VOA双语新闻 Video Game Designers（在线收听）

Many parents and teachers have often wished that young people would find something more useful to do with their spare time and abundant energies than to play video games, especially those that make sport of violence, death and destruction. Soon, there may be less to complain about, as game developers and social activists collaborate on a new generation of games that are as compelling as virtual worlds, but which also encourage players to learn about, and solve, real world problems.

很多家长和老师都通常希望年青一代能够在闲暇时间做些有意义的事，而不是把精力都放在电子游戏上，尤其是那些充满暴力、杀伤和毁灭内容的游戏。也许不远的将来，家长和老师就不用特别担心这方面的事情了，因为现在有很多电子游戏的设计者和社会活动人士正一起来合作研发新一代的游戏。这些游戏跟现实世界很相似，而且还鼓励玩儿游戏的人动脑子，认识和解决社会上真正存在的一些问题。

The movers and shakers in this exciting new hybrid world met recently at the "Games 4 Change" conference in New York, which was co-sponsored by The New School and by Parsons the New School for Design. "Video games are a part of life and they are not going away," said co-organizer Benjamin Stokes, as he looked out with evident satisfaction at the 300 or so video game designers, academicians, and social activists excitedly talking together, peering at each other's laptop screens, while waiting for the next panel discussion.

位于纽约的新学大学和帕尔森设计学院刚刚联合举办了“游戏变革”研讨会。在主会场上，主办者本杰明.斯托克斯环视四周，看到大约300名电子游戏设计者、学术界人士以及社会活动人士都在兴奋地彼此交谈，有人还在等待下一轮讨论开始之前偷看一眼别人的手提电脑上都是什么画面。看到这些，斯托克斯心里感到很满意。

"We have got to talk to youth in the language they are already speaking. They are talking in video games. And I think it's really exciting for those of us who are trying to build civic education and civic engagement, because video games, when they have people lean forward and engage, that's just the sort of behavior we want to translate into the real world."

斯托克斯说：“电子游戏现在已经是生活的一部份，而且也不会轻易消失。所以我们得跟年轻人用他们的语言来跟他们对话。他们的语言现在就是电子游戏语言。我想对于我们这些想要帮助建立一个公民教育、而且大众参与的社会机制的人来说，这是一个机会，因为在玩电子游戏的时候，人们都非常投入。我们在现实生活中要看到的正是这种投入的精神。”

Negotiating ambiguous situations in which there is no one right answer is a difficult part of real life, but it can make for interesting gaming. Imagining, and trying to empathize with, your opponent's perspective is the basic challenge of the Peacemaker Game, a simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, developed by Asi Burak of Impact Games at Carnegie Mellon University.

在现实生活当中，人们常常要讨论一些很难办而且难以找到答案的话题。但是对电子游戏的设计者来说，这可以是很有趣的。有一个假设的对手并且要知道对手会怎么想，是“和平使者”这个游戏的一个最基本挑战。这个游戏仿照的是以色列和巴勒斯坦之间的冲突。

"Many people [have] said 'War is challenging' and 'fighting is challenging,'" Burak acknowledged, "so we try to analyze it and we saw that, yes, 'A versus B' is very challenging. But to make A, B, C and D live together, this is a challenge, because every one of them has a different agenda, and different goals and sometimes they're contradictory."

“和平使者”游戏的设计者是卡内基.梅隆大学的布拉克。他说：“我们留心一下有关战争策略的游戏。很多人说：‘打仗很富有挑战。’但是仔细研究一下，就会发现，不同的群体共同生活在一起其实是另外一种挑战。每个群体都有各自的打算，各自的目的，有时候这些打算和目的是互相矛盾的。”

Like many video games, Peacemaker is based on role-playing. Unlike many video games, changing roles is an important part of how one "wins." Players can act the part of the Israeli prime minister or the president of the Palestinian Authority, each of whom must deal with polls, opposing constituencies, and international pressures.

象很多电子游戏一样，“和平使者”这个游戏有好几个不同的角色。跟其他游戏不同的是，要赢得这个游戏，要求你能够充当不同的角色。玩游戏的人充当以色列总理或者是巴勒斯坦权力机构的主席，而且还都得要处理象民意测验、反对派人士和来自国际社会的压力这些问题。

"So when you start the game, the world is very violent," explained Burak. "The world is filled with terror attacks or military actions by the Israeli Army. And as you make progress -- if you make progress -- those things will start to disappear and you see less and less violence, and you see that people start to support your concessions, and that the other side is responding positively to what you're doing."

