Out of Control (摘抄3)

David spends twelve hours a day as a swashbuckling explorer in a subterranean world of dungeons and elves. He plays a character called Lotsu. He should be in class getting A grades. Instead he has succumbed to the latest fad sweeping college campuses: total immersion into multiuser fantasy games.

戴维（David）每天有12个小时的时间都花在了在某个洞窟和精灵的地下世界中扮演某种彪悍角色上面了。他所扮演的角色名字叫做Lotsu。他这时候本来是应该去上课拿他的学分的。可他却屈从于最近横扫校园的风潮，完全沉溺于多用户的奇幻游戏之中。

Multiuser fantasy games are electronic adventures run on a large network fed by university and personal computers. Players commonly spend four or five hours a day logged into fantasy worlds based on Star Trek, the Hobbit, or Anne McCaffrey's popular novels about dragon-riders and wizards.

多用户奇幻游戏（Multiplayer fantasy games）是一种运行在大型网络中的电子探险行为，这种大型网络是由大学和个人电脑构建起来的。通常来说，玩家们会每天花上4到5个小时的时间登入到那些基于星际迷航、霍比人或者Anne McCaffrey关于龙骑士和魔法师的通俗小说的奇幻世界中。

Students like David use school computers, or their own personal machine, to log onto the Internet. This mega-network, now collectively funded by governments, universities, and private corporations around the world, subsidizes all ordinary passengers traveling across it. Colleges freely issue Internet accounts to any student wanting to do "research." By logging on from a dorm in Boston, a student can "drive" to any participating computer in the world, link up for free and stay connected for as long as he or she wishes.

像戴维（David）这样的学生是使用学校的电脑或者他们自己的个人电脑登入到互联网上的。这个巨大的网络现在是由政府、大学以及全世界的私人企业联合资助，为所有路过的旅人提供一份补贴。大学为所有想在互联网上进行“研究”的学生提供免费的账户。即使在波士顿的宿舍里，只要登入互联网，学生就可以“驱车”达致世界上任何一台联入网络的计算机，免费与其连接，而且没有任何时间限制。

What can one do with such virtual travel, besides downloading papers on genetic algorithms? If 100 other students were to suddenly show up in the same virtual place, it might be pretty cool. You could: throw a party, devise pranks, role-play, scheme, and plot to build a better world. All at the same time. The only thing you'd need is a multiuser place to meet. A place to swarm online.

不过，除了能从别的地方下载点关于基因算法的论文之外，这种虚拟旅行到底还有什么用处呢？是这样的：如果有另外100个学生也突然出现在这同一个虚拟地点，那就会有非常酷的事情发生。你可以开派对、互相捉弄、角色扮演、搞阴谋或者一起琢磨如何能够建设一个更美好的世界。而且是同时进行。而要让这事发生，你所需要的就只不过是一个可以让大家会面的多用户虚拟地点而已。一个可以让大家在线上蜂聚（swarm）的地点。

In 1978, Roy Trubshaw wrote an electronic role-playing game similar to Dungeons and Dragons while he was in his final undergraduate year at Essex College in England. The following year, his classmate Richard Bartle took over the game, expanding the number of potential players and their options for action. Trubshaw and Bartle called the game MUD, for Multi-User Dungeons, and put it onto the Internet.

1978年，罗伊·杜伯萧（Roy Trubshaw）写了一个类似于龙与地下城的角色扮演电子游戏，那时他还在英国的Essex College读本科，是他本科的最后一年。在接下来的那一年，他的同班同学理查德·巴图（Richard Bartle）接手这个游戏，扩展了它的潜在玩家的人数，同时也增加了人物的动作选项。杜伯萧(Trubshaw)和巴图(Bartle)管这个游戏叫MUD，也就是Multi-User Dungeons（多用户地下城），然后把它放到了网上。

MUD is very much like the classic game ZORK, or any of the hundreds of text-based adventure video games that have flourished on personal computers since day one. The computer screen says: "You are in a cold, damp dungeon lit by a flickering torch. There is a skull on the stone floor. One hallway leads to the north, the other south. There is a grate on the grimy floor."

