外刊精读：封锁中的传奇

Legends in lockdown

封锁中的传奇

The pandemic has accelerated the growth of competitive video-gaming

疫情促进了电子竞技游戏的发展

Motor racing has a long and chequered history of cheating, from illegal designs to the use of nitrous oxide to give cars a boost. On May 23rd, however, a new type emerged when a Formula e driver, Daniel Abt, was disqualified for substituting a teenage video-gamer to drive for him. The cheating happened not in a real car but in a virtual version of the sport, played on the official “Formula 1” video game, organised to keep fans amused while real racing was stopped for the pandemic. The races put car drivers up against professional virtual racers, and were watched by hundreds of thousands of viewers on television as well as YouTube and Twitch, a live-streaming service owned by Amazon.

从非法设计到使用一氧化二氮提升汽车性能，赛车作弊的历史已由来已久。然而，在5月23日，一种新的类型出现了:Formulae车手丹尼尔·阿布特(Daniel Abt)因为替一名青少年电子游戏玩家代驾而被取消了比赛资格。这一作弊行为并没有发生在一辆真实的汽车上，而发生在一款f1官方视频游戏的虚拟版本中。真正的赛车因疫情而被停赛，这款游戏的开发是为了重燃粉丝们的激情而设计。这场比赛是赛车手和专业的虚拟赛车手之间的较量，（比赛当天）有数十万观众通过电视、YouTube和Twitch观看了比赛。其中，Twitch是亚马逊旗下的一项流媒体直播服务。

Chequered adj.

~ past/history/career 成功与失败并存的（过去或历史、事业）  

Nitrous oxide n.

氧化亚氮，笑气（旧时牙医用作麻醉剂）

Disqualified adj./v.

adj. 不合格的；被取消资格的

v. 使不合格；取消…的资格（disqualify的过去分词）

Substituting n./v.

n. 取代；[数] 代入

v. 代替，取代（substitute的现在分词形式）

Live-streaming

直播；实时流媒体

The virtual f1 contest was not the only example of athletes taking to a video-game version of their sport during the pandemic. In Britain Sky Sports, a broadcaster, showed matches of “FIFA”, a popular football game, with players from the real-life Premier League. In America NASCAR races have been held virtually, too.

这场虚拟的f1比赛并不是运动员在疫情期间参加电子游戏竞赛的唯一例子。英国天空体育广播公司播放了一场备受欢迎的（线上虚拟）足球比赛——国际足联的比赛，选手们来自真实的英超联赛。在美国，纳斯卡赛车比赛也是虚拟的。

Virtual adj.

1.很接近的；几乎…的；事实上的；实际上的；实质上的

2.（通过计算机软件，如在互联网上）模拟的，虚拟的

Broadcaster n.

1.广播员；（电视或电台的）节目主持人

2.电视台；广播公司

Matches n./v.

n.

1.火柴

2.比赛；竞赛 eg:a football match 足球比赛;a tennis match 网球比赛

3.敌手；旗鼓相当的人

4.相配的人（或物）；般配的人（或物）

5.外观相同的东西；非常相似的东西

v.

1.般配；相配

2.相同；相似；相一致

3.找相称（或相关）的人（或物）；配对

4.与…相匹敌；和…不相上下

5.使等同于；使优于

6.适应；满足

It may seem surprising that fans might be satisfied by watching a virtual version of their sport. Yet video games have been quietly becoming more like traditional sports for some time. Covid-19, by keeping athletes indoors, has given a boost to “e- sports”—not just virtual versions of old sports, but entirely new online games, played competitively by professionals and watched by tens of millions of people.

