文|张书乐（人民网、人民邮电报专栏作者，互联网和游戏产业观察者）
Man-Jan Books (People's Network, People's Mail and Telegraph columnist, Internet and Game Industry Watcher)
元宇宙是什么？
What's a Yuan cosmos?
作为游戏产业2021年最热门的话题，它根本不是一个新鲜玩意。
As the hottest topic in the game industry in 2021, it's not new at all.
说白了，就是让人彻底沉浸到游戏里，感受第二人生。
To be honest, it's to be completely immersed in the game and to feel a second life.
如果从这种意义上来说，万物皆可元宇宙，只要沉浸其中。
If, in that sense, everything is in the universe, as long as it is immersed in it.
《王者荣耀》可以是元宇宙，从青铜到黄金，每个人都能找到自己的位置，但都要在这个世界里从头修炼。
The King's Glory can be a meta-cosmos, from bronze to gold, where everyone can find their place, but it has to be top-heavy in the world.
2003年推出后大火的《第二人生》也是元宇宙，重构的社会结构，大家需要在游戏提供的“宅基地”上盘古开天，自己构建自己的理想国。
The Second Life of the Fire, launched in 2003, is also a meta-cosm, reshaping the fabric of society and requiring everyone to build their own ideal country on the “home base” provided by the game.
就和2020年那款一时喧嚣《集合啦！动物森友会》和里面的各路岛主一般。
It's just like the 2020 squawks of "Together! Animals and Friends" and the road masters inside.
暂停！
Pause!
只要沉浸其中就可以了吗？
Just immerse in it?
被游戏行业提出的元宇宙，其实还有另一层意思。
There's another meaning in the meta-cosmos that has been proposed by the game industry.
表面上来说，这一概念脱胎于1992年尼尔·斯蒂芬森的科幻小说《雪崩》，指在一个脱胎于现实且始终在线的平行世界中，人们能够以虚拟化身（avatar）的形式自由生活。
On the face of it, this concept was born out of the 1992 science fiction by Neil Stephenson, Avalanche, which means that people can live freely in virtual avatar in a parallel world that is out of reality and always online.
但在游戏行业里，构建元宇宙有一个基本规范，那就是使用VR技术，和《头号玩家》里的人一样，进入一个美丽新世界。
But in the game industry, there is a basic norm in the construction of the meta-cosmos, which is to use VR technology to enter a beautiful new world, like the one in Player One.
于是乎，基于这个概念下，上述游戏全部都不再是元宇宙范畴。
So, based on this concept, all of these games are no longer in the realm of the meta-cosmos.
尽管哪怕你在《魔兽世界》和《传奇》里有一群完全不同于现实、素未谋面的知心朋友，有自己完全寄托于其中的故事，也不行。
Even if you have a group of knowledgeable friends in the World of Monsters and the Legend, who are completely different from reality and unknown, who have stories in which you are fully attached.
在这种定义下，一个差异于此前云游戏的更概念化的元宇宙创业热潮，变成了游戏圈在2021年的基调，甚至一些老牌的上市游戏公司，还传出高层要求在财报中务必要和元宇宙概念扯上关系，以期提振股价和激发投资者信心，哪怕只是炒作一番。
By this definition, a more conceptualized meta-cosm entrepreneurship that differs from the previous cloud games became the theme of the 2021 game circle, even some of the old listed game companies, and the high-level demand for a relationship with the meta-cosm concept in the financial statements, with a view to raising stock prices and stimulating investor confidence, if not just to make a scene.
最典型的莫过于2021年3月游戏公司Roblox的上市。
Nothing is more typical than the listing of Roblox in March 2021.
作为元宇宙概念的倡导者，它就在招股书上特意写上了“Metaverse（元宇宙）正在实现”的话语，而其高层更在各种场合主动进行“自定义”：元宇宙需要具备至少八个要素——身份、朋友、沉浸感、低延迟、多元化、随地、经济系统和文明。
As an advocate of the concept of the meta-cosm, it specifically wrote the words “Metaverse (the meta-cosm) is being realized” in the book of offers, and its high-level initiative is “self-defined” on various occasions: the meta-cosmos needs at least eight elements — identity, friends, immersion, low delay, pluralism, locality, economic systems and civilization.