布拉克说：“开始这个游戏的时候，世界上呈现一片混乱的势态，充满恐怖袭击和以色列的军事活动。但是当你开始取得一些成绩的时候-----假如说你能够取得成绩的话，那么那些混乱的局面就会出现改观，暴力会越来越少，你会看到人们开始支持妥协、而且对方也开始对你的行动有积极的回应。”

Grassroots political organizers are already using video games to teach an essential tool of democracy -- so-called "door-knocking" -- where activists go to a neighborhood to enlist local residents to support an issue of concern. Doug Nelson, the president of Kinection, has developed a game called The Organizing Game. It offers players a risk-free virtual environment where they can learn, for example, how to know when someone who says they are committing to help is saying "yes" merely to be polite or because they mean it.

一些基层的社会活动人士已经在利用电子游戏来传授民主社会里的一个最基本的活动方式----那就是“敲门法。”也就是说，社会活动人士到某个社区里，挨家挨户地去敲门，发动当地的居民来支持大家都关心的议题。纳尔逊就设计了一个叫“组织起来”的游戏。这个游戏让玩的人有一个假设的不用担心失败的环境，在这个环境下，他们可以学习到如何辨别人在表示要提供帮助的时候，是出于礼貌还是真有这个意思。

"They click 'Yes,' they click 'No,' and they click 'Maybe.'" Nelson said, demonstrating the game. With a quick move of the mouse, a part of the game called Get a Commitment appeared on the screen. "Can we count on you to come to the meeting we're having on Saturday at five o' clock?" asked the virtual activist. The responses from virtual residents: "It sounds great. Let me check with my wife. (a "yes" response), "Not interested (translation: "No.") and "I usually try to clean my house that day, but I could try to get it done by five." "That's absolutely a 'Maybe'!" chuckled Nelson.

The Games 4 Change conference also highlighted ways young people are being empowered to design their own game. At Global Kid's Playing 4 Keeps, an after school program in one New York City high school, students work with professional game designers to create a game based on a global issue of their choice.

“游戏变革”研讨会还重点讨论了年青人设计他们自己的游戏的一些方法。在纽约市的一所高中的课后计划“全球儿童游戏规则”，学生根据他们选择的国际问题与专业游戏设计人员共同合作开发一个游戏。

In this project, students created a game set in Haiti that explored the relationship of poverty and education to human rights. It is based on five virtual family members who make a series of choices regarding work, education, health and other factors over the course of four virtual years. The group then studies the possible outcomes. said that creating games like that requires an understanding not just of the games but also of the complex global issues they portray.

在这个项目中，学生们发明了一个以海地为事件背景的游戏，探讨了贫困和教育的关系乃至人权问题。这个游戏根据五名虚拟家庭成员，在虚拟的四年中在工作、教育、健康和其它方面所做出的一系列选择。然后这个小组研究了可能产生的结果。全球儿童在线领导计划主任巴里.约瑟夫说，发明那样的游戏不仅只是需要明白这些游戏，而且还要明白他们所描述的那些复杂的国际问题。

"When you start developing a game you have to create a simulation or a model of the thing you are trying to demonstrate," he said, "[such as] how to look at a system and understand it as a system. What are the constituent parts? What are the elements? How do they relate to each other? What do you have to do within that system to push the system in one direction or another? Whether you're talking about poverty in Haiti or genocide in Darfur, games offer that kind of learning."

约瑟夫说：“当你开始发明一个游戏时，你需要发明你要演示的这个东西的一个模拟系统或模型，如何看待一个系统，并且明白这个系统。有哪些组成部份？组成的要素是什么？它们彼此之间的关系是什么？在那个系统内你要做些什么，才能把这个系统朝一个方向或另一个方向发展？你要讨论海地的贫穷问题还是达尔富尔地区的种族灭绝，游戏提供了这类的知识。”

While it can be hard to measure objectively what impact these new games are having on the real world, Joseph said they are having a subtle but significant impact on the players themselves. He believes the games offer young people an important, positive way to express themselves and their desire to work for a better world. And by playing the games with their friends - and raising public awareness in the process, Joseph said young people can experience for the first time what it feels like to work for positive change.

尽管可能很难客观地衡量这些新的游戏对现实世界产生什么影响，但是约瑟夫说，他们对玩游戏的人本身产生了一个微妙而有意义的影响。他相信这些游戏给年青人提供了一个重要的正面的方式来表达自我以及为建立一个更加美好的世界而努力的愿望。约瑟夫说，年青人通过和他们的朋友一起玩儿游戏并且在这个过程中引起公众对某个问题关注，可以第一次体验到为推动积极变化而努力是什么感觉。