球迷们通过观看运动员虚拟版本的竞技而得到满足，这种现象看似让人惊讶，然而，一段时间以来，电子游戏已经悄然出现接近传统体育运动的趋势。新冠疫情让运动员们困在室内，（却）推动了电子竞技的发展。电子竞技不仅是传统体育项目的虚拟版本，还包括全新的在线游戏，可以提供数千万人观看的专业人士竞技（视频）。

Video games, now played often by perhaps a quarter of the world’s population, are no longer just entertainment. Many games are more like something between a sport and a social network. And games have thrived under lockdown. The number of players logged into Steam, a popular gaming platform on pcs, reached record highs in late March, with 25m players logged in at one time. Nintendo’s share price increased by 45% in the month from March 16th. Twitch saw its traffic jump by 50% from March to April.

如今，世界大约有四分之一的人常常玩电子游戏。电子游戏不再只是一种娱乐，许多游戏更像是介于运动和社交网络之间的事物，在（疫情）封锁下蓬勃发展。3月下旬，登录在流行pc（个人计算机）游戏平台Steam的玩家数量刷新了自身纪录的最高点，一次登录人数就达到了2500万。从3月16日起，任天堂的股价当月上涨了45%。（并且）从3月到4月，Twitch的流量增长了50%。

Thrive v.

兴旺发达；繁荣；蓬勃发展；旺盛；茁壮成长

Lockdown n.

一级防范禁闭（期）

Over the past decade the business model of games has changed radically. Revenue used to come from selling blockbuster single-player games, such as “Grand Theft Auto”, on disks. Now the biggest-grossing games, such as “Fortnite” or “League of Leg- ends”, are given away free and updated constantly, with money made from in- game purchases. They are more social, more competitive and arguably more addictive. Some of them are becoming cultural phenomena in their own right. Executives hope they can persuade more people to watch them, buy gear and cheer teams as they do with traditional sports.

在过去的十年里，游戏的商业模式发生了根本性的变化。过去的收入来自销售重磅的单人游戏，比如《侠盗猎车手》。而现在最卖钱的游戏，如Fortnite或League of Leg-ends，都是免费赠送和不断更新的，而钱则来自游戏内购买。他们更善于社交，更有竞争力，可以说更容易让人上瘾。其中一些（做法）已经成为文化现象。高管们希望他们能说服更多的人观看他们的比赛、购买装备和啦啦队，就像他们在传统体育比赛中所做的那样。

Blockbuster n.

n. 轰动；巨型炸弹；一鸣惊人者

Grossing n.

grossing 总额创票房最高纪录的

Gerhard Grossing 作者

top grossing 以及畅销应用排行最高票房从畅销排名从滞销排名

Arguably adv.

可论证地；可争辩地；正如可提出证据加以证明的那样地

Executive n./adj.

adj. 经营管理的；有执行权的；高级的；供重要人物使用的

n. 主管；行政领导；（政府的）行政部门；执行委员会

Gear n.

n.

1.排挡；齿轮；传动装置

2.挡

first/second, etc. gear 一挡、二挡等

reverse gear 倒挡

low/high gear 低速╱高速挡

3.（某种活动的）设备，用具，衣服

4.衣服

5.所有物；财物

6.（特定用途的）器械，装置

7.（做事的）速度，努力

Take “League of Legends”, perhaps the biggest e-sport in the world. It was launched in 2009 by Riot Games, an American firm now owned by Tencent, China’s biggest tech firm. It is a complex strategy game, in which teams of five players com mand “heroes” in a battle to defeat each other. As many people play it regularly as play tennis; at any one time, 8m people may be online. It also supports a professional game that is, at least in terms of the number of players earning a living from it, also larger than tennis. The final of the League of Legends World Championship last year was watched live by 44m people. By comparison the Super Bowl, America’s biggest live sporting event, was watched by roughly twice that.