MUD这个游戏跟一款经典游戏ZORK（或者另外上百款自从个人电脑出现的第一天起就蓬勃兴旺的文字界面的探险类游戏）非常相像。在这种游戏中，你的显示器上会出现这样的东西：“你现在正在一个冰冷潮湿的洞窟里，墙上是忽明忽暗的火把。石头的地面上有骷髅。一条走道通向北面，另外一条通向南面。龌龊的地面上有栅栏。”

Your job is to explore the room and its objects and eventually discover treasures hidden in the labyrinth of other rooms connected to it. You'll probably need to find a small collection of treasures and clues along the way in order to win the motherlode booty, which is usually to break a spell, or become a wizard, or kill the dragon, or escape the dungeon.

你的工作就是去探查这个房间，和它里面的各种东西，最终发现隐藏在与它相连的其它房间的迷宫里的宝贝。要想赢到最大的奖品，你可能需要在路上收集一小部分的财宝和线索。而这个最大的奖品，可能是打破一个诅咒、变成一个巫师 、杀死一条龙或者逃出地下城。

You explore by typing something like: "Look skull." The computer replies: "The skull says, 'Beware of the rat.'" You type: "Look grate" and the computer replies: "This way lies Death." You type: "Go north," and you exit through the tunnel on your way into the unknown in the next room.

而你的探查行为，其实就是在键盘上输入，比如，“看骷髅”。而计算机则会回应说：“骷髅对你说：‘小心老鼠’”。你再输入：“看栅栏”，计算机则回应到：“这条路上有死尸。”你输入：“往北走”，然后你就走出了这个房间，通过一个通道，走向另一个房间中的未知。

MUD and its many improved offspring (known generically as MUDs, MUSEs, TinyMUDs, etc.) are very similar to classic 1970s-style adventure games but with two powerful improvements. First, MUDs can handle up to 100 other human players immersed in the dungeon along with you. This is the distributed, parallel characteristic of MUDs. The others can be playing alongside you as jolly partners, or against you as wicked adversaries, or above you as capricious gods creating miracles and spells.

MUD和它的很多有所改进的后裔（通常都会带点血缘地被称作MUDs，MUSEs，TinyMUDs等等）和70年代风格的那些经典的探险游戏是非常类似的。但是与后者相比它们有两个非常强大的改进。首先，MUD类的游戏可以应付上限在101人的多人游戏模式，也就是说你可以有100个人和你一起进入这个地下城。这是MUD类游戏所具有的一种分布式的、平行式的特征。事实上，这些和你一起进入地下城的其他玩家，既可以作为你的令人愉快的拍档和你并肩战斗，也可以作为邪恶的敌人与你对抗，或者作为任性无常的神创造奇迹或者诅咒。

Secondly, and most significantly, the other players (and yourself) can be at work adding rooms, modifying passages, or inventing new and magical objects. You say to yourself, "What this place needs is a tower where a bearded elf can enslave the unwary." So you make one. In short, the players invent the world as they live in it. The game is to create a cooler world than you had yesterday.

其次，而这也是最重要的一点，其他的玩家（以及你自己）可以花功夫去增加房间、改变路径或者发明新的魔法道具。你可以对你自己说：“这个地方最好有一座塔，这样长着大胡子的精灵就可以监禁奴役那些不小心的人。”然后你就在这弄一座塔。简单来说，玩家在生活在这个世界中的同时，还可以创造这个世界。而目的就是创造出一个比昨天的世界更酷的新世界出来。

MUDs then become a parallel, distributed platform for a consensual superorganism to emerge. Someone tinkers up a virtual holodeck for the heck of it. Later, someone else adds a captain's bridge and maybe an engine room. Next thing you know you have built the Starship Enterprise in text. Over the course of months, several hundred other players (who should be doing calculus homework) jack in and build a fleet of rooms and devices until you wind up with fully staffed Klingon battleships, Vulcan planets, and the interconnected galaxies of a StarTrek MUD. (Such a place exists on the Internet.) You can log on at any time, 24 hours a day, greet fellow members of the crew -- all in role-playing characters -- to collectively obey orders broadcast by the captain, and battle enemy ships built and managed by a different set of players.

