12岁女孩给喜欢女性角色的电子游戏玩家谋福利

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Audie Cornish （Host）： Today， some of the most popular video games in the world are made specifically for smartphones. The game Temple Run has been downloaded more than a billion times. Sixty percent of its players are women. Many of these mobile games are free to play， but if you want to play using a female character， you’re often asked to pay up， sometimes quite a bit. Steve Henn from our Planet Money team has the story of a sixth grade girl who figured this out and decided to do something about it.

Steve Henn （Byline）： Maddie Messer is 12. She loves science and hiking and biking and her dog， and she also loves a good video game. And one of her favorites is the classic Temple Run. In this game， you’re running along a path or a 1）swamp， 2）fleeing from a tribe of angry zombie 3）skull-faced monkeys. You have to run and jump and turn.

Maddie Messer： If there are roots sticking out， you can just move from side to side to 4）dodge those. And if―Oh， I didn’t see the rock.

Henn： For Maddie， this game is perfect， except for one thing. Her character―this digital version of Maddie―is a guy.

Maddie： Guy Dangerous.

Henn： If you want to play as a guy in most video games， it’s not a problem. If you want to play a female character， it’s not as easy. Often you have to pay. And for Maddie， this was annoying. She’d often have to go to her parents and ask for money to buy a girl.

Maddie： It’s not fair， because， like， you know， if I’m being forced to play as a boy， like， why？

Henn： So she told her dad，“look， these games are 5）rigged. They favor boys.” But honestly， at first he was kind of 6）skeptical. He said， “prove it.” So Maddie said， “OK， I will.” She 7）proposed a research project. She said，“let me download the 50 most popular running games， games like Temple Run， and I will count up how many offer female characters and how much they cost.” Her dad agreed. So for weeks， Maddie would come home after school every day and download a video game. And then she’d play it and record her results on this giant paper chart. And what she found was kind of mind blowing. Out of the 50 games she looked at， 37 offered free male characters. The number offering free female characters？ Just five―5 out of 50.

Maddie： It was kind of a 8）letdown. Like， I was hoping that there were gonna be more girls， but there just weren’t. And I was kind of 9）bummed. Like， come on―it’s not that hard to do one girl.

Henn： In most of these games， you could unlock these characters by playing， but it takes hours. It’s faster and easier just to buy them. And the average price for a female character was $7.53. Disney had one game where there was only one female character―the only one―and it cost$30―$30…So Maddie decided to write an 10）op-ed.

Maddie： I was thinking， oh， maybe it’ll get published in like our local paper―maybe not―and that will be the end of it.

Henn： But The Washington Post published it. People saw it all over the world. The makers of Temple Run―they read it.

Natalia Luckyanova： It was embarrassing （laughter）. It was embarrassing to read that.

Henn： Natalia Luckyanova is one of the creators of Temple Run， and she was 11）mortified. When Natalia built Temple Run， she 12）deliberately added female characters to the game because she wanted to make it 13）appeal to as large an audience as possible. But because she was giving away the basic game for free in the app store， she and her partners decided to charge for these 14）bonus characters. And as a business decision that worked beautifully.

Luckyanova： There was a huge demand for a female character.

Henn： Sixty percent of Temple Run players are female. And even though female characters in the original game don’t have any special powers， they still bring in a lot of cash.

Luckyanova： For all of our good intentions and for all of my good intentions， it’s true that， you know， you start out with this male character―that the male， you know， the white male is always the 15）default―and then anything else， it’s like you have to work for it.

Henn： Natalia says Maddie was right.

Luckyanova： So I think she had a point.

Henn： The very same day Maddie’s op-ed ran in The Post， Natalia wrote to Maddie and said that her company would make one of their female characters free. Disney also backed down， too. That $30 girl character―its price is falling to zero.