以Riot游戏公司于2009年推出的“英雄联盟”为例，它可能是世界上最大的电子竞技游戏，目前这家美国公司属中国最大的科技公司腾讯所有。这是一款复杂的战略游戏，每支队伍由5名玩家组成，他们需要和“英雄”一起战斗以打败对方。在任何时候，都有800万人在上网，数量和经常打网球的人一样多。它还支持一项职业比赛，仅就比赛中的专职队员而言，其人数也比常打网球的人数多。去年，有4400万人现场观看了英雄联盟(League of Legends)世界锦标赛决赛。相比之下，美国最大的体育赛事——超级碗(Super Bowl)的收视率大约是这个数字的两倍。

Comparison n.

1.比较

2.对比；相比

Roughly adv.

1.大约；大致；差不多

2.粗暴地；粗鲁地

3.粗糙地；凹凸不平地

Twelve professional leagues now span all regions of the globe except Africa, with 120 franchised teams and perhaps 1,000 professional players. Whereas tennis stars in the world’s top 200 often struggle to make a living, “League of Legends” players in America are guaranteed a minimum salary of $75,000. There, players are entitled to the same visas that other foreign athletes can get. The average salary is closer to $400,000, says Chris Greeley of Riot Games. Lee Sanghyeok, a Korean star，known by his tag “Faker”, may be the highest-paid sportsman in his country.

目前，除非洲外，12个职业联赛遍布全球所有赛区，拥有120支获得特许的经营战队和千名左右的职业选手。虽然世界前200强的网球明星常常难以谋生，但美国的“英雄联盟”职业选手的得到最低的薪水承诺是7.5万美元。在那里，职业选手有权获得与其他外国运动员相同的签证。拳头游戏的克里斯·格里利说，选手们的平均工资接近40万美元。以“Faker”著称的韩国选手李相赫可能是韩国收入最高的运动员。

Be entitled to:有……的资格。

Older sports are moving in. f1’s e-sports competition existed before covid-19 brought it to television, as did eNASCAR races. Michael Jordan, a retired basketball star, is among those to have invested in Team Liquid, which plays in around a dozen e-sports. In November Manchester City, an English football club, unveiled its professional “FIFA” team—based in South Ko- rea. Games of “Starcraft”, a strategy game, were first screened on cable tv there in the 1990s. Korean teenagers play, after school and before private tuition, in internet cafés, known as “pc bangs” (pc rooms).

更复古的竞技运动正在兴起。f1的电子竞技比赛的电视转播在新冠疫情之前就已经存在了，纳斯卡赛车的比赛也是如此。退役篮球明星迈克尔乔丹投资过Team Liquid，这家公司在十几个电子竞技项目中都有过投资。去年11月，一家英国曼城的足球俱乐部公布了其在韩国的FIFA职业战队。《星际争霸》是一款战略游戏，在上世纪90年代首次在有线电视上播放。韩国青少年在放学后和私人补习前，都在网吧里玩，这些网吧也被称为“电脑房”。

Team Liquid:是一支国际电子竞技职业组织，2000年在荷兰建立。2012年，Team Liquid在北美成立了Dota2战队，这是他们首次进军多项目俱乐部。在Dota2Ti7国际邀请赛上，Team Liquid的Dota2欧洲分部夺得冠军并获得了当时电竞史上最多的一笔奖金——7227万。2015年1月，Team Liquid宣布合并Team Curse，正式进军英雄联盟项目。TL的英雄联盟分部一共获得过4次北美最高级别联赛LCS的冠军。

Activision Blizzard, a publisher, runs leagues for “Call of Duty” and “Overwatch”, two first-person shooter games. These are modelled on conventional sports leagues, with teams that rent stadiums and play at home and away. Being based in a specific city enables teams to generate local support, as well as revenue from local sponsors, says Ben Spoont, the CEO of Misfits Gaming, which owns the Florida Mayhem “Overwatch” team.

