工作闲暇来翻译一篇文章，贡献一下。 Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre 大富翁杀手：完美的德国桌上游戏重新定义类型 By Andrew Curry 03.23.09 原作：安德鲁咖哩 原文在：http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/17-04/mf_settlers In 1991, Klaus Teuber was well on his way to becoming one of the planet's hottest board game designers. Teuber (pronounced "TOY-burr"), a dental technician living with his wife and three kids in a white row house in Rossdorf, Germany, had created a game a few years earlier called Barbarossa and the Riddlemaster, a sort of ur-Cranium in which players mold figures out of modeling clay while their opponents try to guess what the sculptures represent. The game was a hit, and in 1988 it won the Spiel des Jahres prize— German board gaming's highest honor. 1991年Klaus Teubler已经在迈向地球上最红的桌上游戏设计师的路上。 Teubler﹝发音 『托伊伯尔』﹞，一个与老婆和三个小孩住在德国Rossdorf的白色平房的牙医技师，创造 了一个数年前还叫Barbarossa and the Riddlemaster的游戏。这游戏类似简化的Cranium ，玩家从黏土中塑出人形让对手猜。Cranium一炮即红，在1988年赢了德国年度游戏大奖 —德国游戏界的最高荣誉。 Winning some obscure German award may not sound impressive, but in the board game world the Spiel des Jahres is, in fact, a very, very big deal. Germans, it turns out, are absolutely nuts about board games. More are sold per capita in Germany than anywhere else on earth. The country's mainstream newspapers review board games alongside movies and books, and the annual Spiel board game convention in Essen draws more than 150,000 fans from all walks of life. 赢得一个没没无闻的德国奖项听起来好像没什麽，但在游戏界德国年度游戏大奖是非常、 非常有什麽的。原来德国人对桌上游戏根本是疯了。平均每人购买数全球第一。此国的主 要报纸上，桌上游戏评论与电影和书评并列，每年在Essen的Spiel桌上游戏大会从各地可 聚集超过15万的人潮。 Because of this enthusiasm, board game design has become high art—and big business—in Germany. Any game aficionado will tell you that the best-designed titles in the world come from this country. In fact, the phrase German-style game is now shorthand for a breed of tight, well-designed games that resemble Monopoly the way a Porsche 911 resembles a Chevy Cobalt. 这样的热情将游戏设计在德国推成精品艺术，同时也是大生意。任何一个游戏狂热者都会 告诉你设计最优良的产品都来自这个国家。事实上，『德国式』游戏如今已成为一派紧凑 、设计精巧而与大富翁相比就像保时捷911与雪芙兰Cobalt相比的游戏的代名词。 译注：Chevy Cobalt是平价大众车型。 But back in 1991, despite having designed a series of successful German-style titles, Teuber still thought of making board games as a hobby, albeit a lucrative one. "With all the games, we would sell 300,000 the first year and then next to nothing the next," he says. So Teuber stuck with his day job selling dental bridges and implants, struggling to keep afloat the 60-person business he had inherited from his father. At night he would retreat to his basement workshop and play. 但在1991 年，虽然他已设计了一系列成功的德国式游戏，Teuber仍只把制作桌上游戏当 作嗜好，虽然挺有赚头。『每一个游戏我们第一年都可卖上30万套，第二年却卖不了多少 』他说。所以Teuber还是继续他白天的工作，兜售牙齿矫正器与填补剂，勉力维持继承自 他父亲，麾下近60人的生意。到了晚上他就躲入他的地下工作室玩。 One day Teuber began tinkering with a new theme for a game: an uncharted island. In his original vision, players would slowly discover the island by flipping over tiles, then establish colonies using the indigenous natural resources. The game incorporated elements of other ideas Teuber was working on, but for some reason this one seemed special. "I felt like I was discovering something rather than inventing it," Teuber says. 有一天Teuber开始思考一个新的游戏主题：未开发的岛屿。在他原本的蓝图中，玩家必须 翻牌慢慢的探索整个岛屿，然後再靠当地的资源建造部落。这游戏也融入了其他Teuber用 过的点子，但不知为何这个游戏似乎比较特别。『我好像是发现而不是发明了什麽』 Teuber说。 