Epilogue: Fun Matters, Grandpa 后记：有趣很重要，祖父

It's been a long journey for me, and I don't doubt that as my kids continue to grow, it will seem even longer.

对我来说，这是一段漫长的旅程，我毫不怀疑，随着孩子们的不断成长，这段旅程会显得更加漫长。

I have watched them start to learn the concepts of respect for one another.

我看着他们开始学习互相尊重的概念。

I have watched them understand that resources are limited and that things must be shared.

我看到他们明白资源是有限的，东西必须共享。

Every day, they connect an astounding number of new neurons; they learn a flabbergasting number of new words, and they develop in ways I can barely remember and barely glimpse.

每天，他们连接着数量惊人的新神经元；他们学习着数量惊人的新单词；他们的成长方式我几乎无法记住，也几乎无法瞥见。

Games are helping them along that path, and for that I am grateful. I'm not immune to the desire that my children be better off, after all, and I'll take any tool that helps us along that path.

游戏帮助他们在这条道路上前行，对此我心怀感激。毕竟，我也希望我的孩子能过得更好，我愿意接受任何能帮助我们实现这一愿望的工具。

A lot of old age is attributable to losing neurons, losing connections, losing the patterns we have built up, settling into fewer and fewer until all we can do is stand by helplessly as the world dissolves into noise around us. We'd all be better off if we kept our minds limber by pushing them to always tackle new problems.

人到老年，很多时候都是因为神经元衰退、失去联系、失去我们建立起来的模式，越来越少，直到我们只能无助地站在一旁，看着周围的世界化为噪音。如果我们能让自己的大脑保持灵活，不断解决新的问题，那么我们都会过得更好。

Not too long before my grandfather died, he told me, "I'm thinking of getting one of those computer things. It doesn't seem like the Internet is all that different from ham radio. Maybe I'll give it a try."

在我祖父去世前不久，他告诉我：“我想买一台电脑。互联网和业余无线电似乎没什么不同。也许我会试一试。”

Games are powerful tools for good -- they rewire people's brains, just like books and movies and music.
游戏是造福人类的强大工具——它能重塑人们的大脑，就像书籍、电影和音乐一样。
HOMO PIXELUS
像素人

I learned of my grandfather's passing when I arrived at a hotel in San Jose, where I was attending the annual Game Developers Conference. Somehow it seemed apropos.

我是在抵达圣何塞的一家酒店时得知祖父去世的消息的。我当时正在参加一年一度的游戏开发者大会。不知为何，这似乎恰如其分。

The questions he posed, in the wake of shootings at , at a time when the world was suddenly making little sense, are fair questions. Are games a tool for evil? Or for good? Are they frivolous at best, or frivolous at worst?

在发生枪击案之后，在世界突然变得毫无意义的时候，他提出的问题是很合理的。游戏是邪恶的工具吗？还是善良的工具？游戏在最好的情况下是无聊的，还是在最坏的情况下是轻浮的？

It seems important that we know the answers, not just to allow those of us who work in this field to sleep better at night, but also in order to reassure those who watch us work: our families, our friends, our cultures.

问题的答案似乎非常重要，这不仅让我们这些在该领域工作的人晚上能睡得更安心，而且也是为了让那些关注我们工作的人——我们的家人、朋友和文化——放心。

Hey!
嘿！
Run, Linda, I'll fight him off!
快跑，琳达，我来打跑他！
shh...it'll be ok...
嘘……没事的……
no God...please...no...
不，上帝……求求你……不……
...amazing!
……太棒了
...oh no...Harry!
……不……哈利！
It's the end of world!
这是世界末日！
People get scared of the influence games have over them -- fears that they will cause murderous rampages on the streets.
人们害怕游戏对他们的影响——害怕游戏会在街上引起疯狂的杀戮。
That's unlikely.
这不太可能。

Games fit in the spectrum of human activity. Human activity is not always pretty. It's not always noble. It's not always altruistic. And a lot of really dumb things are done in games. A lot of dumb things are done by people playing games. A lot of dumb things are done by those making games.

