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In the hierarchy of pop culture, video games are relegated to the lowest of lowbrow categories. Praise for their artistic qualities tends to fall flat with non-gamers. Author Gabrielle Zevin writes beautifully about designers creating “infinite rebirth, infinite redemption”. But it’s difficult to remember that when you’re watching someone run over a pimp in Grand Theft Auto.
在流行文化的等級制度中，電子遊戲被歸爲最低級的低俗類別。非遊戲玩家對其藝術品質的讚美往往不屑一顧。作家加布裏埃爾•澤文(Gabrielle Zevin)優美地寫道，設計師們創造了「無限的重生，無限的救贖」。然而，當你看到有人在《俠盜獵車手》(Grand Theft Auto)中撞死皮條客時，很難記住這一點。
There is, however, one way in which the uncanny semi-reality of video games can be used to produce works of art.
然而，有一種方法可以利用電子遊戲中不可思議的半現實性來創作藝術作品。
During England’s third, bleak pandemic lockdown, a pair of out-of-work actors hit on the idea of staging a full production of Hamlet while they were gaming. Their play, which was live streamed, won an innovation prize at The Stage Awards in London last year. It has now been turned into a documentary, Grand Theft Hamlet, that is a tribute to both the madness of elaborate lockdown projects and the possibilities of machinima.
在英格蘭第三次慘淡的疫情封鎖期間，兩名失業的演員突發奇想，在玩遊戲時上演一部完整的《哈姆雷特》。他們的戲劇透過串流媒體直播，去年在倫敦的舞臺獎(The Stage Awards)上獲得了創新獎。現在，這部劇已被拍成紀錄片《俠盜哈姆雷特》，向精心設計的瘋狂封鎖項目和遊戲電影的可能性致敬。
Machinima (a misspelt portmanteau of machine and cinema) is a form of filmmaking that takes place inside video games.
遊戲電影（Machinima，機器和電影的拼寫組合）是一種在電子遊戲中進行的電影製作形式。
Some are simple voice-overs recorded by gamers messing around. More elaborate examples include an Emmy-award-winning episode of South Park set among the orcs and gnomes of World of Warcraft and artist Brent Watanabe’s San Andreas Streaming Deer Cam, in which a computer-generated deer wanders serenely through a game cityscape listening to the babbling of NPCs (nonplayer characters).
有些是遊戲玩家隨意錄製的簡單配音。更復雜的例子包括獲得艾美獎的一集《南方公園》(South Park)，其背景設定在《魔獸世界》的獸人和侏儒之間，以及藝術家布倫特•渡邊(Brent Watanabe)的《聖安地列斯串流媒體鹿攝影機》，其中一隻電腦生成的鹿在遊戲城市中安詳地漫步，聆聽著NPC（非玩家角色）的絮絮叨叨。
The format comes with challenges. In Grand Theft Hamlet, the actors are constantly interrupted by violent police chases and robberies. At one point, Hamlet has to break his soliloquy to make a plea for audience members not to shoot one another until the performance has come to an end.
這種形式帶來了挑戰。在《俠盜哈姆雷特》中，演員們不斷被警察的暴力追捕和搶劫打斷。有一次，哈姆雷特不得不中斷獨白，懇求觀衆在演出結束前不要互相開槍。
The obvious question is why? Why put so much effort into making films in a medium designed for mindless distraction? And why create something that relies on blocky computer graphics and stiff avatars that have trouble moving their features?
顯而易見的問題是，爲什麼？爲什麼要花這麼多精力在一個專爲無意識分心而設計的媒介上製作電影？又爲什麼要創造出依賴於塊狀電腦圖形和難以移動特徵的僵硬化身的東西呢？
Jenna Ng, professor of digital media at the University of York, says one reason is accessibility. No expensive camera equipment is needed to make a film. And if the aesthetic is off-putting to some it’s why she loves them. “I find it beautiful because it is unlike anything else we see in our visual culture.”
紐約大學(University of York)數字媒體教授Jenna Ng表示，其中一個原因是可及性。製作電影不需要昂貴的攝影設備。如果這種美學讓一些人感到不適，這正是她喜歡它們的原因。「我覺得它很美，因爲它不同於我們在視覺文化中看到的任何其他東西。」
Machinima is a niche pursuit, though popular enough to have its own film festival in Milan. It joins the ever-increasing number of crossovers between traditional art forms, mainstream entertainment and gaming. Shakespeare fans can also seek out the Nintendo Switch offers To Be Or Not To Be (tagline: “guide Hamlet, Ophelia and Hamlet Sr to hundreds of hilarious deaths”).
遊戲電影是一種小衆的追求，儘管它已經流行到足以在米蘭舉辦自己的電影節。它加入了傳統藝術形式、主流娛樂和遊戲之間日益增多的跨界。莎士比亞迷們還可以在任天堂Switch上找到《生存還是毀滅》（標語：「引導哈姆雷特、奧菲利婭和老哈姆雷特走向數百次滑稽的死亡」）。
If you don’t play video games it can be hard to wrap your head around exactly how popular they are, let alone the idea that anyone could find them beautiful. But for several years now, gaming revenue has comfortably exceeded that of both film and music combined.
如果你不玩電子遊戲，你可能很難理解它們到底有多受歡迎，更不用說有人會覺得它們很美。但多年來，遊戲收入已經輕鬆超過了電影和音樂收入的總和。
There was even a time when it seemed as if machinima might become a dominant form of entertainment. In the early 2000s, during the rise of LA’s “Silicon Beach” mixture of entertainment and tech start-ups, a company also called Machinima began collecting the films and putting them on YouTube. Its founder declared younger generations didn’t want to watch TV in the old way any more. But after a change of ownership, Machinima was shut down.
甚至有一段時間，遊戲電影似乎可能成爲一種占主導地位的娛樂形式。21世紀初，隨著洛杉磯「矽灘」(Silicon Beach)娛樂和科技新創企業的興起，一家名爲遊戲電影的公司開始收集這些影片並將其放在YouTube上。其創辦人宣稱，年輕一代不再想用舊方式看電視了。但在所有權變更後，遊戲電影被關閉。
What has emerged since then are films with fewer online views but more cinematic ambition.
自那時起，出現了一些在線觀看次數較少但更具電影抱負的影片。
At a screening of Grand Theft Hamlet co-director Pinny Grylls explained their appeal as a uniquely modern art form. “I think it is the job of filmmakers to reflect the world people live in,” she said. “And many more people live, love and interact inside these game worlds.”
在《俠盜哈姆雷特》的放映會上，聯合導演皮尼•格里爾斯(Pinny Grylls)解釋了它們作爲一種獨特的現代藝術形式的吸引力。她說：「我認爲電影製作人的職責就是反映人們生活的世界。現在有越來越多的人在這些遊戲世界中生活、戀愛和互動。」