这些概念，玄之又玄，事实上已经将元宇宙变成了一个科技玄学。
These concepts, the fundamentals, have, in fact, transformed the meta-cosmos into a scientific ethos.
而核心不过是加上了一个VR之下的沙盒游戏，高度自由、高度开放。每一个进入Roblox的开发者通过平台提供的工具创造游戏和各类体验……
The core is merely a sandbox game under VR, which is highly free and open. Every developer entering Roblox creates games and experiences through the tools provided by the platform.
类似这样的想法和实践，其实现在说实现，都为时尚早。
It is too early for such ideas and practices to be realized.
但未尝元宇宙就无法变得更加“真实”。
But it's impossible to be more “real” without a taste of the meta-cosmos.
至少，在另一个层面，元宇宙已经差不多在少部分人中构建成了一个“乌托邦”。
At least at another level, the meta-cosmos has almost been built into a “utopian” among a small number of people.
作为互联网时代的原住民，Z世代从出生开始，其实就被沉浸在社交网络这样一个元宇宙中。
As indigenous peoples of the Internet age, the Z generation has been immersed in a meta-cosm of social networks since birth.
你中有我、我中有你，是这个元宇宙和现实世界的联系。
You have me, you have me, and you are the link between this meta-cosm and the real world.
在这层意境上又似乎和元宇宙的平行世界概念有所冲突。
In this sense, there seems to be a conflict with the concept of a parallel world in the meta-cosmos.
但这不重要，对于玩家来说，重要的是创造，在社交网络中用工具创造自己的沉浸感，无须借助VR去虚拟。
But it doesn't matter. For players, it's important to create, in social networks, tools to create their own sense of soaking, without using VR to virtualize.
比如被00后所热衷的“跑团”。
For example, it's a "run-in" after 00, which is a passion.
用一种桌面游戏的逻辑，代入或原创角色，在高自由度下和一众朋友在线上借助社交应用，与游戏主持人扮演的NPC进行各种交互，以推动故事发展达成一种互相认同的精神家园之构建……
Using the logic of a desktop game, an in- or original role, social applications in high freedom and online with a group of friends, various interactions with the NCC played by the host of the game to promote the development of a shared spiritual home...
这一切的实现形式，可以是文字、表情包，又或者是图形的，只是还没有VR。
All this can take the form of words, emoticons, or graphics, except that there is no VR.
话说重头，这一幕像极了当年中国第一代网民们在2000年代之前的文字网游——MUD游戏。
At the outset, this is a scene of a post-MUD game by the first generation of Chinese netizens in the pre-2000s.
在同一个故事背景下，每一个人都可以发散思维、用文字和字符画给自己重新定义一个身份、结交一群新朋友（包括敌人）、沉浸其中、实时交互（低延迟）、并且不用一味的打怪升级（多元化）、有网络就可随地进入，甚至于形成独特的文学。
In the same context of the story, everyone can think, paint themselves with words and characters to redefine an identity, make friends with a new group of friends (including the enemy), immerse in it, interact in real time (low delay), and upgrade without odour (diversity), have access to the network, or even form a unique literature.
只不过当年没有太多功利的虚拟物品或货比交易，也大多不会形成所谓的游戏文明罢了。
It was just that there was not much utilitarian virtual goods or trade-offs in that year, and most of them did not form the so-called culture of play.
由是观之，元宇宙离我们到底有几光年？
By looking at it, how many light-years have it been between us?
从技术的角度来说，或许不比三体星更近。
Technically, it may not be as close as a triton.
但从玩家的视角看，阳光底下没有什么新鲜事，只是游戏还给了玩家多少虚拟自由罢了。
But from the player's point of view, there's nothing new under the sun, just how much virtual freedom the game gives the player.
刊载于《人民邮电报》2021年7月23日《乐游记》专栏第301期
Published in People's Mail and Telegraph, No. 301, Leisure Book, 23 July 2021
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