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I love video games.
我爱电子游戏
I'm also slightly in awe of them.
也对它抱有些许敬畏
I'm in awe of their power
我敬畏它们
in terms of imagination, in terms of technology, in terms of concept.
想象力，技术，概念方面的力量
But I think, above all,
但是最重要的是
I'm in awe at their power to motivate, to compel us, to transfix us,
我所敬畏它们能够激励着，迫使着我们，让我们目瞪口呆，
like really nothing else we've ever invented has quite done before.
这是人类其它发明所不能企及的。
And I think that we can learn some pretty amazing things
我们从观察玩电子游戏
by looking at how we do this.
中学到一些非常了不起的东西
And in particular, I think we can learn things about learning.
特别是，我想我们能学习关于学习的本质
Now the video games industry
现在电子游戏产业
is far and away the fastest growing of all modern media.
超速发展，远远领先于所有现代媒体
From about 10 billion in 1990,
从1990年代的大约100亿美元
it's worth 50 billion dollars globally today,
到今天在全球范围内值500亿美元
and it shows no sign of slowing down.
它没有显示出放缓的迹象
In four years' time,
在未来的四年里
it's estimated it'll be worth over 80 billion dollars.
据估计它的价值会超过800亿美元
That's about three times the recorded music industry.
这大约是唱片行业的三倍
This is pretty stunning,
真的很惊人
but I don't think it's the most telling statistic of all.
但我不认为这就是所有统计数据中最据说服力的
The thing that really amazes me is that, today,
最使我惊讶的就是，今天
people spend about eight billion real dollars a year
人们每年花费大约80亿美元现金
buying virtual items that only exist inside video games.
用于购买仅存于电子游戏里的虚拟iTunes服务
This is a screenshot from the virtual game world, Entropia Universe.
这是一个虚拟游戏世界的截图，来自《安特罗皮亚世界》
Earlier this year,
今年的早些时候
a virtual asteroid in it sold for 330,000 real dollars.
在里面一个虚拟的小行星卖到了33万美元现金
And this is a Titan class ship in the space game, EVE Online.
这是是一艘泰坦级的宇宙飞船来自太空游戏《星战前夜Online》
And this virtual object takes 200 real people
这个虚拟的物体需要200个真人
about 56 days of real time to build,
大约56个天建成
plus countless thousands of hours of effort before that.
还加上此前无数成千小时的前期工作
And yet, many of these get built.
类似这样被造出的还有很多
At the other end of the scale,
而另一方面
the game Farmville that you may well have heard of,
游戏《虚拟农场》，你也许早有耳闻
has 70 million players around the world
在全世界范围内拥有700亿玩家
and most of these players are playing it almost every day.
玩家中的绝大多数几乎每天都在玩
This may all sound really quite alarming to some people,
这也许听起来对一些人来说，这是一个很令人警惕的
an index of something worrying or wrong in society.
令人担忧的社会问题的象征
But we're here for the good news,
但我们在这里讨论一些好消息
and the good news is
好消息就是
that I think we can explore why this very real human effort,
我们可以去探索为什么这种真实的人类劳动
this very intense generation of value, is occurring.
这么巨大的价值的创造会得以出现
And by answering that question,
借回答这个问题
I think we can take something extremely powerful away.
我觉得我们可以从中得到极其强大的信息。
And I think the most interesting way
我想最有趣的方式
to think about how all this is going on is in terms of rewards.
思考这些问题的角度就是奖赏。
And specifically, it's in terms of the very intense emotional rewards
更具体来说，就是非常密集的情感奖赏，
that playing games offers to people
通过玩游戏提供给人们，
both individually and collectively.
既是个人的，也有集体的。
Now if we look at what's going on in someone's head
如果我们观察一下某人的大脑，
when they are being engaged, two quite different processes are occurring.
当他们忙碌时是怎样运作的，两个相当不同的进程同时发生着。
