Brenda Laurel on making video games for girls

翻译人员: Guo Tang 校对人员: Menglu Wang

Back in 1992, I started working for a company

一九九二年，我开始在一家叫做Interval Research

called Interval Research,

的公司工作，

which was just then being founded

那间公司当时刚刚成立，

by David Lidell and Paul Allen

是由大卫李德尔和保尔艾伦

as a for-profit research enterprise in Silicon Valley.

创办的一家坐落于硅谷的盈利性研究机构。

I met with David

我和大卫见面

to talk about what I might do in his company.

探讨我在他的公司要做些什么。

I was just coming out of a failed virtual reality business

我当时刚刚从一个失败的网络生意（虚拟现实）中走出来，

and supporting myself by being on the speaking circuit

正以教学工作和

and writing books --

写书来谋生

after twenty years or so in the computer game industry

在从事电脑游戏行业二十年之后，

having ideas that people didn't think they could sell.

我有些想法，虽然很多人都认为没有市场。

And David and I discovered

大卫和我发现，

that we had a question in common,

我们有一个共同的疑问

that we really wanted the answer to,

并且是我们确实很想知道的

and that was,

那就是

"Why hasn't anybody built any computer games for little girls?"

“为什么还沒有人为女孩子们设计制作游戏？”

Why is that?

为什么会那样呢？

It can't just be a giant sexist conspiracy.

这不可能仅是一个巨大的性别歧视的阴谋。

These people aren't that smart.

这些人沒有那么聪明。

There's six billion dollars on the table.

譬如说有六百万放在桌上，

They would go for it if they could figure out how.

人们如果想出办法的话就一定会去得到它。

So, what is the deal here?

那么，问题的症结在哪里？

And as we thought about our goals --

正如我们想到的目标--

I should say that Interval is really a humanistic institution,

我想说Interval在传统经典意义上

in the classical sense

真的是一个人性化的机构，

that humanism, at its best,

人文主义，最佳的就是，

finds a way to combine clear-eyed empirical research

找到一种能结合清晰的经验研究

with a set of core values

和一套核心价值观，

that fundamentally love and respect people.

基于爱和尊重人本身的方法。

The basic idea of humanism

人文主义的基本概念，

is the improvable quality of life;

是提高生活质量，

that we can do good things,

让我们能够做一些善事，

that there are things worth doing

值得去做的一些事情，

because they're good things to do,

因为它们是好的事情。

and that clear-eyed empiricism

而且清晰的经验主义

can help us figure out how to do them.

能够帮助我们解决如何去完成那些事情。

So, contrary to popular belief,

那么，与流行信仰相反，

there is not a conflict of interest between empiricism and values.

在经验论与价值间並沒有利益矛盾。

And Interval Research is kind of the living example

Interval Research公司就是

of how that can be true.

这两者结合与协调的活生生的例子，

So David and I decided to go find out,

大卫和我決定以我们能够做的

through the best research we could muster,

最好的研究去寻找（答案）：

what it would take to get a little girl

什么可以令一个小女孩

to put her hands on a computer,

将她的双手放到电脑上，

to achieve the level of comfort and ease with the technology

去体会科技带來的舒适和放松，

that little boys have because they play video games.

而这些正是男孩子们玩游戏时获得的感觉。

We spent two and a half years conducting research;

我们花费了两年半的时间进行研究

we spent another year and a half in advance development.

然后用另外一年半的时间进行深层开发。

Then we formed a spin-off company.

之后我们成立了一家子公司。

In the research phase of the project at Interval,

关于在Interval公司的研究工作

we partnered with a company called Cheskin Research,

我们和另一家叫做Cheskin Research的公司合作，

and these people -- Davis Masten and Christopher Ireland --

包括他们的同事Davis Masten和Christopher Ireland，

changed my mind entirely about what market research was

彻底改变了我对于市场调研是什么

and what it could be.

