題圖：《刺客信條：影》的男主角，彌助，一個(gè)黑人武士。

In November 2024, a new installment in a popular videogame franchise will be released – Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Set in Feudal Japan, the game will tell the story of two protagonists – Naoe, a Japanese female ninja, and Yasuke, an African samurai.

2024年11月時(shí)，一款廣受歡迎的電子游戲系列將發(fā)售新作--《刺客信條：影》。游戲?qū)⒁苑饨〞r(shí)代的日本為背景，講述兩位主角--日本女忍者奈緒江和非洲武士彌助的故事。

Finally, a game about stealth, cinematic assassinations and a centuries-long conflict between global shadow societies takes place in Japan – a land of unbreakable honor, invisible ninjas, and sharp katanas. The first leaks about this setting began surfacing in 2021, just as Ghost of Tsushima, another game about being a warrior in Japan, was released to high critical acclaim.

最后，一款關(guān)于潛行、電影級(jí)暗殺和全球影子社會(huì)之間長(zhǎng)達(dá)數(shù)百年沖突的游戲?qū)⒃谌毡疚枧_(tái)上演--一個(gè)擁有牢不可破的榮譽(yù)、無影忍者和鋒利武士刀的國(guó)度。2021年，就在另一款以日本武士為題材的游戲《對(duì)馬島之魂》發(fā)布并廣受好評(píng)時(shí)，有關(guān)這一背景的第一批泄密信息開始浮出水面。

This is not the first time when an Assassin’s Creed game has used two protagonists. In Syndicate, set in Victorian London, you played as the Frye twins - Jacob and Evie. The two characters embodied two different playstyles - Jacob specialized in open hand-to-hand combat, while Evie relied on stealth and ranged weapons. Another game, Origins, that told the story of the creation of the Assassins’ Brotherhood in Ancient Egypt, had several missions that let you control Aya, the wife of the main protagonist Bayek. So, if this is not the first time this has happened, what made the initial reaction to Shadows so different?

這已經(jīng)不是《刺客信條》游戲第一次使用雙主角了。在以維多利亞時(shí)代的倫敦為背景的《刺客信條：梟雄》中，你扮演的是弗萊雙胞胎--雅各布和伊薇。這兩個(gè)角色體現(xiàn)了兩種不同的游戲風(fēng)格--雅各布擅長(zhǎng)空手格斗，而伊薇則依賴潛行和遠(yuǎn)程武器。另一款游戲《刺客信條：起源》講述了在古埃及創(chuàng)建刺客兄弟會(huì)的故事，其中有幾個(gè)任務(wù)讓你控制主角巴耶克的妻子艾雅。那么，如果這不是第一次出現(xiàn)這種情況，是什么讓《刺客信條：影》的最初反應(yīng)如此不同呢？

At first, people were surprised by the inclusion of an African man as one of the playable characters. Sure, Yasuke was a real person, who lived in Japan during Oda Nabunaga’s reign in the 16th century. But even today, historians can not agree whether he was really a mercenary samurai, or just a slave in Nabunaga’s court.

起初，人們對(duì)可玩角色中包含一名非洲男子感到驚訝。當(dāng)然，彌助是一個(gè)真實(shí)存在的人，他生活在16世紀(jì)織田信長(zhǎng)統(tǒng)治時(shí)期的日本。但即使到了今天，歷史學(xué)家們也無法就他究竟是一名雇傭武士，還是只是野信長(zhǎng)宮廷中的一名奴隸達(dá)成一致。

Assassin’s Creed games have always included prominent historical figures as characters – Leonardo Da Vinci, Napoleon, Cleopatra, Socrates, Benjamin Franklin, all to immerse the player in the time period and to make them feel the importance of their contribution to mankind’s history.