在这个意义上，MUD类游戏就变成了平行的、以分布式的方式存在的平台，而正是这个平台上，某种公共的超级有机体就可以突显出来。比如，有个人无聊之余就鼓捣了一个全息甲板（holodeck）出来。然后又有一个人又加上了一个舰桥或者一个动力室。结果一会之后你就发现已经出现了一个文字版的企业号宇宙飞船。再然后，再过一个月，数百名其他的玩家（这些人本来应该做他们的微积分作业的）已经涌进这个平台里面造出了一堆带着房间和各种器械的舰队，最后你来收尾的时候，这里已经是一堆满员的克林贡战舰了 。这就是瓦肯星，这就是星际迷航版MUD中的互联星系（它存在于互联网之中）。而这个地方，你可以随时登入其中。一天24个小时，你都可以在上面跟你的舰队同伴打招呼——全都是扮演着某个角色，共同执行船长发出的指令，和那些由另外一群玩家弄出来的敌方战舰作战。

The more hours one spends exploring and hacking the MUD-world, the more status one earns from the rulers overseeing that world. A player who assists newcomers, or who takes on janitorial chores in keeping the database going, can earn increasing rank and power, such as being able to teleport for free or being exempt from certain everyday laws. Ultimately every MUDer dreams of achieving local god or wizard status. Some become better gods than others. Ideally, gods promote fair play, keep the system going, and help those "below." But stories of abusive and deranged gods are legendary on the Internet.

而一个在MUD世界中花得时间越多，他把越多的时间花在探索和破解这个世界上，他就可以从那些监管着这个世界的统治者那里获得越高的地位。一个为新手提供帮助的玩家，或者一个时不时地帮助维护一下数据库的玩家，可以获得更高的等级和权力，比如说，免费进行远距离传送，或者获得某些特权而不用遵守某几条特定的日常规则。作为最高目标，每一个MUD都梦寐以求的，是能够成为某种局域性的神或者巫师。而有些玩家则比另外一些玩家做神做得更好一些。在理想状态中，一个神应该让游戏变得更公平，保障系统的平稳运行，同时帮助那些“后进”同学。但是，就实际情况来说，往往是那些暴虐变态的神变成了互联网上的传奇。

Real-life events are recapitulated within MUDs and TinyMUDs. Players will hold funerals and wakes for characters who die. There have been TinyWeddings for virtual and real people. The slipperiness between real life and virtual life is one of MUD's chief attractions, particularly for teenage kids who are wrestling with their identity.

真实世界中的事件会被重新体现在MUD类或者TinyMUD类游戏中。玩家们会为死去的角色送葬守灵。也会有为了真实和虚拟人物举办的小婚礼。事实上，真实生活和MUD生活之间的含混界限，正是MUD吸引人的地方之一。而这一点，对于那些正在为自己的自身同一性或者身份挣扎的十几岁的小孩来说，更是特别适用。

On a MUD, you define who you are. As you enter a room, others read your description: "Judi enters. She is a tall, dark-haired Vulcan woman, with small pointed ears, and a lovely reddish tinge to her skin. She walks with a gymnast's bounce. Her green eyes seem to flirt." The author may be petite female with a bad case of acne, or she may be a bearded male masquerading as a women. So many female-presenting characters are actually males pretending at this point that most savvy MUDers now assume all players to be male unless proven otherwise. This has led to a weird prejudice against true female players who are subject to the harassment of "proving" their gender.

在一个MUD游戏中，你可以自己来定义你自己是谁。当你进入一个房间之后，其他人就会读到一个对你的描述：“Judi进来了。她是一个身材高挑的黑发瓦肯女性，有一对小而尖的耳朵。皮肤微微泛着可爱的红色。她走路的时候带着体操运动员的弹性。她的绿眼睛看起来风情万种。”而这段话的作者，则可能是一个满脸粉刺的小女生，或者是个假装成女性的留着大胡子的男性。事实上，现在的MUD里这种假装女生的男性已经泛滥到了这样一种程度，基本上任何一个MUD老手看到一个女性角色都会直接假定对方是男人，除非有什么别的证据证明该人的真实性别。这就导致了一种针对真正的女性玩家的非常诡异的偏见：后者会不断遭到各种据说是为了“证明”其性别而进行的骚扰。

Most players live out virtual life with more than one character, as if they are trying out various facets of their persona. "MUDs are a workshop for the concept of identity," says Amy Bruckman, a MIT researcher who studies the sociological aspects of MUDs and TinyMUDs. "Many players notice that they are somehow different on the net than off, and this leads them to reflect on who they are in real life." Flirting, infatuation, romance, and even TinySex are as ubiquitous in MUD worlds as on real campuses. Only the characters vary.

