The Medal/勳章：高牆和雞蛋，當兵和當人

It’s up to you to be a successful soldier, or a good guy, in operating the characters, directing the children, finding cover, and escaping.

What’s my Hand-in this week

  • Play as a soldier on a mission in North Africa who finds some refugee children in an enemy camp and tries to take them with him on the retreat. These children are weak, fearful, disobedient, and may even be enemy‘s children with a grudge against you, so rescuing them is much harder than you might think - and of course you can choose to give up. It’s up to you to be a successful soldier, or a good guy, in operating the characters, directing the children, finding cover, and escaping.
  • We used Japanese author Murakami Haruki’s Egg-Versus-Wall metaphor: “If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will always stand on the side of the egg. Why? Because each of us is an egg, a unique soul enclosed in a fragile shell. Each of us is confronting a high wall. The high wall is the system that forces us to do the things we would not ordinarily see fit to do as individuals… ” In the game, the player may think that ”this child doesn’t follow me/is too scared/even is an enemy so it’s better to save others first because ’this child is doing something wrong’”. But all the children, as well as the soldier, are individuals as fragile eggs. (The soldier, conceivably a murderer, was also just an individual in this mission. So actually you don’t need to collect the children to win, you just need to escape. ) It’s not right or wrong that counts but on the side of individuals.
  • Possible characteristics of children:
    • Inattention - moves around because of boredom when they are left alone.
    • Cowardice - too scared to follow you if any enemies are nearby.
    • Fear of Abandonment - will never stop following you after they begin.
    • Language difficulties - does not understand your stop/follow commands unless other children are present to translate.
    • Enemy’s child - refuses to follow you any further if they are present when you kill an enemy.
  • When an experienced veteran tries to rescue a group of unruly children in a tense situation, he may get annoyed with them. So, giving up the disobedient children would be a common-sense choice, which would be reflected in the game text.
  • The achievement system: The player can win without collecting the children but if any of them get shot, he cannot complete the achievement system. So, the player escapes alone or chooses to give up some disobedient child then gets a Military Medal, or saves all the children and then gets a commemorative gift from each rescued child.

它好像是個能騙錢的獨立遊戲

扮演一個去北非執行任務的士兵，在任務過程中撿小孩，帶著小孩穿越火線東躲西藏，途中因為小孩不聽話或太廢物而表現得像個暴躁的李雲龍並恨不得把他們全扔了，甚至有可能被敵人家的小孩捅死。你當然可以放棄小孩自己跑路，通關時會得到一個軍功章；但如果你救了所有的小孩，大家都會送你意義獨特的小禮物——反正我八成會買（玩不玩另說）。
阻止這個遊戲被實裝的關鍵是我們需要一個暴躁的李雲龍。
但這裡沒有人會用英語寫李雲龍：他應該指著因為太害怕而落後的小孩說那倒霉孩子說你呢你就不能邁開你那小短腿走快點，或者指著在掩體後面躲煩了就冒頭的小孩說小兔崽子你活膩歪了是吧不想死給老子滾回來——我是文案我不會，試圖把鍋甩給法國隊友，感覺他也不會。此時很想念那位學英國文學的倫敦朋友，雖然如果他在的話可能從一開始就不會贊同我們寫一個暴躁李雲龍。

這居然不只是一個反戰遊戲

最主要的原因是我對北非局勢一無所知，感覺瞎編故事背景可能也許大概一定會冒犯提出戰爭主題的非洲隊友（事實上當我寫小孩可能聽不懂老兵說話的時候已經在擔心會不會冒犯了）；其次是我打算在這裡塞入一個雞蛋與高牆，於是：

It is not based on any events that actually happened, since we intend not to discuss the right or wrong actions of individuals.

出現在反戰遊戲里的雞蛋與高牆隱喻很可能不是什麼好東西——這裡有一個士兵，他是無所謂對錯的個人還是作惡的制度，當雞蛋站在高牆的一邊，它究竟是雞蛋還是高牆？
隊友在展示時對遊戲結果的表述是我們不打算在放棄小孩時宣告遊戲結束所以你可以choose to be a good guy or a bad guy，而我在遊戲設計文檔里寫：It’s up to you to be a successful soldier or a good guy.
這是遊戲為什麼叫作The Medal：這裡有一個被高牆授勳的蛋，我傾向於認為這仍然是一個蛋，壞蛋也是蛋，由脆弱的外殼包裹靈魂。
但我還是會說這好像不是什麼好東西，在我（因為不會寫英語版李雲龍而）思索能不能漢化它的時候，我覺得這個故事像在洗白中國警察。雖然反思之後我認為立論本身問題不大，姑且算是一種「正常」範疇之內的討論，但凡事涉及到中共治下的中國，難免會不正常一點——如果冒犯到任何人，我很抱歉，但我的想法是不要考驗人性，因為人性經不起考驗，如果這裡有一個被高牆授勳的蛋，那也是高牆的問題。

The high wall is the system that forces us to do the things we would not ordinarily see fit to do as individuals.

話說回來，我覺得如果有人在遊戲裡撿了小孩又扔掉，那很可能並不是因為他想選擇當一個好兵，而是嫌煩——另一種意義上的考驗人性，總比現實生活中的高牆的考驗要溫和得多。