原文作者：Brendan Sinclair 译者：Megan Shieh

摘要：《孤岛惊魂4（Far Cry 4）》的作者CJ Kershner说，现代开发人员在游戏场景设计中的文化渲染方面做得越来越好了，但是仍有改进的空间。

在实施项目的时候，部分开发人员会选择在游戏中融入某种外来文化，这种情况并不少见。但是在这个过程中，许多开发者会发现自己在描绘一种他们几乎/根本不了解的文化。

Polyhedron Productions的创始人CJ Kershner在最近接受采访时，谈到了自己通过游戏传播文化的经历。Kershner参与制作了多款大众熟知的游戏，其中包括育碧公司的《孤岛惊魂4》和《刺客信条：枭雄（Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate）》，以及《国土防线（Homefront）》系列的两款游戏。《国土防线》是一款第一人称射击游戏，故事背景设定在2027年的美国，讲述朝鲜成功攻占了美国本土，主角于战火中被抵抗军所救，而后成为美国抵抗军的领袖，带领部下展开反击战的故事。

Kershner 说：“在渲染文化方面，重点是要做调查、做研究。比如在写《孤岛惊魂4》的时候，我和我的写作搭档非常认真地对待了这一义务，我们对喜马拉雅山的文化背景进行了深入的调查和研究。《孤岛惊魂4》是我感到尤为骄傲的作品之一，因为我们尽可能地还原了真实的喜马拉雅山风貌。

FarCry3Steam（from game-wisdom）

但是，Kershner参与过的项目也不是个个都能如他所愿。他说：“任何项目都会受到限制，《国土防线》的原作还有很多地方本可以做得更好。”无论参与的是什么项目，研究的是什么文化，他的心态都是不变的。然而，在制作《国土防线》的过程中，Kershner试图塑造的这个主题却受到了项目规模的阻碍。

Kershner 说：“特别是在制作第一部《国土防线》的时候，我们想要使占领军显得更加人性化，这是我和团队中的另外一些成员努力想要实现的事情，然而，开发团队中的成员对于这一想法持有不同的观点，因此我们最终放弃了这个想法。”

“有些人认为占领军应该是毫不留情的压迫者形象，能够做出残酷无比的事情来，这样的话要玩家/抵抗军去消灭他们就合情合理了…可是我们中的一些人又不想让占领军成为死气沉沉的射击靶子。”

Kershner本想让占领军的指挥官在游戏中的某个节点与玩家产生互动，从而展现出指挥官人性化的一面，可惜这些部分从未被加入到游戏中。最终，他努力想要展现的占领军的“人性化”，只能从隐藏在游戏界面角落里的剪报上看到那么一丝痕迹。

在一个规模较大的开发团队中，游戏设计中的文化背景元素可能会成为沟通和知识同步方面的另一个逻辑问题。没错，你可以请进文化顾问，但是他们的协助对象是谁？他们只是和作家交谈，还是也会和美术和市场部交谈？他们仅仅是和管理层交谈，然后再由管理层把学习到的东西传递到部门下去？Kershner说，理想情况下，团队中的每位成员都可以以近乎写实的方式，在游戏世界中描绘出一种文化，但是一旦团队达到了一定的规模，这种想法就不太现实了。

Kershner说：“对于预算和团队规模都极为庞大的主流3A项目而言，这一直都会是一个问题。我认为，创造娱乐体验、实施可以赚钱的商业计划，以及追求有意义的东西，三者之间会产生矛盾。考虑到3A项目和团队的规模——全球各地有多家工作室在合作制作一个项目，在不同文化的碰撞下要传递某种特定的文化信息是非常困难的。”

Kershner时常对3A游戏处理外来文化的方式感到失望。虽然不愿透露游戏的名称，但是他指出了一款最近出现的、“政治上非常有争议”的游戏，当被问及它对某种文化的描述时，这个游戏采用了老套的辩护方式。他们发表声明说：‘我们制作了这款游戏，它是一个虚构的作品， 只是一款游戏而已。’这么说的其中一个意图是想摆脱人们关于政治的争论。作为一款由大型国际公司制作的游戏，这种说法从业务的角度上看是绝对安全的。但是如果你要发表声明，就不要说得不清不楚。因为就算你不原意给出一个直截了当的观点，你的游戏最终也还是会表达自己的观点。”

