TED演讲者：Noah Raford / 诺亚·拉福德
演讲标题：How gaming can be a force for good / 如果使游戏成为向善之力
【资料图】
内容概要：If you think social media is powerful, keep an eye on immersive video games, says futurist Noah Raford. As more and more people are drawn into gaming and virtual worlds, the communities they forge are spawning real-world social movements. Raford urges us to recognize what's really going on -- and then harness those forces to build the future we want.
未来主义者诺亚·拉福德（Noah Raford）说：“如果你认为社交媒体非常强大，那么就请你关注一下沉浸式电子游戏。”人们对游戏和虚拟世界趋之若鹜，他们构建的社群甚至涉及了现实世界中的社会运动。拉福德让我们去清楚了解一下现状，利用这些力量打造我们想要的未来。
*******************************************
【1】Do you spend more money on virtual fashion in video games than you do on physical clothes?
比起实体的服装,你有没有 在电子游戏中的虚拟装扮上 花过更多的钱？
【2】About a third of all teenage gamers in America do.
有差不多三分之一的 美国青少年玩家会这么做。
【3】Do you think the government is actually run by a secret cabal of demon-worshiping perverts?
你会不会觉得政府是由一个 崇拜恶魔的变态们 组成的秘密团体统治的？
【4】About 50 million people do.
有 5000 万人这么觉得。
【5】(Laughter) These numbers sound crazy to you?
（笑声） 这些数字很离谱吗？
【6】It's because they are, but they're also a sign of things to come.
确实很离谱, 但也是未来的预兆。
【7】The world feels like a pretty insane place right now.
我们的世界现在一团乱麻。
【8】And if you spend any time on the internet at all, you can probably tell that people think it's going to get a lot worse.
如果你上网看看, 你会发现人们都认为 情况只会越来越糟。
【9】Now, that may be the case, but this feeling is why I believe that we're going to see a rise in social unrest in the coming decades, and that is going to come from a surprising place.
也许确实是对的, 这也是为什么我觉得 在接下来几十年里 会更频繁地出现社会动荡, 而这些动荡的出处 会让你意想不到——
【10】Video games.
电子游戏。
【11】Now before you think, "Is this going to be another talk linking video game to violence?"
你可能会想:“这又是那种 把电子游戏和暴力扯在一起的演讲吧？”
【12】Sorry to disappoint you, that’s been proven conclusively wrong, and that is really old thinking.
不好意思让你失望了, 这已经被证实是一个错误的说法了, 太封建了。
【13】But what I am going to argue is that video games are going to become the platform through which tomorrow's social battles will be fought and the source of recruitment for some of the strangest and possibly most impactful social movements of the future.
但是我想说, 电子游戏会成为 未来社会战争的战场, 也会是未来最诡异、 也许是最有影响力的 社会运动的参与者来源。
【14】I like to call these video gamecults.
我想称之为“电子游戏邪教”。
【15】Sounds kind of scary, I admit, but I hope to show how they might also be used as a tool to cause some serious hope.
我承认听起来有点吓人, 但是我想给大家展示 它们如何点燃 一些切实的未来希望。
【16】Now this is all just my personal opinion.
这只是我的个人观点。
【17】But I started thinking about this a few years ago after I heard a very interesting story while working in the Gulf.
但是自从几年前 我在波斯湾工作的时候, 听到了一个非常有意思的故事, 我就开始有了这样的想法。
【18】The story was about Hassan ibn Sabbah, a charismatic young preacher who lived about 1,000 years ago in an age full of drama, conflict and social change.
故事的主人公是哈桑·本·萨巴赫 （Hassan ibn Sabbah）, 他是一个非常有魅力的年轻牧师, 来自大约一千年前, 那个时代充满了戏剧性、 冲突和社会变革。
【19】Hassan became famous for creating the Order of Assassins: a fanatically devoted group of young men known as the fedayeen, "those who sacrifice themselves."
