《失控玩家》：不做生活的NPC

近日，瑞安·雷诺兹（Ryan Reynolds）和朱迪·科默（Jodie Comer）等主演的电影《失控玩家》（Free Guy）正在热映中，好评如潮，你看了吗？

无注释原文：

Free Guy: Why video game AI will always be stupid

BBC Science Focus Magazine

A non-player character, or NPC, is any character in a video game who is not directly controlled by you, the player. It’s the zombie you shoot in the face in The Last of Us. It’s the innocent bystander you hit while speeding in Grand Theft Auto V. It’s the capitalist racoon who enslaves you into a lifetime of debt in Animal Crossing.

They are often characterised by a lack of agency and depth: a result of them being restricted by a set of pre-determined choices and algorithms. But artificial intelligence is getting smarter – and NPCs are too.

New movie Free Guy takes this to its most extreme conclusion, positing a scenario in which an NPC (played by Ryan Reynolds) gains self-awareness in a huge Grand Theft Auto-style video game. No longer is he a puppet with a set of stock phrases, but he can think, feel and interact. Surely this is the future of gaming?

“The chances of an NPC becoming self-aware are virtually zero,” says Dr Edward Powley, associate professor of artificial intelligence in Falmouth University’s Games Academy. “Creativity, consciousness, self-awareness – we might be able to create the illusion of some of these, but achieving them in any meaningful way is still decades away, partly because our understanding of how the human brain does these things is still very limited.”

But that doesn’t mean that game developers are not experimenting with AI. In 2020, game developer Ubisoft released Watch Dogs: Legion, which populated its dystopian recreation of London with some of the most dynamic and idiosyncratic NPCs ever seen.

To achieve this, they built Census, a complex system that generates biographies, relationships and narratives for the city’s NPCs population. Save a man from police brutality one day, and he and his brother may become your allies the next… or your enemies, if you accidentally injure their best friend in a firefight.

In terms of the future, the tech that Powley is most interested in is natural language processing. “This is behind systems such as Alexa and Siri, which allows you to interact with a computer system using plain English.” The potential for video games is reactive NPCs who can hold a real-time conversation with the player as they type sentences or speak into a microphone.

The most cutting-edge example so far is 2005 video game Façade, in which the player has to navigate a cocktail party without saying the wrong thing and being thrown out. “The technology needs to advance further to be truly feasible in games,” says Powley.

There is a risk that such technology could compromise authorial control. This is Powley’s concern with methods such as machine learning, which allow AI to analyse data, interpret it, and make its own decisions.

This could lead to NPCs who behave with more freedom and flexibility. But leaving aside the fact that it would require a lot of time and computational power, there’s also the question of whether ‘better’ NPCs would make for better video games.

“Video games are all about telling a story or giving the player an experience, and NPCs being too unpredictable can break that,” says Powley. “A lot of what we do when we play games is about figuring out systems, and NPCs that are too unpredictable are too difficult to figure out.”

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注：中文文本为机器翻译仅供参考，并非一一对应

含注释全文：

Free Guy: Why video game AI will always be stupid

BBC Science Focus Magazine

A non-player character, or NPC, is any character in a video game who is not directly controlled by you, the player. It's the zombie you shoot in the face in The Last of Us. It's the innocent bystander you hit while speeding in Grand Theft Auto V. It's the capitalist racoon who enslaves you into a lifetime of debt in Animal Crossing.

非玩家角色，或称NPC，是电子游戏中不由你（玩家）直接控制的任何角色。它是《最后生还者》（The Last of Us）中被你射中脸部的僵尸。它是《侠盗猎车手5》（Grand Theft Auto V）中你超速时撞到的无辜旁观者。它是《动物森友会》（Animal Crossing）中让你背负终生债务的资本家浣熊。

玩游戏的都比较熟悉，NPC，Non-Player Character的缩写，非玩家角色或称非操控角色，是指角色扮演游戏中非玩家控制的角色。

zombie /ˈzɒmbɪ/ 表示“僵尸，丧尸”，英文解释为“(in stories) a frightening creature that is a dead person who has been brought back to life, but without human qualities. Zombies are not able to think and they are often shown as attacking and eating human beings.”