动视暴雪，是一个游戏发行商。它经营“使命召唤”和“守望先锋”两款第一人称射击游戏的联赛。这些游戏都对传统的体育联赛进行模仿，战队租用体育场，在主场和客场比赛。Misfits Gaming的首席执行官本•斯彭特（Ben Spoont）说：“总部设在一个特定的城市，可以让战队队在当地获得支持，同时也能从当地赞助商那里获得收入。”Misfits Gaming拥有守望先锋的佛罗里达狂欢战队。

Last year Epic Games, the publisher of “Fortnite”, launched a “World Cup”. Any- one could apply to play: 40m did so. The finals filled 19,000 seats of the Arthur Ashe stadium in New York and $30m of prize money was dished out to the winners.

去年，“堡垒之夜”的出版商EpicGames推出了“世界杯”。任何人都可以申请参赛，有四千万人参加。总决赛的观众坐满了纽约阿瑟阿什体育场的1.9万个座位，3000万美元的奖金被颁发给了获奖者。

Dish：

n. 盘；餐具；一盘食物；外貌有吸引力的人；

vt. 盛于碟盘中；分发；使某人的希望破灭；说（某人）的闲话；

vi. 成碟状；闲谈。

此处引申译为“颁发”。

Though South Korea remains a leader in e-sports, China is catching up. The island of Hainan, popular for its beach resorts, has set aside $141m to subsidise international e-sports. In Hangzhou government money has been used to build an “e-sports town”, featuring a 56,000-square-foot (5,200-square-metre) arena, which is home to the Chinese “League of Legends” games, sponsored by Tencent. There are also shops, a training academy and an e- sports-themed hotel.

虽然韩国保持电子竞技的领头羊的地位，但中国正在迎头赶上。以海滩度假胜地而闻名的海南，已经拨出1.41亿美元用于资助国际电子竞技。在杭州，政府出资建设了一个以一个5.6万平方英尺（5200平方米）的竞技场为特征的“电子竞技小镇”。这里是腾讯赞助的中国“英雄联盟”游戏的所在地，此外还配有商店、训练学院和电子竞技主题酒店。

Subsidise：资助。

例句：Farming is partly subsidised by the government.

For a generation that lives chiefly online anyway, games are a means of socialising, like traditional sports. Thurston Jepps, a 12-year-old from London, mainly plays “Minecraft”, a free-roaming construction game, and “Overwatch”. He guesses that at least four-fifths of the time he spends playing is with friends online, rather than alone. Logging into his Xbox and seeing who is online is a little like going to the park to see who is around for kick-about. “I don’t often play single-player games unless I am kinda lonely,” he says. “Playing alone is very uncool.” Sometimes he and his friends play competitively, but often they just hang out and talk on voice-chat.

对于主要伴随网络长大一代人来说，游戏就像传统体育一样，是一种社交方式。来自伦敦的12岁少年瑟斯顿·杰普斯主要玩“我的世界”，一款自由漫步的建筑游戏，以及“守望先锋”。他估计自己至少有五分之四的时间是和朋友在网上玩游戏度过的，而非独自一人。登录他的Xbox看看谁在线，或者去公园看看谁在附近玩。他说：“除非我有点孤单，我不常玩单人游戏。一个人玩很不酷。”有时他和他的朋友玩的游戏很有对抗性，但他们经常只是通过语音聊天在游戏里闲逛。

Kick-about：反抗；到处游荡。此处指“玩游戏”。

Kinda：adv. 有一点,有几分。

例句：I think it's kinda funny.

E-sports are different in some respects, however. Nobody owns the game of soccer or basketball. That is not true of e-sports. Publishers control the games. And grassroots do not exist in the same way. Children are not encouraged to play video games at schools; most amateur teams exist only online; the pathway into playing professionally is unclear. Some teams are trying to change that. Mr Spoont’s firm has held “block parties’’ to encourage parents to take the game seriously. His teams have scouts to recruit the best players internationally, much as other sports do. But he admits that there is a long way to go.

