评论
打印
This is actually me making the "I'm Not Good At Life" face.
这就是我做出的“不擅长生活”表情
This is a piece of graffiti in my old neighborhood
这也是我在加州的伯克利的
in Berkeley, California, where I did my PhD
一个老社区进修我的博士学位时的一个涂鸦
on why we're better in games than we are in real life.
而我读博士研究的课题就是“为什么我们觉得虚拟游戏世界比现实世界更好”
And this is a problem that a lot of gamers have.
同时这也是一个很多游戏玩家的难题
We feel that we are not as good in reality as we are in games.
我们感觉自己无法像在游戏中一样适应现实生活
And I don't mean just good as in successful,
我不认为适应就是成功，二者不是等价的
although that's part of it.
纵然适应是成功的一部分
We do achieve more in game worlds. But I also
我们确实在游戏世界中收获更多的成功
mean good as in
但是这里所说的适应
motivated to do something that matters,
就是指去做紧要事情的内在动力、
inspired to collaborate and to cooperate.
激起合作的灵感以及协作
And when we're in game worlds
当我们处于游戏世界时
I believe that many of us become
我觉得我们可以做最好的自己
the best version of ourselves, the most likely to help at a moment's notice,
这时看到一个消息我们就会去帮助别人
the most likely to stick with a problem
并且会持之以恒的解决一个问题
as long at it takes, to get up after failure and try again.
面对挫折我们会勇敢得站起来，并且继续奋斗
And in real life, when we face failure,
但，在现实生活中，当我们面对失败的时候
when we confront obstacles, we often don't feel that way.
当我们遭遇障碍的时候，我们通常就不会那么感觉了
We feel overcome,
我们通常会觉得
we feel overwhelmed,
很压抑、不知所措、
we feel anxious, maybe depressed, frustrated or cynical.
不知所措、焦虑，甚至沮丧、灰心或者愤世嫉俗
We never have those feelings when we're playing games,
这个时候我们就没有玩游戏那个时候的感受了
they just don't exist in games.
在游戏中就不会存在这些感觉
So, that's what I wanted to study
这就是我在读研究生时
when I was a graduate student.
研究的东西
What about games makes it impossible
游戏能否让我们觉得，
to feel that we can't achieve everything?
做不成任何事情是不可能的呢？
How can we take those feelings from games
我们怎么才能把从游戏中获得的这种感觉
and apply them to real-world work?
转移到现实社会的工作中呢
So, I looked at games like World of Warcraft,
因此，我研究了一些像《魔兽世界》这样的游戏
which is really the ideal collaborative problem-solving environment.
它们正是理想的解决协作问题的平台
And I started to notice a few things
我注意到一些事情
that make epic wins so possible in online worlds.
正是这些事情让史诗般的胜利在网络游戏里面变得可能
So, the first thing is whenever you show up in one of these online games,
第一件事情是，无论何时当你出现在这些网络游戏里面的时候
especially in World of Warcraft,
特别是《魔兽世界》
there are lots and lots of different characters
游戏里面会有很多不同的角色
who are willing to trust you with a world-saving mission, right away.
他们对你非常信任，并且会帮助你完成拯救世界的任务
But not just any mission, it's a mission that is perfectly matched
但并不是所有的任务都是这样，
with your current level in the game. Right?
而仅仅是那些完全匹配你当前等级的任务
So, you can do it.
因此，你有能力去完成它
They never give you a challenge that you can't achieve.
设计者不会给你一个就你当前的能力完成不了的任务
But it is on the verge of what you're capable of. So, you have to try hard,
但完成这个任务需要发挥你能力的极限，因此，你必须尽你最大努力
but there's no unemployment in World of Warcraft.
在魔兽世界里人人都有自己的职位
There is no sitting around wringing your hands,
那里没有观众
there's always something specific and important to be done.
那里一直有一些非常特别并且很重要的事情等着你去完成
And there are also tons of collaborators.
并且游戏世界里有很多的人可以协作
Everywhere you go, hundreds of thousands of people
不论你到了哪里，
ready to work with you
都会有成千上万的人等着和你合作
to achieve your epic mission.
去完成那些艰巨的任务
That's not something that we have in real life that easily,
在现实生活中就没有这么轻松了
this sense that at our fingertips
这种在我们指尖间就有成千上万合作伙伴的感觉
are tons of collaborators.
在现实生活中就没有这么简单了
And also there is this epic story, this inspiring story
在游戏中会有美妙的故事情节，而这些情节
of why we're there, and what we're doing.
吸引了我们，并且激励着我们的所作所为
And then we get all this positive feedback.
同时，对于我们所做出的任何努力都会有一个积极肯定的回应
You guys have heard of leveling up and plus-one strength,
你们肯定听说过等级提升，
and plus-one intelligence.
伴随着等级提升力量加一点同时智力加一点
We don't get that kind of constant feedback in real life.
而我们在现实生活中就没有这种持续的回馈
When I get off this stage I'm not going to have
比如说，当我走下这个舞台的时候，我不会有
plus-one speaking, and plus-one crazy idea,
演说能力加一，疯狂的创意能力加一
plus-20 crazy idea.
更不用说疯狂的创意能力加20了
I don't get that feedback in real life.
在现实生活中我没有得到任何奖励
Now, the problem with collaborative online environments
在网络虚拟环境中，
like World of Warcraft
比如《魔兽世界》
is that it's so satisfying
和别人协作是一件非常惬意的事情
to be on the verge of an epic win all the time
因为我们可以不停得向最终的胜利冲击
that we decide to spend all our time in these game worlds.
也正是因为如此我们才会一直沉醉于游戏世界中
It's just better than reality.
因为它比现实更好
So, so far, collectively all the World of Warcraft gamers
到目前为止，《魔兽世界》的游戏玩家们已经花费了总数为593万年的时间
have spent 5.93 million years
去解决艾泽拉斯里面的
solving the virtual problems of Azeroth.
各种虚拟的问题
Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
这不是一件坏事
It might sound like it's a bad thing.
不过听起来像是一件坏事