另外，绝大多数的玩家都会在他们的虚拟生活中扮演多个角色，就好象他们要去尝试其人格中的多种面貌一样。“MUD类游戏其实就是一个身份作坊”，艾米·布鲁克曼（Amy Bruckman）这样说到。他是一个MIT的研究人员，研究的是MUD和TinyMud类游戏中的社会学方面。“很多玩家都注意到他们在网上的行为方式跟在网下多少有些不同，而这会让他们对自己在真实生活中的人格进行反思。”调情、迷恋、浪漫、甚至网上性爱在MUD世界中所在皆是——就和在真实的校园中一模一样。唯一的区别就是角色的不同。

Sherry Turkle, who calls the computer an occasion for a "second self" goes further. She says, "On a MUD, the self is multiplied and decentralized." It is no coincidence that a multiple, decentralized structure is the emerging model for understanding real-life, healthy human selves.

雪莉·特克（Sherry Turkle）这位有时候会管电脑叫做“第二自我”的人甚至走得更远。她说，“在一款MUD中，自我是多重而且被去掉了中心的。”事实上，即使对于真实的生活，对于健康的人类自我方面，也正在出现一种使用那种多重的、去中心化的结构来理解这两者的趋势——真实和虚拟世界在这方面的重合绝对不是什么偶然或者巧合。

Pranks are also rampant. One demented player devised an invisible "spud" that, when accidentally picked up by another player we'll call Visitor, would remove Visitor's limbs. Others in the room would read: "Visitor rolls about on the floor, twitching excitedly." The gods were summoned to fix player Visitor. But as soon as they "looked" at him, they too got spudded, so that everyone would read, "Wizard rolls about on the floor, twitching excitedly." Ordinary objects can be booby-trapped to do almost anything. A favorite pastime is to manufacture a neat object and get others to copy it without knowing its true powers. For example, when you innocently inspect a "Home Sweet Home" cross-stitch hanging on someone's wall, it might instantly and forcibly teleport you home (while it flashes "There is no place like home").

在MUD中，即使是恶作剧也是那种豪放型的。有一个疯狂的玩家设置了一个隐形的“锄头”，如果另外一个玩家（被叫作“到访者”）不小心捡起了这个锄头，这东西就会把到访者的四肢全部移除。而这时房间里的其他玩家就会读到这样的信息：“到访者在地上四处打滚，浑身乱抽”。然后，神就会被召唤过来以便对到访者进行治疗。但是，只要他们一“照/顾”他，他们也会被锄上，然后所有人就会读到说：“巫师在地到处打滚，浑身乱抽。”另外，普通的物品也被做成“诡雷”用来干任何事情。事实上，在MUD里一个最好的娱乐方式，就是做一个干净的物品，让别的不知道它的底细对它真正的威力一无所知的人去拷贝复制。比如说，当你非常无辜地查探到有一个上面写着“家园美好的家园”十字绣挂在某个人的墙上的时候，这东西可能会立即把你强制传送回你的家里（而那个地方会闪烁这样的字样：“啥地方都不如家好”）。

Since most MUDers are 20-year-old males, violence often permeates these worlds. Elaborate slash-'n'-hack universes repel all but the most thick skinned. But one experimental world running at MIT outlaws all killing and has gathered a huge following of elementary and high school kids. The world, Cyberion City, is modeled on a cylindrical space station. On any one day about 500 kids beam up into Cyberion City to roam or build without ceasing. So far the kids have built 50,000 objects, characters, and rooms. There's a mall with multiplex cinema (and text movies written by kids), a city hall, science museum, a Wizard of Oz theme park, a CB radio network, acres of housing suburbs, and a tour bus. A robot real estate agent roams around making deals with anyone who wants to buy a house.