《刺客信條》游戲中總是有杰出的歷史人物作為角色--達(dá)芬奇、拿破侖、埃及艷后、蘇格拉底、本杰明-富蘭克林，所有這些都是為了讓玩家身臨其境，感受他們對(duì)人類歷史所做貢獻(xiàn)的重要性。

Out of all the people that lived during that period and could be used as a protagonist – why choose Yasuke? He did not impact the history of Japan that much and is not symbolic of any events that happened. So why was a big black man chosen for a game seemingly about Japanese people, stealth and ninjas? Maybe the developers wanted to add the same “choose your playstyle” feature they already had in Syndicate. Or maybe they saw the opportunity to put another “underrepresented” person in a setting they probably have no place in, just to show the world how progressive they are. This move is sure to place them on a few liberal game awards organizations’ radars, but for now it has only made a lot of gamers upset. At this time, Shadows’ reveal trailer on Youtube is the most disliked in the series’ history, with people all over the world, including in Japan, sharing their disappointment with Ubisoft. Some are even calling out the hypocrisy by saying that adding a black character is seen as progressive (and you can be called racist for obxting), but if a white samurai was the main character, the uproar would be unimaginable.

在所有生活在那個(gè)時(shí)期、可以作為主角的人中，為什么要選擇彌助呢？他對(duì)日本歷史的影響并不大，也不是任何事件的象征。那么，為什么一款看似以日本人、潛行和忍者為主題的游戲會(huì)選擇一個(gè)大個(gè)子黑人呢？也許開發(fā)商想加入《刺客信條：梟雄》中已有的“選擇你的玩法”功能。又或者，他們看到了將另一個(gè)“未被充分代表的”人放到一個(gè)他們可能不適合的環(huán)境中的機(jī)會(huì)，只是為了向世界展示他們是多么的前衛(wèi)。此舉肯定會(huì)讓他們進(jìn)入一些自由游戲評(píng)獎(jiǎng)組織的視線，但目前這只會(huì)讓很多玩家感到不滿。目前，《刺客信條：影》在Youtube上的曝光預(yù)告片是該系列歷史上最不受喜愛的預(yù)告片，包括日本在內(nèi)的世界各地的人們都在分享他們對(duì)育碧的失望。有些人甚至大罵育碧虛偽，稱加入黑人角色被視為進(jìn)步（反對(duì)會(huì)被稱為種族主義者），但如果主角是白人武士，騷動(dòng)將難以想象。

The decision to make one of the protagonists non-Japanese is a brave one. Since the reveal, the community has split into two parts – the more vocal one expresses their displeasure with another example of meaningless diversity and inclusion, while the other one is seemingly happy with finally getting their Japanese Assassin’s Creed. Both groups have their reasons. Adding a diverse character for the sake of diversity and progressive optics is now commonplace, and people are tired of seeing it. The intentions could be genuine, but it’s hard for gamers to trust corporate boardrooms. The silent majority, meanwhile, is excited for the game, if sales are any indication. Shadows is the #1 best seller on Amazon Japan. But then again, if a gaming industry titan like Ubisoft, as part of an insanely popular franchise like Assassins Creed, were to make a game about India, Russia or Türkiye, there are good chances that the game would be an instant best seller in that country, African protagonists or not.

讓主角之一成為非日本人是一個(gè)勇敢的決定。自游戲曝光以來，玩家分成了兩方：一方對(duì)又一次毫無意義的多元化和包容性展示表示不滿，而另一方則似乎對(duì)終于有了日語(yǔ)版的《刺客信條》感到高興。兩幫人都有自己的理由。為了多樣化和進(jìn)步的視覺效果而添加一個(gè)多樣化的角色，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)司空見慣，人們已經(jīng)看膩了。他們的意圖可能是真誠(chéng)的，但玩家很難相信公司董事會(huì)。與此同時(shí)，沉默的大多數(shù)卻對(duì)這款游戲充滿期待，如果銷售情況能說明這一點(diǎn)的話?！洞炭托艞l：影》是日本亞馬遜上最暢銷的游戲。不過，話又說回來，如果育碧這樣的游戲業(yè)巨頭，作為《刺客信條》這樣大受歡迎的系列游戲的一部分，制作一款關(guān)于印度、俄羅斯或土耳其的游戲，那么無論主角是不是非洲人，這款游戲都很有可能在該國(guó)立即成為暢銷貨。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://mintwatchbillionaireclub.com 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處