他继续说道：“所有的游戏都会在有意或无意间传达一些信息。无论是《使命召唤（Call of Duty）》中对军事工业综合体的复杂写照，还是接下来会聊到的《永不孤单（Never Alone）》，所有的游戏都是这样的。”

《永不孤单》是由Upper One Games工作室开发的一款平台动作游戏，该作是围绕着阿拉斯的一个民间传说而构建的。此外，该工作室与当地文化机构（Cook Inlet Tribal Council）联手，展现了历经传承的Iñupiat文化（游戏邦注：Iñupiat是生活于美国阿拉斯加洲的一种原住民），游戏中含有一些与当地文化相关的视频资料，其中包含了对当地长老、说书人，以及其他部落成员的采访视频，在游玩的过程中，玩家可以找到这些资料并将其解锁。Kershner预测，这种尊重传统文化的呈现方式将越来越多地来自小型工作室。

Kershner说：“因为当3A游戏发行商在做预算和推广的时候，他们必须把那些会引起争议的东西去掉。但是有很多游戏不是来自传统的开发团队，或者是传统的开发环境，甚至并不使用传统的内容、机制等等。它们无需面对诸多枷锁，因此也可以做真实的自己。”

当然，一些小团队往往会在时间和资源上受到限制，但是Kershner相信，他们总会找到方法，在自己的能力范围内描绘出反应现实的传统文化背景。

他说：“我认为，一旦一个团队确定好了内容，那么一个好的制作人就能想出办法来将整个项目维持在资金和时间的预算之内。你可以上网查阅资料，或者查看相关书籍和文献，但是阅读只是第一步。你可能会需要雇用文化顾问（了解当地文化的机构、老人之类的）。虽然我一个人不能代表所有的文化顾问，但是从我的经验来看，只要你尊重他们所拥有的知识和技能，并且在项目制作上保持透明，那么双方往往都能达成某种收费协议。（当然还是要给钱的，只是多少的问题而已。）”

“我强烈主张的另一种方法是‘到当地社区里去感受文化’。就像Elizabeth LaPensée在2017年游戏开发者大会中所指出的那样：‘我想要鼓励开发者花时间到当地的社区、学校、图书馆去实地了解当地文化，与从事其他领域（音乐、电影等）的当地原住民合作，请进当地长老/老人来帮忙，帮助那些有故事可讲的人通过‘游戏’这种创造性的表达方式来传播文化。PS.无论请了谁来帮忙，都记得给人家报酬。’”

话虽如此，Kershner认为，游戏产业在这方面一直在稳步改善。

他说：“我们显然还有很多工作要做，而且每个项目都得看具体情况。如果你正在制作一款游戏，然后意识到你所要描绘的文化与你自身的文化不同，那么你就可以去寻找可利用的资源，无论是到当地去现场勘查，还是与你将要描绘的群体安排见面、谈话，能够帮助你充分了解地方文化的方式和服务多种多样，所以情况也越来越好了。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Far Cry 4 writer CJ Kershner says developers are getting better about depicting other groups, still have room to improve.

It’s not uncommon for game developers to incorporate cultures other than their own in games. Whether they want to provide players with an escapist fantasy against an exotic backdrop, a fresh perspective on a historical era, or a gritty vision of a conflict half a world away from their own, there often comes a point where developers find themselves reaching to portray a culture of which they have little or no first-hand knowledge.

Polyhedron Productions founder CJ Kershner will look at how a number of developers have admirably tackled that problem in a talk at the Montreal International Game Summit next week, and spoke with GamesIndustry.biz recently about his own experiences with conveying culture through games. Kershner has worked on a number of such titles, including Ubisoft’s Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, as well as both Homefront titles, first-person shooters that depict players as the resistance in a United States occupied by North Korean forces.

“It is about doing the research,” Kershner said. “For the example of Far Cry 4, my co-writers and I took that responsibility very seriously, and tried to do as much research as we possibly could. There will always be constraints on any project, things you wish you could have done better. Far Cry 4 is one in particular that I’m pretty proud of, because in terms of representing the culture of the Himalayas–and it was a non-specific place because it couldn’t specifically be somewhere–I think we really tried to approach that with the respect it deserves.”

Not every project turned out so well for him. Kershner pointed to the original Homefront as one where he felt more could have been done. While he researched North Korean culture just as he would other cultures for other projects, Kershner found his attempts to shape the subject matter hampered by the realities of large-scale development.

