你游戏化身的皮肤应该和你匹配吗？

Most people who play video games just want to have fun. But is there the potential to do more than that? This week on Ask Code Switch, we're answering a question from Catina in Northern Virginia. She reached out to us because her son was trying to counter racist bullying in the games he played.

大多数玩电子游戏的人只是为了开心。但还有其他潜在的目的吗?本周在Ask Code Switch节目中，我们将回答来自弗吉尼亚州北部卡蒂娜一个问题。她找到了我们，是因为她的儿子试图在他玩的游戏中对抗种族主义欺凌。

Dear Code Switch,

亲爱的Code Switch,

My 11 year-old son loves playing online video games like Roblox and Minecraft where he can create his own avatar. Sometimes he will choose a black or brown skin for his character. We spend a lot of time talking about race, and when I discussed digital blackface with him, he told me that he is trying to fight underrepresentation, discrimination, and racists in the games he plays. He's a good kid and really wants to be an ally. What advice would you give him?

我11岁的儿子喜欢玩像Roblox和Minecraft这样的网络电子游戏，在那里他可以创建自己的游戏化身。有时他会为他的角色选择黑色或棕色的皮肤。我们花了很多时间谈论种族问题，当我和他讨论数字化的黑人脸种时，他告诉我，他正在努力在他所玩的游戏中对抗代表性不足、歧视和种族主义者。他是个好孩子，真的想成为一个盟友。你会给他什么建议?

Hey Catina,

你好，卡蒂娜，

In the time since you wrote this question, you say that your son found that making characters of color didn't help his cause, and that he stopped doing it. But this is actually a question a lot of people have. There's a lot to think about, especially when it comes to figuring out when it's acceptable to play a character you don't share a race with. Like, can video games be a vehicle for allyship?

当你写这个问题的时候，你说你的儿子创造的角色的皮肤对他的事业没有帮助，他停止了这样做。但实际上很多人都有这个问题。有很多事情需要考虑，尤其是当你要弄清楚什么时候可以接受扮演一个和你不是同一种族的角色时。比如，电子游戏能成为联盟的工具吗?

In a video game, you can be anyone. In a medium that's all about imagined experiences, it would be absurd to be confined by your real-world identity (and impossible for many players of color).

在电子游戏中，你可以是任何人。在一个充满想象的体验媒介中，被现实世界的身份所限制将是荒谬的(对许多有色人种玩家来说是不可能的)。

Video games have different norms than real life (for instance, in many online games, it's relatively acceptable to walk up to someone and like, kill them), but players and developers bring their real-world ideas and biases with them. Unlike reality, the circumstances of your character's world were crafted by artists and programmers.

电子游戏与现实生活有着不同的规范(例如，在许多网络游戏中，走向某人，喜欢或杀死他/她是相对可以接受的)，但玩家和开发者会带有他们在现实世界中的想法和偏见。与现实不同，你的角色的世界是由艺术家和程序员创造的。

It might help to take a look at Rust, an online survival game that takes a unique approach to character creation. In 2015, they implemented randomly generated and completely immutable faces and skin color to the default male character model. In 2016, they added the possibility of being a woman.

看看Rust这款网络生存游戏或许会有帮助，它采用了一种独特的方法来创造角色。2015年，他们将随机生成的、完全不变的面部和肤色默认为男性角色模型。2016年，他们增加了成为女性的可能性。

Rust strips race of context, making an attempt at neutrality. Everyone is born into the game an adult, naked and afraid, facing a vaguely post-apocalyptic death parade. The characters have very little personality outside of the player, and they all play exactly the same way. It doesn't take place in a society where historical power dynamics affect everything.

Rust 脱离了种族的背景，试图保持中立。每个人生来就是一个成年人，赤身裸体，恐惧地面对着一个模糊的后世界末日的死亡世界。这些角色在玩家之外几乎没有什么个性，他们都以完全相同的方式玩游戏。它不会发生在一个历史权力动态影响一切的社会。

It's easy, almost comforting, to think that embodying a video game character that looks different from you gives you an elevated understanding of those people.

几乎是令人欣慰的是，很容易想象一个与你不同的电子游戏角色会让你对这些人有更高的理解。

Rust is also a unique example; not every game is able to depoliticize itself as much. Red Dead Redemption tried to skirt around issues of race.

Rust也是一个独特的例子;并不是每一款游戏都能将自己去政治化。《红色死亡救赎》试图回避种族问题。

It's not inherently exploitative to play as a character of a different race, but it requires players to be aware of the context they and their characters exist in — and that it's not going to truly help them understand what it means to live in a different body.

扮演不同种族的角色并不是一种剥削，但它要求玩家意识到自己和角色所处的环境——这并不能真正帮助他们理解生活在不同的角色里意味着什么。