游戏是人类活动的一部分。人类活动并不总是美好的。并不总是高尚的。也不总是无私的。在游戏中，人们做了很多蠢事。玩游戏的人做了很多蠢事。制作游戏的人也做了很多蠢事。

But ignorance can be rectified. Human activity may be driven by selfish genes, by the phantasms of inaccurate perception, or by reactionary tribalism and shortsighted dominance moves.

但无知是可以纠正的。人类活动的驱动力可能是自私的基因，可能是不准确认知的幻觉，也可能是反动的部落主义和短视的统治行为。

But there are those firemen, those special education teachers, those architects, who are out there working. They're building spaces in which we can live safely and rear our children.

但是，还有那些消防员、那些特殊教育教师、那些建筑师，他们都在工作。他们在建造我们可以安全生活和养育孩子的空间。

I've put forth what may seem like a mechanistic view of the world in this book, one that would perhaps run contrary to my grandfather's deeply held religious faith. And yet I think that we would both come to the same conclusion:

我在这本书中提出了一个看似技术化的世界观，这或许与我祖父深厚的宗教信仰背道而驰。但我认为，我们都会得出同样的结论：

Any striving for understanding that we do is likely to hold back the darkness. The new may scare us, as when symphonies with odd harmonies cause riots among disturbed music lovers...

我们所做的任何寻求理解的努力都有可能阻挡黑暗。新事物可能会让我们感到恐惧，就像带有奇怪和声的交响乐会在不安的音乐爱好者中引起骚乱一样……

But time smoothes things over. And we are left with beautiful music.

但时间会抚平一切。留给我们的是美妙的音乐。

So my answer here is, I am willing to choose which side of human nature I want to foster.

所以，我的答案是，我愿意选择我想要培育的人性的一面。

Like story, and music, games and play are fundamental parts of how the human brain works, and it's pretty rare for symphonies to cause riots...
与故事和音乐一样，游戏和游戏也是人类大脑工作的基本组成部分，交响乐引起骚乱的情况非常罕见……
FAMOUS CLASSICAL MUSIC RIOTS
知名古典音乐骚乱
STRAVINSKY: Rite of Spring
斯特拉文斯基：《春之祭》
BERLIOZ: Benvenuto Cellini
柏辽兹：《本韦努托·切利尼》
ANTHEIL: Ballet Mecanique
安泰尔：《机械芭蕾》
SATIE: Parade
萨蒂：《游行》
RAVEL: Chansons Madecasses
拉威尔：《马达加斯加之歌》

I cannot blame my grandfather for being nervous about something that seemed very new, even though it was in fact very old. It is a natural reaction. It is the human reaction to the eruption of the unfamiliar.

我不能责怪祖父对一件看似非常新的东西感到紧张，尽管事实上它已经非常古老了。这是人类对陌生事物突然出现时的自然反应。

Tracing the nature of fun, and the core of gameplay, has made me more comfortable in my own self with what I do, and why I do it.

追溯趣味的本质和游戏的核心，让我对自己所做的事情以及为什么要做这件事感到更加自在自得。

We have a powerful tool here, one that is arguably underutilized even as it reaches new peaks of acceptance among people of all ages. We should take it up responsibly, with awareness of how it fits into culture, and with respect for its abilities.

我们拥有一个强大的工具，尽管它在各个年龄段的人们中的接受度达到了新的高峰，但可以说还没有得到充分利用。我们应该负责任地使用它，了解它如何融入文化，并尊重它的能力。

The mere titling of a piece of music lends it narrative context and enriches it tremendously. Yes, it is possible to appreciate or any of the works of without their titles, as pure sound. But the sense of them is carried in the interstices between the music and the title. Just as the sense of a film is carried in the webbing between the acting and the writing and the cinematography.

仅仅为一首乐曲命名，就能赋予它叙事性的背景，并极大地丰富它的内涵。是的，欣赏或的任何作品时，都可以不加标题，将其视为纯粹的声音。但是，音乐与标题之间的夹缝中蕴含着它们的意义。就像表演、编剧和摄影之间的网状结构中承载着电影的意义一样。

Other art forms have long recognized this; as a Haitian tale of vodoun, for example, achieved by selectively adjusting one of the component pieces of the art form.