Every once in a while, he would bring the new game upstairs to test it out on his family. They would play along, but Teuber could tell that the game wasn't working. Sometimes, in the middle of a match, he would notice his youngest son, Benny, reading a comic under the table. Other times his wife would suddenly remember a load of laundry that needed immediate attention. After each of these sessions, Teuber would haul the game back downstairs for further refinement. He repeated this process over the course of four years. 每隔一阵子，他会带新游戏上楼请家人测试。他们会配合着玩，但Teuber可以感觉到游戏 不对劲。有时，在游戏中，他会发现他最小的儿子Benny在桌底下看漫画。有时他太太会 突然想到还有一篓衣服没洗。每次集会结束，Teuber会把游戏拖回地下室继续加工。这个 过程重复了四年。 Eventually, Teuber whittled his invention down to a standard pair of dice, a handful of colored wooden houses that represented settlements and cities, stacks of cards that stood for resources (brick, wool, wheat, and others), and 19 hexagonal cardboard tiles that were arranged on a table to form the island. He had hit on something with this combination—the enthusiasm on family game night was palpable. During nearly every session, he, his wife, and their children would find themselves in heated competition. The game was done, Teuber decided. He called it Die Siedler von Catan, German for "The Settlers of Catan." 最後，Teuber把他的作品去芜存菁到一对骰子，一些有色的木头房子代表殖民地与城市， 一叠牌代表资源﹝砖、羊毛、麦、与其他﹞，以及19个六角纸板在桌上形成岛屿。这个组 合正中红心—他家的游戏聚会的热情明显升高。几乎每一次比赛，他跟他老婆与小孩都会 不自觉的用力竞争。Teuber心想，这个游戏完成了。他称它为Die Siedler von Catan， 徳文的”The Settlers of Catan”。 Released at the annual Essen fair in 1995, Settlers sold out its initial 5,000 copies so fast that even Teuber doesn't have a first edition. That year, it won the Spiel des Jahres and every other major prize in German gaming. Critics called it a masterpiece. Fans couldn't get enough, snapping up 400,000 copies in its first year. "It was a maturation of the form," says Stewart Woods, a board game scholar at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia. "It wasn't until Settlers that the whole thing broke wide open." Settlers在1995年的 Essen年会初售，第一版5000套卖得太快连Teuber都来不及自己留一 套。那一年他赢得德国年度游戏大奖以及德国游戏界所有大奖。评论家说这是大师作品。 粉丝也欲罢不能，第一年抢走了40万套。”它代表这类型游戏的成熟期” Stewart Woods 说。他是澳洲Curtin University of Technology in Perth的桌上游戏学者。 译注：我也想要当桌上游戏学者啊。 Since its introduction, The Settlers of Catan has become a worldwide phenomenon. It has been translated into 30 languages and sold a staggering 15 million copies (even the megahit videogame Halo 3 has sold only a little more than half that). It has spawned an empire of sequels, expansion packs, scenario books, card games, computer games, miniatures, and even a novel—all must-haves for legions of fans. And it has made its 56-year-old inventor a household name in every household that's crazy about board games, and a lot that aren't. 自Settlers问世之後，它已是世界性的奇蹟。它被翻译成30种语言且卖了惊人的1千5百万 套﹝连电动票房冠军Halo 3 也才卖比它一半多一点﹞。它还发展出一系列的续作、扩充 集、场景书、纸牌游戏、电脑游戏、模型，甚至小说—全都是粉丝军团不可或缺的收集品 。它也让它56岁的创作者在对游戏疯狂或不疯狂的家庭中家喻户晓。 Most impressive of all, though, Settlers is actually inducting board-game-averse Americans into the cult of German-style gaming. Last year, Settlers doubled its sales on this side of the Atlantic, moving 200,000 copies in the US and Canada—almost unheard-of performance for a new strategy game with nothing but word-of-mouth marketing. It has become the first German-style title to make the leap from game-geek specialty stores to major retailers like Barnes & Noble and Toys "R" Us. 然而，最不简单的是，Settlers开始让排斥桌上游戏的美国人逐渐陷入德国式游戏的魔力 。去年，Settlers在大西洋此端的销售加倍，在美国与加拿大卖了20万套—是完全靠口耳 相传的策略游戏前所未见的成绩。它也是第一个从游戏专卖店跳入主流销售商如Barnes & Nobles 与玩具反斗城的德国式游戏。 译注：Barnes & Nobles是美国的连锁书店，类似台湾的金石堂。 