【DAY241】精读版：恐怖、猎奇、暗黑，越来越多游戏专注于让我们扮演无力的孩童

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Save yourself! The video games casting us as helpless children

If society has already reduced us to a childlike state of weakness, isolation and vulnerability, it is perhaps no surprise that modern pop culture and technology tend towards infantilisation, and that many video games function as childish wish fulfilment. 

如果说社会已经让我们退化成一种孩子般的软弱、孤独和感性的状态，那么现代流行文化和科技偏向幼稚化也许并不奇怪，许多视频游戏的实际作用就是为玩家实现那些孩子气的愿望。

By turning us into star footballers or super space marines, they reconstruct adolescent fantasies of proficiency and heroism.

通过将我们变成足球明星或是超级星际战士，它们重建了我们青少年时对精湛技术和英雄主义的幻想。

Yet some games have begun to depict a childhood experience more in tune with the current social context. 

然而有些游戏已经开始描绘一种更符合当前社会语境的童年体验。

These games make us play as children, and in doing so often accentuate feelings of powerlessness and fear. 

这些游戏使我们作为儿童进行游戏，并在游戏过程中常常强调那种无力和恐惧的感受。

Only more recently have such experiences been joined by a range of games about, but not for, children. 

而就是最近，很多游戏都加入了这种体验。这些游戏是关于孩子的，但它们并不是为孩子们设计的。

The trendsetter here is Limbo, which features a dispiritingly monochrome palette and a pre-teen character who suffers all manner of gruesome deaths. 

其中的先行者是《地狱边境》（Limbo），该作品以令人沮丧的黑白色调为特征，主角是一个不满13岁、经历了各种可怕死亡的孩子。

Since then, its successor, Inside, as well as games such as Little Nightmares, have placed young children in dystopian worlds that are as freakishly bizarre as they are hostile, preying on childhood fears of monsters and abandonment.

之后，它的续作《囚禁》（Inside），以及像《小小噩梦》（Little Nightmares）这样的游戏，都将小孩子置于极为怪异并充满敌意的反乌托邦世界中，靠对怪物和被遗弃的童年恐惧来吸引玩家。

It doesn’t seem coincidental that such a portrayal of children has emerged in recent years. 

近些年来，对于儿童的这种描绘集中出现似乎并非巧合。

It re-enacts a reality in which systems appear fragile and we are made to feel responsible for failures outside our control.

它重新打造了一个现实，在这个世界中体制脆弱不堪，我们被迫为那些无法掌控的事情的失败而感到自责。

Perhaps these games also reflect the fears and worries that developers and players, increasingly parents themselves, have for their children and for the future. 

也许这些游戏也正反映了越来越多成为父母的开发者和玩家们对他们的下一代和未来的恐惧和忧虑。

There’s a sense here, as well as in games such as Limbo, that we’re making ourselves experience our children’s reality, trapped in the chaos that the adults have created.

这个道理是说得通的，在《地狱边境》这类游戏中也是如此，那就是我们被困在成年人所制造的混乱当中，正在强迫自己体验孩子们的现实。

Some of these experiences are about growing up, or learning to face an intimidating reality. 

这些体验中一部分是关于成长的，或者说，学习如何面对一个令人恐惧的现实。

In their way, they do offer some hope: no matter how many times we’re ripped apart by attack dogs in Inside, we find our way. 

这些游戏确实以自身的方式给了我们一些希望：不管我们在《囚禁》当中多少次被警犬撕成碎片，最终我们总能找到出路。

And modern games reflect a more modern understanding of children as resourceful individuals, rather than adults in waiting.

同时，现代游戏反映了一个更加摩登的思维方式，那就是将小孩子作为足智多谋的个体来看待，而不是一味等待他们成年。