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TIME MAGAZINE, JUNE 4, 2001, VOL.157 NO.22
Crouching Lizard
Step aside, Pikachu. The 'King of Games' has stolen your crown in Japan and is poised to conquer America
By LISA TAKEUCHI CULLEN Tokyo
The white dolphin heads to battle. She is a water-borne soldier who can swim to swift escape but has inadequate fighting skills. Her opponent materializes: the Armored Lizard. Damn! My dolphin is no match for its steely jaws and impenetrable skin. Next, I set loose the Blade Fly, whose razor pincers make for nasty weapons. I prepare for a fight. But this enemy is too clever: he has set a hidden trap that swallows the fly. "Game over," says Hiroaki Namikata. "You suck." I consider wringing his neck but decide this would upset his mom. "You'll get better in time," Hiroaki says, as he slurps down his lemon soda.
We're playing Yu-Gi-Oh, the game that has replaced Pokémon as Japan's No. 1 fad and is expected soon to enter the global lexicon. Yu-Gi-Oh, which means "King of Games," stars a seemingly normal boy named Yugi who gains extraordinary powers when playing a card game. The boom began when it was introduced as a plot twist in the Yu-Gi-Oh manga-comic series, which then spawned an actual card game, as well as Game Boy and PlayStation software, an animated TV show, action figures, pencil boxes and countless other money-sucking doodads. Yu-Gi-Oh is already a $2 billion industry; it caused a riot at a Tokyo games convention and has been banned from Bangkok schools. Its U.S. kickoff is slated for the fall.
Hiroaki, an outspoken eight-year-old, has gathered two other Yu-Gi-Oh freaks at his family's condo in Chiba to challenge me in electronic battle. By wiring our Game Boys together with a cable, we assess one another's "cards" and send our own characters off to war. Each of the 700-some characters has unique traits and powers, which are rated by points. Illusionist No-Face, for instance, is a magician who can instantly shift appearances. His 1,200 points of offensive strength are no match for the 1,400 of the Mecha-Falcon, but the magic man's 2,200 defensive points far outnumber the jet-powered bird's 1,200. Got it?
Kazuki Takahashi, the creator of the comic series, and games producer Konami appear to be following the Pokémon formula to fuel the Yu-Gi-Oh craze. Like Pokémon, the animated TV show brings the characters and plot twists to life. Like Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh demands careful strategy to decide which cards to pit against one another. Because you need 40 cards to play the game (players download characters into a Game Boy by inserting the codes printed on real cards), it also plays to kids' penchant for collecting. And though the Game Boy version can be played alone, it's more fun to challenge someone else. "Japan used to be a place where all the neighborhood kids played together," says Hideo Takayama, president of the Children's Research Institute. "But today's kids spend most of their free time studying for exams, so it's harder for them to make friends. Games based on trading cards, like Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh, force kids to interact; that's why they're such a hit."
But Yu-Gi-Oh is not such a hit with parents. Nearly everyone likes Pokémon's cute figures, but Yu-Gi-Oh's dark story lines, leggy girls and terrifying monsters make Satomi Namikata, Hiroaki's mother, cringe. As her young daughter hugs a talking Pikachu, the best-recognized Pokémon character, mom frets: "The rules are so complicated and the drawings so scary that I'm sure Yu-Gi-Oh is meant for teenagers."
Which is exactly why younger boys love it. The craze isn't limited to fad-mad Tokyo; in a large toy store on the southern island of Shikoku, every Yu-Gi-Oh card and Yu-Gi-Oh Game Boy game is sold out. "I get swarms of kids from the elementary school next door," says Mitsuaki Muraoka, the shop's manager. "On weekends, parents come in with pieces of paper on which they've written the word yu-gi-oh." Since Konami introduced them in 1999, the company has sold 3.5 billion cards; 7 million computer games have been sold since its release in late 1998. With the U.S. launch due before Christmas, Konami is predicting a 65% jump in Yu-Gi-Oh-driven profits over the next two years.
It's the cards and not the video game that still drive Japanese kids' interest. "The funny thing about these games is that they have reminded kids how fun it is to play with each other, instead of at home alone with a video console," says Macoto Nakamura, a Tokyo game designer. Are interactive games promoting interactivity of the retro, Old Economy kind? Could be: the toy fad currently sweeping Japan is Bei Blade, an updated version of spinning tops.