Settlers is now poised to become the biggest hit in the US since Risk. Along the way, it's teaching Americans that board games don't have to be either predictable fluff aimed at kids or competitive, hyperintellectual pastimes for eggheads. Through the complex, artful dance of algorithms and probabilities lurking at its core, Settlers manages to be effortlessly fun, intuitively enjoyable, and still intellectually rewarding, a potent combination that's changing the American idea of what a board game can be. Settlers可望成为美国继Risk以来最成功的游戏。伴随它的成功，美国人逐渐了解桌上游 戏不需要是像儿童毛茸茸的玩具，或是针对蛋头学者，强调竞争与高度知识的东西。藉着 它核心复杂、奇巧的算式与机率，Settlers不但轻松、直觉性的好玩，且同时能激荡脑力 ，如此的强力组合正改变美国人对桌上游戏的想法。 译注：後文有解释一些，不过美国桌上游戏主要分很儿童类，有各种小小道具的游戏如 Life，或是益智问答型的游戏如Trivia。 Board games have been around for millennia: 5,500-year-old examples have been found in Egypt, playing cards were imported to Europe from the Muslim world in the 1300s, and chess has existed in its modern form for at least 500 years. But the mass-market board games we know today were born during the Great Depression, when Monopoly took off in the US. Over the years, new icons were established: Candy Land in 1949, Risk in 1959, Battleship in 1967. 桌上游戏已存在千年：在埃及发现5500年前的样品，回教徒在1300年左右引入欧洲纸牌， 而现在的西洋棋500年前就出现了。但现在大众习知的桌上游戏是在大富翁出现的大萧条 时代出生。随後陆续有新的代表性游戏：1949年有Candy Land，1959年Risk，1967年 Battleship。 译注：作者特别点出”大富翁”是在”大萧条”时代诞生。 Board games have continued to thrive for a simple reason: Whether for adults or children, they are—like poker nights, softball games, and bowling leagues —an excuse to hang out and interact with friends and family. As Jesper Juul, a ludologist, or game expert, at MIT explains, they create a communal experience that brings people together. Who won the last time and how, some interesting tactic, or a particularly remarkable stroke of luck all produce a shared memory. 桌上游戏持续茁壮是因一个简单的理由：不论对成人或小孩，桌上游戏像扑克牌夜、垒球 比赛或是保龄球联盟一样，提供一个与家人与朋友联络的场合。如Jesper Juul，一个MIT 的ludologist ，或是游戏专家所说，桌上游戏创造一个社群经验将人凝聚在一起。谁如 何赢了上一场，用了什麽有趣的策略，或是某一次谁走运都是共同的回忆。 译注：ludus是拉丁文的”游戏”。所以ludologist就是某些人自创”游戏学家”比较花 俏的说法。 Yet in the US, only a few types of games have really taken off. There are so-called lifestyle games, like Scrabble and chess, intellectual skill-based games whose devotees are interested in playing little else; party games like Trivial Pursuit and Jenga; and traditional strategy games like Risk and Monopoly, which are generally seen as child's play or possibly something to do while trapped in a snowstorm without power—just before you eat your own foot. 然而在美国，只有几类游戏真的脱颖而出。一种叫生活游戏，像Scrabble与西洋棋，其玩 家对不是以智力为主的游戏都没兴趣；另一种是派对游戏如Trivial Pursuit与Jenga；以 及传统的策略游戏如Risk与大富翁，通常被视为小孩的玩意或是被暴风雪困在没电的地方 才玩的，以免无聊到吃掉自己的脚。 But part of the reason we don't play much Risk and Monopoly as adults is that those are actually poorly designed games, at least in the German sense. Derk Solko, a garrulous former Wall Streeter who cofounded the Web site BoardGameGeek.com in 2000 after discovering Settlers, explains it this way: "Monopoly has you grinding your opponents into dust. It's a very negative experience. It's all about cackling when your opponent lands on your space and you get to take all their money." Monopoly, in fact, is a classic example of what economists call a zero-sum game. For me to gain $100, you have to lose $100. For me to win, you have to be bankrupt. Gouging and exploiting may be perfect for humiliating your siblings, but they're not so great for relaxing with friends. 但我们长大後就不玩Risk或大富翁，部分的理由是因为它们有设计缺陷，至少对德国人来 说。