Unit 8 为视频游戏申辩-养虎为患

为视频游戏申辩：养虎为患？Defending video games: Breeding evilThere's no solid evidence that video games are bad for people, and they may be positively good没有任何可靠证据证明电玩游戏有损于人们的身心健康，相反他们或许还能发挥一些有益的作用。

“IT IS an evil influence（影响）on the youth of our country.” A politician（政客，政治家）condemning video gaming. Actually, a clergyman（牧师，教士）denouncing rock and roll 50 years ago. But the sentiment （情操，感情；观点）could just as easily have been voiced （表达，流露）by Hillary Clinton in the past few weeks, as she blamed video games for “a silent epidemic （流行疾病）of media desensitization （脱敏[医]，这里是比喻没有察觉）”and “stealing the innocence of our children”.一位政治人士谴责电玩游戏称“它们是对我国青少年的邪恶侵害”。

实际上，50年前神职人员也曾以同样的态度斥责如今被广为接受的摇滚音乐或摇滚艺术。

如同过去几周里希拉里.克林顿对电玩游戏轻松随意的批评一样，她这种反对的立场同样表达得恰到好处“这是一种伪装得连新闻媒体都疏于察觉的瘟疫，正在肆无忌惮地吮吸着我们孩子的天真！”The gaming furore（狂热，狂怒）centres on “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”, a popular and notoriously（臭名昭著的）violent cops and robbers game that turned out to contain hidden sex scenes that could be unlocked using a patch downloaded from the internet. The resulting outcry （大声疾呼）(mostly from Democratic（民主的）politicians playing to the centre) caused the game's rating（等级）in America to be changed from “mature”, which means you have to be 17 to buy it, to “adults only”, which means you have to be 18, but also means that big retailers such as Wal-Mart will not stock（进货）it. As a result the game has been banned in Australia; and, this autumn, America's Federal Trade Commission（美联邦商务委员会）will investigate（调查）the complaints（抱怨，牢骚）. That will give gaming's opponents an opportunity to vent their wrath（愤怒）on the industry.一种臭名昭著却大肆流行的狂热游戏“Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”由于其暴力的警匪场面中夹杂色情镜头而被禁，但它却可以补丁下载的方式变相的解禁。

招致的反对呼声(大多来自民主派政治人物)导致了该游戏的定级从“mature”升至“adult only”，即参与者法定年龄分段从17岁提高到18岁，这同时也意味着像Wal-Mart（沃尔玛）这样大的零售商将不再进货销售该产品。

如此，该游戏在澳大利亚境内也被明令禁止。

并且，今年秋天，美联邦商务委员会将调查事后的社会反应。

这将给电玩游戏反对者们发泄愤怒的机会，出气筒当然是以此游戏为产品的相关工业。

Scepticism（怀疑主义，怀疑论）of new media is a tradition with deep roots, going back at least as far as Socrates' objections to written texts, outlined in Plato's Phaedrus. Socrates worried that relying on written texts, rather than the oral tradition, would “create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external（外部的）written characters and not remember of themselves.”(He also objected that a written version ofa speech was no substitute（替代品）for the ability to interrogate（询问，诘问，这里指一种提问与辩驳的方式）the speaker, since, when questioned, the text “always gives one unvarying answer”. His objection, in short, was that books were not interactive（交互式的，指灵活多变）. Perhaps Socrates would have thought more highly of video games.)新媒体怀疑论（即对新生传媒方式持异议）是一种根深蒂固的老传统，能够至少追溯到Socrates（苏格拉底）对文字记录的反对，这在Plato（柏拉图）的Phaedrus中是有所记载的。

Socrates担心靠文字记载而不是传统的口头传述,“会使学生产生遗忘，因为他们不再使用自身的记忆力，而是迷信于文字记载的长久生命力冷落了人本身的记忆。

”（他同时也反对记录形式的语言表达，认为那些不能作为对演讲者发问的替代，因为在提问时，文字记录的问题，“总会被限制到一个永远不变的答案。

”）简言之，他认为书本并不具备互动的优势。

那么也许，Socrates会对电玩游戏批评甚之。

Novels were once considered too low-brow（庸俗的，没文化的）for university literature（文学，文艺）courses, but eventually the disapproving（不赞成的）professors（教授）retired. Waltz music and dancing were condemned in the 19th century; all that twirling（旋转）was thought to be “intoxicating（醉人的，这里指使人迷醉的）”and “depraved（堕落腐化的）”, and the music was outlawed in some places. Today it is hard to imagine what the fuss（大惊小怪）was about. And rock and roll was thought to encourage violence, promiscuity（混乱）and satanism（恶魔崇拜，邪恶主义）; but today even grannies buy Coldplay（摇滚乐队的名字，代表作有“yellow”）albums.在大学文学课堂上小说曾被认为难登大雅，但最终反对者还是退出了历史舞台。

19世纪Waltz（华尔兹）同样舛命，它无尽优美的旋转被钉固在堕落腐朽的十字架上，甚至有些地方为法不容。

不过，今天人们已经很难想象那大惊小怪的滑稽年代了。

摇滚音乐一度背负着暴力，混乱，邪恶的骂名；但而今，细心观察没准会看到邻居奶奶正在街角的音像店寻觅Coldplay的专辑。

游戏嗜玩者(Joystick junkies)(joystick:游戏操纵杆；junkies：吸毒者，这里是比喻义)The opposition to gaming springs largely from the neophobia（neo-: 新，phobia：恐惧病）that has pitted the old against （pit…against…: 使…与…对立）the entertainments of the young for centuries. Most gamers are under 40, and most critics are non-games-playing over-40s. But what of the specific complaints—that games foster（养育）addiction and encourage violence?几个世纪以来人们惯有的对新事物的恐惧和抵制意识使得成年人一向反对青少年的娱乐方式，这也正是反对游戏一派最大的思想根源。

大多数电玩游戏针对40岁以下的青年设计，这也难怪批评者大多是超过40并没有接触游戏的人群。

目前更具针对性的抱怨是什么呢——游戏使玩家嗜其成性，更有甚者会激发暴力倾向。

There's no good evidence for either. On addiction, if the worry is about a generally（普通的，普遍的）excessive（过度）use of screen-based entertainment, critics should surely concern（联系，涉及，牵涉）themselves about television rather than games: American teenage boys playvideo games for around 13 hours a week (girls for only five hours), yet watch television for around 25 hours a week. As to the minority who seriously overdo it（做事过火）, research suggests that they display addictive behaviour in other ways too. The problem, in other words, is with them, not with the games.然而没有任何确凿证据证明以上任何一项“罪责”。