表示“旁观者；看热闹的人”，英文解释为“a person who is standing near and watching something that is happening but is not taking part in it”。

racoon /ræˈkuːn/ = raccoon 表示“浣熊（产于北美洲）”，英文解释为“a small North American animal with black marks on its face and a long tail with black rings on it”。

1）表示“使受控制；征服；制伏；使遭受；使无法摆脱”，英文解释为“to make sb/sth completely depend on sth so that they cannot manage without it”举个🌰：

People in this region were enslaved by poverty.

这一地区的人们备受贫困蹂躏。

2）表示“奴役；使成为奴隶”，英文解释为“to make a slave of someone”举个🌰：

The early settlers enslaved or killed much of the native population.

早期的殖民者奴役或杀害了很多原住民。

They are often characterised by a lack of agency and depth: a result of them being restricted by a set of pre-determined choices and algorithms. But artificial intelligence is getting smarter – and NPCs are too.

它们的特点往往是缺乏能动性和洞察力：这是由于它们被一套预先设定的选项和算法所限制。但人工智能正变得越来越聪明--NPC也是如此。

本义指“深度”，可以延伸表示“（思维的）深度，深刻；洞察力”，英文解释为“the state of having serious qualities or the ability to think seriously about something”举个🌰：

He lacks depth - he's a very superficial person.

他的思想缺乏深度——他是个很肤浅的人。

algorithm /ˈælɡəˌrɪðəm/ 表示“算法；计算程序”，英文解释为“a set of rules that must be followed when solving a particular problem”。

New movie Free Guy takes this to its most extreme conclusion, positing a scenario in which an NPC (played by Ryan Reynolds) gains self-awareness in a huge Grand Theft Auto-style video game. No longer is he a puppet with a set of stock phrases, but he can think, feel and interact. Surely this is the future of gaming?

新电影《失控玩家》（Free Guy）将这一点发挥到了极致，假设在一个巨大的侠盗猎车手式的电子游戏中，一个NPC（由瑞安·雷诺兹扮演）获得了自我意识。他不再是一个有一套固定用语的工具人，而是能思考、有感受、能互动的人。这肯定是游戏的未来？

posit /ˈpɒzɪt/ 表示“假想，设想”，英文解释为“to suggest something as a basic fact or principle from which a further idea is formed or developed”举个🌰：

If we posit that wage rises cause inflation, it follows that we should try to minimize them.

如果我们假设工资上涨会导致通货膨胀的话，那么我们应该尽可能地减小工资上涨幅度。

scenario /sɪˈnɑːrɪˌəʊ/表示“设想；可能的情况；可能发生的事态”，英文解释为“If you talk about a likely or possible scenario, you are talking about the way in which a situation may develop.”举个🌰：

There are several possible scenarios.

有几种可能出现的局面。

puppet /ˈpʌpɪt/ 1）表示“傀儡”，英文解释为“a person or group whose actions are controlled by someone else”；

2）表示“木偶”，英文解释为“a toy in the shape of a person or animal that you can move with strings or by putting your hand inside”。

表示“交流，交往；互相作用，互相影响”，英文解释为“to communicate with or react to”举个🌰：

Her teacher says that she interacts well with the other children.

她的老师说她与别的孩子相处得很好。

“The chances of an NPC becoming self-aware are virtually zero,” says Dr Edward Powley, associate professor of artificial intelligence in Falmouth University's Games Academy. “Creativity, consciousness, self-awareness – we might be able to create the illusion of some of these, but achieving them in any meaningful way is still decades away, partly because our understanding of how the human brain does these things is still very limited.”