There is an opinion online that adding a black samurai is not a betrayal of Japanese culture or history. That the stories that can be told about Japan are not limited to stories about Japanese samurai; that it’s a harmful cliche. While it can be a stereotype, stories that are based on a stereotype resonate the most with people - a cowboy movie, a samurai game, a World War II series. It’s a hook that grabs the entire human population interested in that genre, and then it’s up to the story to prove itself and show that it is much more than just a stereotype. Red Dead Redemption 2 for example, is “just another cowboy game,” but its story and its characters attracted many people, even some that had no previous interest in gaming.

網(wǎng)上有一種觀點(diǎn)認(rèn)為，加入黑人武士并不是對(duì)日本文化或歷史的背叛。可以講述的日本故事并不局限于日本武士的故事；這是一種有害的陳詞濫調(diào)。雖然它可能是一種陳詞濫調(diào)，但基于陳詞濫調(diào)的故事最能引起人們的共鳴--牛仔電影、武士游戲、二戰(zhàn)系列。它是一個(gè)鉤子，能鉤住所有對(duì)該類型感興趣的人，然后就看故事如何證明自己，并表明它不僅僅是一個(gè)刻板印象。例如，《荒野大鏢客：救贖2》是“另一款牛仔游戲”，但它的故事和角色吸引了很多人，甚至是一些以前對(duì)游戲毫無興趣的人。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://mintwatchbillionaireclub.com 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處


But the main problem of Shadows might not be its questionable choice of characters. Ghost of Tsushima, a 2020 Sony game about the first Mongol invasion of Japan, whose success was probably the reason Shadows was made, is being compared to the upcoming Assassin’s Creed, six months before its release.

但是，《刺客信條：影》的主要問題可能并不在于它對(duì)角色的選擇有問題?！秾?duì)馬島之魂》是索尼于2020年推出的一款游戲，講述的是蒙古人第一次入侵日本的故事，《刺客信條：影》的成功很可能就是該游戲成功的原因。

Journalists worry that we've come full circle – Ghost of Tsushima was created as an ‘Assassin’s Creed in Japan’, improving on its mechanics and storytelling. If Ubisoft learns nothing from their shortcomings in game design, it looks like Shadows will be their typical open-world game, and will pale in comparison to a Japanese game about Japan.

記者們擔(dān)心，我們已經(jīng)繞了一個(gè)大圈--《對(duì)馬島之魂》是作為“日本版《刺客信條》”而創(chuàng)作的，它在機(jī)制和故事上都有所改進(jìn)。如果育碧沒有從他們?cè)谟螒蛟O(shè)計(jì)上的不足中吸取教訓(xùn)，那么《刺客信條：影》似乎將成為他們典型的開放世界游戲，與一款關(guān)于日本的日本游戲相比將顯得蒼白無力。

Come November, the dust will settle and the game will be released. As usual, fans will be hyped, and the game will be full of bugs and lacking in features. After a while, the bugs will be patched, downloadable content will inevitably be released, and the in-game store will bombard gamers with ads. In the end, some will remember the game fondly for years, some will leave it halfway through, but its success will be measured only by Ubisoft’s earnings report for that year. That is the only way that corporations see the right and wrong in their decisions – their bottom line.

到11月時(shí)塵埃落定，游戲即將發(fā)布。像往常一樣，粉絲們會(huì)興奮不已，而游戲則會(huì)充滿Bug，功能匱乏。過一段時(shí)間，錯(cuò)誤會(huì)得到修補(bǔ)，可下載內(nèi)容不可避免地會(huì)發(fā)布，游戲內(nèi)的商店也會(huì)用廣告轟炸玩家。最后，有些人會(huì)對(duì)這款游戲念念不忘，有些人會(huì)半途而廢，但游戲的成功與否只能通過育碧當(dāng)年的盈利報(bào)告來衡量。這是企業(yè)看清其決策是非的唯一途徑--也是他們的底線。