哈桑因创立阿萨辛派 （Order of Assassins）而成名: 一群狂热、忠诚的年轻人, 称为“敢死队”（fedayeen）, 意为“自我牺牲者”。
【20】His men were so devoted to him that, the legend goes, they would throw themselves from the rafters to their death at his command.
这些人对他十分忠诚, 传说 只要他一声令下, 他们就愿意跳楼自杀。
【21】Actually, this is where we get the expression "a leap of faith" from.
这也就是“信仰之跃”的来源。
【22】So this got me thinking.
于是我就想,
【23】Why would someone do this?
怎么会有人愿意做这种事？
【24】What could convince someone so fervently to believe in something that they would welcome their own death?
如何才能说服一个人 如此狂热地崇拜一样东西, 狂热到他们可以坦然了结自己？
【25】The answer is 11th century virtual reality.
答案就是“ 11 世纪虚拟现实”。
【26】See, Hassan had cultivated a myth that he could send people to heaven and bring them back again without actually having to die.
哈桑捏造了一个神话: 他可以把人送入天堂再接回来, 人也不会真的去死。
【27】And of course, he didn't actually have this power, but before a mission, the story goes, he would dose his soldiers with massive amounts of hash.
当然,他也没这能耐, 但是在任务开始之前, 他会让手下大量嗑药。
【28】(Laughter) Their enemies actually called them the "?ashshāshīn,"
（笑声） 他们的敌人称他们为 “?ashshāshīn”,
【29】which is also where we get the word "assassin" from.
也是“刺客”（assassin） 一词的来源。
【30】This would knock them out and then he would lower them down into a secret garden he had built behind his mountain fortress, designed to look exactly like a replica of heaven.
他把这些年轻人打晕,拖到 一个建在山寨后面的秘密花园里去, 照搬了天堂的外观。
【31】Waking up in this simulated paradise, his men would gorge themselves on all the things they had been denied in life.
这些人在这模拟天堂中醒来, 纵情享受 之前人生中的禁忌之物。
【32】Then, after a night of ecstasy, they would awaken back in their barracks, convinced of Hassan's powers, eager to fulfill his suicide missions in order to return to heaven again.
在这一夜纸醉金迷之后, 他们又在小破屋中醒来, 对哈桑的力量五体投地, 迫不及待自杀一次, 这样可以重返天堂。
【33】So.
所以,
【34】What does this have to do with today?
和今时今日有什么关系呢？
【35】Well, most scholars agree that this is probably just a myth, but that's not the point.
大多数学者认为这只是个传说, 但是这不重要。
【36】The point is that people believed deeply in Hassan and his vision for the world and were willing to sacrifice their lives for it.
重要的是人们对哈桑和 他对世界的畅想深信不疑, 甚至愿意牺牲自己的性命 前往这个世界。
【37】He gave them a sense of meaning and purpose during a time of great uncertainty.
哈桑在动荡时期 给予了这些人 人生的意义和使命感。
【38】A purpose which he communicated using the best tools of his day.
他用当时最有力的工具 传达了这个使命。
【39】And that is what brings us to video games.
也就牵扯上了电子游戏。
【40】Video games are already the world's dominant form of entertainment.
电子游戏已经是 世界上最主流的娱乐形式。
【41】They're three times larger than the entire global film and music industries combined.
电子游戏行业 比全球电影和音乐产业 加起来大三倍。
【42】Every year, the top streamers on Twitch receive on average twice as many views as the biggest Hollywood movies.
每年, Twitch 平台上的顶流博主 比最火爆的好莱坞电影 达成的观影量大约多一倍。
【43】And collectively, we spend twice as much time watching and playing video games as we do using all other forms of social media combined.
合计起来, 我们在观看、打游戏上花的时间 要比花在其他所有 社交媒体上的时间多一倍。
【44】That's a lot of eyeballs.
这可是万众瞩目。
【45】Game sales are huge, but the real action is in in-game economies where people spend over 130 billion dollars a year buying and selling virtual goods online.