奥迪・科尼什（主持人）：如今，一些世界上最受欢迎的电子游戏是专门为智能手机设计的。《神庙逃亡》这款游戏已经被下载超过10亿次，其中60%的玩家是女性。这些手机游戏很多都是免费的，但是如果你想用女性角色来玩，你通常就会被索取费用，有时候费用会很高。我们“货币星球”（译者注：这是一个关注全球经济的多媒体团队，通过博客、播客和推特等多媒体手段进行研究和推广）栏目组的史蒂夫・海恩带来一篇有关一个六年级女孩的报道――她发现了游戏中女性角色需要付费的事实，并决定为此做点什么。

史蒂夫・海恩（撰稿人）：玛迪・梅塞尔今年12岁。她热爱科学、徒步旅行、骑单车和她的狗狗，她也喜欢玩电子游戏。她最喜爱的其中一款游戏就是经典的《神庙逃亡》。在这个游戏里，你要跑过一条小路或者一片湿地，被一群愤怒的僵尸骷髅头猴子追赶。你必须又跑又跳又转弯。

玛迪・梅塞尔：如果有树枝出现，你只需从一边跑到另一边去躲避那些东西。如果……哦，我没看到那块石头。

海恩：在玛迪看来，这款游戏除了一个地方，其他都是完美的――她在游戏里的角色――电子版的玛迪是一个男的。玛迪：一个叫Dangerous的男人。海恩：如果你想用男性角色去玩大部分的电子游戏，没有问题；如果你想用女性角色来玩，那就没那么简单了。你通常需要付费。而对于玛迪来说，这很让人苦恼。她经常需要向她父母要钱去买一个女性角色。

玛迪：这不公平，因为，你懂的，如果我被迫去玩一个男性角色，那么理由是什么？

海恩：所以她跟爸爸说：“听着，这些游戏是不合理的，他们偏爱男生。”但事实上，起初她的爸爸对此有点怀疑，他说：“证明给我看。”于是玛迪说：“好吧，我会证明给你看的。”她想出了一个研究计划。她说：“让我下载50款像《神庙逃亡》那样最受欢迎的跑酷游戏，我会统计里面有多少游戏提供女性角色，她们的收费是多少。”她的爸爸同意了。所以几周以来，玛迪每天放学后都会回家下载一款游戏。然后她会玩一下那款游戏，把结果记录在一个大的纸质表格上。而她发现的事实让她激动不已。她研究的50款游戏中，有37款游戏提供免费的男性角色。那么提供免费女性角色的游戏数量呢？只有5款――50款里只有5款。

玛迪：这很让人失望。就像，我曾经希望会发现更多的免费女性角色，但却事与愿违。我很沮丧。就像，不会吧，提供一个免费的女性角色不难啊。

海恩：在大部分的这些游戏中，你可以通过闯关来得到这些角色，但这需要时间。购买这些角色更加方便快捷。然而一个女性角色的平均价格是7.53美元。迪士尼公司有一款电子游戏里只有一个女性角色，她的价钱是30美元――30美元……所以玛迪决定写一篇专栏文章。

玛迪：我当时在想，噢，也许它会发表在像是我们当地的报纸上，也许不会――那么这件事就到此为止。

海恩：但是《华盛顿邮报》发表了这篇专栏文章。全世界的人都看到了，《神庙逃亡》的创造者也看到了。

娜塔莉亚・卢克亚诺娃：这很让人尴尬（笑）。读到这篇文章很让我尴尬。

海恩：娜塔莉亚・卢克亚诺娃是《神庙逃亡》的创始人之一，她很难堪。当娜塔莉亚创造《神庙逃亡》时，她故意给这款游戏加入了女性角色，因为她希望游戏尽可能受到更多玩家的欢迎。但是因为她在应用商城已经提供了免费的基本游戏，她和她的合伙人决定对额外的角色收费。而这个商业决策收益甚好。

卢克亚诺娃：女性角色的需求量很大。

海恩：《神庙逃亡》60%的玩家是女性。尽管女性角色在原版游戏中没有任何特殊的能力，她们仍然吸金不少。

卢克亚诺娃：就拿我们所有好的意图来说，就拿我所有好的意图来说，你懂的，我们确实是要先考虑男性角色――男性，你了解的，白人男性总是我们默认的选项。然后才是其他的东西。就像你必须要这么做。海恩：娜塔莉亚说玛迪是对的。

卢克亚诺娃：所以我觉得她有道理。

海恩：就在玛丽的专栏文章发表于《华盛顿邮报》的同一天，娜塔莉亚写信给玛迪，说她的公司会让他们其中一个女性角色免费。迪士尼公司也作出了让步，那个价值30美元的女性角色变成了免费。