然而，电子竞技在某些方面有所不同。没有人拥有足球或篮球比赛。电子竞技并非如此。发行商控制游戏。普通民众层面则截然不同。孩子不允许在学校玩电子游戏；大多数业余球队仅在线存在；职业比赛的途径尚不清楚。一些赛队正在尝试改变这种状况。Spoont先生所在的公司举办了“集体聚会”，以鼓励父母认真对待这场比赛。与其他体育项目一样，他的球队都有球探来招募国际最佳球员。但是他承认，这还有很长的路要走。

Amateur：adj. 业余的, 非职业的，外行的n. 业余爱好者

Scout：n. 侦察机；侦察员；搜索，侦察。

       vt. 侦察；跟踪，监视；发现。

Talent scout n. 人才发掘者；伯乐

例句：I was 12 years old and scouted in a mall.

      我12岁那年，逛商场被星探发现。

These games bring with them fears that do not apply to kicking a football around a pitch. Fewer people now worry about violent video games causing real-world violence, but newer concerns have arisen. Last year lawyers in Canada filed a suit on be- half of two sets of unidentified parents accusing Epic Games of bringing in psychologists to help make “Fortnite” more addictive. Players are encouraged to buy “battle passes” to customise their characters. For all that executives talk about media rights and sponsorship, much of the e-sports industry is cross-subsidised by money made on in-game purchases. The prize money at the “Fortnite” World Cup came from Epic, which made $1.8bn last year from microtransactions in the game.

这些游戏带来的消极影响不适用于在球场上踢足球。现在越来越少的人担心暴力电子游戏会引发现实世界中的暴力行为，但是又出现了新的担忧。去年，加拿大的律师对两组身份不明的父母提起诉讼，控诉Epic Games引入了心理学家来使“Fortnite”更让人上瘾，从而吸引玩家购买“战斗通行证”以自定义角色。尽管所有高管都在谈论媒体权利和赞助，但许多电子竞技行业还是通过游戏内购买的收入获得了交叉补贴。“Fortnite”世界杯的奖金来自Epic，该公司去年通过游戏中的玩家付费赚了18亿美元。

Epic Games：Epic Games是近十年来最负盛名的游戏制作团队之一，主要是因为旗下最为畅销的《战争机器》系列。团队研发的虚幻3引擎为无数的游戏制作团队所采用。2011年，EPIC Games发售的《战争机器3》引来了业界的广泛好评。代表作品另有《子弹风暴》、《堡垒之夜》等。

Fortnite：《堡垒之夜》，是一款第三人称射击游戏，由Epic Games团队开发。

Customise：vt.定制，定做，按顾客的具体要求制造。

The free-to-play model may bring in millions more players, but it also relies on a small minority spending extravagant sums on virtual uniforms. Britain’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport has just launched a call for evidence to look at “loot boxes”—virtual purchases that some campaigners think are akin to gambling. The sale of loot boxes can create bills that go be- yond what parents can afford. Last year Valve, the makers of “Counter-Strike”, an- other shooter game, banned the trading of virtual items which were being used to launder money.

免费游戏模式可能会吸引数百万玩家，但它也依赖少数人在虚拟制服上花费大量金钱。英国文化，媒体和体育部刚刚发出呼吁，要求人们研究“抢劫箱”，即一些活动家认为与赌博类似的虚拟购买。出售战利品盒会产生超出父母负担能力的账单。去年，另一款射击游戏“ Counter-Strike”的开发商Valve禁止交易用于洗钱的虚拟物品。

Akin：adj. 同族的；同类的；类似的。

例句：She painted flowers and birds pictures akin to those of earlier feminine painters.

Gambling is another worry. Just as it did with baseball in the 1920s, gambling on e- sports threatens to undo the professionalism of the league. “Counter-Strike”, “League of Legends” and “Overwatch” have all had match-fixing scandals. Some players have resorted to doping—Adderall, a stimulant prescribed to treat attention- deficit disorder, has been used to stay alert during long sessions.