游戏本身的销量巨大, 但是更大头在于游戏内的交易, 人们每年会在虚拟商品的 线上交易上 花费超过 1300 亿美元。
【46】Everything from outfits to avatars, to vehicles to weapons, to dances to architecture to music, to access to live events and more.
服饰、虚拟形象、坐骑、武器、 舞蹈动作、建筑、音乐、 在线活动入场券等等。
【47】Haven't even mentioned NFT or Web3, but these hopefully will become the infrastructure that drives this going forward.
我都还没提到 NFT 或者 Web3, 但是它们很有可能 会成为驱动未来的基础设施。
【48】So if you're wondering what the metaverse looks like, this is it.
如果你想知道 元宇宙是什么样子的, 就是这样的。
【49】The reason games are so successful is because they provide a deep sense of engagement, community and purpose.
游戏产业大获成功的原因是 它提供了一种参与感、 社群感和使命感。
【50】Yes, we use them to escape and to entertain, and that’s OK.
没错,我们通过游戏逃避现实、 娱乐身心,这很正常。
【51】But at their best, they speak to some of our primal social and psychological needs, from feeling effective to achieving our goals, to belonging to a group, to working for something bigger than yourself.
但是最佳的情况是 游戏可以抒发我们最初级的 社交和心理需求, 无论是达成目标的成就感、 团体归属感, 还是努力成就大业的激情。
【52】Describing his experience in a top World of Warcraft guild, the player Wincy once wrote, "It felt so amazing...
玩家 Wincy 描述了他在 魔兽世界顶级公会中的经历: “太爽了……
【53】Thinking back, it was probably the most intense, positive emotional experience of my life.
回想一下,这也许是我人生中 最浓墨重彩、 最振奋人心的一段经历了。
【54】Not my kid being born, not getting married."
不是我孩子出生的时刻, 也不是我结婚的时刻。”
【55】(Laughter) "My mind was convinced we were in a war against an insurmountable foe and we won."
（笑声） “我的信念是 我们正在与劲敌战斗, 然后我们赢了。”
【56】You can probably see where I'm going with this.
你可能会猜到接下来的走向。
【57】Although he later went on to regret the amount of time he spent online, gamers develop a deep sense of commitment to a shared narrative world.
虽然后来他后悔 在线上花了这么多时间, 玩家们还是全情投入了 这个共享的虚拟世界。
【58】A world which provides for them in a way that "real-world" jobs and relationships often do not.
这个世界为他们带来 “现实”工作和人际关系 通常无法提供的价值。
【59】And this is already the world that our children live in.
这也是我们的孩子 身处的世界。
【60】The only thing that my son and daughter want for their birthdays are Skyblock coins and digital emotes for their characters.
我的儿女想要的生日礼物 是空岛生存（Skyblock）币 和他们角色的虚拟表情。
【61】Most of their social time outside of school is spent hanging out in-game with their friends.
他们大部分的课余社交时间 都花在了和朋友们 在游戏里玩耍上。
【62】My son Teo, he's already flipping NFTs to, in his words, get rich as quickly as possible so he can take care of us when the world falls apart.
我的儿子提奥（Teo）, 已经开始倒卖 NFT,用他的话说, 他想迅速发家致富, 这样他就能在 地球毁灭的时候保护我们。
【63】Thanks Teo, appreciate that.
谢谢提奥。
【64】That's why I think games are going to be one of the driving forces of tomorrow's culture.
这就是为什么我觉得游戏 会是未来文化的一种驱动力。
【65】But if that's the game's part, what about the cults part?
但这说的是“游戏”的部分, 那“邪教”的部分呢？
【66】Well, I'm sure we can all agree that the coming years are going to be interesting, to say the least.
我觉得我们都同意 接下来的几年 至少会比较有趣。
【67】From climate change, mass migration, pandemics, job loss and now war.
气候变化,大规模移民, 疫情,失业, 现在又有了战争。
【68】The future feels terrifying for many people.
对很多人来说, 未来很恐怖。
【69】And this is having a tremendous impact on our mental health.
这也严重影响了我们的心理健康。
【70】One third of all US undergraduates surveyed report having moderate to severe anxiety.