Derk Solko，一个前华尔街人在2000年发现Settlers後筹资开始了BGG.com，说『大 富翁逼你把对手磨成灰。是一个非常负面的经验。它的乐趣全建立在当别人跑到你土地上 时，你拿走他所有的钱的窃笑。』 大富翁实际上是一个典型的经济学家称之为零和的游 戏。我要赚100，你就必须输100。我要赢，你就要破产。诈欺与剥削也许很适合欺负兄弟 姊妹，但却不适合与朋友一起放松了。 Monopoly also fails with many adults because it requires almost no strategy. The only meaningful question in the game is: To buy or not to buy? Most of its interminable three- to four-hour average playing time (length being another maddening trait) is spent waiting for other players to roll the dice, move their pieces, build hotels, and collect rent. Board game enthusiasts disparagingly call this a "roll your dice, move your mice" format. 许多成年人对大富翁失望还因为它几乎不需要策略。它唯一的抉择是：买或不买？每场遥 遥无期的三到四小时游戏时间﹝时间过长是它另一个让人发疯的特色﹞，大部分都花在等 待别的玩家骰骰子，移动物品，盖旅馆，还有收租。热血的桌上游戏玩家称之为『骰骰子 ，移鼠子』的类型。 译注：原文”roll your dice, move your mice”有押韵。此稍留其韵之。 Unfortunately, Monopoly still dominates. "It's the Microsoft of our world," Solko says. "If I could wave a magic wand and replace all the copies of Monopoly out there with Settlers, I truly think the world would be a better place." 不幸地，大富翁仍然称霸。『它是游戏世界的微软，』Solko说。『如果我可以挥挥魔法 棒然後世上所有的大富翁都变成Settlers，我真的相信这个世界会更美好。』 German-style games, on the other hand, avoid direct conflict. Violence in particular is taboo in Germany's gaming culture, a holdover from decades of post-World War II soul-searching. In fact, when Parker Brothers tried to introduce Risk there in 1982, the government threatened to ban it on the grounds that it might encourage imperialist and militaristic impulses in the nation's youth. (The German rules for Risk were hastily rewritten so players could "liberate" their opponents' territories, and censors let it slide.) 相反的，德国式游戏避免直接冲突。特别是暴力是德国游戏文化的禁忌，这源自於第二 次世界大战後德国数十年的自省。事实上，当Park兄弟试着在1982年引进Risk时，德国政 府扬言要禁止，因为它可能会鼓吹年轻人对帝国主义与军事主义的崇拜。﹝在Risk匆促修 改了德国规则，使玩家只能『解放』对手领土後，出版审查放了它一马﹞ Instead of direct conflict, German-style games tend to let players win without having to undercut or destroy their friends. This keeps the game fun, even for those who eventually fall behind. Designed with busy parents in mind, German games also tend to be fast, requiring anywhere from 15 minutes to a little more than an hour to complete. They are balanced, preventing one person from running away with the game while the others painfully play out their eventual defeat. And the best ones stay fresh and interesting game after game. 不用直接冲突，德国式游戏倾向让玩家可以不靠破坏或摧毁朋友获胜。因此即使是落後的 人都觉得游戏充满乐趣。为了忙碌的父母，德国游戏通常很快速，只需15分钟至一小时便 可结束。它们的平衡好，避免有一个玩家独走而其他人只能等着输的情况出现。最好的游 戏每一场都新鲜而有趣。 Teuber nailed all these traits using a series of highly orchestrated game mechanics. Instead of a traditional fold-out board, for example, Settlers has the 19 hexagonal tiles, each representing one of five natural resources— wooded forests, sheep-filled meadows, mountains ripe for quarrying. At the beginning of every game, they're arranged at random into an island. Next, numbered tokens marked from 2 to 12 are placed on each tile to indicate which dice rolls will yield a given resource. Because the tiles get reshuffled after every game, you get a new board every time you play. Teuber以一个非常精巧的设计达到这三样目标。取代传统的摺叠板，Settlers有19个六方 砖，每一个代表五种自然资源之ㄧ—有树的森林，充满羊的草原，有矿待采的山。每个游 戏开始，这些砖会随机组成岛屿。接下来，从2到12的数字代币摆在砖上代表哪一个骰子 数字会产生哪些资源。因为这些砖每次游戏都重新排列，每次游戏都有一个新的地图。 