Marathon’s second season is a chance for Bungie to turn things around

《马拉松》第二赛季是 Bungie 扭转局面的契机

In the volatile world of live-service shooters, the game needs to stop wasting players’ time. 在瞬息万变的“服务型射击游戏”领域，这款游戏必须停止浪费玩家的时间。

Earlier this month, I finally achieved the elusive goal I had set for myself in Bungie’s Marathon. I collected six of the game’s rarest items, allowing me to attempt and then successfully clear the raid-style Compiler boss. I felt a massive weight lift off my shoulders — nearly 185 hours of playtime and I had managed to complete Marathon’s pinnacle activity. A day later, I took my first break from the game. 本月初，我终于达成了自己在 Bungie 游戏《马拉松》（Marathon）中设定的那个难以企及的目标。我收集了游戏中六件最稀有的物品，这让我得以尝试并成功击败了类似副本机制的“编译器”（Compiler）Boss。那一刻，我感到如释重负——在投入近 185 小时后，我终于完成了《马拉松》的巅峰挑战。一天后，我第一次从游戏中抽身休息。

I had been playing Marathon virtually every day since it launched in March, and I needed to put it down. Treating a Bungie game like it’s a grueling second job is nothing new. Certainly not for me or the many fellow Destiny players that cut their teeth on repetitive level grinds, randomized gear chases, and the difficult raid encounters of Bungie’s prior looter shooter. I have thousands of collective hours in the Destiny franchise. So I knew to expect from Marathon something generally familiar: a game with which I would develop an addictive and complicated relationship, equally defined by love and frustration. But I wasn’t prepared for just how quickly I’d go through the stages of that relationship. 自三月游戏上线以来，我几乎每天都在玩《马拉松》，但我确实需要停下来了。把 Bungie 的游戏当成一份艰苦的“第二职业”早已不是什么新鲜事。对于我以及许多在 Bungie 前作《命运》（Destiny）中通过重复刷级、随机装备搜寻和高难度副本磨练出来的玩家来说，这更是常态。我在《命运》系列中投入了数千小时，所以我预料到《马拉松》会带来某种熟悉感：一种让我产生沉迷且关系复杂的游戏，既充满爱又伴随着挫败感。但我没想到，我经历这段关系阶段的速度会如此之快。

I’ll admit: Characterizing how you play an online video game as if it’s a toxic relationship is probably an indication that the problem is more with me than the game. But my experience is not unique — three months since Marathon’s launch, its player numbers have plummeted, and its abrasive nature, complex risk-and-reward systems, and sometimes excruciating difficulty are starting to grate on diehard players, too. 我承认：将玩网络游戏的过程描述为一种“有毒的关系”，可能说明问题更多出在我自己身上，而非游戏本身。但我的经历并非个例——《马拉松》上线三个月后，玩家人数急剧下降，其粗糙的本质、复杂的风险回报机制以及有时令人痛苦的难度，也开始让核心玩家感到厌烦。

The magic of Bungie game design is marrying deep systems with unparalleled gunplay and incredible art direction. When all three work in concert, it’s exhilarating, a near-perfect loop of minute-by-minute sensation inside of a long and rewarding arc of self-directed mastery and aspiration. Marathon nailed the gunplay and the art. But its systems, combined with the high-stakes lose-it-all nature of extraction shooters, keep putting unreasonably tall walls in front of its players. Bungie 游戏设计的魔力在于将深度的系统与无与伦比的射击手感及出色的艺术指导相结合。当这三者协同工作时，体验令人振奋：在长期的自我提升与追求目标的成就感中，融入了近乎完美的即时感官体验。《马拉松》在射击手感和艺术表现上做得很好，但其系统结合了撤离类射击游戏（Extraction Shooter）那种“输掉一切”的高风险特性，不断在玩家面前筑起难以逾越的高墙。

Season 2 is just a few days away, slated for June 2nd. It will involve a complete reset of every player’s progression: All loot will disappear, faction levels will be reset, and players will be asked to start over again from scratch. It’s also a chance for Bungie to reset the narrative around Marathon. 第二赛季即将在几天后的 6 月 2 日开启。届时，所有玩家的进度将彻底重置：所有战利品消失，阵营等级清零，玩家必须从零开始。这也是 Bungie 重塑《马拉松》口碑的契机。