和它能够做什么的看法。

They taught me how to look and see,

他们教会我如何去观察和分析，

and they did not do the incredibly stupid thing

而且他们并沒有愚蠢地

of saying to a child,

去询问孩子：

"Of all these things we already make you,

“在所有我们为你准备的之中，

which do you like best?" --

你最喜欢什么？”

which gives you zero answers that are usable.

这种问题从不会给你有用的答案。

So, what we did for the first two and a half years

我们在刚开始的两年半内

was four things:

做了四件事情：

We did an extensive review of the literature

我们在和文学相关的领域进行了广泛的分析评论，

in related fields, like cognitive psychology,

其中包括认知心理学，

spatial cognition, gender studies,

空间认知，性別研究，

play theory, sociology, primatology.

游戏理论，社会学，动物学——

Thank you Frans de Waal, wherever you are,

谢谢你法兰玆杜瓦尔，无论你在哪里，

I love you and I'd give anything to meet you.

我爱你并且愿意付出一切和你见面。

After we had done that with a pretty large team of people

当我们一个很庞大的团队完成这项工作的时候，

and discovered what we thought the salient issues were

我们发现之前认为明显的问题就是

with girls and boys and playing --

女孩、男孩和游戏——

because, after all, that's really what this is about --

因为，无论如何，那就是问题的症结。

we moved to the second phase of our work,

我们进展到了研究工作的第二阶段，

where we interviewed adult experts

采访在学术方面的成年专家，

in academia, some of the people

他们中有一些人

who'd produced the literature that we found relevant.

已经创作了我们认为相关的文学作品。

Also, we did focus groups with people who were on the ground with kids every day,

同时我们对每天都和孩子相处的人进行了焦点小组调查

like playground supervisors. We talked to them,

像操场的训导主任，和他们交谈，

confirmed some hypotheses and identified some serious questions

确认了关于不同性别与游戏

about gender difference and play.

的一些假设和严肃的问题。

Then we did what I consider to be the heart of the work:

然后我们进行了我认为是这次研究的心脏工作--

interviewed 1,100 children, boys and girls,

采访1100个孩子，包括男孩和女孩，

ages seven to 12, all over the United States --

全美地区，7岁到12岁的孩子，

except for Silicon Valley, Boston and Austin

除了硅谷，波士顿和奥斯汀，

because we knew that their little families would have millions of computers in them

因为我们知道那里的家庭拥有上百万的电脑，

and they wouldn't be a representative sample.

他们不能成为具有代表性的例子。

And at the end of those remarkable conversations

在那些精彩的交谈最后，

with kids and their best friends across the United States,

和孩子们还有他们跨越全美的最好的朋友们，

after two years, we pulled together some survey data from another 10,000 children,

两年之后，我们齐心协力从另外一万个孩子那里获得一些调查数据，

drew up a set up of what we thought were the key findings of our research,

建构起一套我们认为是此次研究的重要发现，

and spent another year transforming them into design heuristics,

然后又花费一年的时间将他们转化为设计启发点，

for designing computer-based products --

为了设计以电脑为基础的产品，

and, in fact, any kind of products -- for little girls, ages eight to 12.

事实上也适用于任何为8至12岁的女孩子的产品。

And we spent that time designing interactive prototypes for computer software

我们在那一年内设计互动性原型的电脑软件，

and testing them with little girls.

让女孩子们来试玩。

In 1996, in November, we formed the company Purple Moon

在1996年11月，我们成立了Purple Moon（紫月亮）公司，

which was a spinoff of Interval Research,

作为Interval Research公司的附属公司，

and our chief investors were Interval Research, Vulcan Northwest,

首要投资者是Interval Research和Vulan Northwest,

Institutional Venture Partners and Allen and Company.

Institutional Venture Partners和艾伦及公司。

We launched a website on September 2nd

9月2日我们发行了自己的网页，

that has now served 25 million pages,

它现在已经有两千五百万页了，

and has 42,000 registered young girl users.

并且有42，000个注册的年轻女性用户，

They visit an average of one and a half times a day,

她们平均每天浏览1.5次（我们的网页），

spend an average of 35 minutes a visit,

平均每次浏览35分钟，

and look at 50 pages a visit.

