摘要：雅思中國網雅思君今天要給大家分享的一篇雅思閱讀文章，相信很多很多都很感興趣這個主題：“video games”，沒錯，視頻游戲!這篇文章討論的是關于視頻游戲是不是偉大的文學作品，聽起來有點匪夷所思，但還是來看看本文的觀點吧!

今天要分享的雅思閱讀素材是一篇關于視頻游戲的文章，題目叫“Video games are great literature? 視頻游戲是偉大的文學作品嗎?”哈哈，這個問題大家一定會感興趣!很多人都喜歡玩游戲，為了游戲很多人簡直是廢寢忘食啊，周杰倫都因為玩游戲上央視新聞了，所以你還不來看看這篇文章到底說了些什么嗎?

It’s an unfortunate feature of working as both a novelist and a games designer that I end up sitting through a lot of panels, round-tables, conferences, discussions and other exercises in head-nodding where digital people try to get to grips with(對付;處理)storytelling, or where story people try to understand the digital world. (身兼寫小說和設計游戲兩職，我工作中一個非常不幸的特征是不得不經常置身許多專題會、圓桌會、研討會、討論會以及其他搖頭晃腦的鍛煉場合，在這些場合中，數字人試圖解決講故事的問題，或者講故事的人試圖理解數字世界。)

Both these types of event have their aggravations.(這兩類活動都各有其令人惱火之處。) When digital people run workshops or colloquia or jams (there are infinite names for the basic principle of bringing people together in combination with coffee) about storytelling, they often seem not to notice that quite a lot of very clever people have been thinking very hard about stories for, oh, the past 3,000-4,000 years. I’ve heard people suggest that maybe stories have a “pattern” or “structural ordering” that holds together their parts, without apparently realizing that a lot of people have written about this, from Aristotle on.

And let’s not even get on to (聽信) the people who say things like “data is a story”, “products are a story”, “your robo-vacuum cleaner has a story to tell you”. No it isn’t, no they’re not, and no – unless artificial intelligence(人工智能)has come on much faster than anticipated(期待)– it doesn’t.

But more aggravating even than this are the forums, summits, breakout sessions and seminars on “digital literature” run by exceedingly(非常，特別地) well-meaning arts people who can talk for hours about what the future might be for storytelling in this new technological age – whether we might produce hyperlinked(超鏈接的)or interactive(互動的)or multi-stranded novels and poems – without apparently noticing that video games exist. And they don’t just exist! They’re the most lucrative(有利可圖的), fastest-growing medium of our age. (電子游戲豈止簡單地存在!它們可是這個時代最賺錢，成長最快的媒介!)Your experimental technological literature is already here; it’s the noise you’re trying to get your children to turn down while you pen(用筆寫)your thoughts about the future of location-based storytelling.(技術實驗性的文學已然在這兒，就是你在梳理基于地點的故事講述之未來的時候，想方設法讓你孩子關小的那些噪音。)

When I bring this up with arts and literary types, I often get the sort of “oh come, come” response that can only emerge (出現)from someone who has no familiarity whatsoever with what video games are, have been, and can be. (當我向那些藝術和文學類的人提起這點時，我得到的反應通常是“噢，別，別”，只有那些對電子游戲的過去，現在和未來毫不知情的人才可能做出這種反應。)“You can’t claim that Grand Theft Auto has literary merit,” they say. Maybe you can – plenty of people have – but no, I wouldn’t cite GTA as fascinating experimental literature any more than I’d cite robo-Godzilla-fighting blockbuster Pacific Rim as an example of avant-garde(先鋒派)film-making (it’s fun though).

But are there video games experimenting with more interesting storytelling than any “digital literature” project I’ve seen? Yes, certainly. And if you want to think of yourself as well read, or well cultured, you need to engage with them.(如果你想自己成為一個閱讀廣泛、文化精深的人，你就需要融入到它們之中。)

To pick just 10 examples from recent years, it’s hard to imagine how you could opine on(對……發表意見)the future of literature without having played the brilliantly characterful and fourth-wall breaking Portal, the sombre(陰郁的)and engrossing(引人入勝的) Papers, Please, or the dazzlingly surreal (超現實的)exploration of the American subconscious, Kentucky Route Zero. Are you interested in discussing experimental “read it in any order” literature(一種文學形式，讀者可以從任何地方開始閱讀)? Then for goodness’ sake, play the mystery narratives of Her Story and Gone Home and the hilarious and unsettling The Stanley Parable. If you want to talk about how writers can engage with politics, capitalism, or the environmental movement, you’ll be showing your ignorance if you haven’t played Oiligarchy.

Interested in how storytellers can engage with themes of mortality(死亡)? You’ll want Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, or Jason Rohrer’s short, powerful game Passage, or the sublime Journey. Each of these games could – and probably should – be taught in schools to inspire(激勵)the next generation of creators.

The problem is that people who like science and technology, and people who like storytelling and the arts have typically been placed in different buildings since about the age of 16. We haven’t been taught how to admire each others’ work, to recognize excellence, or even to know that there is excellence in “the other culture”. There’s a kind of sullen arrogance(自大，傲慢) on both sides, with some people in both camps simply denying that the other knows anything worth listening to. There is a kind of “worthy” arts professional who thinks that knowing nothing about games – like saying “I don’t even own a television!” – is a marker of intellectual superiority.(有一類自詡為“有價值的”藝術專業人員認為，對游戲一無所知，比方說些“我甚至連電視機都沒有!”之類的話，就標志著他們在智力上要高人一籌。)

But we can’t afford that kind of thinking any more. Being culturally educated about video games is as important as going to museums or learning about opera. Games often manage to be both great art and an economic powerhouse; we’re doing ourselves and the next generation a disservice (傷害)if we don’t take that seriously.(如果我們不認真對待的話，我們會對自己和下一代造成傷害。)

               
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