赌博是另一个问题。就像1920年代的棒球一样，在电子竞技界赌博可能会破坏联盟的专业水平。“反恐精英”、“英雄联盟”和“守望先锋”都曝光了假球的丑闻。一些参赛者使用兴奋剂Adderal——一种用于多动症的兴奋剂，可以使人在长时间的训练中一直保持专注。

Scandal：n. 丑事, 丑闻，流言蜚语; 闲话; 诽谤。

例句：The scandal seriously damaged the senator's reputation.

Doping：dope的现在分词形式。

Dope, vi. 吸毒；吸毒成瘾.n.麻醉药物，兴奋剂。

Stimulant：n. 兴奋剂；刺激物；酒精饮料。

Deficit：n. 不足额，赤字, 亏空, 亏损。

例句：Rising budget deficit is beginning to bite.

Disorder：混乱，骚乱。In disorder

例句：If the police leave, disorder will result.

And then there is politics. In the Gulf states and China governments have cracked down on political activism spread via video games. In Hong Kong “Animal Crossing”, a video game, stopped being sold in April after it was used by virtual protesters to mock Beijing.

此外是政治。在海湾国家和中国政府，政府严厉打击了通过视频游戏传播的政治行动主义。在香港，电子游戏“动物穿越”（Animal Crossing）在四月份被虚拟抗议者用来影射北京之后被下架。

Via：经由，通过；凭借，借助于。

例句：The news reached me via my aunt.

Not just a game

不仅仅是游戏

As games evolve more into social networks, it is also harder to control the content that children see. And unlike the text on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, voice chat is harder to moderate. Rodolfo Rosini, a technology entrepreneur in London, says he has no trouble with his son Finn making friends online, but worries about the “toxicity” of some games he and his children play. On games like “Over-watch”, which mostly have a young-adult audience, bullying is common. Racism is especially common on some American servers, he says. Encountering racist chants is also a risk of going to a football match—but it is easier for parents to avoid.

随着游戏逐渐发展为社交网络，控制孩子看到的内容也变得更加困难。此外，与Twitter和Facebook等社交网络上的文本不同，语音聊天更难于管理。伦敦的技术企业家Rodolfo Rosini说，他与儿子Finn在网上结交朋友没有任何问题，但他担心自己和孩子玩的某些游戏的“毒性”。例如，《守望先锋》这样的游戏中，大多数观众都是年轻人，恃强凌弱是很常见的。他说：“种族主义在某些美国服务器上尤其常见。参加足球比赛有碰到高唱种族主义圣歌的风险，但父母更容易避免。”

Toxicity：n. 毒性。

例句：It is believed that this differential toxicity is due to species-specific toxicokinetics.

Bully：vt. 恐吓, 威逼，欺负。n.暴徒。

例句：He's always bullying smaller boys.

Racism：n.种族主义，种族歧视；人种偏见。Racist：n&adj.种族主义者，种族主义的。

If anything checks the rise of e-sports competing with football or basketball for the world’s attention, though, it may be that video games move too fast. “League of Legends” has been going for a decade; “Counter-Strike” is almost two decades old. That is an aeon for a video game still to be played. But compared with sports that were codified in the 19th century, it is short. The Overwatch League has struggled over the past year as some of its players have switched to “Valorant”, a new shooting game, or from playing in teams to streaming live on YouTube. In the end, there may simply be too many games to try.

但是，如果有什么能与足球或篮球比赛的电子竞技兴起一样，引起全世界的关注，则可能是发展迅猛的电子游戏。“英雄联盟”已经进行了十年，“反恐精英”已有近二十年的历史了。那是仍在玩的经典的电子游戏。但是与19世纪编码运动相比，它又很短。在过去的一年中，“守望先锋联赛”一直在苦苦挣扎，因为它的一些球员已经改用新游戏射击游戏“Valorant”，或者在YouTube上直播团队比赛。最后，可能只是有太多游戏可供尝试。

Aeon：万古，永世，指经历了很长时间。

例句：The shows were made aeons ago.

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