四级阅读 电子游戏是一种瘾

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2023年12月31日发(作者：)

四级阅读 电子游戏是一种瘾

背景介绍：

2019年5月25日，在瑞士日内瓦，世界卫生组织正式将“游戏成瘾”认定为一种疾病，并将其纳入《国际疾病分类》第11次更新版本中“由成瘾行为而导致的障碍”分类中。这份申明于今年1月1日正式生效。世卫组织对“游戏成瘾”的定义是：“一种持续或反复出现的游戏行为模式”，并伴有控制力受损和功能丧失。那么，游戏成瘾究竟是不是一种病？

Don’t panic

不必惊慌

Video game makers must address worries about addictiveness

电子游戏开发商必须化解人们对游戏成瘾的担忧

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.

没有一家企业会乐见自己被比作大型烟草公司或博彩公司。然而，这正是电子游戏制造商正在面临的问题。多年来，家长们总是抱怨他们的孩

子对游戏机和智能手机“上瘾”。然而时至今日，越来越多的医生开始使用游戏成瘾这一术语。

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.

今年1月1日，随着最新版疾病诊断手册的正式生效，“游戏成瘾”（尽管游戏带来了负面后果，但人们仍沉迷于其中）作为一种疾病得到了世界卫生组织的承认。

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.

几个月前，全球最大的游戏市场中国发布了一项新规，限制儿童在周五、周六和周日每天只能玩一个小时的游戏，其余时间都不能玩。

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.

对于游戏与赌博之间的相似性，西方政客也曾公开表示担忧。世界各

地治疗游戏成瘾的诊所如雨后春笋般涌现，承诺用戒除酒瘾或毒瘾的方法来帮助患者戒除网瘾。

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.

游戏真的会让人上瘾吗？心理学家对此意见不一。反对者的理由是，这不过是另一场道德恐慌。曾经也有人对电视、摇滚乐、爵士乐、漫画书、小说甚至填字游戏发出了类似的可怕警告。

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.

作为大众媒体的最新形式，电子游戏在未来一段时间仍将面临争议。此外，反对者认为，用于诊断游戏成瘾的标准过于宽松。他们认为，沉迷于游戏本身既可能是一种疾病，也可能是一种症状（比如抑郁症的症状）。

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.

游戏成瘾论的支持者则认为，与摇滚乐队或小说家不同，游戏开发者既有动机也有手段来设计他们的产品，使其令人无法抗拒。其动机源于商业模式的转变。

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.

在过去，玩家只需一次性购买游戏。如今，许多游戏都采用“免费增值”模式，即游戏免费，而通过内购盈利。这使得游戏时长与收入直接挂钩。

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).

游戏开发者采用的手段是将心理学理论和数据结合起来，从而使游戏市场最大化。心理学家已经对包括人类在内的动物获得成就感的方式有了相当多的了解（这要归功于一系列的实验，最早可追溯至几十年前B.F.斯金纳对老鼠和鸽子所做的一系列实验）。

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.

智能手机和现代游戏平台利用互联网连接的特性将游戏数据反馈给开发者。于是，开发者可以不断地对产品进行微调，以刺激玩家进行消费。游戏行业甚至开始使用赌博业的黑话。花钱最多的玩家被称为“鲸鱼”——这一黑话起源于赌场。

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.

虽然心理学家争论着，到底什么才是真正的上瘾，以及游戏的设计技巧是否越界，但游戏行业应该认识到，在现实世界中，它存在一个问题，而且这个问题正日益严峻。游戏成瘾既然已经得到世界卫生组织的认可，越来越多的游戏成瘾患者也将被诊断。

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.

疫情导致的封锁让玩家有了更多时间去玩游戏，诊所的生意也开始红火起来。科技行业的监管环境将会日趋严格。无论公平与否，在公众心目中与赌博和烟草混为一谈，都不会给游戏行业带来任何好处。

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