旅行青蛙:一款让中国着迷的可爱日本游戏 [英国媒体]

Travel Frog: The cute Japanese game that has China hooked

旅行青蛙:一款让中国着迷的可爱日本游戏

网站：BBC
时间：2018年2月1日

 
Over the past few weeks, gamers in China have become obsessed with a free-roaming Japanese frog.

在过去的几周里，中国的游戏玩家迷上了自由闲逛的日本青蛙。

Travel Frog has topped the charts of free game category in Apple's App Store in China for more than a fortnight.

在中国的苹果应用商店里，“旅行青蛙”在免费游戏排行榜上高居榜首超过两周。

The game, developed by Japanese company Hit-Point and originally called Tabikaeru, is only in Japanese, but is easy to play despite the language barrier.

这款游戏由日本hitpoint公司开发，最初名为Tabikaeru，只提供日语版本，尽管有语言障碍，但游戏很容易上手。

It lets players own a cute little green frog which lives in a hut, where it eats, writes, reads and sharpens pencil - sometimes it dozes over books.

它让玩家拥有一只可爱的绿色小青蛙，小青蛙住在一个小屋里，在那里吃饭、写字、读书和削铅笔——有时还会打盹儿。

 

Out in its garden, player can collect clover, the primary currency in the game. You collect 20 clovers once every three hours simply by swiping across the garden, or you buy them with real money if you are too impatient to wait for them to grow.

在它的花园里，玩家可以收集游戏中的主要货币三叶草。只要在花园里溜达，每隔三个小时你就会收集到20棵三叶草，如果你迫不及待地想要它们长大，你就可以用真正的金钱来买到它们。

But the most curious feature of the app is that beyond that, players have very little control of the frog. It will frequently leave its home and travel around Japan on a whim.

除此之外，这款应用最奇特之处在于，玩家对青蛙的控制非常有限。它经常会突发奇想，离开家到日本各地旅行。

Players never know when the frog sets off, when it will get back or what it will bring on its return. Sometimes the frog goes home within a few hours; sometimes it could be gone for as long as four days.

玩家永远不知道青蛙什么时候出发，什么时候会回来，或者回来时会带来什么。有时青蛙会在几个小时内回家;有时它可能会消失长达四天之久。

It might send postcards, clovers, souvenirs - or might do absolutely nothing for its owner.

它可能会寄明信片、三叶草、纪念品，或者对它的主人毫无用处的东西。

There is no way for the owner to control or interact with the frog.

主人无法控制青蛙或与青蛙互动。

 

The only thing that players can do is to prepare food, tools and amulets for the wandering frog.

玩家唯一能做的就是为流浪的青蛙准备食物、工具和护身符。

Taste of parenthood

体验父母的感觉

"I like the game because the frog does whatever it likes and I don't have to spend a lot of energy on it." 27-year-old Shen told the BBC.

27岁的沈告诉BBC：“我喜欢这个游戏，因为青蛙可以做任何它喜欢的事情，我也不需要花很多精力在它身上。”

Xian told the BBC she became a frog keeper a week ago, when she saw her friends share photos on WeChat, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook.

希安告诉BBC，一周前她成为了一名青蛙拥有者，当时她看到她的朋友们在（中国版的Facebook）微信上分享照片。

"I check my frog almost every 10 minutes at work, because my job is boring. I marvel at the photos that it sends to me from its adventures," said the 25-year-old.

25岁的她说“我几乎每10分钟就检查一下我的青蛙，因为我的工作很无聊。”我惊叹于它在冒险之旅中寄给我的照片。”。

 

"My mother longs for my return home when I am away, but she wants me to go out when I am home. That's my exact feeling towards my frog," Xian said.

希安说：“我不在家的时候，我母亲渴望我回家，但当我在家的时候她又想要我出去。那跟我我对我的青蛙的感觉一模一样。”

"But I feel desperate when I keep receiving photos of itself: it is so antisocial and doesn't make friends!

“但当我不断收到它的照片时，我觉得很绝望:它太反社会了，而且不交朋友!”

"Today, it posed together with a rat, I almost cried with joy, it finally has friends!" Xian said.

希安说：“今天，它和一只老鼠在一起摆造型，我高兴得几乎要哭了，它终于有了朋友!”。

 

According to the latest data obtained by the BBC, via US-based App Annie, Travel Frog has been downloaded more than 3.9 million times in Apple's App Store in China since its launch in December.

根据BBC通过美国App Annie公司获得的最新数据，自去年12月上市以来，“旅行青蛙”在中国苹果应用商店的下载量已经超过390万次。

Chinese players have spent more than $2m on in-app purchases for their frog babies.

中国玩家为了他们的青蛙宝宝在这个应用程序里花了超过200万美元。

In Japan, however, it's been downloaded a mere 400,000 times on the App Store and Google Play combined, with users spending only $100,000.

然而，在日本，它在应用商店和谷歌游戏中仅下载了40万次，用户只花了10万美元。

So what's the appeal?

所以，这个游戏的吸引力是什么?

"It really suits the post-90s generation, because we are overwhelmed with work," said Shen.

沈说:“这个游戏真的很适合90后，因为我们工作太多了。”

When he saw the game going viral on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, he downloaded it instantly and now checks his phone frequently for frog updates.

当他看到这款游戏在微博(中国版的Twitter)上迅速走红时，他立刻下载了这款游戏，并经常查看他的手机。

 

"Every time I open it, I am full of expectations. I want to know whether my frog is travelling, and what photos it has sent to me. I feel it is my son."

“每次我打开这个游戏时，我都充满了期待。我想知道我的青蛙是否在旅行，以及它寄给我的照片。我觉得它是我的儿子。”

When the frog is travelling, Shen finds another way to kill time.

当青蛙在旅行时，沈发现了另一种消磨时间的方法。

He has created a WeChat group called "Post-90s Empty Nester Huddle Together for Warmth". Young people share feelings of parenthood in the group, to while away their frogless hours.

他创立了一个微信群，群名是“90后空巢老人抱团取暖”。年轻人在群里分享着当父母的感受，也可以顺便消磨他们的无蛙时光。

 

The People's Daily, the Communist Party's mouthpiece has used it as a chance to encourage "core values" by urging young people to visit their parents more.

《人民日报》将之视为一个倡导“核心价值观”的机会，通过这款游戏可以促使年青一代更多的探望他们的父母。

"The travelling frog is like everyone away from home," it posted on Weibo.

《人民日报》在其微博上写道:“旅行青蛙就像所有远离家乡的人一样。”

"What's the feeling of waiting for your kid? Please remember to visit your parents, all wandering frogs."

“等你的孩子是什么感觉?所有流浪的青蛙们，请记得去看望你的父母。