魔兽世界就是未来

我曾经在这个博客里转过柴静的一期关于网瘾的节目,主要是觉得那个节目从新闻的角度看编排上我有不同意见。我记得当初我关注网瘾这件事的时候,还留意到一篇采访,受访者是一个玩过魔兽世界的研究生,他的观点是:魔兽世界是一个知识体系,因此玩家容易因为求知欲而上瘾。虽然我没有玩过魔兽和魔兽世界系列,但根据我对其他游戏的经验和对现代电子游戏工业的认识,我认为这个观点非常深刻地解释了具体因玩网游而上瘾的同学到底是上的什么瘾。而这一观点并没有反对网瘾治疗,因为就算这是因为求知欲上了瘾,花这么多的时间和精力学习了一套虚构出来的知识体系,终究还是浪费光阴的。

但是从另一方面讲,这一观点也反映了为网瘾问题忧心忡忡的家长们这辈人跟不上时代。这不是他们的错,是时代的错。我是83年出生的80后,2001级大学本科。我进大学校园的时候,跟师兄师姐聊天了解到,电脑的普及彻底刷新了大学校园的整体文化,亲历这种转换的98、99级师兄师姐无不感叹万千。在电脑普及之前,大学宿舍里没几个人有电脑。宿舍里没电脑,晚上的娱乐就是串门儿、打牌、弹吉他,有拖拍的就出外拍拖去,因此同学与同学之间的感情尤其是师兄弟之间的感情非常深厚,校园的人文气息也比较文艺,那是校园民谣的时代,唱冬季校园、文科生的一个下午、恋恋风尘的时代,校园民谣界直到那最后几年还在出新歌,朴树啊什么的,有很多人追。不知道是从99级还是00级开始,越来越多的人自己装台电脑了,不出一两年就到了人手一台的地步,再不出一两年大家就知道Google了,CS和网游马上红火,qq也使得谈情说爱可以在室内进行。于是,学生宿舍晚上的情景突然变成每个人都戴着耳机忙自己的事情,也不串门了,打牌也在网上跟陌生人打了。亲历此转换的人都感到同学之情在冷化。当然,再往后几届由于一进校园就有电脑,这样的生活习以为常,也就不觉得什么“同学之情在冷化”,一切正常。现在,年轻一代离开网络简直无法生活,不要说90后从小学开始就聊qq,就算是80后,其中很多人也已经忘记没有电脑的时代了(那是我们快乐但一去不复返的童年啊)。可以想象,家长们(50后、60后)能在多大程度上理解这种极速的时代转变!他们不知道电子游戏已经成长为跟电影工业一样水深火热的产业,电子游戏产品所能承载的已经超出消遣的功能,正如电影那样。他们又怎么能理解所谓“魔兽世界是一个知识体系”这回事呢?不光魔兽世界,现在要把游戏做得好一点,都一律要把“知识体系”(我们行内人称作“设定”)这部分做强做大做广做深。以前的人可以通过看小说,看电影来感受和欣赏虚构世界设定,这是人的一种基本精神享受——幻想。但今天,这样享受被电子游戏全包了,花在电子游戏上的时间当然长了。须知,通宵达旦地看小说和通宵达旦地看电视曾经是多么平常的事情。

让我想到以上的,其实是最近在NewScientist上一则新闻:魔兽世界预测了未来社会

如果说到预测未来,现在还不仅仅说什么魔兽世界。像Second Life这样的东西,已经快成为一个Matrix了。与此同时,我们这代人已经不是蚁族就是蜗居,有的同学已经生儿育女。我们的爸爸妈妈都快退休或者已经退休了。他们对我们的担心,已经没法像以前那样通过打骂和责备来表达了。我们长大了,有主见了,不听话了; 他们老了,走路慢了,做事丢三拉四了,体检报告处处亮红灯了。我们通过Google生活、魔兽世界生活、Second Life生活,紧跟了未来十年的步阀,这是一个未来;我们的家庭和社会责任也发生了转变,上有老,下有小,人生的冒险余地紧缩,责任重担剧增,则是我们的另一个未来。两个未来都是充满着可能性的“设定”,两个未来都很虚幻却又很真实。网瘾是什么?你现在问我,我还真不知道了。但我知道很多人失去了对任何“设定”的瘾,于是决定了结生命。

What I thought about Google's move

原文在此

Google moved

Since earlier today, Google has been redirecting its China based search engine to Hong Kong. This is a reasonable move in face of China’s continuous Internet censorship. Born in the 1980s I still have at least 50 years (according to the male average age data of China) to watch where China will go, but currently I feel confused and worry because now it is a critical period for China to positively answer to this question.

I am reluctant to accept the view that the Chinese government as well as all the Chinese people are genetically unwise and doom to stupidity, or that they believe in tyranny like the North Korean seem to be. In my opinion, what China is facing is somewhat worse than the Muslin world — lack of its own idealism in face of the dominating western value. Although China seems happy to follow many western wisdom in economical and social management but it does not lose its cultural root however successful the Internet censorship is. I myself have observed everyday the Chinese netizens criticizing the government not based on western values (which should be more effective) but old Chinese values (which leads to irony). They are immune to loyalty to God, law, or anything that keep every westerners happy with their lives. They feel uncomfortable to live like the westerns, as what you may often see in various Chinese town or Chinese neighborhood in the western world. Unlike the fact of the US and what’s claimed by the Chinese government, there is only one major race in China — the Chinese people.

The administrative problems we suffer everyday in our country effectively tune down most of our uncertainty of value, which will not otherwise disappear if we would remove the current ruling power. An honest survey among all the Chinese about their believes will not yield one obvious result but an even distribution covering very conflicting ends. The value we once affirmatively believe in has been removed, for more than one time, since the end of Qing Dynasty. Democracy based on free market economy advocated by Sun Yat-sen finally led to malicious capitalism and warlords. The temporary stable Chiang Kai-shek government lost the Chinese people not because the attack of Communists but its own corruption. The success of Mao Zhedong was not his talent but his deep understanding of the ultimate pursuit of all Chinese people, petty farmers. He, however, also failed in believing too much in this understanding and reluctant to change the petty-farmer consciousness in the modernization process. The Cultural Revolution was his final trial to design a new culture to meet the future development of China, which have proved wrong. The wisdom of Deng Xiaoping in his period of Chinese history is put all the idealistic controversy away and focused on economic renaissance by all means, including western means, until June 1989. The disproportionation of the 1989 Movement for Democracy told him that China was not and will never prepared for fundamentalistic liberalism. Strengthened censorship and huge economical achievement guarded and guided China to the 21st century, to a critical point when we can not continue putting away the problem of idealism.

We have reached this point since Microsoft tighten up the genuine software licensing technology. But it also lack the courage of Google to stop the Chinese people from profiting from the western way of production and industry while keeping their own customs and culture. Although Hu Jintao and his government have promised to “deepen the reform of political institution and extend the coverage of democracy”, in a world of globalization today, the situation cannot be more urgent and worrying.

另,Google违反的是这条法律: