WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BECOME A GAMING CELEBRITY AT 79 YEARS OLD“游戲奶奶”與她的“網紅”人生

⊙ By Steven Messner ⊙ 翻譯：思葦

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BECOME A GAMING CELEBRITY AT 79 YEARS OLD“游戲奶奶”與她的“網紅”人生

⊙ By Steven Messner ⊙ 翻譯：思葦

無論是玩游戲還是當視頻主播，聽上去都是年輕人的事——但是在YouTube上，偏偏就有那么一位老奶奶打破了大家的成見，兩年來用獨特的個人魅力征服了成千上萬的粉絲。一起來認識一下這位可愛的“游戲奶奶”！

One morning in September,2015,Shirley Curry woke up to a surprise.Her email inbox had been flooded with 11,000 emails from strangers commenting on her firstSkyrim注video.For the then 79-yearold Shirley,the sudden wave of attention wasoverwhelming[壓倒性的],“I hadn’t even thought of anything like that happening so I didn’t know what to do.”

So Shirley did the only thing that seemed natural to her: She began opening each email,one after the other,and writing back.Slowly,Shirley’s dread turned to joy.“When I realized the kind of comments I was getting,it got really fun.Some of them were really touching,and I started getting attached to these people.They were all so very sweet.”

ThatSkyrimvideo was her first step into thepantheon[萬神殿]of YouTube celebrities.

Theformula[公式]for becoming a popular YouTube gamer is about as mysterious as the meaning of life.But Shirley is just Shirley,a twicewidowed[成為寡婦]mother of four and grandmother of nine who lives in Virginia.

“I have my own picture on there and I talk about my age,because I wanted my viewers to know me and I wanted to know them.I’m not going to hide behind some cartoonish-lookingavatar[化身]and never mention the fact that I’m an older woman.”

Shirley’s success on YouTube isn’t because she’s a skilled gamer or haswitty[詼諧的]commentary[解說].It’s because she’scompassionate[有同情心的]andaccepting[易接受的].She creates a warm space where no matter who you are,you are still her sweet grandkid.

“I’m Grandma to all of them,” she says matter-of-factly.“That’s the young ones,to those in their 30s and 40s,and even the olderones—all of them call me Grandma.They’re all so sweet.You can’t help but care about them.There’s children who make comments in such a sad way that makes me feel like they don’t have anyone.And then I get people who say that they are put down or told that they can’t do this or they can’t do that,and that I inspire them to go ahead and do whatever they want to do.”

詞組：put down

這個動詞詞組有著極其豐富的含義，我們平時經常接觸到的包括“放下，壓下；記下，寫下；鎮壓，取締；降級”等等，而它在口語中還可以表示“貶低，奚落，使窘迫，使沉默”，如：Don’t put yourself down.You are just a bit older.（別小看自己，你不過是年紀稍大一點罷了。）

參考譯文

2015年9月的一天清早，雪莉·柯里從睡夢中醒來，被嚇了一大跳——她的收件箱里有11000封陌生人發來的電子郵件，都是關于她的第一個《天際》游戲視頻的評論。對當時已經79歲高齡的雪莉來說，這種突如其來的關注度讓她有點喘不過氣來：“我從沒想過會發生這樣的事情，根本不知道該怎么做。”

于是，雪莉采取了對她來說唯一合理的行動：她打開每一封郵件，認真看完，然后一封封地寫回信。漸漸地，她的驚恐變成了快樂。“當我意識到自己所收到的都是些怎樣的評論，這種交流便成了一件樂事。其中有些郵件特別感人，我與這些人逐漸產生共鳴，他們實在太可愛了。”

那一段《天際》視頻正是雪莉踏入YouTube紅人殿堂的第一步。

要成為一名人氣游戲主播，其中竅門幾乎就和人生意義一樣神秘難測。不過雪莉永遠是雪莉，兩度喪夫，養大了四個兒女，膝下有九個孫輩，她如今在美國弗吉尼亞州生活。

“我會貼上自己的照片，毫不忌諱地談論年齡問題，因為我希望觀眾們能了解我，我也想多了解他們。我可不會躲在一個卡通形象后面，絕口不提自己是個老婦人。”

雪莉之所以能在YouTube上走紅，并不是因為她是個技巧嫻熟的老玩家，也不是因為她的講解機智詼諧，而是因為她很有同情心，樂于接納他人。她創造了一個特殊的溫暖空間——無論怎樣的人，都是她可愛的孫兒孫女。

“我就是粉絲們的奶奶，”她實事求是地說道。“無論是年輕人，還是三四十歲的觀眾，甚至還有年紀更大的人——他們都喊我奶奶。他們都太可愛了，讓你不得不牽腸掛肚。有些孩子留下的評論讓人特別揪心，感覺就像他們沒有人可以依靠。我還遇到另外一些粉絲，他們說自己遭人奚落，有人對他們指手畫腳，這也不能做，那也不能做；他們還說，我的視頻可以激勵他們不斷前行，勇敢做自己想做的事。”

注：全稱為《上古卷軸5：天際》（The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim），發行于2011年，是著名角色扮演游戲《上古卷軸》的系列最新作。