angry, so zesty and tangy!)
Okay, in all seriousness, Battle Network is a lot like Glitch Techs, though it didn't do much "theming" of elements. MegaMan.EXE is, by implication, a Windows executable of an AI, plain and simple. Turns out this AI is more than just a language model, though the mind-uploading is never brought up again in the timeline after MegaMan Battle Network 2.
Apparently, the other main character, Lan (the physical "net operator" of MegaMan.EXE) had a twin brother born with a rare genetic disorder that left Hub (the twin's name) with only a short time to live. MegaMan.EXE, similar to regular Mega Man and '''''Astroboy''''', was created from the baby's DNA and a brain scan because their dad was a brilliant scientist (and it's much more Shonen than it sounds; this ain't Neon Genesis Evangelion).
Influence on Glitch Techs x RP
No direct influence so far, but this is a world where similar things to "put the FireProg MacGuffin in the family oven to hide it from the terrorists" are logical, if not widely known.
Additionally, I want a sort of "do-over" to bring back a character who once meant a lot to me, who was pretty much "murdered" by a certain MegaMan roleplay community in a certain event back in 2008. If you think I should have just kept using that character elsewhere... Just because I didn't know better than to believe another teenager on the internet telling me they hated me and wanted me and my character dead at the time, doesn't make the consequences less damning.
MegaMan Star Force
200 years after MegaMan Battle Network 6, Geo Stellar is a boy whose dad literally got lost in space (presumed dead). Geo has become a recluse (Hikikomori) because of the trauma of finding out his dad was probably dead from the TV News... about the ISS having exploded. Yup. Everybody wants to be an astronaut till the shuttle crashes.
MegaMan Star Force in MegaMan Star Force
You have to keep in mind, social media - as a platform - had not yet been enshittificated when Star Force was released. So relying on a vaguely "social media is good" plot was not yet non-Kosher.
It wasn't a huge seller, though. Despite the updated plot and in-universe tech, it seemed disjointed to both Japanese and Western audiences.
Little did we know, it's predictions about wireless technology, surveillance of devices in the name of "cybersecurity", anger blurring people's judgement through said technology, and even the idea of a "mental information alter-ego", would also come to pass by 2025.
MegaMan Star Force in Glitch Techs x RP
[Classified]