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Business: Board games Not twilight, but sunrise
商業(yè)：棋盤游戲，不是衰敗而是興盛
Table-top games are booming in the video-game age.
視頻游戲年代，桌游盛行。
ESSEN is not one of Germany's better-known cities.
艾森不是德國(guó)任何一個(gè)比較出名的城市。
But for the world's growing band of board-game devotees, it is paradise.
但它卻是全球不斷增長(zhǎng)的棋盤游戲愛(ài)好者的天堂。
Each October it plays host to Internationale Spieltage, or Spiel, a board-game convention that is half fan-club gathering, half trade show—and, alongside America's Gen Con, one of the biggest gaming festivals in the world.
每年十月這里都會(huì)舉辦“埃森國(guó)際游戲節(jié)”——半是愛(ài)好者聚會(huì)，一半是貿(mào)易展的棋牌游戲大會(huì)——與全球最大的游戲節(jié)之一的美國(guó)“創(chuàng)展”齊名。
This year the organisers expect more than 160,000 visits over the festival's four days.
主辦方預(yù)計(jì)，今年為期四天的游戲節(jié)里，會(huì)有超過(guò)16萬(wàn)人出席。
Attenders will be able to watch and play more than 850 board, card and role-playing games, including a much-anticipated board-game version of “Magic: The Gathering”, a highly popular card game launched in 1993 in which players take on the role of duelling wizards.
出席者將觀看和參與超過(guò)850種棋盤、卡牌和角色扮演類游戲，其中包括一款萬(wàn)眾矚目的棋牌游戲——“萬(wàn)智牌”。在這款1993年推出的火爆的紙牌游戲中，玩家扮演決斗巫師的角色。
The whole thing will be capped off with the largest contest yet seen of “The Settlers of Catan”, in which 1,000 people will compete to colonise a fictional wilderness.
整個(gè)游戲節(jié)將以迄今為止最大的比賽“卡坦島”作為結(jié)束，到時(shí)將有1000人角逐殖民虛構(gòu)荒野。
The market for such “hobby games” is booming.
這種“愛(ài)好游戲”的市場(chǎng)正在蓬勃發(fā)展。
ICv2, a consulting firm, reckons it is worth $880m a year in America and Canada alone.
咨詢公司ICv2評(píng)估，僅在美國(guó)和加拿大，這一市場(chǎng)價(jià)值就已達(dá)每年8.80億美元。
“We've seen double-digit annual growth for the past half-decade,” says Milton Griepp, ICv2's boss.
“我們已經(jīng)見(jiàn)證過(guò)去五年里其兩位數(shù)的年增長(zhǎng)率，”ICv2的老板米爾頓·格里普說(shuō)。
Some of the games at Spiel will be aimed at children, but grown-ups are doing most of the buying.
埃森國(guó)際游戲節(jié)上的部分游戲是針對(duì)兒童的，但成年人才是最多的購(gòu)買者。
There is something for every taste, from “Fluxx”, a lighthearted card game whose rules change with every card played, to “Power Grid”, a fiendishly tricky business game featuring aspiring electricity tycoons, to all-day chin-scratchers such as “Twilight Imperium”, a game of galactic civilisation-building.
也有一些小眾游戲，從“無(wú)常牌”（一個(gè)輕松愉快的卡牌游戲，其規(guī)則隨著每一個(gè)出戰(zhàn)卡牌變化）到“電力公司”（一個(gè)非常棘手的商業(yè)游戲，有抱負(fù)的電力巨頭們整天為之抓耳撓腮，如“暮光帝國(guó)“——一款龐大的文明建設(shè)游戲。）
Steve Buckmaster of Esdevium Games, a British distributor, says that far from diverting people, video games—especially ones on smartphones—have brought gaming to a larger audience.
一位英國(guó)經(jīng)銷商——Esdevium游戲的史提夫馬斯特說(shuō)，視頻游戲，特別是智能手機(jī)上的游戲，不會(huì)遠(yuǎn)離人們，相反他們受到更多用戶的喜愛(ài)。
App versions of popular games often boost sales of their physical counterparts.
流行游戲的手機(jī)應(yīng)用版本常常提升其實(shí)物版本的銷量。
The internet has helped fans organise get-togethers, tournaments and the like, while crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter have made life easier for aspiring designers.
互聯(lián)網(wǎng)促進(jìn)游戲迷聚會(huì)，比賽等，而類似于Kickstarter的眾籌網(wǎng)站使有抱負(fù)的設(shè)計(jì)師生活得更容易。
They, in turn, are integrating computers into their games.
反過(guò)來(lái)，他們將計(jì)算機(jī)融入到游戲中。
“X-COM”, a board-game tie-in to a popular video-game series, uses a smartphone app that takes the role of the incoming aliens which players must battle on the table top.
“未知敵人”是一個(gè)與流行視頻游戲系列相關(guān)的智能手機(jī)應(yīng)用版棋牌類游戲，玩家必須在桌子上玩，扮演即將到來(lái)的外星人角色。
Meanwhile bricks-and-mortar game stores have adapted, running tournaments and providing the face-to-face sociability that online gaming lacks.
舉辦游戲比賽并提供網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲缺乏的面對(duì)面社交功能，其間實(shí)體游戲店已經(jīng)適應(yīng)新的情況。
And with “Game of Thrones” on TVs everywhere and cinemas packed with superhero films, the general triumph of what used to be mocked as “nerd culture” has made the fantasy and sci-fi themes featured in many games less of a turn-off.
隨著《權(quán)力的游戲》遍布電視熒屏和超級(jí)英雄題材的電影充斥影院，曾被嘲笑為“呆子文化”的全面勝利已經(jīng)成為幻想和科幻主題，幾乎無(wú)法避免地出現(xiàn)在許多游戲中。
Not every analogue pastime is suffering in the digital age.
并不是每一個(gè)相似的娛樂(lè)方式都在數(shù)字化時(shí)代遭受挫折。
