2000 Overview
The year 2000 would unsurprisingly be one filled with large surprises, especially given how the year was surprisingly yet pleasantly quiet for the most part. The American presidential election would be quite a shock over as people were not expecting the UCP to go and secure a victory over the GOP and the Dems. However, it did show the power of the new system and how people could go beyond the two major parties. For many, this would be seen as the true end of the two-party system in more ways than one. Bill Clinton's election was also solidified both the success of the United Central Party as a major party, but also as that in the political center. So much was this victory that some considered this a rebirth or grand maturing of the UCP as a whole. Clinton's focus on triangulation strategy worked alongside with being the new party and they had some long-term plans thanks to his running mate Al Gore's focus on technology growth and investment. Indeed, talks have begun for the transition regarding Clinton taking the outline of Specter's plans for a national ISP and expanding on it along with a broader approach over for investing in cutting edge tech. On the grander stage of politics, Clinton's victory will be having a sort of butterfly effect regarding what smaller parties could do pulling together, with the other Anglosphere nations taking great interest and giving their congrats to upcoming president Clinton for his dark horse victory. The UCP have also been working to improve and solidify their standing with another of issues being considered, including granting statehood to potential candidates as there were growing movements behind them.
The social democratic world order was settling down over in the new millenium. New elections were being planned and prepared with the rising desire to see new parties and fresh blood coming in for leadership opportunities. Global opportunities were becoming more present as part of the spirit of unity, such as the Olympics held in Beijing or the first crew arriving over in the International Space Station. And there was a growing sense of peace as loose ends were being tied up. The Kosovo War's end in the previous year would spell the end of the period of the Yugoslavic Wars as the last of the figures would be found and captured this year, preparing to be tried and the nation moves forward despite the complicated relationship it has with its neighbors. Syria has been settling in with their new leadership and march toward modernization, increasing ties with Russia and the rest of the Sovereign Union. The Middle East has been quiet for the most part, barring the growing tensions over in Saudi Arabia against the royal family, with influence thanks to the Neo-Baathists in the region. The rise of internet technology was propelling other nations to try and catch up with implementation or having their own stuff though the American influence runs deep, especially as while Microsoft is looking more likely to be split, NeXT Inc and Apple Inc try to fill in the void by targetting Asia and Latin America as potental regions of growth for consumers regarding operating systems and other products. China was growing more and more prominent economically and many wondered if it would become a superpower, especially given how the US stands alone, though many say the SUSR is on the edge of reclaiming superpower status.
As for pop culture, there were several hits.
Story of Seadogs by Disney would be quite the landmark over for Disney, SATMIN+ pop culture and for animation. Additionally, with how it was coinciding with the civil unions success in the Netherlands along with the celeberation fo Dutch culture. The main characters were becoming popular over and it has been confirmed that there were talks with the Netherlands on the creation of a Dutch pavilion over in the World Showcase, becoming the 12th nation present there. Alongside them regarding major films included
Mission: Impossible 2, which would manage to outdo what the previous one did,
Gladiator doing well as an epic historal drama piece, and in terms of pop culture, Paramount would release
X-Men, a film adaptation of the popular Marvel comic series, showing a world with the rise of mutants, people with grand superhuman capabilities being linked over to the mysterious White Event of 1986, showing the influence of the merging of the X-Men franchise with the newuniverse line over in the comics, though the films event take place in 1996, 10 years later. Some other films were
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and
Almost Famous. Animation would also maintain a film presence. Besides
Story of Seadogs, Disney would release
Fantasia 2000, which would push further the dreams of what animation could do and for home video
An Extreme Goofy Movie, serving as a sequel for the theatrical film though with Goofy being more focused on than Max as the latter goes to college and the former tries to grow from there. Meanwhile, Dreamworks would release the prominent
The Road to El Dorado, which would do better than expected thanks to the growing audience demand of variety from animated films and support in the industry. The film did have to be delayed as rewrites were done out of concerns for potential controversy (supposedly, Don Bluth discussed the film during development with Henson and Henson in term warning Bluth, leading to Bluth pushing for time for rewrites). However, it did not damage the film and seem to help add in additional humor and even poke fun of earlier concepts (such as laughing at the idea of the two protagonists being thought of as gods and were welcomed out of hospitality since they had to be capable of finding the place.) The film also had a trailer for
Betwixt Sun and Moon, a Don Bluth passion project that would be an adaptation of the Norewegian fairy tale
East of the Sun and West of the Moon, as part of Bluth and Katzenberg's deal, with two other Bluth projects confirmed, one simply titled "Titan AE" and the other an adaptation of the book "Satyrday". Beyond that, there was
Pokemon 2000, showing the maintaining craze of Pokemon as well as the growing one of Digimon, its rival with its own film.
With television, similar events were happening. Much like how Disney would hit it well in film, the first male gay kiss would occur over on
Dawson's Creek in their third season finale, considered just as big a milestone. The beloved television dramedy in
Boy Meets World would finish off with seven seasons and a beloved series finale. A new drama would come over though, one embodying the 1990s for working class people in its ups and downs over with
Malcolm in the Middle. Cartoon Network would get a sister channel in Boomerang, devoted to old-school cartoons from Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera cartoons among others. Plenty of enw shows were coming out, such as MTV having
Jackass, NBC with
Deadline and various other shows coming out at the time. Kids' television would maintain a prominent influence with a new Power Rangers in
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, Warner Bros giving a new superhero cartoon over with
Static, focusing on the Milestone Comics time-stopping superhero Static aka Virgil Hawkins. Video games meanwhile would also see a boom as the next generation of consoles were coming out. First would be SEGA over with the Dreamcast and changing the name of the game over with its compatability over with the Internet along with standout titles coming out at the same time such as
Phantasy Star Online, Shenmue, Jetset Radio and
Sonic Adventure. Having been delayed a year to finetune some issues along with improve controller and help reduce costs would help out alot. Meanwhile, Microsoft would announce the release of
A-box, the result of their work together over with Atari as a subsidary, though it would be released next year with planned Internet connectivity. Nintendo would be focusing over on the Nintendo Ultra 64 with releases such as
Pokemon Stadium,
Perfect Dark, Paper Mario, a paper-styled Mario RPG created as a spiritual successor over to
Super Mario RPG and
The Legend of Hyrule: Majora's Mask, a mysterious and unusual sequel to
Ocarina of Time which sees Link over in Termina, a more advanced sort of area where he has to stop a shooting star from crashing into the town. Beyond the returns of time themes, the reusing and remimagining of assets gave it a strange vibe, with the major theory being that Termina is set in the future, to contrast Link's story and the passage of time. Nintendo have also been working to keep up their relations with third part developers, including growing closer to Rare and the release of
Banjo-Tooie. Despite this, they have also their next generation console in the works with Project Dolphin as well as Project Atlantis, both planned for 2002 releases.
Chrono Cross and
Final Fantasy IX would also come out there as well as on the Playstation, which would have to delay the release of their Playstation 2 due to a couple accidents during production though would still do well with
Dragon Quest VII and
Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Rumors were circulating that SEGA may be purchased by Sony as a result of financial troubles, but little has been known on how verified those rumors are. Other big games like those for the PC included
Counter-Strike, Deus Ex and
The Sims.