50页。

So we feel that we've formed a successful online community with girls.

所以我们认为我们成立了一个成功的网上女孩子社群。

We launched two titles in October --

10月的时候我们发行了两个游戏——

"Rockett's New School" -- the first of a series

“罗基特的新学校”，是系列产品中的第一个，

of products -- is about a character called Rockett beginning her first day of school

关于一个叫罗基特的主角从开学第一天开始的经历

in eighth grade at a brand new place, with a blank slate,

八年级，在一个全新的地方，空白的石板上，

which allows girls to play with the question of, "What will I be like when I'm older?"

允许女孩子带着“我长大了会变成怎样”的问题去玩，

"What's it going to be like to be in high school or junior high school?

“初中或者高中的生活会是什么样子的呢？”

Who are my friends?";

“谁是我的朋友？”

to exercise the love of social complexity

借此来学习社会认知的复杂性，

and the narrative intelligence that drives most of their play behavior;

和驱动大部分游戏行为的叙述智能，

and which embeds in it values about noticing that we have lots of choices

及其本身固有的价值，提示我们有很多选择，

in our lives and the ways that we conduct ourselves.

在生活中以及在我们引导自己的过程中。

The other title that we launched is called "Secret Paths in the Forest,"

我们发行的另外一个游戏叫做“森林密径”，

which addresses the more fantasy-oriented, inner lives of girls.

它更为倾向于梦幻世界和女孩内心的表达。

These two titles both showed up in the top 50 entertainment titles in PC Data --

这两个游戏并列于前五十名，

entertainment titles in PC Data

在PC Data的娱乐排行榜上。

in December, right up there with "John Madden Football,"

12月，发行了“约翰马登足球”，

which thrills me to death.

让我非常兴奋。

So, we're real,

所以，我们是真实的，

and we've touched several hundreds of thousands of little girls.

我们已经接触到了成千上万的小女孩。

We've made half-a-billion impressions

我们让半亿人对我们有了印象，

with marketing and PR for this brand, Purple Moon.

通过为Purple Moon品牌的市场推广营销。

Ninety-six percent of them, roughly, have been positive;

96%的用户反应都是正面的，

four percent of them have been "other."

其他的有4%。

I want to talk about the other,

我想谈谈这4%的部分，

because the politics of this enterprise, in a way,

因为从某种意义上来说，在企业政治上，

have been the most fascinating part of it, for me.

这部分是最吸引我的。

There are really two kinds of negative reviews that we've received.

我们确实收到了两种负面的评论。

One kind of reviewer is a male gamer

一种是来自男性玩家的，

who thinks he knows what games ought to be,

他认为他知道游戏应该是什么，

and won't show the product to little girls.

而不是给女孩子们玩的。

The other kind of reviewer is a certain flavor of feminist

另一种观点是某种加料的女性主义者，

who thinks they know what little girls ought to be.

他们认为他们知道小女生应该是什么样的。

And so it's funny to me that these interesting, odd bedfellows

非常有趣的是，我发现这两种人

have one thing in common:

有一点是共同的：

they don't listen to little girls.

他们不会倾听女孩子的声音。

They haven't looked at children

他们甚至没有认真看过孩子，

and they're certainly not demonstrating any love for them.

所以他们根本不会知道如何去爱孩子们。

I'd like to play you some voices of little girls

我想让你来倾听小女孩的声音，

from the two-and-a-half years of research that we did --

从我们所做的两年半的研究中，

actually, some of the voices are more recent.

事实上某些声音是最近发现的。

And these voices will be accompanied by photographs

这些声音将会配上一些图片，

that they took for us of their lives,

他们在生活上的照片，

of the things that they value and care about.

关于他们关心和关注的事情。

These are pictures the girls themselves never saw, but they gave to us

这些照片女孩子们自己都没有看过，但他们给了我们。

This is the stuff those reviewers don't know about and aren't listening to

这就是那些批评者不知道也不去知道的部分，

and this is the kind of research I recommend to those

这也是我推荐给你们的研究工作，

who want to do humanistic work.