“Especially in the first game, it was something other members of the team and I had pushed for and we didn’t actually achieve, which was to humanize the occupying force somewhat,” Kershner said. “There were conflicting visions on how that should happen, and we lost that one.”

As he explained, “One camp wanted them to be, essentially, faceless oppressors capable of unspeakable cruelty, which in turn would make them morally justifiable targets for the player/resistance’s wrath… But some of us wanted them to be… I mean, ‘nuanced’ isn’t exactly a strength of first-person shooters, but more than just a charging horde for the player to gun down.”
Kershner pushed for sequences where the player would interact with the Korean People’s Army regional commander that would show him to be more than an evil caricature, but those parts never made it into the game. In the end, his efforts to humanize the enemy in Homefront may have been most visible in collectible newspaper clippings hidden throughout the game.

On a larger team, the careful depiction of culture can become just another logistical problem of communication and getting everybody on the same page. It’s one thing to bring a cultural consultant in, but who are they consulting with? Are they just speaking with the writers, or will they talk to the artists and marketing department as well? Are they only consulting with the leads, who then have to communicate their learnings down the chain? Kershner said in an ideal world, everyone on the team would be committed to depicting cultures respectfully and “saturated” in the world they’re representing, but it’s not exactly practical once a team gets to a certain size.

“With regards to mainstream games, these big budget, big team, what we would call AAA projects, that’s always going to be a struggle,” Kershner said. “I think there will be the tension between the desire to create an entertaining experience, to have a commercially viable project, and to have something that is reaching for meaning. And again, given the team sizes and international scope of development now, where you’ve got between two and seven studios working on this thing around the world, finding a cultural message to convey there is going to be really difficult.”

Kershner has been frequently disappointed in the way AAA games have handled other cultures. While he withheld the name of the game, he pointed to a recent and “politically very controversial” title that adopted a well-worn defense when questioned about its depiction of a certain culture.

“As a big game being made by a large international company, this is absolutely the safe, commercial thing to say,” Kersher said, “but they unfortunately adopted [the line], ‘We made it, it’s a work of fiction. It’s just a game.’ And part of this talk is trying to get people away from that mindset. Lean in. If you’re going to make a statement, don’t do half-measures.”

One good reason to lean in on a specific statement is that your game is going to make one anyway.

“All games communicate something, intentionally or not,” Kershner said. “Whether that’s Call of Duty and its very complicated portrayal of the military industrial complex, or whether it’s something like one of the examples I’m giving [in my talk], Never Alone.”

Developed by Upper One Games, Never Alone is a platformer based on a traditional story of the Alaskan Native Iñupiat people. Created in partnership with the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, it celebrates the Iñupiat culture, and includes more than half an hour of video interviews with elders, storytellers, and other members of the community that can be found and unlocked through gameplay. It’s the sort of careful cultural treatment that Kershner expects will increasingly come from smaller studios.

“When you’re working with the budgets and marketing [AAA publishers are], they have to round off the edges of what otherwise might be sharp subject matter,” Kershner said. “But there are a lot of games out there that aren’t from traditional development teams, or a traditional development environment, or even using traditional content, mechanics, etc. that can own what they’re about.”

That still requires time and resources, something small teams are often strapped for, but Kershner believes they will still find ways to create respectful, nuanced depictions of other cultures within their means.

“I think once a team has committed to doing their due diligence with regards to representation, it’s something that a good producer can build into the timeline and budget,” he said. “There is a plethora of research on whatever topic available both online and in print, but the reading should really only be viewed as the start. While I don’t want to presume to speak for all consultants, it’s been my experience that if you respect the knowledge and skills they have to offer and are transparent about the project, you can usually come to an arrangement. (Always pay your consultants.)

“The other approach I strongly advocate is ‘building out capacity in communities,’ as Elizabeth LaPensée aptly put it in the Indigenous Games Lightning Talks at GDC 2017. I want to encourage other developers to volunteer their time at workshops, schools and libraries, and through mentorship programs, to help unlock games as a method of creative expression for people who already have stories to tell.”

Having said all that, Kershner believes the industry has steadily been showing improvement on this front.

“Obviously there’s still a lot of work to be done and it really depends for each project,” he said, “but I think if you’re making something and you recognize now it’s about a culture that is outside of your own, there are resources available, either in terms of doing on-site research, being able to meet with people of whatever group you’re looking to depict, cultural consultants… There are services available that do mock reviews through that sort of lens. So it’s getting better.” (Source：gamesindustry.biz  ）