其他艺术形式早已认识到这一点；例如，成海地伏都教故事，就是通过有选择地调整艺术形式的一个组成部分而实现的。

All of which is to say that I don't think we get to ignore the sexism, the classism, the occasional racism, and the general crudity of the commercial game industry. The prostitute in may be a power-up in mechanical terms. But in experiencing the game, it takes a game critic to divorce her from the context in which she appears. And frankly, game critique isn't even developed enough to give that particular game object and interaction a name.

综上所述，我认为我们不能忽视商业游戏产业中的性别歧视、阶级歧视、偶尔的种族主义和普遍的粗俗。中的妓女从技术角度看可能是一种强化道具。但在体验游戏的过程中，游戏评论家需要把她从她出现的背景中剥离出来。坦率地说，游戏评论甚至还没有发展到足以给那个特定的游戏对象和互动命名的程度。

My answer here is, I'm content with accepting my responsibility on that front. We must improve.

我在这里的回答是，我愿意承担这方面的责任。我们必须改进。

This doesn't mean that game designers shouldn't act responsibly --
这并不意味着游戏设计者不应该负责任地行事——
THE RIOTING IS PART OF THE ACT, MAN.
骚乱是表演的一部分，伙计。
aaaa!
啊！
Fire!
火！
gak!
呃！
get off!
滚开！
heh heh
嘿嘿
take that!
尝尝这个！

If games are mere amusements, and my grandfather's concerns were valid, then by acting responsibly, and striving to make games that illuminate the human condition, I have at least caused no harm.

如果游戏仅仅是一种娱乐，那么我祖父的担忧是有道理的，那么我只要负责任地行事，努力制作能够启发人类状态的游戏，至少就不会造成任何伤害。

If I am going to noodle about with this medium simply because I think it's a nifty keen toy, the least I can do is make sure I don't hurt anyone else in the process. Even better, I can take this nifty keen toy very very very seriously and assume that it is a powerful tool for good or evil. And try to make it a tool for good.

如果我只是因为觉得这是一个时髦有趣的玩具，而去玩弄这种媒介，那么我至少可以确保我不会在这个过程中伤害到其他人。更妙的是，我可以非常非常认真地对待这个时髦有趣的玩具，并认为它是一个强大的工具，可以用来行善，也可以用来作恶。并努力让它成为一个行善的工具。

It's a lot like . If it's all "just a game," I was just a crackpot all along. But if it's not, there are only two responsible ways to behave with such a tool: either step away from it altogether and let someone qualified take it up, or take it up and be as qualified as you can.

这很像。如果这一切“只是一场游戏”，那么我一直都是个怪人。但如果不是这样，那就只有两种负责任的方式来对待这样的工具：要么完全远离它，让有资格的人来接手；要么接手它，并尽可能让自己变得有资格。

My reply is, I won't take a sucker bet.

我的回答是，我不会接受一个愚蠢的赌注。

BLAISE PASCAL
布莱斯·帕斯卡尔
If you think "it's just a game," consider Pascal's Wager.
如果你认为“这只是一场游戏”，不妨想想帕斯卡尔的赌注。
IF GOD DOES NOT EXIST, IT DOESN'T MATTER IF I BELIEVE.
如果上帝不存在，我信不信无所谓。
IF GOD DOES EXIST, THEN I HAD BETTER BE A BELIEVER.
如果上帝真的存在，那我最好是个信徒。
IF I WERE A BETTING MAN, I'D SAY BELIEF IS THE SAFER BET!
如果我是一个赌徒，我会说信仰是更安全的赌注！

The task I have to make my grandfather proud of what I do seems fairly simple, really. It's not that dissimilar to the role he took up each time he picked up his carpentry tools in his workshop.

要让祖父为我的工作感到骄傲，这个任务其实很简单。这与他每次在作坊里拿起木工工具时所扮演的角色并无二致。

Work hard on craft.

努力钻研工艺。

Measure twice, cut once.

测量两次，切割一次。

Feel the grain; work with it, not against it.

感受纹路；顺着纹路操作，不要反向操作。

Create something unexpected, but faithful to the source from which it sprang.

创造出意想不到的东西，但要忠实于它的源头。

Strikes me as good advice for any act of creation. My reply is, I can do that.

