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Don't panic别慌
Video game makers must address worries about addictiveness电子游戏开发商必须化解人们对游戏上瘾的担忧
By sharing their data, they may pre-empt tougher regulation分享数据也许能预先防止更严厉监管。
Jan 1st 2022 |
NO BUSINESS WOULD welcome being compared to Big Tobacco or gambling. Yet that is what is happening to makers of video games. For years parents have casually complained that their offspring are “addicted” to their PlayStations and smartphones. Today, however, ever more doctors are using the term literally.
没有任何企业会乐见自己被比作大烟草公司或赌博，电子游戏开发商却正面临这一问题。多年来家长们偶尔会抱怨孩子们玩PlayStation和智能手机像上了瘾似的。然而如今，越来越多的医生则认为游戏确实会让人上瘾。
On January 1st “gaming disorder”—in which games are played compulsively, despite causing harm—gains recognition from the World Health Organisation (WHO), as the newest edition of its diagnostic manual comes into force. A few months ago China, the world’s biggest gaming market, announced new rules limiting children to just a single hour of play a day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and none the rest of the week. Western politicians worry publicly about some games’ similarity to gambling. Clinics are sprouting around the world, promising to cure patients of their habit in the same way they might cure them of an addiction to alcohol or cocaine.
1月1日，随着最新版诊断手册生效，“游戏障碍”（即使已经造成伤害，仍强迫性玩游戏的失控行为）作为一种疾病得到了世卫组织（WHO）的承认。几个月前，全球最大的游戏市场中国发布新规，限制儿童周五和周末每天只能玩1小时游戏，其他时间不允许玩游戏。西方政客，针对某些游戏与赌博存在相似性的问题，公开表示了担忧。世界各地诊所纷纷涌现，承诺能够帮助患者戒除游戏瘾，治疗手段与戒酒瘾或毒瘾如出一辙。
Are games really addictive? Psychologists are split. The case for the defence is that this is just another moral panic. Killjoys of yore issued similarly dire warnings about television, rock ’n’ roll, jazz, comic books, novels and even crossword puzzles. As the newest form of mass media, gaming is merely enduring its own time in the stocks before it eventually ceases to be controversial. Furthermore, defenders argue, the criteria used to diagnose gaming addiction are too loose. Obsessive gaming, they suggest, is as likely to be a symptom (of depression, say) as a disorder in its own right.
游戏真能让人上瘾吗？心理学家意见不一。辩方认为这不过是又一场道德恐慌。过去，也有人大煞风景地警告说电视、摇滚、爵士、漫画书、小说，甚至填字游戏都会让人上瘾。作为大众媒体的最新形式，电子游戏只要熬过一段时间，最终会变得没有争议。而且辩方还认为，对游戏成瘾的诊断标准太过宽松。游戏强迫症很可能是一种症状（比如抑郁症的症状），其本身并非一种心理障碍。
The prosecution retorts that, unlike rock bands or novelists, games developers have both the motive and the means to engineer their products to make them irresistible. The motive arises from a business-model shift. In the old days games were bought for a one-off, upfront cost. These days, many use a “freemium” model, in which the game is free and money is made from purchases of in-game goods. That ties playtime directly to revenue.
控方则认为，与摇滚乐队或小说家不同，游戏开发商既有动机也有手段，把产品设计得令人无法抗拒。商业模式转变导致了这一动机的产生。过去，游戏是一次性前期买断。现在很多游戏采用“免费增值”模式，即游戏免费，而从游戏里的商品销售中获利。这就使游戏时长直接和收入挂钩。
The means is a combination of psychological theory and data that helps games-makers maximise that playtime. Psychologists already know quite a lot about the sorts of things that animals, including humans, find rewarding (thanks to a long line of experiments, stretching back decades to those conducted on rats and pigeons by B.F. Skinner). Smartphones and modern consoles use their permanent internet connections to funnel gameplay data back to developers. That allows products to be constantly fine-tuned and tweaked to boost spending. The industry is even beginning to use the argot of the gambling business. The biggest spenders are known as “whales”—a term that originated in casinos.
游戏开发商所采用的手段是将心理学理论与数据结合，使游戏时长最大化。心理学家对于包括人类在内的动物受哪些刺激会感到有成就感，已经有了相当多的了解（这多亏了一系列实验，这些实验一直可以追溯到几十年前B.F.斯金纳用老鼠和鸽子所做的实验）。智能手机和现代游戏平台通过永久联网把游戏数据回传给开发商，这样就可以不断对产品进行微调以刺激消费。游戏产业甚至开始使用赌博业黑话。最大手笔的买家称为“鲸鱼”——这一术语发源于赌场。
While psychologists argue the finer points of what exactly counts as addiction, and whether gaming’s design tricks cross the line, the industry should recognise that, in the real world, it has a problem, and that problem is growing. Now that gaming addiction comes with an official WHO code, diagnoses will become more common. Clinics are already reporting booming business, as lockdowns have given gamers more time to spend with their hobby. The regulatory climate for tech is getting chillier. And being lumped in the public mind, fairly or not, with gambling and tobacco will not do the industry any favours.
一方面心理学家围绕着究竟如何界定“成瘾”的细枝末节，以及游戏设计是否违规而争论不休，另一方面游戏产业应认识到，在现实世界中它存在一个问题，而且这个问题正日益严峻。现在，游戏成瘾得到了WHO官方界定，会出现更多确诊。疫情封锁使玩家有更多时间沉迷于爱好之中，因此诊所生意兴隆。对于科技公司，监管环境变得愈加严格。无论公平与否，公众心目中把游戏与赌博和烟草归为一类，这对游戏产业一点好处也没有。
Self-interest on many levels 多层面上的自身利益
It would be wise to get ahead of the discussion. A good place to start would be with hard data. Many of the studies underpinning the contention that games are addictive in a medical sense are woolly: they rely on self-reported symptoms, contested diagnostic criteria, skewed samples and so on. Even basic questions about the amount of time and money spent by users are hard to answer. The industry has an abundance of data that could help. But gaming firms mostly keep details of how gamers behave secret, citing commercial sensitivity.
明智之举是先发制人。利用可靠数据是个很好的出发点。很多研究主要从医学角度指出游戏会让人上瘾，但论证都含糊不清：上述研究依赖于自述症状，诊断标准存在争议，数据采样有偏差等。甚至连一些基本问题，比如玩家在游戏上花了多长时间和多少钱，都很难得到答案。游戏产业拥有大量有利数据。但大多数游戏公司却以商业敏感性为由，对玩家行为细节保密。
In the long run, that will prove unwise. Gaming firms should make more of their data hoard available to researchers. If—as seems likely—worries about addictiveness are overblown, it is hard to think of a clearer way of showing it. And if not, it is better for firms to recognise the problem now, and do something about it voluntarily. The alternative is that regulators will force them to act. (...)■
长期来看这并不明智。游戏公司应向研究人员提供自己的数据库。如果，而且似乎确实是，对成瘾的担忧是夸大其词，这是能证明这一点的最好方式。如果不是夸大其词，那么游戏公司最好现在就承认并主动解决问题。否则，监管部门就会强制其采取行动。(...) |
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发表于 2022-2-2 12:30
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