The idea is that players establish settlements in various locations on the board, and those settlements collect resource cards whenever the token number for the tile they are sitting on gets rolled. By redeeming these resource cards in specific combinations (it takes a hand of wood, brick, wheat, and wool to build a new settlement, for instance), you expand your domain. Every settlement is worth a point, cities are two points, and the first player to earn 10 points wins. You can't get ahead by rustling your opponents' sheep or torching their cute wooden houses. 它的概念是玩家在板上不同地方建立部落，当骰到数字时，这些部落从它们所在的砖上获 得资源卡。花费不同组合的资源卡﹝例如需要木、砖、麦，和羊来盖一个部落﹞，来扩张 势力。每一个部落值一分，城市两分，第一个得10分的玩家获胜。你没办法靠偷对手的羊 或是烧对方可爱的木头房子获胜。 One of the driving factors in Settlers—and one of the secrets to its success —is that nobody has reliable access to all five resources. This means players must swap cards to get what they need, creating a lively and dynamic market, which works like any other: If ore isn't rolled for several turns, it becomes more valuable. "Even in this tiny, tiny microcosm of life, scarcity leads to higher prices, and plenty leads to lower prices," says George Mason University economist Russ Roberts, who uses Settlers to teach his four children how free markets work. Settlers一个核心设计—也是它的成功秘诀—在於没有人能稳定获得五种资源。因此玩家 必须靠交易获取所需的资源，这创造出一个生动且变化多端的市场，就像任何市场：如果 铁好几次都没生产，它就变得更值钱。『即使在这极小极小的生命缩影，匮乏一样会导致 价格上涨，过量造成价跌，』用Settlers教他四个小孩市场运作的George Mason大学经济 学家Russ Roberts说。 Wheeling and dealing turns out to be an elegant solution to one of the big problems plaguing Monopoly—sitting idle while other players take their turns. Since every roll of the dice in Settlers has the potential to reap a new harvest of resource cards, unleash a flurry of negotiations, and change the balance of the board, every turn engages all the players. "The secret of Catan is that you have to bargain and sometimes whine," Teuber says. 谈判与交易原来是解决纠缠大富翁的一个大问题—玩家在轮到别人时没事干—的答案。因 为Settlers每次骰骰子都有可能产生几张资源卡，开启一轮热烈的谈判，并改变台面上的 平衡，因此每一轮都会吸引所有玩家。『Catan的秘密就是你必须谈判和不时发发牢骚， 』Teuber说。 Teuber also made the game as flexible as possible, with numerous means of earning points. Building the longest road is worth two points, for instance, and collecting development cards (purchased with resource cards, these can offer a Year of Plenty resource bonanza or straight-up points) also brings you closer to victory. Having options like this is critical. The games that stand the test of time have just a few rules and practically unlimited possibilities, making them easy to learn and difficult to master. (Chess, for example, has 10120 potential moves, far more than the number of atoms in the universe.) Teuber也将游戏设计的尽量有弹性，有许多方法可得分。例如，建造最长的路值两分，收 集发展卡﹝用资源买，这些可以提供『丰收年』的充沛资源或是直接送分﹞也会让你迈向 胜利。有这种选择很重要。能够熬过时间考验的游戏仅有少数的规则却有无限的可能，因 此它们易学难精。(例如西洋棋，有10的120次方种步数，远超过宇宙的原子数) Finally, the game is designed to restore balance when someone pulls ahead. If one player gets a clear lead, that person is suddenly the prime candidate for frequent attacks by the Robber, a neat hack that Teuber installed. Roll a seven—the most likely outcome of a two-dice roll, as any craps player knows— and those with more than seven resource cards in their hand lose half their stash, while the person who rolled gets to place a small figure called the Robber on a resource tile, shutting down production of resources for every settlement on that tile. Not surprisingly, players often target the settler with the most points. 最後，游戏特别设计得当有人领先时能缩小差距。如果某位玩家明显的领先，他会突然成 为强盗攻击的首要对象。强盗是Teuber加入的一个聪明的扰乱因子。骰到七时—任何玩 craps的人都知道这是两颗骰子最常出现的数字—手上超过七张资源卡的必须丢掉一半， 而骰到七的人可以将象徵强盗的东西方在一个资源砖上，从此那张砖就不会生产资源。不 意外的，玩家通常抢最多分的玩家。 