Flappy Bird的一生和猝死
Flappy Bird这款最近火爆的手游发布于一年前。在这次风靡期间，它带来的收入每天可达5万美元。这款游戏由越南的一名独立游戏开发者阮东哈开发。Flappy Bird, the latest mobile craze, launched less than one year ago. At its peak, it was generating about $50,000 per day. It was run by one man, Dong Nguyen, an indie game developer in Vietnam.
就算你从没玩过游戏，Flappy Bird对你来说也十分简单，你只需要点击手机屏幕来让小鸟一直飞在空中，并且控制它穿过长长短短的管道就行啦。你每成功穿过一条管道，你都能得一分。但一旦你撞上了管道，游戏就结束了。那只鸟真的太难以控制了，这让许多玩家屡战屡败。
If you've never played, Flappy Bird is simple: You tap your smart phone's screen to keep the bird afloat, and you steer him through a maze of pipes. Each pipe you successfully pass through gives you one point. If you hit a pipe, you die. The bird is very hard to navigate, so the game is frustrating to many players.
就在之前的周末，阮东哈突然宣布他将关掉这款游戏。不再在苹果或者安卓的商店里提供下载。那些已经下载了这款游戏的iPhone用户正试图在eBay上出售他们的手机。
Over the weekend, Nguyen suddenly announced that he'd be shutting the game down. It's no longer available for download in the App or Google Play Store. iPhone users who have already downloaded it are trying to sell their devices on eBay.
为什么Flappy Bird突然间离开了我们？为什么游戏研发者变得如此狠这款游戏以至于要关掉它？
或许我们可以从阮东哈的1000条推文中找到答案。我们已经筛选出了一些信息，就让我们一起来看看这款风靡全球的手游的起起落落吧。
Why did Flappy Bird take off, and why did its founder grow to hate it so much he shut it down?You can interpret a lot from Nguyen's ~ 1,000 tweets. We sifted through them so you don't have to. Here's the rise and fall of mobile craze, Flappy Bird.
阮东哈在去年4月份的一个早晨醒来后突发灵感，准备研发一些游戏。Flappy Bird就是其中之一。
Nguyen woke up one morning last April inspired. He set out to create a few games.
4月29日，Flappy Bird的第一版发布，起先的游戏名字叫“Flap Flap”。这款游戏只用了2天就通过审核，上架了。
On April 29, the first iteration of Flappy Bird launched. Its original name was "Flap Flap" and the app was approved in just two days.
这只在2012年诞生的囧鸟，名字叫做Faby。
The bird, which was designed in 2012, is named "Faby."
当Flap Flap诞生之后，阮东哈得了44分。这也是为什么在Flappy Bird里玩家得到40分就可以获得一枚徽章。之后玩家们就开始达到（甚至超越）阮东哈最开始得到的分数了。
When Flap Flap first went live, Nguyen scored 44 points. That's why the platinum badge in Flappy Bird is achieved when a player scores 40. Then players are achieving (and beating) Nguyen's original score.
阮东哈不得不把游戏的名字从“Flap Flap”改成了“Flappy Bird”，因为“Flap Flap”这个名字早已存在。但他本人并不喜欢现在的名字。
Nguyen had to change the name from "Flap Flap" to "Flappy Bird" because the name already existed. He doesn't like the name "Flappy Bird" .
Flappy Bird逐渐开始的热潮始于圣诞节前，那时玩家们开始不断地吐槽。许多人给这个游戏留下好玩的评论，还发一些让他们绝望的图片，加在“Flappy Bird让我觉得···”这样的语句后面。
Flappy Bird started picking up steam just before Christmas, when players started turning it into a meme. A lot of people wrote funny reviews of the app, and they started tweeting around photos of extreme frustration after the statement, "Flappy Bird got me like..."
让Flappy Bird走向风靡的仅仅是人们的口口相传。阮东哈从没为这款游戏投入过任何推广费用。他说自己之前并没有前来做广告。
Word of mouth was all Flappy Bird needed to go viral. Nguyen didn't pay for any marketing at all. He says he didn't initially have resources to spend on advertising.
阮东哈从没预想到自己的游戏能火爆到这种程度，或者说也没想到金钱也会随之而来。The Verge称他每天收入达到了5万美元。
Dong didn't expect his app to explode like this, or the money that came with it. The Verge reported he was pulling in about $50,000 per day.
但不久，这个游戏就成了阮东哈的负担。玩家们发现了他是这个游戏的开发者后就开始不停地@他，甚至是发些攻击性的话语。最初，阮东哈试着冷静地回复每一个人。
But soon, the game became too much for Nguyen. Players found out he was the creator and started tweeting aggressively at him. Nguyen tried to answer everyone calmly at first.
一些攻击开始转向人身攻击了，让阮东哈倍感压力。他毕竟是一个人，却要和一些疯子争论。
Some attacks started getting personal, adding to Nguyen's stress. He was only one guy after all, trying to wrangle a viral beast.
这个游戏开始占据了阮东哈的全部时间。就像他回复一位激动的玩家一样，“因为你，我的生活也毁了。”
The game started taking up all of Nguyen's time. As he told one feisty player, "Because of you, [I have no life either]."
邮件也开始蜂拥而至。阮东哈坚持不住了。
Emails started pouring in too. Nguyen couldn't keep up.
人们开始指责他的游戏，说他抄袭任天堂和马里奥兄弟。阮东哈不同意这种说法。
People started attacking Nguyen's work, accusing him of stealing from Nintendo and Mario Brothers. Nguyen didn't agree.
投资者们开始关注阮东哈，想要给他提供资金。但他对商业并不感兴趣，也从不把自己当成个商人。
Investors started to take notice of Nguyen and offered him cash. But Nguyen wasn't interested in creating a real business. He doesn't consider himself an entrepreneur.
媒体开始争先恐后地去采访阮东哈。但他觉得作一名独立设计者已经很满足了，不想引起太多的关注。“请给我一些安宁。”他乞求道。
The press started clamoring to get interviews with Nguyen. But he was happy as an Indie designer and didn't want the attention. "Please give me peace," he begged.
人们开始要求阮东哈更新这款游戏，并提供更多的平台。他变得不知所措。
People started haggling Nguyen for more Flappy Bird updates and platforms. Nguyen became extremely overwhelmed.
阮东哈称Flappy Bird只是一款小游戏，但出一款续集也不是不可能。
Nguyen said Flappy Bird was always intended to be a mini game, but that a sequel wouldn't be out of the question.
因为这次成功彻底毁了他的简单生活，阮东哈越来越不喜欢他自己的这款游戏了。他同样不喜欢人们“沉迷于其中”，而享受不到游戏本身的乐趣。
Nguyen grew to hate his own game because his success ruined his simple life. He also doesn't like the way people are "overusing" his game and taking all the fun out of it.
阮东哈再也不可能回到一名普通独立游戏开发者的时候了，他对这种一去不复返也感到十分难过。
Nguyen is also unhappy that he can never go back to being an ordinary indie game developer now.
2月8日，阮东哈终于做了个艰难的决定，他要关掉这款游戏。这周末，这款游戏已经从苹果商店下架了。阮东哈也再没发过推特。别担心，他说Flappy Bird不会是他最后的一部作品。
On February 8, Nguyen made up his mind: he was going to shut down the app. This weekend, the game disappeared from the App Store. Nguyen hasn't tweeted since. But don't worry, he says Flappy Bird isn't the last game we'll see from him.
京公网安备 11010802032529号