对于那些想做人文主义工作的。

Girl 1: Yeah, my character is usually a tomboy.

录像：女孩1：恩，我的主角通常是一个假小子，

Hers is more into boys.

她比男生更男生。

Girl 2: Uh, yeah.

女孩2：嗯，是的。

Girl 1: We have -- in the very beginning of the whole game, always we do this:

女孩1：我们有，在全部游戏的最开始，我们这样做

we each have a piece of paper; we write down our name, our age --

我们每人有一张纸，我们写下自己的姓名，年龄，

are we rich, very rich, not rich, poor, medium, wealthy,

富有，非常富有，普通，贫穷，中产，有钱，

boyfriends, dogs, pets -- what else -- sisters, brothers, and all those.

男朋友，狗，宠物，还有什么，姐妹，兄弟，所有这些。

Girl 2: Divorced -- parents divorced, maybe.

女孩2：离婚，父母离婚，可能是。

Girl 3: This is my pretend [unclear] one.

女孩3：这是我假扮的。

Girl 4: We make a school newspaper on the computer.

女孩4：我们在电脑上制作了一份校报。

Girl 5: For a girl's game also usually they'll have really pretty scenery

女孩5：给女孩子的游戏通常需要有非常漂亮的场景，

with clouds and flowers.

有云和花朵。

Girl 6: Like, if you were a girl and you were really adventurous and a real big tomboy,

如同，假如你是一个女孩而且你真的假小子般喜欢探险

you would think that girls' games were kinda sissy.

你会觉得女孩子的游戏有点女生气。

Girl 7: I run track, I played soccer,

女孩6：我开货车，我踢足球，

I play basketball, and I love a lot of things to do.

我打篮球，我有很多事情喜欢做。

And sometimes I feel like I can't really enjoy myself unless it's like a vacation,

有时候，我觉得自己不开心，除非是在假期，

like when I get Mondays and all those days off.

像是生活中没有周一及其他工作日。

Girl 8: Well, sometimes there is a lot of stuff going on

恩，有时候我有很多事情要做，

because I have music lessons and I'm on swim team --

我有音乐课，我又在游泳队，

all this different stuff that I have to do,

还有很多类似的很难的事情我需要做，

and sometimes it gets overwhelming.

甚至有时候这些事情铺天盖地那么多。

Girl 9: My friend Justine

我的朋友贾斯蒂

kinda took my friend Kelly, and now they're being mean to me.

似乎带走了我的朋友凯利，而他们现在开始针对我。

Girl 10: Well, sometimes it gets annoying when your brothers and sisters,

女孩8：嗯，有时候有兄弟姐妹很烦，

or brother or sister, when they copy you and you get your idea first

当他们抄袭你的时候，明明是你先想到的主意，

and they take your idea and they do it themselves.

他们拿走了然后自己做。

Girl 11: Because my older sister, she gets everything

女孩9：因为我的姐姐，她拥有一切，

and, like, when I ask my mom for something, she'll say, "No" -- all the time.

当我和妈妈要求东西时，她总是说不。

But she gives my sister everything.

但是她把一切都给姐姐。

Brenda Laurel: I want to show you, real quickly, just a minute

布兰达劳莱尔：我想很快速的给你们看，只一分钟，

of "Rockett's Tricky Decision," which went gold two days ago.

“罗基特的诡计”，两天前刚刚完成的。

Let's hope it's really stable.

希望很稳定。

This is the second day in Rockett's life.

这是罗基特生活的第二天，

The reason I'm showing you this

我之所以给你们看的原因

is I'm hoping that the scene that I'm going to show you will look familiar

是因为我希望你们从这里看到熟悉的东西，

and sound familiar, now that you've listened to some girls' voices.

听到熟悉的东西，现在你已经在倾听女孩的声音了。

And you can see how we've tried to incorporate the issues that matter to them

你可以了解我们如何将他们关注的融入到

in the game that we've created.

