Video games 电子游戏

The price of free 免费的代价

The rush to extract money from players risks a regulatory backlash 急于榨取玩家资金会带来监管反弹风险

Moral Panics over new media are old hat. 新媒体带来的道德恐慌已是老生常谈了。

The social effects of novels, films, comic books and pop music were condemned by the grumpy reactionaries of the time. 当代暴躁的反对者早就在谴责小说、电影、连环漫画杂志以及流行音乐带来的社会效应。

In recent years video games have been a popular villain. 而近年来，电子游戏已经成为广喜爱的“恶棍”。

Exasperated parents and opportunistic politicians have long fretted that they make players lazy and listless, or else unpredictable and violent. 一直以来，恼怒的家长和投机的政客都担心电子游戏玩家会变得懒惰倦怠，或性情多变、暴躁乖戾。

Those concerns turned out to be largely misplaced. 事实证明，这些担忧很大程度上都是错误的。

But new worries about the addictiveness of games, and the danger that poses to children in particular, have more substance to them and are already prompting a regulatory crackdown. 但是对游戏成瘾、尤其是危害儿童的新担忧，对家长和政客而言有更多实质性内容，且已经引起监管部门对电子游戏的打击。

The industry would be wise to get ahead of the problem. 游戏行业最好先解决这一问题。

China, the world’s biggest video-game market, is leading the charge. 中国是世界最大的电子游戏市场，在监管方面首当其冲。

The government clamped down on the approval of new games earlier this year, and stopped approvals altogether in October. 今年年初，政府严加限制新游戏准入市场，并于10月完全停止审批。

Shares in Tencent, which built its business on video games and is one of the world’s largest internet companies, have fallen by 28% since the start of the year. 世界上最大的互联网公司之一腾讯就是基于电子游戏开展业务，自今年年初股票跌了28%。

China is an authoritarian state prone to overreaction. 这是一个易反应过激的权威国家。

But it is not the only country that is worried. 但并不是唯一一个处于焦虑的国家。

Japan and South Korea, both liberal democracies, have passed laws designed to regulate a video-gaming industry whose products are increasingly seen as addictive and harmful. 日本和韩国都是自由民主国家，但还是将电子游戏产品视为上瘾有害的，并已通过旨在监管电子游戏行业的法律。

And as business models refined in Asia have come to the West, lawmakers in Europe and America are becoming more concerned, too. 且随着亚洲不断完善的商业模式逐渐走向西方，欧美的立法者们也更加忧心了。

Such concerns feel more credible than prior panics, for two reasons. 对游戏的担忧比以往的（道德）恐慌更可信，原因有二。

The first is that much gaming now happens online, and generates reams of behavioural data. 第一，现在很多游戏都在线进行，会产生大量的行为数据。

This allows publishers to monitor exactly how customers are playing games, and fine-tune them to make them as compelling as possible. 这使得游戏发行商可精确监控用户玩游戏的过程，以进行微调，让游戏尽可能地吸引眼球。