In addition to deploying the Robber, players will usually stop trading with any clear leader. In tandem, these two lines of attack can reduce a front-runner's progress to a crawl. Meanwhile, lagging opponents have multiple avenues for catching up. 除了放置强盗之外，玩家通常也会停止跟领先者交易。双管齐下，这两道攻击可将一个 领先者打趴成匍伏前进。同时，落後的玩家也有不同管道可以追上。 All of this means that players must use strategy and move smartly, but even flawless play doesn't necessarily lead to easy victory. This is why kids can play with adults, or beginners with experts, and everyone stays involved. 这些说明玩家必须用策略小心前进，但即便是完美的步骤也不保证有轻松的胜利。这是为 何小孩喜欢跟大人，或是初学者跟专家玩，而所有人都能保持全神贯注。 "When a lot of us saw it, we thought this was the definition of a great game," says Pete Fenlon, CEO of Mayfair Games, Settlers' English-language distributor. "In every turn you're engaged, and even better, you're engaged in other people's turns. There are lots of little victories—as opposed to defeats—and perpetual hope. Settlers is one of those perfect storms." 『当我们看到它时，很多人都觉得这游戏定义何谓好游戏』Mayfair﹝Settlers的英文版 发行商﹞的CEO Pete Fenlon说。『每一步你都必须用心，而且更好的是，别人的每一步 你也必须认真。里面有许多小小胜利—而不是失败—与永恒的希望。Settlers是一个完全 风暴。』 译注：Perfect storm意指天时地利人和各种原因正好同时产生最大力量的说法。 Settlers may be the Mona Lisa of the board game renaissance, but Teuber makes for an unlikely da Vinci. He's balding, slight, and surprisingly modest. Each year, he makes an appearance at the Spiel convention in Essen, Germany's board game mecca. At an autograph-signing session there in October, a small line of teenage boys, middle-aged women, and starstruck 9-year-olds clutched copies of Settlers for Teuber to sign. Dressed in sensible black shoes and a blue shirt, he was so soft-spoken that fans had to lean in closely to hear him when he signed their games. He hardly comes across as the rock star he has become. Settlers也许是桌上游戏文艺复兴中的蒙那丽莎，但Teuber实在不像达文西。他开始秃头 ，瘦小，令人惊讶的谦虚。每年，他去参加Essen的Spiel大会，德国的桌上游戏圣地。在 一个十月份的签名会，一小条由青少年、中年妇女，以及9岁的追星族抓着游戏让Teuber 签名。穿着正式的黑鞋与蓝衬衫，他声音之轻粉丝必须靠近才能听到他边签名边说的话。 他实在不相衬他的摇滚巨星地位。 Teuber got into board games for one main reason: to entertain his wife, Claudia. The two were married in 1973, and that same year they had their first son, Guido, and moved to western Germany so Teuber could fulfill his mandatory military service. Not knowing anyone in town left Teuber with a lot of free time. "We played chess, but my wife always lost—and that's no fun," he says. "So I looked around for things we could both play." This quest eventually lead Teuber to Germany's game culture and ultimately to creating games himself. Teuber投入桌上游戏主要是为了一个理由：取悦他老婆，Claudia。他们在1973年结婚， 同年有了第一个儿子，Guido，为了Teuber服兵役他们搬到西德。此时他举目无亲，因此 有许多空闲时间。『我们玩西洋棋，但我老婆总是输—不好玩。』他说。『所以我开始找 我们都能玩的东西。』这个搜寻最终引领Teuber到德国游戏文化，终至创造他自己的游戏 。 Though he spent a few years studying chemistry before going to work for his father's business, Teuber doesn't have the academic pedigree of the other big names in German board games. Reiner Knizia, for example, a prolific designer who has created hundreds of titles, holds a PhD in mathematics. Wolfgang Kramer, another frequent Spiel des Jahres contender, studied software engineering before deciding to make games full-time. 虽然在接手父亲的事业之前他花了数年研究化学，Teuber没有像其他桌上游戏巨头，如 Reiner Knizia，那样的学术光环。Knizia是一个获益甚丰的设计师，有数学的博士学位 。Wolfgang Kramer，另一个年度游戏大奖的常胜军，在全力设计游戏之前是学习程式设 计。 Teuber tends to build his games organically—introducing an element here, tweaking an element there—until he's developed a fast, balanced, refined experience. The end result, however, is every bit as mathematically intricate as those of his colleagues. Teuber倾向由零开始设计游戏—在这里加入一个元素，在那里变动一下—直到他建构了一 个快速、平衡、且精致的经验。