我们创造的游戏。

Miko: Hey Rockett! C'mere!

录像：麦可：嗨，罗基特！来这儿！

Rockett: Hi Miko! What's going on?

罗基特：嗨 麦可！什么事？

Miko: Did you hear about Nakilia's big Halloween party this weekend?

麦可：你听说娜克利这个周末的大型万圣节晚会了么？

She asked me to make sure you knew about it.

她让我务必通知你。

Nakilia invited Reuben too, but --

娜克利也邀请了鲁本，但是

Rockett: But what? Isn't he coming?

罗基特：但是什么？他不来了么？

Miko: I don't think so.

麦可：我想不是这样。

I mean, I heard his band is playing at another party the same night.

我的意思是，我听说他的乐队同一天晚上在另外一个聚会表演。

Rockett: Really? What other party?

罗基特：真的么？在哪个聚会？

Girl: Max's party is going to be so cool, Whitney.

女孩：马克思的聚会一定会很酷，惠特尼。

He's invited all the best people.

他邀请了所有最棒的人。

BL: I'm going to fast-forward to the decision point

BL：我要快进到决定时刻，

because I know I don't have a lot of time.

因为我知道我没有太多时间。

After this awful event occurs, Rocket gets to decide how she feels about it.

这件糟糕的事情发生之后，罗基特需要决定她想要什么。

Rockett: Who'd want to show up at that party anyway?

录像：罗基特：到底是谁想出现在那个聚会上？

I could get invited to that party any day if I wanted to.

如果我想的话，我哪天都会受到邀请。

Gee, I doubt I'll make Max's best people list.

基，我怀疑我是否要为马克斯制作最棒人员名单。

BL: OK, so we're going to emotionally navigate.

BL：好，我们现在来从情绪上体验，

If we were playing the game, that's what we'd do.

就像是我们正在玩这个游戏。

If at any time during the game we want to learn more about the characters,

如果，任何时候，我们在游戏中想要了解更多主角，

we can go into this hidden hallway,

我们可以进入这个隐藏的走廊，

and I'll quickly just show you the interface.

我将快速给你们看一下界面。

We can, for example, go find Miko's locker

我们可以，举个例子，去寻找麦可的储物柜

and get some more information about her.

然后找到关于她的更多的信息。

Oops, I turned the wrong way.

噢，我的方向错了。

But you get the general idea of the product.

但你门已经对这个产品有了大致概念。

I wanted to show you the ways, innocuous as they seem,

我想展示给你们一些途径，看起来无伤大雅，

in which we're incorporating what we've learned about girls --

在里面我们融入了我们对女孩子的了解——

their desires to experience greater emotional flexibility,

他们对经历更多情感流动的渴望，

and to play around with the social complexity of their lives.

和他们对体现社交生活复杂性的游戏的渴望。

I want to make the point that what we're giving girls, I think, through this effort,

我想指出，通过这些努力，我认为，我们要给予女孩子的，

is a kind of validation,

是一种确认，

a sense of being seen.

一种被关注的感觉。

And a sense of the choices that are available in their lives.

也是一种对生活中存在选择的感觉。

We love them.

我们爱他们。

We see them.

我们关注他们。

We're not trying to tell them who they ought to be.

我们并不是在尝试告诉他们应该如何如何。

But we're really, really happy about who they are.

但是，我们真的非常高兴认识他们。

It turns out they're really great.

而且他们确实是非常棒的。

I want to close by showing you a videotape

我想以一段录像来收尾，

that's a version of a future game in the Rockett series

这是未来罗基特系列游戏的一个版本，

that our graphic artists and design people put together,

我们的游戏设计师和美术设计师合力打造的，

that we feel would please that four percent of reviewers.

我们觉得可以让的那4%的批评者满意的。

"Rockett 28!"

“罗基特 二十八”

Rockett: It's like I'm just waking up, you know?

罗基特：我像是刚刚醒来，你知道

BL: Thanks.

谢谢。