玩不了口袋妖怪Go，中国网友态度不一

大家应该都听说了，国外最近新出了一款名叫《口袋妖怪Go》（Pokémon Go）的游戏，火爆程度简直风靡全球。它采用了传说中的“现实增强”（简称AR）技术，通过手机摄像头，将虚拟怪兽融入到了真实世界的环境中。该游戏已经成了有史以来下载次数最多的免费iPhone应用，并助推其开发商——任天堂公司的股价迅速飙升到了近33年来的新高。

除了许多年轻人，还有不少上了年纪的人也为《口袋妖怪Go》而疯狂。他们傻呵呵地举着手机扫荡着大街小巷，寻找隐藏在各处的小怪兽和战利品。不过若说《口袋妖怪Go》已经成了一个全球性的现象还不确切，因为这样一款大热游戏尚未登录中国——一个拥有13亿人口，每年花在视频游戏上的钱多达223亿美元的国家。

一名微博用户在网上吐槽道：“我已经尝试了各种方法下载《口袋妖怪Go》，但没一种管用，我已经快疯了。这是我第一次对一个游戏这么感兴趣。谁能帮帮我？”

另一位网友哭诉道：“什么是孤独？我觉得孤独就是因为《口袋妖怪Go》没在中国发布。面对着空荡荡的草原，却连一只小怪兽都没有，无事可做的我，只能坐在这里思考人生。拜托中国快开放《口袋妖怪Go》吧，我不想失去那些童年的回忆。”

实际上，这款游戏目前只在美国、澳大利亚和新西兰开放，因为该游戏的设计方Niantic Labs生怕它的服务器因为玩家的迅速涌入而崩溃。但是小小的挫折岂能难倒聪明智慧的天朝玩家。众多中国网友们八仙过海，各显神通，让自己加入了《口袋妖怪Go》玩家的行列。

We’ve all heard it — Pokémon Go has taken over the world. The augmented reality video game, which superimposes lurid cartoon characters onto the real world as viewed through your smartphone camera, is the most downloaded free iPhone app of all time, and has sent developer Nintendo’s -3.86% stock soaring to an all-time, 33-year high.

Droves of youngsters — and older folk who don’t mind looking daft in public — are scouring their real-life neighborhoods, where the game craftily hides a mélange of creatures and loot to collect. But describing Pokémon Go as a global phenomenon come with one huge caveat — China, whose 1.3 billion people spent a world-beating $22.3 billion on video games last year, has not had Pokémon Go released in its territory.

“I have tried every method I can find to down load Pokémon Go, but nothing works and it’s driving me crazy,” posted one user of China’s Twitter-like microblog Weibo. “It is my first time to be so interested in a game, who can help me?”

“What is loneliness?” chin-strokes another. “I feel lonely because Pokémon Go hasn’t been released in China. Facing the empty prairie without any Pokémons, I have nothing to do but to reflect my life. Please release Pokémon Go in China, I don’t want to miss these childhood memories.”

In fact, the game has only been released in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand so far, as designer Niantic Labs wanted to be sure its servers could handle the influx of players. (And in hindsight, with good cause.) But Chinese gamers are nothing but resourceful, and have adopted myriad means to gate-crash the Pokémon Go party.

第一批吃螃蟹的玩家认为，通过更改手机的地区设定，或是购买在其他国家注册的Apple ID，他们应该就能绕过地理上的限制。这种办法在某种程度上还是管用的，只不过等他们进入虚拟世界之后，游戏的GPS参数无情地发挥了作用，中华大地上连一只可抓的小怪兽都没有。

据科技媒体Quart报道，也有一些非法网站向中国玩家销售了该游戏的非法版本。在这些地下版本中，美国旧金山的地理位置被挪到了中国的街道上。还有一些中国玩家购买了取消了地理位置限制的破解版。这些非法版本的发布速度极快，简直是紧跟着官方版本发布。游戏设计商Niantic Labs终于忍无可忍了，声称对使用破解版的玩家要抓到一个封一个。

许多玩家只得选择了《口袋妖怪Go》中华山寨版——比如《城市精灵Go》，借着《口袋妖怪Go》的东风，《城市精灵Go》的下载量也一路飙升。它的情节理念与《口袋妖怪Go》大同小异，只不过最重要的一点是，它没有采用任何现实增强技术。玩家抓小怪兽和寻宝的设定虽然和《口袋妖怪Go》差不多，但全部情节都在虚拟世界中完成，玩家的屁股根本不用离开沙发，因此它更像是一款标准的角色扮演游戏。

当然，这种情况可能很快就会改变。特别是Niantic Labs最近表示，由于需求激增的原因，《口袋妖怪Go》的全球开放时间可能比之前预期的要晚一些。此外《口袋妖怪Go》入华还有一些特殊的障碍，首先是国内合作伙伴尚未敲定，其次是由于众所周知的原因，用来登陆《口袋妖怪Go》的主要平台——谷歌在中国仍未解禁。这只会让中国游戏开发商们更有劲头开发本地的山寨版本——当然还要配上必不可少的现实增强技术。

许多绝望的中国玩家甚至发誓永远不玩《口袋妖怪Go》了，有些玩家甚至搬出国家安全这杆大旗。一名用户在微博上称：“不要玩具有GPS功能的《口袋妖怪Go》，美国和日本能用GPS探测我们的秘密军事基地。”

另一名玩家发微博称：“任天堂在脸书上说台湾是一个国家，而不是中国的一个省。同时它可能正在试图收集中国军事基地的信息。所以我还是玩另一个游戏吧。”

唉，谁让那些皮卡丘们实在太可爱了呢。 （财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

The first enterprising gamers thought that by changing the region setting on their smartphone, or purchasing Apple IDs registered in the official release nations, that they could skirt the geographical restriction. This works to a degree, except that upon entering the virtual world the games GPS parameters kick in, and the gamers are bereft of any Pokémon characters to catch.

However, illicit websites are cashing in by flogging Chinese customers illicit versions of the game in which San Francisco locations are superimposed on Chinese streets, reports Quartz. Other gamers have resorted to buying hacked versions of Pokémon Go that have the geographical restrictions removed. These appeared for sale online soon after the official release, though Niantic Labs has vowed to ban anyone caught using them.

Many gamers have instead opted for Chinese versions of Pokémon Go, like City Demon Go, which has seen a huge spike in downloads on the back of Pokémon Go fever. These are similar in concept except, crucially, none are yet augmented reality. Players hunt for monsters and treasure just like in the real game, except they roam a virtual world without the need to leave their sofa, much like any standard role-playing adventure.

Of course, that may soon change, especially since Niantic Labs has said that, due to burgeoning demand, global rollout will be slower than first anticipated. Plus there are hurdles specific to China, where a local partner for release hasn’t been confirmed, and Google — the main medium by which players log in to Pokémon Go — remains banned. That will only give impetus to Chinese developers to create local simulacrums, complete with the requisite augmented reality.

Many irked Chinese gamers have even sworn off the Pokémon Go — some citing national security concerns. “Don’t play Pokémon Go which has GPS functions,” posted one Weibo user. “Americans and Japanese can detect our secret military bases.”

“On Facebook, Nintendo depicts Taiwan as a country instead of a province that belongs to China,” posted another. “Also it probably tries to gather information about Chinese military bases. So I would play another game.”

And those devious Pikachu look so cute, too.