最终的结果则与他同辈们的游戏一样显现精巧的数学架构 。 译注：organically大致指的是全靠自己设计。与此相对是从外面兼并其他的元素。 In 2006, Brian Reynolds, a founder of Maryland software company Big Huge Games and the programmer who developed the AI behind the addictive computer classic Sid Meier's Civilization II, set out to make an Xbox 360 version of Settlers. To help programmers develop the game's AI, Teuber spent months exploring the mathematics of his most famous creation, charting the probability of every event in the game. The odds of a six or eight being rolled are almost 1 in 3 for example, while the chance of a four being rolled is 1 in 12. There is a 2-in-25 chance of drawing a Year of Plenty development card. Teuber created elaborate logic chains and probability matrices in a complex Excel spreadsheet so the videogame developers could see how every possible move and roll of the dice—from the impact of the Robber to the odds of getting wheat in a given scenario—compared. The end result was a sort of blueprint for the game that gave Big Huge Games a head start and showed just how complex the underlying math was. "It was the biggest, gnarliest spreadsheet I had ever seen," Reynolds says. 2006年，Brian Reynolds， 一个马里兰的软体公司Big Huge Games的创办人以及令人着 迷的电脑经典Sid Meier’s Civilization II的AI设计人，开始研发Xbox版的Settlers 。为了帮助软体工程师建造AI，Teuber花了数月研究他最有名的设计背後的数学，将所有 事件的可能性制成图表。例如，骰到6或8的机率将近1比3，而骰到4的机率是1比12。抽到 丰收年卡的机率是2比25。Teuber用excel表创造了一个精妙的流程图与机率阵让电动设计 者可以比较每一个动作与骰骰子—包括强盗的影响与在每个状态下得到麦的机率。最後结 果有点类似给Big Huge Games的蓝图，使他们有一个起点可看到其中的数学有多麽复杂。 『是我见过最大、最盘根错节的算表』 Reynolds说。 But even with such a precise outline, success isn't easy to repeat. Teuber has now made millions of dollars with Settlers and its multitude of offshoots, but the glass trophy shelf in his Rossdorf studio is getting a bit dusty: He hasn't won a major German board game prize since 1997. When asked about this, he seems genuinely unperturbed. "I don't have a secret recipe," he says. "I'm really lucky to have discovered such a great game once." 但即便有如此精确的大纲，成功还是如凤毛麟角。Teuber现在靠Settlers及其扩充品赚得 数百万美金，但他在Rossdorf的工作室的奖盃柜却开始积尘了：他自1997之後已未赢得任 何德国奖项。当被问到这点，他看来不太在乎：『我没有秘方，』他说。『我能发现这麽 好的游戏一次已是非常幸运了。』 Once may be enough. Settlers has become so successful in the US that other German-style games are starting to ride in its wake, even in the midst of the recession. New Mexico entrepreneur Jay Tummelson licenses, translates, and imports German mass-market hits like Carcassonne alongside more offbeat titles like Galaxy Trucker by Czech designer Vlaada Chvatil. His company, Rio Grande Games, sold half a million of these titles in 2008. "We're growing at 30 to 35 percent a year, compounded," he says. "In the US, most of my customers this year weren't my customers two or three years ago. They didn't know these games existed." 一次可能就够了。Settlers在美国如此成功，别的德国游戏也开始趁胜追击，即便还在经 济衰退中。New Mexico创业家Jay Tummelson授权、翻译、进口德国的畅销作如 Carcassone以及非主流的如捷克设计师Vlaada Chvatil的Galaxy Trucker。他的公司， Rio Grande Games，2008年卖了50万套。『我们每年复数成长30-35%，』他说。『在美国 ，我大部分的客人2-3年前还不是我的顾客。他们还不知道这些游戏存在。』 Even the mass-market giants are starting to pay attention. To make Monopoly more competitive with German-style games, new editions are reemphasizing an old rule that no one paid much attention to: If a player lands on a property and chooses not to buy it, that real estate immediately goes up for auction. This engages everyone at the board and pushes property into the mix much faster, cutting the 74-year-old game's playing time by more than half. "It makes the game more intense and much quicker," says Helen Martin, Hasbro's vice president of global marketing for Monopoly. "And we know that people who play that way play more often." Hasbro similarly revamped Risk to speed up play; new rules make winning the game possible in less than an hour. 