经济学人:棋盘游戏 不是衰败而是兴盛

 　　Business: Board games Not twilight¹, but sunrise 商业：棋盘游戏，不是衰败而是兴盛

　　Table-top games are booming in the video-game age. 视频游戏年代，桌游盛行。

　　Essen is not one of Germany's better-known cities. 艾森不是德国任何一个比较出名的城市。

　　But for the world's growing band of board-game devotees, it is paradise. 但它却是全球不断增长的棋盘游戏爱好者的天堂。

　　Each October it plays host to Internationale Spieltage, or Spiel, a board-game convention that is half fan-club gathering³,  每年十月这里都会举办“埃森国际游戏节”——半是爱好者聚会，

　　half trade show—and, alongside America's Gen Con², one of the biggest gaming festivals in the world. 一半是贸易展的棋牌游戏大会——与全球最大的游戏节之一的美国“创展”齐名。

　　This year the organisers expect more than 160,000 visits over the festival's four days. 主办方预计，今年为期四天的游戏节里，会有超过16万人出席。

　　Attenders will be able to watch and play more than 850 board, card and role-playing games,  出席者将观看和参与超过850种棋盘、卡牌和角色扮演类游戏，

　　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. 其中包括一款万众瞩目的棋牌游戏——“万智牌”。在这款1993年推出的火爆的纸牌游戏中，玩家扮演决斗巫师的角色。

　　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 fictional⁵ wilderness⁶. 整个游戏节将以迄今为止最大的比赛“卡坦岛”作为结束，到时将有1000人角逐殖民虚构荒野。

　　The market for such “hobby games” is booming. 这种“爱好游戏”的市场正在蓬勃发展。

　　ICv2, a consulting firm, reckons it is worth $880m a year in America and Canada alone. 咨询公司ICv2评估，仅在美国和加拿大，这一市场价值就已达每年8.80亿美元。

　　“We've seen double-digit annual growth for the past half-decade,” says Milton Griepp, ICv2's boss. “我们已经见证过去五年里其两位数的年增长率，”ICv2的老板米尔顿·格里普说。

　　Some of the games at Spiel will be aimed at children, but grown-ups are doing most of the buying. 埃森国际游戏节上的部分游戏是针对儿童的，但成年人才是最多的购买者。

　　There is something for every taste, from “Fluxx”, a lighthearted card game whose rules change with every card played, to “Power Grid”,  也有一些小众游戏，从“无常牌”（一个轻松愉快的卡牌游戏，其规则随着每一个出战卡牌变化）到“电力公司”

　　a fiendishly tricky⁷ business game featuring aspiring⁸ electricity tycoons⁹, to all-day chin-scratchers such as “Twilight Imperium”, a game of galactic civilisation-building. （一个非常棘手的商业游戏，有抱负的电力巨头们整天为之抓耳挠腮，如“暮光帝国“——一款庞大的文明建设游戏。）

　　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. 一位英国经销商——Esdevium游戏的史提夫马斯特说，视频游戏，特别是智能手机上的游戏，不会远离人们，相反他们受到更多用户的喜爱。

　　App versions of popular games often boost sales of their physical counterparts. 流行游戏的手机应用版本常常提升其实物版本的销量。

　　The internet has helped fans organise⁴ get-togethers, tournaments and the like, while crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter have made life easier for aspiring designers. 互联网促进游戏迷聚会，比赛等，而类似于Kickstarter的众筹网站使有抱负的设计师生活得更容易。

　　They, in turn, are integrating computers into their games. 反过来，他们将计算机融入到游戏中。

　　“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. “未知敌人”是一个与流行视频游戏系列相关的智能手机应用版棋牌类游戏，玩家必须在桌子上玩，扮演即将到来的外星人角色。

　　Meanwhile bricks-and-mortar game stores have adapted, running tournaments and providing the face-to-face sociability¹⁰ that online gaming lacks. 举办游戏比赛并提供网络游戏缺乏的面对面社交功能，其间实体游戏店已经适应新的情况。

　　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. 随着《权力的游戏》遍布电视荧屏和超级英雄题材的电影充斥影院，曾被嘲笑为“呆子文化”的全面胜利已经成为幻想和科幻主题，几乎无法避免地出现在许多游戏中。

　　Not every analogue¹¹ pastime is suffering in the digital age. 并不是每一个相似的娱乐方式都在数字化时代遭受挫折。

1 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

2 con   

n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的

参考例句：

• We must be fair and consider the reason pro and con.我们必须公平考虑赞成和反对的理由。
• The motion is adopted non con.因无人投反对票，协议被通过。

3 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

4 organise   

vt.组织，安排，筹办

参考例句：

• He has the ability to organise.他很有组织才能。
• It's my job to organise all the ceremonial events.由我来组织所有的仪式。

5 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

6 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

7 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

8 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

9 tycoons   

大君( tycoon的名词复数 )； 将军； 企业巨头； 大亨

参考例句：

• The great tycoons were fierce competitors, single-minded in their pursuit of financial success and power. 企业巨头都是激烈的竞争者，他们一心追求钱财和权势。
• Tycoons and their conglomerates are even raising money again on international markets. 企业大亨们以及他们的企业甚至正再次从国际市场上筹集资金。

10 sociability   

n.好交际，社交性，善于交际

参考例句：

• A fire of withered pine boughs added sociability to the gathering. 枯松枝生起的篝火给这次聚合增添了随和、友善的气氛。 来自辞典例句
• A certain sociability degree is a specific character of most plants. 特定的群集度是多数植物特有的特征。 来自辞典例句

11 analogue   

n.类似物；同源语

参考例句：

• The gill of a fish is the analogue of the lung of a cat.鱼的鳃和猫的肺是类似物。
• But aside from that analogue standby,the phone, videoconferencing is their favorite means of communication.除了备用的相似物电话，可视对话是他们最喜欢的沟通手段。