評論
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I love video games.
我愛電子游戲
I'm also slightly in awe of them.
也對它抱有些許敬畏
I'm in awe of their power
我敬畏它們
in terms of imagination, in terms of technology, in terms of concept.
想象力，技術，概念方面的力量
But I think, above all,
但是最重要的是
I'm in awe at their power to motivate, to compel us, to transfix us,
我所敬畏它們能夠激勵著，迫使著我們，讓我們目瞪口呆，
like really nothing else we've ever invented has quite done before.
這是人類其它發明所不能企及的。
And I think that we can learn some pretty amazing things
我們從觀察玩電子游戲
by looking at how we do this.
中學到一些非常了不起的東西
And in particular, I think we can learn things about learning.
特別是，我想我們能學習關于學習的本質
Now the video games industry
現在電子游戲產業
is far and away the fastest growing of all modern media.
超速發展，遠遠領先于所有現代媒體
From about 10 billion in 1990,
從1990年代的大約100億美元
it's worth 50 billion dollars globally today,
到今天在全球范圍內值500億美元
and it shows no sign of slowing down.
它沒有顯示出放緩的跡象
In four years' time,
在未來的四年里
it's estimated it'll be worth over 80 billion dollars.
據估計它的價值會超過800億美元
That's about three times the recorded music industry.
這大約是唱片行業的三倍
This is pretty stunning,
真的很驚人
but I don't think it's the most telling statistic of all.
但我不認為這就是所有統計數據中最據說服力的
The thing that really amazes me is that, today,
最使我驚訝的就是，今天
people spend about eight billion real dollars a year
人們每年花費大約80億美元現金
buying virtual items that only exist inside video games.
用于購買僅存于電子游戲里的虛擬iTunes服務
This is a screenshot from the virtual game world, Entropia Universe.
這是一個虛擬游戲世界的截圖，來自《安特羅皮亞世界》
Earlier this year,
今年的早些時候
a virtual asteroid in it sold for 330,000 real dollars.
在里面一個虛擬的小行星賣到了33萬美元現金
And this is a Titan class ship in the space game, EVE Online.
這是是一艘泰坦級的宇宙飛船來自太空游戲《星戰前夜Online》
And this virtual object takes 200 real people
這個虛擬的物體需要200個真人
about 56 days of real time to build,
大約56個天建成
plus countless thousands of hours of effort before that.
還加上此前無數成千小時的前期工作
And yet, many of these get built.
類似這樣被造出的還有很多
At the other end of the scale,
而另一方面
the game Farmville that you may well have heard of,
游戲《虛擬農場》，你也許早有耳聞
has 70 million players around the world
在全世界范圍內擁有700億玩家
and most of these players are playing it almost every day.
玩家中的絕大多數幾乎每天都在玩
This may all sound really quite alarming to some people,
這也許聽起來對一些人來說，這是一個很令人警惕的
an index of something worrying or wrong in society.
令人擔憂的社會問題的象征
But we're here for the good news,
但我們在這里討論一些好消息
and the good news is
好消息就是
that I think we can explore why this very real human effort,
我們可以去探索為什么這種真實的人類勞動
this very intense generation of value, is occurring.
這么巨大的價值的創造會得以出現
And by answering that question,
借回答這個問題
I think we can take something extremely powerful away.
我覺得我們可以從中得到極其強大的信息。
And I think the most interesting way
我想最有趣的方式
to think about how all this is going on is in terms of rewards.
思考這些問題的角度就是獎賞。
And specifically, it's in terms of the very intense emotional rewards
更具體來說，就是非常密集的情感獎賞，
that playing games offers to people
通過玩游戲提供給人們，
both individually and collectively.
既是個人的，也有集體的。
Now if we look at what's going on in someone's head
如果我們觀察一下某人的大腦，
when they are being engaged, two quite different processes are occurring.
當他們忙碌時是怎樣運作的，兩個相當不同的進程同時發生著。
