阅读理解mod的故事

文章原名：The Story of Ability to Read

原文链接：https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/1145223801/2152098711360189393/
由原作者REV0授权翻译转载。

As it's reaching 150K subs  -seriously come on-  I decided to write the story of Ability to Read, or shortly known as ATR in the community.

考虑到阅读理解Mod的订阅量已经接近十五万（是认真的吗），我决定把阅读理解mod（简称ATR）的幕后故事写出来，放到工坊里。

 

Everything begins with the release of a nuclear power plant complex, made by Ronyx and Jerenable, back in April 2017:

这一切起源于Ronyx和Jerenable在2017年4月发布的一个大型核电站资产。

Since it's an asset that has multiple subbuildings to be 'complete', and vanilla subbuilding function didn't exist that time, it requred Sub Buildings Mod in order to be loaded properly into the game.

由于这整个资产都由众多子建筑“组成”，而当时游戏不自带加入子建筑的功能，因此为了使这套资产在游戏中正常加载，需要子建筑mod。

 

All assets; from reactors to power units, vents, everything was a subbuilding. The main building was.. a decal of a cookie monster that was the profile picture of its co-creator, Jerenable.

从反应堆到发电机房乃至通风管，这套资产完完全全由子建筑构成。作为“占位主体”的……是一张甜饼怪的贴图，当时被资产的其中一位作者Jerenable作头像用。

 

Building complex was released and comments poured in: "Why do i see a cookie monster?" It was mainly because people did not sub Sub Buildings mod that was given as required item on the right side of the screen. It was replied multiple times that they needed to sub required item, otherwise they wont see the building as it was made, but just the decal as it was the main building. Any other pieces of the complex would show as independent items in the game UI.

资产发布了，评论倾盆大雨：“为毛就一个甜饼怪？”这主要是因为人们就是不订阅那个已经在页面右边写的清清楚楚的、被列为必需的子建筑mod。我们反复回答了几次，就是你必需订阅这个mod，不然就只能看见一个占位的贴图，建筑的组成子建筑会在UI里列为独立的部分。

 

However this didn't stop anyone, same question continued to be asked multiple times, up to a degree Ronyx decided to change the description of the asset, and add large chunks of text that replies the very same question.

但这阻止不了人们秀智商，同样的问题一遍又一遍，搞得Ronyx索性修改了简介，用一段巨大的文字专门解释这个听腻了的问题。

 

By that time it was around September and we started to joke about a mod "that gives people ability to read".

这时已经是9月了。我们开始开玩笑：应该做一个“让人能阅读理解的mod”

 

As I wasn't a modder myself, obviously making a mod was out of question. So I decided to make 1cm^3 cube that had 10K entertainment bonus in game as an asset.

我自己不是modder，显然做个mod不太可行。于是我就整了一个1立方厘米的方块，设定它的娱乐加成为一万，当做资产导入游戏。

 

And meme was born.

无中生梗。

 

When it was published none of us thought it would get this many subs. The assumption was, since it is on the required items in the collections, people would simply NOT sub everything at once, in order not to subscribe useless stuff, like ATR, and individually check each required items. This would allow people to 'read' what each item does and subscribe responsibly, instead of subscribing everything on one go, without reading anything about dependency.

最初发布时我们以为不会有几个人订阅。我们想的是：既然是必需物品，人们订阅时就不会无脑地点个全部订阅，而是一个个查看关联项目，以免订个像ATR这样的无用脑残货。这么一来，人们就会仔细阅读每个必需物品的用途并对应订阅，而不是光按下继续就啥也不管。

 

Thus, aside being a 'meme' of its own, ATR would also work as a filter, that would prevent people from fast subscribing.

因而，除了作为一个梗而存在，ATR也作为减速带，防止人们过快地订阅物品。

 

That theory was proven wrong weeks later, when we realize it already gathered thousands of subs.

但仅仅一周我们的脸就肿了，订阅量已然上千。

 

Unsure about what people do with their subscriptions, we decided to leave ATR as it is. After 3 years it currently has 143K subscribes.. somehow.

由于实在搞不清人们订阅时的逻辑，我们索性把ATR晾在一边。3年后的现在，它有足足十四万三千订阅……什么鬼。

 

In terms of metrics, ATR is gathering about 600subs a day. Only 200 of them are page visits, which means about 400 people, per day, do not read dependencies of the assets they subscribe, and just sub it without knowing what it is.

从统计的角度分析，ATR每天会新增约600个订阅。只有约200人是看过了简介页面的，也就是说：每一天，都有400个蠢货，从来不管必需物品是个啥，就傻憨憨地点了订阅。

 

This is obviously a risky method, as not every mod on workshop -or asset- are up-to-date, subscribing assets not knowing what they do is a good way to wreck your game.

这种行为显然是非常危险的，因为工坊上不是每个mod或者资产都能被永久更新。直接订阅一个你根本不知道干啥的资产可以轻松帮你删档。

 

If you end up here, now you know what ATR is or why it is made. It was a partly joke, partly filter asset that was hoped to refrain people from subscribing everything at once.

如果你能坚持读到现在，你已经知道了阅读理解mod是啥，它为何被做出来。它本质就是个玩笑，本意是希望人们克制自己立刻订阅的冲动。

 

Mystery solved.

奇怪的知识增加了。