又有绝大多数的MUD玩家都是20岁左右的男性群众，所以暴力会经常在这个世界里泛滥起来。那种对砍砍杀杀的场景所作的叙述，能让所有的人——除了那些皮最厚的异类——反起胃来。不过，在MIT运行的有一款实验性的MUD却禁止任何杀戮行为，并且聚集起一大批初、高中的小孩。这个名字叫做Cyberion City的世界，外形是个圆柱形的空间站。每天都有大约500个小孩涌到Cyberion City里乱逛或者不停地造东西。到现在为止，这些孩子已经建造了5万个物品、人物和房间。这里有一个带多张银幕的电影院（和小孩们写的文本电影），一个市政厅，一个科学博物馆，一个绿野仙踪主题公园，一个CB电台网，好几亩带住房的郊区和一辆观光巴士。还有一个机器人地产经纪在地头乱逛，跟所有想买房子的人做生意。

There is deliberately no map of Cyberion City. To explore is the thrill. Not to be told how things work is the teacher. You are expected to do what the kids do: ask another kid. As Barry Kort, the real-life administrator of the project, says, "One of the charms of entering an unfamiliar environment and culture such as Cyberion City is that it tends to put adults and children back on an equal footing. Some adults would say it reverses the balance of power." The main architects of Cyberion City are 15 years old, or younger. The sheer bustle and intricacy of the land they have built is intimidating to the lone, over-educated immigrant trying to get somewhere, or build anything. As San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll exclaimed on his first visit, "The psychological size of the place, all those rooms, and the 'puppets' flitting about, makes it seem like being dropped into downtown Tokyo with a Tootsie Roll and a screwdriver." To survive is the only task.

Cyberion City没有地图，而且是故意为之的。因为探险是让人兴奋战栗的事情。在这里，唯一的老师就是未知本身。这么设计的目的就是让你的希望你进城之后做跟其他孩子一样的事情：向别的孩子打听。正如巴里·科特（Barry Kort），这个计划现实中的管理者所说：“进入Cyberion City这样一个你所不熟悉的环境或者文化之所以有意思，原因之一就是它会把成年人和孩子拉平道一个水平线上。对于这一点，有的成年人会说这实际上是对权力平衡的一种颠覆。”事实上，Cyberion City主要的建筑师们的年龄是15岁，或者更小。他们所构造的这片错综复杂、陡峭喧嚣的土地，对于很多习惯独行、受教育过多的移民来说，如果他们想要挪个地方，从哪到哪，或者建造随便什么东西，确实是很可怕的。正如《旧金山纪事报》（San Francisco Chronicle）的专栏作家乔恩·卡罗尔（Jon Carroll）在他第一访问这个地点的时候所说的：“这个地方的心理大小，所有那些房间，还有那些移来晃去的‘木偶’，都让你感觉是被扔到了东京的市中心，而你随身带着的只有一根巧克力糖和一把螺丝刀。在这里，能活下去就是最高目标。

Kids get lost, then find their way, then they get lost in another sense and never leave. The continuous telecommunication traffic due to nonstop MUDing can cripple a computer center. The college of Amherst outlawed all MUDing from its campus. Australia, linked to the rest of the world by a limited number of precious satellite datalines, banned all international MUDs from the continent. Student-constructed virtual worlds were crowding out bank note updates and calls from Aunt Sheila. Other institutions are sure to follow the ban on unlimited virtual worlds.

