经济学人211:日本的手机游戏业

 　　Business

　　商业报道

　　Mobile gaming in Japan

　　日本的手机游戏业

　　Gacha? Gotcha!

　　嘎查？弹无虚发！

　　Bureaucrats¹ clamp down on a tech billionaire

　　手机游戏技术巨头遭到政府打压

　　NOT again.

　　不要再重复了。

　　Just when another tousle-haired Japanese entrepreneur hoped it was safe to make a billion or two,

　　当另一个头发散乱的日本企业家希望能安全地创造出十亿，二十亿的价值，

　　along come the forces of law and order threatening to throw the rule book at him:

　　伴随而来的是法律与秩序的势力，威胁着要把规则手册扔给他：

　　in this case, the Act Against Unjustified Premiums² and Misleading Representations.

　　在这件事上，他违反了不合理的额外费用和误导人的陈述。

　　That, at least, is how some people viewed news this week that the Consumer Affairs Agency was investigating a feature,

　　至少，一些人把这件事视为了这周的新闻，日本消费者厅正在调查一类以称为完整的嘎查为特色的游戏至少，一

　　popular on Japan’s ubiquitous mobile-phone games, called a complete gacha, in which players collect sets of randomly³ generated tokens to swap⁴ for in-game rewards.

　　即一类玩家收集随机产生的一套套游戏币，去交换虚拟世界里面的奖品，在日本的手机游戏中普遍存在的游戏。

　　Such games have made fortunes for several internet start-ups.

　　这样的游戏使几个新兴的网络公司积累了大量财富。

　　Agency officials, however, have expressed worries that complete gacha may be a form of gambling,which can cause children and adults to splurge beyond their means.

　　然而，机构官员，都对此表示担忧，因为完整的嘎查，可能是一种赌博的形式，这会导致儿童和成年人变挥霍，最终无力支付高昂的游戏费用。

　　They questioned its legality.

　　他们质疑这游戏模式的合法性。

　　The retribution was swift.

　　市场对此的回应迅速。

　　In three days the value of GREE, whose 35-year-old owner, Yoshikazu Tanaka, has been called the youngest self-made billionaire after Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, plunged⁵ by a third.

　　在三天内社交网站Gree的市值骤减了三分之一，公司创始人35岁的田中良和，曾被称为除了脸谱的马克扎克伯格之外，最年轻的白手起家的亿万富翁。

　　DeNA, another social-games site, lost 22%.

　　DeNA，另一家社交游戏网站，损失也达到了22%。

　　To Yoshito Hori, a venture capitalist and former GREE backer, the news recalled a pattern of crackdowns on alleged⁶ abuses by start-ups in recent years that have discouraged the Japanese from setting up new businesses.

　　崛义人，一名风险投资家和前GREE的投资者，这条新闻让他回想起最近几年政府打压新晋企业的种种措施，已经使日本人丧失了开创新商业的勇气。

　　He urged the government to seek a harmonious⁷ solution that protected both consumers and entrepreneurs:

　　他敦促政府寻找一个协调的解决方案，保护消费者以及企业家。

　　Killing⁸ GREE or DeNA is like killing Sony or Matsushita when they were coming up after the war, he said.

　　他说，毁掉GREE或者DeNA，就像毁掉二战后崛起的索尼和松下电器那样严重。

　　On May 9th GREE and DeNA gave ground.

　　5月9号，GREE和DeNA都作出了让步。

　　GREE said it would stop the release of all new complete gacha games and phase out existing ones.

　　GREE说他们将会停止发布全部新版完整的gacha游戏，并且逐步取消目前还存在的嘎查游戏。

　　DeNA said it would also stop the practice.

　　DeNA也说，他们将停止这类游戏上市。

　　Mr Hori said he expected they might be prepared to pay back anyone who had overspent.

　　崛义人说，他希望两间公司能准备资金还给那些曾经超支了的人。

　　It was not clear, though, whether the authorities would let the matter rest there.

　　可是，当权者是否将听任这事情自由发展下去，目前还不清楚。

1 bureaucrats   

n.官僚( bureaucrat的名词复数 )；官僚主义；官僚主义者；官僚语言

参考例句：

• That is the fate of the bureaucrats, not the inspiration of statesmen. 那是官僚主义者的命运，而不是政治家的灵感。 来自辞典例句
• Big business and dozens of anonymous bureaucrats have as much power as Japan's top elected leaders. 大企业和许多不知名的官僚同日本选举出来的最高层领导者们的权力一样大。 来自辞典例句

2 premiums   

n.费用( premium的名词复数 )；保险费；额外费用；（商品定价、贷款利息等以外的）加价

参考例句：

• He paid premiums on his life insurance last year. 他去年付了人寿保险费。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Moves are afoot to increase car insurance premiums. 现正在酝酿提高汽车的保险费。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

4 swap   

n.交换；vt.交换，用...作交易

参考例句：

• I will swap you my bicycle for your radio.我想拿我的自行车换你的收音机。
• This comic was a swap that I got from Nick.这本漫画书是我从尼克那里换来的。

5 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

6 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

7 harmonious   

adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的

参考例句：

• Their harmonious relationship resulted in part from their similar goals.他们关系融洽的部分原因是他们有着相似的目标。
• The room was painted in harmonious colors.房间油漆得色彩调和。

8 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。