法尔茅斯大学（Falmouth University）游戏学院的人工智能副教授爱德华·鲍利博士（Dr. Edward Powley）说：“一个NPC有自我意识的可能性几乎为零。创造力、知觉、自我意识--我们也许能够创造其中的一些幻想，但以任何有意义的方式实现它们仍然需要几十年的时间，部分原因是我们对人脑如何做这些事情的理解仍然非常有限。”

But that doesn't mean that game developers are not experimenting with AI. In 2020, game developer Ubisoft released Watch Dogs: Legion, which populated its dystopian recreation of London with some of the most dynamic and idiosyncratic NPCs ever seen.

但这并不意味着游戏开发商没有在进行人工智能的实验。2020年，游戏开发商育碧（Ubisoft）发布了《看门狗：军团》（Watch Dogs: Legion），它在反乌托邦游戏下的伦敦中加入了一些有史以来最具活力和独特性的NPC。

1）表示“构成…的人口（或动物的总数）”，英文解释为“If an area is populated by people or animals, they live in that area.”举个🌰

The inner cities are no longer densely populated.

市中心的人口密度已下降。

2）表示“居住于，生活于”，英文解释为“to live in an area or place”举个🌰：

The settlers began to move inland and populate the river valleys.

移民开始迁往内陆，居住在河谷地带。

3）表示“（在计算机的列表或表格上）自动增加信息”，英文解释为“to automatically add information to a list or table on a computer”举个🌰：

There are several ways to populate the database.

有几种方式给数据库自动增加资料。

dystopian /dɪsˈtoʊpiən/ 表示“反面假想国的；反面乌托邦的”，英文解释为“relating to a very bad or unfair society in which there is a lot of suffering, especially an imaginary society in the future, or to the description of such a society”。

idiosyncratic /ˌɪdɪəʊsɪŋˈkrætɪk/ 表示“怪异的；另类的”，英文解释为“If you describe someone's actions or characteristics as idiosyncratic, you mean that they are somewhat unusual.”如：a highly idiosyncratic personality 一种非常另类的个性。

To achieve this, they built Census, a complex system that generates biographies, relationships and narratives for the city's NPCs population. Save a man from police brutality one day, and he and his brother may become your allies the next… or your enemies, if you accidentally injure their best friend in a firefight.

为了实现这一目标，他们建立了人口普查（Census）系统，这是一个复杂的系统，为城市的NPC人口生成传记、关系和故事。前一天从警察野蛮行为中拯救了一个人，第二天他和他的兄弟就可能成为你的盟友......或者是你的敌人，如果你在交火中不小心伤害了他们最好的朋友。

census /ˈsensəs/ 表示“人口普查；（官方的）调查，统计；”，英文解释为“A census is an official survey of the population of a country that is carried out in order to find out how many people live there and to obtain details of such things as people's ages and jobs.”举个🌰：

The detailed assessment of the latest census will be ready in three months.

有关最新人口普查的详细评估工作将在3个月内就绪。

表示“传记”，英文解释为“the life story of a person written by someone else”。

表示“故事；叙事”，英文解释为“A narrative is a story or an account of a series of events.”举个🌰：

At several points in the narrative the two stories cross.

叙述中两条故事线多次交织在一起。

In terms of the future, the tech that Powley is most interested in is natural language processing. “This is behind systems such as Alexa and Siri, which allows you to interact with a computer system using plain English.” The potential for video games is reactive NPCs who can hold a real-time conversation with the player as they type sentences or speak into a microphone.

就未来而言，鲍利最感兴趣的技术是自然语言处理（NLP）。“这是在Alexa和Siri等系统的背后，允许你使用通俗易懂的话与计算机系统交互。”电子游戏的潜力在于回应式NPC，当他们输入句子或对着麦克风说话时，可以与玩家进行实时对话。

表示“简明的英语”，英文解释为“clear, simple language”举个🌰：

Why can't they write these instructions in plain English?

他们为什么不用通俗易懂的英语写这些使用说明？

The most cutting-edge example so far is 2005 video game Façade, in which the player has to navigate a cocktail party without saying the wrong thing and being thrown out. “The technology needs to advance further to be truly feasible in games,” says Powley.

