On the one hand, there's the wanting processes.
在一方面,有一个期望过程
This is a bit like ambition and drive,
有点像野心和驱动力--
I'm going to do that. I'm going to work hard.
我要去做那件事,我要努力
On the other hand, there's the liking processes,
在另一方面,有趣味的过程
fun and affection and delight
乐趣,感情和愉悦
and an enormous flying beast with an orc on the back.
一个庞大的飞行动物背上骑着兽人
It's a really great image. It's pretty cool.
真是一个绝佳的图像,真的太酷了
It's from the game World of Warcraft with more than 10 million players globally,
它来自游戏《魔兽世界》,在全球拥有超过100万玩家
one of whom is me, another of whom is my wife.
其中有一个就是我,还有一个是我妻子
And this kind of a world,
这是一种世界
this vast flying beast you can ride around,
有大量的飞行动物你可以骑着到处跑
shows why games are so very good at doing both the wanting and the liking.
而这正显示出为什么游戏是多么善于让人同时做要做和喜欢做的事。
Because it's very powerful. It's pretty awesome.
因为它功能强大,它棒极了
It gives you great powers.
它给予你强大的力量
Your ambition is satisfied, but it's very beautiful.
你的野心被满足,同时它也是美好的
It's a very great pleasure to fly around.
能够飞来飞去多妙啊
And so these combine to form a very intense emotional engagement.
所以所有这些东西结合起来构造了一个非常强烈的情感活动
But this isn't the really interesting stuff.
但这并非真正有趣的东西
The really interesting stuff about virtuality is what you can measure with it.
真正有趣的东西是它的虚拟性是用它你能度量一些东西
Because what you can measure in virtuality is everything.
因为在虚拟世界你可以度量任何东西
Every single thing that every single person
在游戏里玩过的每个人
who's ever played in a game has ever done can be measured.
做的每件事情,都可以被测量
The biggest games in the world today
目前全世界最大的游戏
are measuring more than one billion points of data
所测量的数据超过数十亿份
about their players, about what everybody does
关于它的玩家,关于每个人的行动
far more detail than you'd ever get from any website.
远远超过你从任何一个网站上所获得的细节
And this allows something very special to happen in games.
这就使一些特殊的东西在游戏中发生
It's something called the reward schedule.
这些东西名为奖励量表
And by this, I mean looking at what millions upon millions of people have done
说到这,我的意思是看着亿万人做了什么
and carefully calibrating the rate,
然后仔细校准在游戏中的
the nature, the type, the intensity of rewards in games
频率,性质,类型和奖励力度
to keep them engaged over staggering amounts of time and effort.
以保持他们参与以这惊人数量的时间和努力
Now, to try and explain this in sort of real terms,
现在,为了尝试做些实例性解释
I want to talk about a kind of task
我想谈谈在很多游戏里
that might fall to you in so many games.
一种任务极可能降临到你身上
Go and get a certain amount of a certain little game-y item.
去寻找一定数量的某些游戏小玩意
Let's say, for the sake of argument,
比方说,为了便于讨论
my mission is to get 15 pies
我的任务是去找15个馅饼
and I can get 15 pies by killing these cute, little monsters.
我可以得到15个馅饼就靠去杀掉这些可爱的小怪物
Simple game quest.
很简单的游戏要求
Now you can think about this, if you like,
现在你可以把这个当做,如果你愿意
as a problem about boxes.
一个关于箱子的问题
I've got to keep opening boxes.
我要一直打开箱子
I don't know what's inside them until I open them.
在打开它们之前我并不知道里面有什么
And I go around opening box after box until I've got 15 pies.
所以我四处走,打开一个又一个箱子,直到我得到15个饼
Now, if you take a game like Warcraft,
现在,如果你玩像魔兽这类游戏
you can think about it, if you like, as a great box-opening effort.
你可以把它当做,如果你愿意的话,一个庞大的开箱子工程
The game's just trying to get people to open about a million boxes,
游戏只是尽可能地让人们打开成千上万的箱子
getting better and better stuff in them.
从中获得越来越好的装备
This sounds immensely boring
这听起来非常无聊
but games are able to make this process incredibly compelling.
但游戏却有能力将这一过程变得异常地有吸引力
And the way they do this
而他们做到这些的方法就是
is through a combination of probability and data.
通过结合概率和数理统计
Let's think about probability.
让我们先想想概率吧
If we want to engage someone
如果我想让某人参与进
in the process of opening boxes to try and find pies,
这个为了寻找馅饼去开箱子的过程中
we want to make sure it's neither too easy,
我想要保证这一过程既不太简单
nor too difficult, to find a pie.
也不会太难
So what do you do? Well, you look at a million people
所以你会怎么做?好的,你看着一百万人
no, 100 million people, 100 million box openers
不,一亿人,一亿个开箱者
and you work out, if you make the pie rate about 25 percent
然后你计算,如果你使得到馅饼的几率成大约25%--
that's neither too frustrating, nor too easy.
那就既不太让人丧气,又不会太简单
It keeps people engaged.
它能使人持续参与
But of course, that's not all you do -- there's 15 pies.
当然,这还不是全部, 这只是15个馅饼。