三分之一的美国大学生受访者 表示他们有中度至重度焦虑。
【71】Their rates of suicidal thinking and severe depression doubled over the last decade or so.
他们患有自杀倾向和重度抑郁的比例 自过去十年翻了一倍。
【72】And COVID didn't help.
新冠肺炎只会这个情况更糟。
【73】But it's not just the US, either.
这也不只是美国的情况。
【74】Two thirds of those surveyed in a study of 17 different countries reported that they thought their children were going to grow up poorer and not have successful careers.
来自 17 个国家的三分之二受访者 表示他们觉得 孩子会越长越差, 以后也不会事业有成。
【75】In other words, the world feels like it's falling apart for a lot of people.
换句话说, 很多人都觉得地球要毁灭了。
【76】And when worlds fall apart, people start looking for answers wherever they can find them.
等到地球真的要毁灭的时候, 人们就会开始竭尽所能寻找答案。
【77】And charismatic leaders like Hassan have always been happy to provide them.
像哈桑这样的魅力领袖 就乐于给予他们这样的答案。
【78】And their actions have shaped the course of history.
他们的行为影响了历史的走向。
【79】From the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century to the rise of new religious movements in the 19th century, every era of social change historically has been followed by a wave of new believers and fanatical behavior.
无论是 16 世纪的新教改革, 还是 19 世纪 层出不穷的新教运动, 历史上每个 社会变革的时代都伴随着 一大波新信徒和狂热行为。
【80】QAnon is just the most recent example.
“匿名者 Q”（QAnon） 就是最近的一个例子。
【81】And while each generation's cults look different and the definition of a cult is certainly up for debate, they do share general characteristics.
虽然每一代的邪教看起来不太一样, 人们对“邪教”的定义也各执一词, 但是它们还是有一些共同的特征。
【82】The first is that they inspire a sense of higher purpose, often through a lens of good versus evil, where you are the hero, that creates a sense of passion or commitment that seems insane or irrational to the outsider.
首先,它们会激发 一种崇高的使命感, 通常通过构建好坏对立, 而你是其中正义的一方, 引发一种在外人看来 十分疯狂不理智的 狂热或献身精神。
【83】And the second is that they adopt the form of and use the tools of the dominant organizations of their day.
第二,它们会采取 当时的主流组织 采用的形式和工具。
【84】From the church to the corporation to the social media network to our subject for today, the metaverse.
教会、 企业、 社交媒体网络, 再到现今炙手可热的 元宇宙。
【85】So what happens when you mix billions of people looking for meaning, safety and security with widespread virtual worlds, crypto economies and gaming culture?
如果你把数十亿 追求意义和安全的人 和遍地开花的虚拟世界、 加密经济模式、游戏文化 混杂在一起,会怎么样？
【86】The answer, I believe, is “gamecults.” Large-scale social movements powered by extreme or bizarre beliefs, birthed in virtual worlds, driven by game dynamics, but with real-world consequence.
我相信答案会是“游戏邪教”。 大规模的社会运动 由极端或者怪异的信仰驱使, 诞生于虚拟世界, 驱动于游戏动机, 但是会造成现实世界中的后果。
【87】The future is about to get weird.
未来越来越诡异了。
【88】We can already see examples of this all around us.
身边的例子屡见不鲜。
【89】We just haven't had a name for it yet.
只是我们还没为这种情况命名。
【90】Softer versions look like BTS stans swarming Donald Trump rallies online, but more extreme versions look like Hezbollah's own custom-made video game called Special Forces, designed to recruit young people and train them to kill their enemies.
一个不那么极端的例子是 一个更极端的例子是 黎巴嫩真主党自制的电子游戏, 称为“真主党特种部队” 旨在招募年轻人, 训练他们, 让他们杀光敌人。
【91】White nationalist groups are hosting Call of Duty tournaments online to attract followers, and there are Roblox games where you can drive your car through Black Lives Matter protesters or assume the role of Kyle Rittenhouse and shoot anti-fascist protesters.