我觉得这对任何创作都是很好的建议。我的回答是，我能做到。

The challenge game designers face is "how do we create games that do not have one right answer?"
游戏设计师面临的挑战是：“我们如何创造没有唯一正确答案的游戏？”

My kids already play games and say things and do things that make me uncomfortable, just as I made games that made my grandfather uncomfortable. Some eggs need to be broken to make this omelet.

我的孩子们已经在玩让我不舒服的游戏，说让我不舒服的话，做让我不舒服的事，就像我玩让我祖父不舒服的游戏一样。想要做煎蛋卷，就得先打破鸡蛋（在取得进步或实现目标的过程中，一些牺牲或损失是必须的）。

To achieve the potential of the medium, we're going to have to push at some boundaries and on some buttons that may make people rather uncomfortable. We'll assert that games are not only entertainment, and we will probably produce some work that may shock, or offend, or present themes that challenge deeply cherished beliefs.

为了发挥游戏媒介的潜力，我们必须突破一些界限，按下一些可能会让人感到不舒服的按钮。我们将坚持游戏不仅仅是娱乐，我们可能会制作出一些可能令人震惊、冒犯的作品，或者提出一些挑战人们根深蒂固的信仰的主题。

That's not outlandish. All the other media do it.

这并不离谱。所有其他媒介都会这样做。

My commitment is, I'll try to make sure that nobody gets hurt.

我的承诺是，我会尽力确保没有人会受到伤害。

This may involve making games with uncomfortable subject matter,
这可能会涉及到制作主题让人不舒服的游戏，
d00d, I JUST GOT THIS KILLER GAME CALLED "LOLITA."
哥们儿，我刚刚买到这个杀手游戏，叫《洛丽塔》。
Beat it. Lady Chatterley's Lover was better.
走开。《查泰莱夫人的情人》更棒。

For all of us game designers, it means the extremely difficult task of reevaluating our roles in life. It means perceiving ourselves as having a responsibility to others, whereas we previously thought of ourselves as carefree. It means granting a greater level of respect to the tools we work with—the push and pull of mechanic and feedback, the intricate pathways of the human brain and human apprehension—and a greater level of respect to our audience.

对于我们所有游戏设计师来说，这意味着重新评估我们在生活中的角色这一极其艰巨的任务。这意味着我们要对他人负责，而我们以前却认为自己无忧无虑。这意味着我们要更加尊重我们所使用的工具——机械和反馈的推力和拉力、人类大脑和人类理解力的复杂路径——也意味着我们要更加尊重我们的受众。

They deserve more than just another jumping puzzle. We have to believe, as game designers, that we can deliver that, and we have to believe that we should.

他们应该得到的不仅仅是另一个跳跃谜题。作为游戏设计师，我们必须相信我们能做到这一点，我们必须相信我们应该做到这一点。

To which I say, I believe.

对此我要说，我相信。

because having respect for players implies giving them real challenges, challenges as sophisticated as the best stories give them.
因为尊重玩家意味着给他们真正的挑战，就像最好的故事给他们的挑战一样复杂。
TO JUMP, OR NOT TO JUMP -- THAT IS THE QUESTION: WHETHER 'TIS NOBLER IN THE GAME TO SUFFER THE SLINGS AND ARROWS OF OUTRAGEOUS BOSS MONSTERS, OR TO TAKE POWER-UPS AGAINST A SEA OF TROUBLES, AND BY OPPOSING, END THEM.
跳，还是不跳——这是一个问题：在游戏中哪个更高尚，是忍受恐怖头目怪物的箭矢攻击，还是在苦难的海洋中拿起强化道具，用斗争来结束它们。
to die -- to sleep -- no more, and by a sleep we say to end the heartache, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.
死去——睡去——终止，如果睡去，意味着结束躯体不可逃避的打击和心疼。
in other words, just jump.
换句话说，跳吧。

译者注：对话改编自莎士比亚《哈姆雷特》的台词。

Last, it means that everyone else—the people like my grandfather—needs to come to understand the valuable role we play in society. We're not nerds in the basement rolling . We're also the teachers of your children. We're not irresponsible 14-year-old boys (well, not all of us). We're parents too. We're not splattering gore and sex on TV screens across the world merely for the sake of titillation.