连主流市场的巨头也开始注意了。为了让大富翁能与德国游戏竞争，新的版本开始强调一 个没人发现的老规则：如果一个玩家到一个地产却不买，那个地产马上就开放竞标。这让 所有玩家更投入，也让地产更快速进入交易，缩短一半这74岁的游戏时间。『这让游戏更 竞争也更快，』Hasbro负责全球行销大富翁的副总裁Helen Martin说。『我们知道这样玩 的玩家会玩更多次。』Hasbro也加快Risk的速度，新的规则使玩家可能再一小时内赢。 Settlers still has a long way to go before it overtakes classics like Monopoly, though. Part of the problem is brand recognition: Monopoly has been a best seller since the '30s and has been played by more than 750 million people. When it comes to board games, familiarity is key: The average board game buyer, according to Hasbro, is a mom getting her kids a gift. She's not going to take a chance on something she doesn't know. Settlers还有很长一段路才有可能取代大富翁。一部分是因为品牌：大富翁自30年代便是 第一名，有超过7亿五千万人玩过。对桌上游戏来说，熟悉度是关键：根据Hasbro的说法 ，一个一般的桌上游戏买家是一个妈妈要买礼物给小孩。她不会冒险选一个她不熟悉的东 西。 That makes it tough for a foreign import with an odd name. "Settlers isn't mass-market yet," says Michael Gray, Hasbro's senior director of product acquisition. "Could it be? Anything's possible. But Settlers can still take over an hour to play, and it has a lot of rules." 对一个有奇怪名字的外国货来说这是问题。『Settlers还不是主流产品，』Hasbro产品并 购的资深主管说。『它有可能成为主流产品吗？任何事情都有可能。但玩Settlers还是要 超过一小时，而且有很多规则。』 Teuber's plan for overcoming this challenge is, oddly enough, computers. He hopes that digital versions of Settlers will help conquer (sorry, liberate) the US market. He and his son Guido are convinced that moving the game online and onto platforms like Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS is the best way to win converts outside the board game world. The idea is that after getting to know the game and its rules on the PC and game consoles, people will be more likely to buy the analog version—still the most fulfilling and social Settlers experience—to play with friends. Teuber克服这些困难的方法是，很奇怪的，靠电脑。他希望Settlers的数位版本能帮助征 服﹝喔不，是解放﹞美国市场。他与儿子Guido深信将游戏移到线上及主机如Xbox360与 Nintendo DS是将桌上游戏以外的人感化的最好办法。当他们在电脑或游戏主机上了解这 游戏及其规则之後，人们会更有可能买传统版本—还是最棒的Settlers经验—来跟朋友玩 。 In 2007, Teuber launched the English- language version of PlayCatan.com, an online community that draws 15,000 or more players a day from around the world. The US audience is the site's fastest-growing segment. That same year, Big Huge Games released a downloadable version of Settlers for Xbox 360. And a PC version of the game and its expansions will come out in English this spring featuring multiplayer and AI smart enough to challenge the strongest players. 2007年，Teuber为英文版的PlayCatan.com揭幕，一个每日自世界各地吸引超过15,000玩 家的线上社群。美国玩家的成长最快速。同年，Big Huge Games开放下载Xbox360的 Settlers。今年春天PC版的英文Settlers及其扩充版会问世，特色是能多玩家参与，同时 有足以挑战资深玩家的AI。 Will it be enough to take on the likes of Hasbro and become the go-to game in every American's hall closet? That's certainly the plan. "The challenge is to stay at a high level for years, to catch up to Monopoly," Teuber says. "It's a very, very high goal. If we could come into the neighborhood, that would be great." Only a few billion wheat-for-sheep trades to go. 这样就足以挑战Hasbro，成为每个美国家庭衣柜里的游戏首选吗？当然那是目标。『挑战 在如何保持数年的高成长，直到追上大富翁』Teuber说。『这是一个非常非常高的目标。 只要我们能接近这目标就很好了。』只差几十亿个麦换羊而已。 --

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