在这里，孩子们会迷路，然后找到他们的路，然后又在另外一个意义上迷失再不出来。事实上，由于永不停止的MUD活动而导致的连续不断的远程通讯流量，可以让一个计算机中心陷入瘫痪。Amherst的大学就禁止在它的校园内进行任何MUD活动。澳大利亚和世界其余地方的联系是靠着有数的几个非常珍贵的卫星数据线进行的，所以它禁止从澳洲大陆向外的任何国际MUD活动。事实上，那些由学生们建造起来的虚拟世界，也会让Sheila姑姑的钞票无法更新，或者没法打电话。同样的，其他的机构也肯定会随着对无限制的虚拟世界加以禁止。

Until now, every MUD going (and there are about 200 of them) has been written by fanatical students in their spare time with no one's approval. A couple of pseudo-MUDs have a large following on commercial online services. These almost-MUDs, such as Federation 2, Gemstone, and ImagiNation's Yserbius permit multiusers but give them only limited power to alter their worlds. Xerox PARC is nurturing an experimental MUD running on its company computer. This trial, code-named the Jupiter Project, explores MUDs as a possible environment in which to run a business. An experimental Scandinavian system and a start-up called the Multiplayer Network (running a game called Kingdom of Drakkar) both boast a prototype visual MUD. The dawn of commercial profit-making MUDs in not far away.

到现在为止，每一款运行着的MUD（而现在有大约200款）都是由那些狂热的学生在他们的业余时间写的，没经过任何人的许可。同时，有几款类MUD的游戏，在商业在线服务中获得了大量的追随者。这些几乎就是MUD的东西，比如Federation 2，ImagiNation的Yserbius 都允许多个用户同时玩，但对他们改变这个世界的能力做了限制。Xerox PARC正在酝酿一个可以在他们公司的计算机上运行的实验性的MUD。这个代号为Jupiter Project的尝试，目的是探索一些让MUD类的游戏成为某种可以在其中进行运转商业的环境。另外，一个实验性的斯坎蒂纳维亚系统和一个刚刚开始、名字叫作Multiplayer Network（多用户网络，运行一个叫做Kingdom of Drakkar的游戏）的系统，都退出了图形版MUD的原型。商业性的、能够产生利润的MUD的黎明已经不远了。

Children of the 22nd century will marvel at Nintendo games of the 1990s and wonder why anyone bothered to play a simulation where only one person could enter. It's sort of like having one telephone in the world and no one to talk to.

22世纪的孩子们在看到1990年代的任天堂游戏会感到十分惊奇，他们会奇怪说为什么居然有人会费那个劲去玩这种只有一个人能进入其中的模拟。这就好像是世界上只有一部电话，结果你没人去用一样。

The future of MUDs, then, converges upon the future of SIMNET, the future of SimCity, and the future of virtual reality. Somewhere in that mix is the ultimate god game. I imagine it as a vast world set into motion with a few well-chosen rules. It is populated by myriad autonomous critters and other creatures who are mere simulacra of distant human players. Characters unfold over time. Tangles grow.

MUD类游戏的未来，所以，就集中在SIMNET、SimCity和虚拟现实的未来上。而在这些东西的综合中，在这种综合的某个位置，就是一种终极的玩家为神的游戏。在我的想象中，这种游戏应该是一个广阔的、运动的世界，遵从着一些精心选择过的规则。里面生活着无数自主自治的活物以及其他的受造物，这些东西都只是身处远方的人类玩家的拟像。这些角色会随着时间慢慢展开。真正的生命也由此出现。

Eventually the simulated world quickens with palpable energy as the interrelations deepen and the entities alter and shape their world. The participants -- real, fake, and hyperreal -- coevolve the system into a game different than it began. Then, the god himself dons a pair of magic goggles, suits up, and descends into his creation.

最终，当这些东西的相互关系不断加深，而这些存在者改变、影响到他们的世界的时候，这个模拟世界也就因为那些可见的能量而变得愈发富有生气。这些参与者——真的、假的和超等真实的——对系统进行共同演化，让这个系统变成一个与其开端不同的游戏。就这样，神自己戴上魔术眼罩、穿戴整齐降临到他自己所创造的世界中。

The god who lowered himself into his own creation is an old theme. Stanislaw Lem once wrote a great science-fiction classic about a tyrant who kept his world in a box. But another version predates it by millennia.

事实上，神把自己降下，进入他自己所创造的世界中，这是一个古老的主题。斯坦尼斯拉夫·莱姆（Stanislaw Lem）曾经写过一个非常牛的科幻小说经典，讲的就是一个暴君把他的世界藏在一个盒子里的故事。不过，这个主题还有另外一个更为古老的版本，一个千年之前的版本。