For the company, the stakes could not be higher. Earlier this month, Bungie announced that it would cease active development on Destiny 2, ending a definitive chapter in the studio’s post-Halo history after more than 12 years. Fans are understandably upset, and many are now directing their ire at Marathon, claiming it pulled resources away from continuing Destiny 2 or from kickstarting a full-fledged Destiny 3. Bloomberg has since reported that Bungie is now planning layoffs as part of the decision to end development on Destiny 2. 对于这家公司而言，赌注再大不过了。本月初，Bungie 宣布将停止《命运 2》的后续开发，结束了该工作室在《光环》（Halo）之后长达 12 年的决定性篇章。粉丝们感到愤怒是可以理解的，许多人现在将矛头指向《马拉松》，声称是它抽走了本应用于延续《命运 2》或启动《命运 3》的资源。据彭博社报道，作为停止《命运 2》开发决定的一部分，Bungie 目前正在计划裁员。

The studio’s future now depends more than ever on the success of Marathon, a game that has been defined, almost immediately after launch, by its lackluster performance. The longevity of the live-service title has become the central point of anxiety and contention within the Marathon community, as players debate what went wrong, what could fix it, and whether this downward spiral is an existential threat to their favorite new hobby. It has gotten so extreme that the game’s official subreddit has now banned all discussion about player numbers except those made in a single megathread now dedicated to the subject. Now, Destiny’s demise has only exacerbated every conversation about Marathon and its future. 该工作室的未来比以往任何时候都更依赖于《马拉松》的成功，而这款游戏在上线后几乎立刻就因表现平平而备受诟病。这款服务型游戏的寿命已成为《马拉松》社区焦虑和争议的核心，玩家们争论着哪里出了问题、如何修复，以及这种螺旋式下滑是否对其心爱的新爱好构成了生存威胁。情况已经极端到官方 Reddit 论坛禁止了所有关于玩家人数的讨论，除非是在专门为此设立的单一大型讨论帖中。如今，《命运》的终结只会加剧关于《马拉松》及其未来的每一场争论。

As someone who’s gone all in on Marathon, I feel confident I can diagnose at least one of the central issues at play. Marathon is simply too demanding: It requires too much time, too much wasted effort, and far too much failure. It is simply too hard, not just for new players, but for everyone. Yes, the game has a problem bringing in new people, but it also treats those that do stick around with increasing levels of disregard. I want to feel like the time and effort I dedicate to Marathon is being rewarded, and often I am disappointed. 作为一名全身心投入《马拉松》的玩家，我有信心指出其中一个核心问题。《马拉松》的要求实在太苛刻了：它需要投入太多时间、浪费太多精力，并且伴随着太多的失败。它不仅对新玩家，对所有人来说都太难了。没错，这款游戏在吸引新人方面存在问题，但它对那些留下的老玩家也越来越不重视。我希望感受到我在《马拉松》上投入的时间和努力能得到回报，但往往我得到的只有失望。

Every online multiplayer game has to contend with the tension between courting and keeping casual players and maintaining a competitive atmosphere and high skill ceiling. Yet I’ve never seen a game accelerate from its honeymoon phase into struggling to survive this quickly. Visit the game’s Reddit community and you’ll see players penning multi-hundred-word personal essays, analyses, and straight-up confessionals about what they think is wrong with Marathon. These players are not the problem. Marathon has serious flaws that inhibit its ability to be enjoyed like a normal video game. 每一款在线多人游戏都必须在“吸引并留住休闲玩家”与“保持竞技氛围及高技术上限”之间寻找平衡。然而，我从未见过一款游戏从蜜月期到挣扎求生过渡得如此之快。访问游戏的 Reddit 社区，你会看到玩家们写下数百字的个人感言、分析和直白的忏悔，讨论他们认为《马拉松》哪里出了问题。这些玩家不是问题所在。《马拉松》本身存在严重的缺陷，阻碍了它像一款正常游戏那样被玩家享受。