【2009经济学人杂志双语阅读】Virtual worlds for children 孩子们的虚拟世界

chijiaoshunv

Online playgrounds

线上游戏世界

Jul 23rd 2009
From The Economist print edition

There is life in virtual reality after all
毕竟，虚拟生活也是一种生活

REMEMBER Second Life, the virtual world that was supposed to become almost as important as the first one? Now populated by no more than 84,000 avatars at a time, it has turned out to be a prime example of how short-lived internet fads can be. Yet if many adults seem to have given up on virtual worlds, those  that cater to children and teenagers are thriving. Several have even found a way to make money.

还记得《第二人生》吗，那个曾经被认为将会与现实生活同样重要的虚拟世界？但现在，其同时在线人数最多不超过8万4千人，这又是一起网络短时跟风的鲜明事 例。如果说许多成年人看起来好像已经脱离了网络游戏，那么那些能够迎合儿童和青少年口味的网络游戏却正在日益繁茂中。它们中的有些甚至已经找到了可以实现 盈利的商业模式。

In America, nearly 10m children and teenagers visit virtual worlds regularly, estimates eMarketer, a market researcher—a number the firm expects to increase to 15m by 2013. As of January, there were 112 virtual worlds designed for under-18s with another 81 in development, according to Engage Digital Media, a market research firm.

在美国，将近有一千万的儿童和青少年定期登录各种网络游戏，伊玛克（eMarketer，一个市场研究公司）估计，到2013年该人数将上升至一千五百万 人。根据EDM（Engage Digital Media，一个市场调研公司）的统计，截至今年1月，已经有112款为18岁（含）以下儿童设计的虚拟游戏诞生，同时，另外81款正在紧锣密鼓的开发 中。

All cater to different age groups and tastes. In Club Penguin, the market leader, which was bought by Disney in 2007 for a whopping $700m, primary-school children can take on a penguin persona, fit out their own igloo and play games. Habbo Hotel, a service run from Finland, is a global hangout for teenagers who want to customise their own rooms and meet in public places to attend events. Gaia Online, based in Silicon Valley, offers similar activities, but is visited mostly by older teens who are into Manga comics.

这些游戏合起来可以满足各种年龄层和不同口味群体的偏好。在《企鹅俱乐部》（Club Penguin，游戏市场的领先者）这款游戏里，国小的小朋友们不仅能够穿上企鹅伪装服，装备他们自己的小冰屋，还能够玩各种各样的游戏。哈伯饭店 （Habbo Hotel），来自于芬兰的线上服务，成为了全球青少年聚集的巢穴。利用这项服务，青少年们可以定制自己的房间，也能够参与到公共事件中去。《盖亚 Online》（Gaia Online），诞生于硅谷，也提供了相似的服务，但是他的用户群集中在年龄稍长的青少年中，他们往往非常热爱日本动漫。

Not a hit with advertisers, these online worlds earn most of their money from the sale of virtual goods, such as items to spruce up an avatar or a private room. They are paid for in a private currency, which members earn by participating in various activities, trading items or buying them with real dollars.

然而，这些游戏并不能提起广告商的兴趣，因为这些线上世界的利润来源是虚拟物品的销售，这些物品包括角色使用的各种装备以及整理私人房间的器具。它们往往用虚拟货币支付，这些货币可以通过参与丰富多彩的活动、虚拟交易和付出真实美元来获得。

This sort of stealth tax seems to work. At Gaia Online, users spend more than $1m per month on virtual items, says Craig Sherman, the firm’s chief executive. Running such a virtual economy is not easy, which is why Gaia has hired a full-time economist to grapple with problems that are well known in the real world, such as inflation and an unequal distribution of wealth.

这种隐匿负担[1]的机制似乎工作得很好。《盖亚Online》的游戏运营商董事长克雷格·谢尔曼（Craig Sherman）表示，用户们每月在虚拟物品上的花费超过一百万美元。然而，让这样一个庞大的虚拟经济体运转并不是件容易的事，所以他们不得不聘请全职的 经济学家来处理各种我们在现实世界中都会遇到的疑难问题，比如通货膨胀和财富分配不均。

There are other barriers that could limit the growth of virtual worlds for the young, but the main one is parents. Many do not want their offspring roaming virtual worlds, either because they are too commercial or are thought to be too dangerous. Keeping them safe is one of the biggest running costs, because their sponsors have to employ real people to police their realms.

当然，许多制约因素都能够抑制青少年级虚拟游戏的增长，但主要的压力来自父母。很多家长都不愿意他们的孩子游弋于虚拟游戏的世界中，一方面是因为这些游戏 过于商业化很费钱，另一方面这些虚拟世界也显得异常危险。让这些游戏环境变得安全是一件十分烧钱的事情，因为它们的运营商不得不雇佣真人来管理自己建立起 来的王国。

Youngsters are also a fickle bunch, says Simon Levene of Accel Partners, a venture-capital firm. Just as children move from one toy to another, they readily switch worlds or social networks, often without saying goodbye.

阿塞尔伙伴公司（风险投资商）的西门·莱文表示，年青人是一群让人捉摸不定者，就像儿童们对玩具喜新厌旧一般，他们时刻准备着切换自己主攻的游戏世界或者社交网络，常常一声招呼都不打，毫无留恋之意。

Even so, Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at eMarketer, believes “these worlds are a training ground for the three-dimensional web”. If virtual worlds for adults, which so far have been able to retain only hardcore users, manage to hang on for a few years, they may yet have a second life.

即使是这样，伊玛克（eMarketer）公司的分析师黛布拉·阿霍·威廉姆斯（Debra Aho Williamson）也相信“这些虚拟游戏正是迈向三维网络世界的必经通路”。如果那些迄今为止只能够抓住核心用户的成人虚拟游戏还能够再坚持几年的 话，它们也许还能迎来自己的第二春吧。


[1]隐匿负担：直译的词，是指利用不让人们接触纸币的方式来完成交易，从而鼓励多消费，典型的例子是信用卡。其心理学依据是，当人们进行交易时，如果手能够亲自接触通货，人们会产生惜买的情绪。