经济学人 棋盘游戏参考文件.docx

Business: Board games Not twilight, but sunrise 商业：棋盘游戏，不是衰败而是兴盛 Table-top games are booming in the video-game age. 视频游戏年代，桌游盛行。 ESSEN is not one of Germanys better-known cities. 艾森不是德国任何一个比较出名的城市。 But for the worlds growing band of board-game devotees, it is paradise. 但它却是全球不断增长的棋盘游戏爱好者的天堂。 Each October it plays host to Internationale Spieltage, or Spiel, a board-game convention that is half fan-club gathering, half trade show—and, alongside Americas Gen Con, one of the biggest gaming festivals in the world. 每年十月这里都会举办“埃森国际游戏节”——半是爱好者聚会，一半是贸易展的棋牌游戏大会——与全球最大的游戏节之一的美国“创展”齐名。 This year the organisers expect more than 160,000 visits over the festivals four days. 主办方预计，今年为期四天的游戏节里，会有超过16万人出席。 Attenders will be able to watch and play more than 850 board, card and role-playing games, including a much-anticipated board-game version of “Magic: The Gathering”, a highly popular card game launched in 1993 in which players take on the role of duelling wizards. 出席者将观看和参与超过850种棋盘、卡牌和角色扮演类游戏，其中包括一款万众瞩目的棋牌游戏——“万智牌”。在这款1993年推出的火爆的纸牌游戏中，玩家扮演决斗巫师的角色。 The whole thing will be capped off with the largest contest yet seen of “The Settlers of Catan”, in which 1,000 people will compete to colonise a fictional wilderness. 整个游戏节将以迄今为止最大的比赛“卡坦岛”作为结束，到时将有1000人角逐殖民虚构荒野。 The market for such “hobby games” is booming. 这种“爱好游戏”的市场正在蓬勃发展。 ICv2, a consulting firm, reckons it is worth $880m a year in America and Canada alone. 咨询公司ICv2评估，仅在美国和加拿大，这一市场价值就已达每年8.80亿美元。 “Weve seen double-digit annual growth for the past half-decade,” says Milton Griepp, ICv2s boss. “我们已经见证过去五年里其两位数的年增长率，”ICv2的老板米尔顿·格里普说。 Some of the games at Spiel will be aimed at children, but grown-ups are doing most of the buying. 埃森国际游戏节上的部分游戏是针对儿童的，但成年人才是最多的购买者。 There is something for every taste, from “Fluxx”, a lighthearted card game whose rules change with every card played, to “Power Grid”, a fiendishly tricky business game featuring aspiring electricity tycoons, to all-day chin-scratchers such as “Twilight Imperium”, a game of ga