<span style=color:red>此贴被legilulu在2003-6-5-1:30编辑过</span>
<span style=color:red>此贴被legilulu在2003-6-5-1:31编辑过</span>
TIME MAGAZINE, JUNE 4, 2001, VOL.157 NO.22
翻译的不全面，还求英语好的，这是本人从网上看见的，转载的
Crouching Lizard 蜷缩的蜥蜴
靠边站，皮卡秋。“游戏之王”已经夺去了你在日本游戏界的皇冠，并且正四平八稳的征服北美的玩家。By LISA TAKEUCHI CULLEN Tokyo
白色的海豚冲向了战场。她是个水中的战士，拥有迅速游泳避过敌人攻击的技巧，但是战斗技能却不是那样突出。她的对手出现了――一只装甲蜥蜴。该死！ 我的海豚实力不能跟蜥蜴那钢铁爪子和坚硬的皮肤向抗衡。接下来，我放置了镰刀蝇，它具备像剃刀般的钳子，是一种肮脏的武器。我准备大战一场。但是我的敌人太聪明了，他放置的陷阱吞噬了我的镰刀蝇。“游戏结束”，" Hiroaki Namikata说道 "You suck."我有扭他脖子的冲动，但是为了不使得他妈妈心烦，我还是放弃了 （什么意思？？？）“你很快就会变强的”， Hiroaki 一边吮吸着柠檬苏打水一边说道。
我们正在玩Yu-Gi-Oh, 一种取代口袋妖怪Pokémon 成为日本最流行的游戏 人们也期望全世界的人们能够更快了解这个新生词汇。日语中，Yu-Gi-Oh 的意思就是“游戏之王”，主角是一个表面上很正常的男孩――游戏（Yugii），他在卡片游戏中拥有超凡的能量。这股热潮是从游戏王连载漫画开始的，并迅速蔓延到实际的卡片比赛，GameBoy和Playstation游戏软体，TV动画，人物玩偶，铅笔盒和其它数以万计的小玩意――他们都靠着游戏王赚了许多钱。Yu-Gi-Oh 已经是一份价值20亿美元的产业，它甚至在一次东京游戏大会上掀起了一次骚动，并且被曼谷的学校禁止. Its U.S. kickoff is slated for the fall. （这句我不会翻译了555）
Hiroaki, 一位坦率直言的8岁男孩，集合了另外两位Yu-Gi-Oh迷，在千叶的他的公寓中和我进行了一场电子对战我们用连接线将我们的Game Boy链接在一起，相互确认对方的卡片，然后让我们的卡片开始对战。700张左右的卡片都具备自己独特的特性和能力，用数字标注出来。我们以“无脸的魔术师”为例子，它是一个可以迅速变化形状的魔术师。它的1200攻击力不能和1400点的机械猎鹰（天空猎鹰？？？）相抗衡；但是他2200点的防御力却远远超过了喷气鸟（？？？）的1200点，明白了？（我不明白= =``````）
高桥和希（Kazuki Takahashithe）是游戏王漫画的创始人，游戏制作公司Konami也表现出遵循口袋妖怪模式推动游戏王狂热的意向 跟口袋妖怪一样，TV动画将漫画人物和Plot Twists（什么意思？？？）推向了普通人的生活。跟口袋妖怪一样，游戏王要求谨慎的战略战术去组合牌组去和其它玩家竞争。因为你需要40张卡片去玩这个游戏（玩家依靠输入卡片编号的方法下载卡片到GameBoy中） ，游戏王同时激发了孩子们的收集欲望。虽然GameBoy上的游戏可以一个人玩，但是向别人发出挑战更加有趣。. “日本曾经一度出现所有邻家的孩子相互玩耍的情景” 少年研究学院的主席Hideo Takayama说道。但是现在许多孩子将他们的空闲时间化在了准备考试当中，所以他们交朋友更加困难。基于交互卡片的游戏――口袋妖怪和游戏王，强迫孩子们互动，这也是为什么他们能够掀起热潮的原因。
但是游戏王对父母的冲击并不大。几乎所有人喜欢口袋妖怪的可爱外型，但是游戏王黑暗的故事路，长腿女孩和恐怖的怪物让Hiroaki的妈妈Satomi Namikata害怕。当她年轻的女儿抱着一个会说话的皮卡秋――最著名的口袋妖怪角色，妈妈焦虑的说：“（游戏王）的规则太复杂，画面也太让人害怕，所以我认为游戏王比较适合青年人。”
什么是年轻男孩喜欢游戏王的原因？这股狂热并不限于那为时尚而疯狂的东京。在四国一个位于南部岛屿上的大型玩具商店里面，所有的游戏王卡片和GameBoy软体都销售一空。“我见过隔壁小学蜂拥而来的孩子们“商场经理Mitsuaki Muraoka说道“周末，父母们会手中拿着写有”游戏王“字样的纸条来商店购买。”自从Konami1999年引进游戏王已来，他们已经售出了35亿张卡片，自从1998年后半年算起，700万游戏软体被售出。基于米国圣诞前开始的游戏王发售计划， Konami 已经作出了未来两年游戏王利润增长65％的预言。
是卡片而不是游戏仍旧在吸引日本孩子们的兴趣。“可笑的事情是：他们提醒着孩子们和别人游戏是快乐的事情；而不是一个人在家中玩着电视游戏。”一名东京的游戏设计者Macoto Nakamura说道。互动游戏会推动日本这停滞的火箭前进么？也许会。 the toy fad currently sweeping Japan is Bei Blade, an updated version of spinning tops.（最后一句不只所云 555）
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发表于 2011-7-3 10:33:38
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