迄今为止，最前沿的例子是2005年的电子游戏《Façade》，在这个游戏中，玩家参加鸡尾酒会时不能说错话而被赶走。鲍利说：“这项技术需要进一步发展，以便在游戏中真正可行。”

cutting-edge表示“尖端的，前沿的”，英文解释为“Cutting-edge techniques or equipment are the most advanced that there are in a particular field.”举个🌰：

What we are planning is cutting-edge technology never seen in Australia before.

我们正在筹划的是澳大利亚前所未见的尖端技术。

🎬电影《像素大战》（Pixels）中的台词提到：I'm thinking this is a cutting-edge multinational enterprise. 我想是某先进跨国组织干的。

📍state-of-the-art表示“（技术上）最先进的”，英文解释为“If you describe something as state-of-the-art, you mean that it is the best available because it has been made using the most modern techniques and technology.”

📍leading edge表示“（某活动领域的）最重要位置，领先地位；（尤指技术上的）前沿，尖端”，英文解释为“The leading edge of a particular area of research or development is the area of it that seems most advanced or sophisticated.”如：at the leading edge of scientific research 在科学研究的前沿。

表示“开除，赶走，解雇（某人）”，英文解释为“to force someone to leave a college, school, house, or organization”举个🌰：

She was thrown out of college after she was caught using drugs.

她因为吸毒被发现而被大学开除了。

There is a risk that such technology could compromise authorial control. This is Powley's concern with methods such as machine learning, which allow AI to analyse data, interpret it, and make its own decisions.

这种技术有可能损害作者的控制权。这是鲍利对机器学习等方法的担忧，这些方法允许人工智能分析数据，解释数据，并做出自己的决定。

1）表示“（为达成协议而）妥协，折中，让步”，英文解释为“to give up some of your demands after a disagreement with sb, in order to reach an agreement”举个🌰：

Neither side is prepared to compromise.

双方都不愿意妥协。

2）表示“违背（原则）；达不到（标准）”，英文解释为“to do sth that is against your principles or does not reach standards that you have set”举个🌰：

I refuse to compromise my principles.

我拒绝在原则问题上妥协。

3）表示“损害，伤害，危及”，英文解释为“to risk having a harmful effect on something”举个🌰：

We would never compromise the safety of our passengers.

我们永远不会做有损乘客安全的事。

4）compromise sb/sth/yourself 表示“（尤指因行为不很明智）使陷入危险，使受到怀疑”，英文解释为“to bring sb/sth/yourself into danger or under suspicion, especially by acting in a way that is not very sensible”举个🌰：

She had already compromised herself by accepting his invitation.

她接受了他的邀请，这件事已经使她的声誉受到了损害。

This could lead to NPCs who behave with more freedom and flexibility. But leaving aside the fact that it would require a lot of time and computational power, there's also the question of whether ‘better’ NPCs would make for better video games.

这可能会导致NPC的行为更加自由和灵活。但撇开这需要大量时间和计算能力的事实不谈，还有一个问题是“更智能的”NPC是否会使电子游戏变得更好。

“Video games are all about telling a story or giving the player an experience, and NPCs being too unpredictable can break that,” says Powley. “A lot of what we do when we play games is about figuring out systems, and NPCs that are too unpredictable are too difficult to figure out.”

“电子游戏的目的是讲述一个故事或给玩家一种体验，而NPC过于不可预测会破坏这一点，”鲍利说。“我们玩游戏时做的很多事情都是为了弄清系统，而太过不可预测的NPC就太难弄清了。”

A lot of what we do when we play games is about figuring out systems, and NPCs that are too unpredictable are too difficult to figure out.

📍其实是两个句子用and连接的并列句：A lot of what we do is about figuring out systems, and NPCs are too difficult to figure out.

第一个句子：A lot of what we do is about figuring out systems. 主语从句。

第二个句子：NPCs [that are too unpredictable] are too difficult to figure out. 中NPCs后面跟了定语从句，强调了什么样的NPC，[that are too unpredictable]，太过不可预测的NPC。

📍最后，too difficult to figure out，有个中学爱考的短语too ... to“太...而不能”。

谢谢你看到这里呀

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