白人国家主义团体在线上 组织使命召唤锦标赛, 吸引粉丝, 在一个罗布乐思（Roblox） 出的游戏中,你可以开车 穿过“黑人的命也是命”（BLM）的 抗议者队伍, 代入你就是凯尔·里滕豪斯 （Kyle Rittenhouse）,
【92】And there are many other examples, but all of them are wrapped in a layer of Discord servers and YouTube channels and podcasts that act as the funnel to draw you deeper into a web of extremism and radical behavior.
还有很多的例子, 它们由 Discord 服务器、 Youtube 频道、播客引导, 这些渠道会把你引向极端主义 和激进行为的魔窟。
【93】What starts on the screen no longer stays on the screen.
屏幕里的事 将蔓延至屏幕之外。
【94】QAnon is a perfect example of this.
“匿名者 Q” 就是一个完美的例子。
【95】What started on 4chan and Facebook, mutated into a live-action role-playing group for evangelical militants and ended up as an anti-vaccination campaign.
起家自 4chan 网和脸谱网, 逐渐演化成了一个 实况角色扮演集团, 充满了狂热的激进分子, 最后搞了一个反疫苗活动。
【96】Before you know it, we have a million excess deaths from COVID in the United States and a political landscape far stranger than anything we've ever seen.
可以给你分享一下, 美国有超一百万人 死于新冠, 政治局势前所未有地怪异离奇。
【97】The same is going to be true for games.
游戏也是如此。
【98】First you're a player, then you're a fan, soon you're in a clan, and before you know it, you're invading the Capitol.
你先成为了一名玩家, 然后是一个粉丝, 不久你加入了一个帮派, 还没等你反应过来, 你已经在入侵国会大厦了。
【99】So I'm a futurist.
我是个未来主义者。
【100】And there's a saying with futurists, that your job is not to just predict the automobile, but to predict the traffic jams.
有人这么说未来主义者, 你的工作不单单是预测汽车, 而是预测路况。
【101】So what might this look like in 10 or 20 years, when widespread augmented and virtual reality meets thriving crypto economies and a generalized crisis of meaning?
所以在 10 年、20 年之后, 增强现实和虚拟现实 广泛普及, 加密经济蓬勃发展,追寻意义已经 见弃于人,会是什么样的情形？
【102】Well in the future, games are going to be everywhere.
未来, 游戏将无处不在。
【103】They're going to move from our screens and onto the streets around us.
它们会走出屏幕,走上街头。
【104】Hundreds of millions, if not billions of people will be buying, selling, making and trading virtual goods online.
不说几十亿人, 至少有几亿人 会在线上买卖、制造、 交易虚拟物品。
【105】They're going to assume roles as characters, follow quests and get real-world money for in-game performance.
他们会选择虚拟角色, 踏上征途,根据游戏内的表现 赚取现实中的报酬。
【106】Guilds, corporations and clans will form around them.
他们周围会组建 公会、集团、帮派。
【107】They might start offering salaries, paying benefits, and providing real-world services like education or health care or even security.
也许会付工资、给福利, 提供一些现实生活中的服务, 如教育、医疗,甚至是安保。
【108】People's entire lives will be built around their characters and their stories, particularly if things get really bad.
人们的整个人生将围绕着 他们的角色和故事形成, 尤其是在人生 不那么顺利的时候。
【109】And those stories will come to dominate popular culture and politics.
这些故事会主导 流行文化和政治走向。
【110】Now, thankfully, not all of them will be harmful, but some will be violently evangelical in their nature.
好在不是所有游戏都在干坏事, 但是有些游戏的本质就是 具有强烈煽动性的。
【111】It's got me thinking, there must be a better way that we can use these dynamics to heal instead of harm.
我不禁想, 一定有一个更好的方法 让我们通过这些游戏 产生正面影响而不是负面影响。
【112】So I started thinking, what might this look like?
所以我想, 会是一种什么样的情形呢？
【113】How can we explore possible futures for positive gamecults?