最后，这意味着其他人——像我祖父这样的人——需要了解我们在社会中扮演的重要角色。我们不是在地下室里掷的书呆子。我们也是你们孩子的老师。我们不是不负责任的 14 岁男孩（好吧，不是所有人）。我们也是父母。我们不会仅仅为了刺激而在全世界的电视屏幕上渲染血腥和性。

Games deserve respect. We as creators must respect them, and do right by their potential. And the rest of the world must respect them and grant them the scope to become what they can and must.

游戏值得尊重。作为创作者，我们必须尊重游戏，正确对待游戏的潜力。而世界上的其他人也必须尊重它们，并给予它们足够的空间，让它们成为它们所能做到和必须做到的。

So my answer is, yes, what we do is worthy of respect.

所以我的答案是：是的，我们所做的值得尊重。

It also requires society to have respect for its own games.
它还要求社会尊重自己的游戏。

It may be that even after everything I've said, and everything all the other people working with games have said, society will continue to react in a knee-jerk fashion to the unfamiliar.

也许，即使我说了这么多，其他所有从事游戏工作的人也说了这么多，社会仍然会对陌生事物做出膝跳式的反应。

It may be that the current flowering of academic programs in game studies, and the fledgling field of ludology, are an aberration and a frivolity.

也许，目前游戏研究学术项目的蓬勃发展，以及刚刚起步的游戏学领域，都是一种畸形和轻浮。

But painting was once a blasphemous act that robbed reality of its essence. Dance was seen as wantonness incapable of expressing any higher emotions. The novel was self-indulgent gothic nonsense for cooped-up housewives. Film was once trashy at the penny arcade, unworthy of adult attention. Jazz was devil music that would lead young lives astray. Rock 'n' roll was destroying the fabric of our country.

但绘画曾经是一种亵渎神明的行为，它剥夺了现实的本质。舞蹈曾被视为无法表达任何高级情感的放荡。小说曾是自娱自乐的哥特式胡言乱语，专为关在家里的家庭主妇而写。电影曾经是一分钱商场里的垃圾，不值得成年人关注。爵士乐曾经是会误导年轻人的恶魔音乐。摇滚乐曾经在破坏我们国家的根基。

And Shakespeare himself was no more than a bit player and sometime scribbler for a theater in the bad part of town. Proper women weren't allowed into the theater because their reputations would be ruined, and their stepping on the stage was unthinkable.

而莎士比亚本人也不过是一个在城里糟糕地区剧院的小角色和偶尔的撰稿人。正经的女人不被允许进入剧院，因为她们的名声会被毁掉，她们踏上舞台更是不可想象的事情。

We learned better.

我们学得更好了。

It's still possible that this time we won't...

这一次，我们仍有可能不会……

Someday, if society allows it, games will have their Shakespeare.
有一天，如果社会允许，游戏也会有莎士比亚。

in which case we should pack up all the chess sets...

在这种情况下，我们应该收拾好所有的棋盘……

gather up the balls and the nets and the tops...

把球、网和陀螺收起来……

collect the dolls and the toy cars...

把洋娃娃和玩具车收起来……

put them in that chest, the one at the top of the stairs...

把它们放进那个箱子里就在楼梯口的那个箱子里……

the one we carry up to the attic...

我们把它搬上阁楼……

to sit closed, hasp flipped but not locked, under the window...

放在窗下，关起来，翻转把手，但不上锁……

We should put away the things of childhood and step into a world where the young, and the young at heart, are seen and not heard.

我们应该收起童年的东西，走进一个世界，在这个世界里，年轻人和童心未泯的人被看到但不被听到。

But if we fail to understand why games matter, and how fun matters, all our games are destined to be like tic-tac-toe.
但是，如果我们不明白游戏为什么重要，乐趣如何重要，那么我们所有的游戏都注定会像井字游戏一样。

To which I say,

对此我要说：

No.

不。

Because I'd hate to pass up that look of joy and wonder in my children's eyes.

因为我不想错过孩子们眼中的喜悦和惊奇。