我们该如何探索 正向“游戏邪教”的未来呢？
【114】So here are just three examples I came up with a few friends.
我和我的朋友们想到了 以下三个例子。
【115】Consider Druidica, a Minecraft-like nature game designed to restore damaged ecosystems and preserve indigenous knowledge.
Druidica 是一个《我的世界》 （Minecraft）性质的游戏, 旨在修复被破坏的生态系统, 保护当地文化。
【116】Or perhaps Walkabout, Walkabout， a Rust-like survival game for refugees designed to encourage skill sharing, interdependence and mutual aid linked to scriptural messages of tolerance and compassion.
一个类似于《腐蚀》（Rust）的 生存游戏,面向难民, 鼓励共享技能、 相互依赖、互相帮助, 传达《圣经》中的 宽容和怜悯之意。
【117】Or perhaps Temple, a pray-to-earn game, linked to a network of nondenominational meditation spaces where players can perform coordinated acts of care to level up on the good works board.
还有 Temple, 一个“边祈祷边赚”形式的游戏, 提供一个无宗教 冥想空间网络, 玩家可以组织关爱活动, 提高善行榜上的等级。
【118】A kind of, decentralized church of kindness, powered maybe by HOLY coin.
就像是一种 去中心化的善意教会, 也许由 HOLY 币（意为“圣币”, 虚构的虚拟货币,类比 ETH 等）支持。
【119】It's clear that something like this is coming.
类似这样的现象近在眼前。
【120】The question is: What can we do about it now?
问题是:我们现在能做些什么呢？
【121】As we've learned from social media, technological fixes and regulatory restrictions will only go so far.
我们从社交媒体得到的教训是 技术修复和监管限制 已经到了终点。
【122】And in the attention economy of political priorities, gamecults are clearly quite low.
但是在这政治优先级导向的 注意力经济（attention economy）中, 游戏邪教并没有受到多少重视。
【123】But that’s OK, it means we still have time to do something about them.
没关系, 这意味着我们还能为此做点什么。
【124】That's why I think that everyone, from policymakers to players to game designers and gamers should be having a conversation about what this means right now.
这也就是为什么我认为每个人, 无论你是政策制定者、参与者、 还是游戏设计师和玩家, 现在都该思考一下 它代表着什么。
【125】If you are a media company, you should be talking to experts in radicalization.
如果你有一家媒体公司, 你该去和激进化专家谈谈。
【126】If you are a game company, you should be speaking to those who don't understand gaming dynamics and the communities around them.
如果你有一家游戏公司, 你该去和那些 不懂游戏动机的人谈一谈, 了解一下他们身边的社群。
【127】If you're a church or a religious institution, you should be understanding how people use these tools to build beliefs and what they're believing.
如果你经营着 一个宗教组织的教会, 你该去了解一下人们 如果运用这些工具构建信仰 和他们信奉的事物。
【128】And finally, perhaps most importantly, if you're a parent, you should be playing games with your kids to understand the world that they're growing up in and to have a conversation with them about the role that they might play in it.
最后一点,也许也是最重要的一点, 如果你有孩子, 你该和你的孩子们一起打打游戏, 了解一下他们成长的环境, 和他们聊一聊 他们应该在其中扮演什么样的角色。
【129】Someone's going to connect these dots.
会有人清醒地看透这一切。
【130】The question is: Who is going to be our modern-day Hassan?
问题是: 谁会成为当代的哈桑呢？
【131】And will the games of tomorrow be games of subjugation and domination?
游戏的未来会是征服和统治吗？
【132】Or inspiration and liberation.
还是启迪和自由呢？
【133】It's really up to us.
这就取决于我们自己了。
【134】Thank you.
谢谢。
【135】(Applause)
标签：
免责声明：以上内容为本网站转自其它媒体，相关信息仅为传递更多信息之目的，不代表本网观点，亦不代表本网站赞同其观点或证实其内容的真实性。如稿件版权单位或个人不想在本网发布，可与本网联系，本网视情况可立即将其撤除。
