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特邀嘉宾博客：SmashLara!
Guest Blog: SmashLara!
2024年3月3日
Mar 3, 2024
以下是来自社区成员SmashLara的“特邀嘉宾博客”，他分享了自己成为古墓丽影粉丝的个人历程。尽情享受吧！
The below is a guest blog from community member SmashLara, who shares his personal journey of Tomb Raider fandom. Enjoy!
2011年4月。一场夏日暴雨过后，雨水为曼彻斯特一条破旧不平的小巷披上了一层湿润的外衣。太阳升起，光芒从每个表面反射而出，在粉红色的傍晚天空中熠熠生辉。当时年仅十岁的我，正和朋友们展开我众多早期的一次探险，我的朋友是我最可靠的伙伴（而他的表哥则在不远处担任监督的角色）。我们追寻着属于自己的宝藏，克服了复杂的交通网络和城市中形形色色的人物所带来的挑战，只为到达目的地。我的背包里装的不是医疗包或信号弹，而是一个MP3播放器、一些旧铜币，以及我的日间巴士票。前一年的圣诞节，我收到了爷爷送的第一台笔记本电脑作为礼物。那时，我过早地接触了互联网，开始以前所未有的方式投入到我所热爱的事物中。在那个年纪，我刚刚开始有了自我意识，但又太年轻，没有多少自由或重大的发展突破，这种早期的接触让我充分利用了我的童年痴迷，尽情享受其中的乐趣。
April, 2011. A coat of rain from a summer storm painted the cracked, uneven paving of a Manchester side street. The sun emerged, with its light reflecting from every surface, glowing under the pink evening sky. At 10-years-old, I was on one of my many early adventures, with my friend serving as a trusty companion (and his older cousin acting as a supervisor only a few feet away). We were seeking out our own kind of treasure, overcoming challenging transport networks and the colourful characters of the city to get there. My inventory was not stacked with medipacks or flares, but instead an MP3 player, some old copper coins, and my day rider bus ticket. The Christmas before, I had received my very first laptop as a gift from my grandfather. Unleashed onto the world wide web years before I probably should have been, I had started to engage with my interests in ways I had never done previously. At a time where you’re only recently sentient, but too young to have any freedom or major development breakthroughs, this early access led me to make the most out of my childhood obsessions.
我热爱滑板，因此开始在网上阅读《Thrasher》杂志。我喜欢听Limp Bizkit和P.O.D.的音乐，所以开始在网上下载他们的歌曲。我热爱（现在依然热爱）电子游戏，这促使我开始阅读IGN网站上的内容，并观看了无数ScrewAttack的视频……都是在网上。互联网彻底改变了我与游戏的关系，这种改变的程度超过了我对其他任何兴趣爱好的影响。以前，我的游戏品味仅限于那些以我最喜欢的卡通角色为标志的游戏，或是那年夏天的大片改编游戏。作为第一个通关游戏是《凯蒂猫友情总动员》的人，我发现那些更深刻、更有意义的游戏（当然，这并不是说《凯蒂猫》不好）让我认识到了游戏作为一种媒介和艺术形式的重要性。我知道，你们中有些人即使没有互联网也能构建出更健康的游戏习惯，但我们中的一些人确实需要这种引导。同时，“玩家”这一身份标签也变得越来越具有文化意义，成为了一种自我认同的标志。作为一个在校园里格格不入的人，我感觉自己就像是这个日益壮大的远程社区的一部分。甚至，提前几个月甚至一年就知道哪些游戏将上架，对我来说也是一种个人层面的启示。
I loved skateboarding, so I started reading Thrasher online. I loved listening to Limp Bizkit and P.O.D., so I started downloading their music online. I loved (and still love) video games, so that brought me to reading IGN and watching countless ScrewAttack videos… online. My relationship with gaming was completely transformed by the internet, more than any of my other interests. Previously, my tastes were contained to whatever game was released adorning the logo of my favourite cartoon or that year’s big summer blockbuster. As someone who’s first game completion belongs to Hello Kitty: Roller Rescue, discovering deeper and more meaningful games (no offence to Hello Kitty) helped me recognise the importance of gaming as a medium and an art form. I know it didn’t take the internet for some of you to construct a healthier gaming diet, but some of us needed that guidance. The “gamer” branding was also becoming more of a culturally significant self-identifier, and as someone who never fit in on the school yard, it felt like being part of a growing remote community. Even the act of knowing what games would be hitting store shelves months to a year before they did was a personal revelation.
伦敦卡姆登区的劳拉·克劳馥雕像
Unified Lara Croft Statue in Camden, London, UK
在曼彻斯特的小巷中漫步时，我们偶然发现了一家古老而鲜有人光顾的收藏品店，它的外观十分迷人。这并非我第一次来到这里，之前已经多次进行过侦察任务。实际上，这里几乎成了我们的一个固定地点。我们寻找的宝藏并非金质偶像，而是我在网上见过的旧式摔跤人偶。我朋友的表哥认识店主，他们是当地的两名摔跤手，经营这家店是为了资助他们的爱好。他们在当地社区中心和夜总会拍摄业余摔跤比赛录像，再放在前台的一台老旧CRT电视上播放，画面不断闪烁。录像的沉闷声音通常会被隔壁扬声器传来的重金属音乐所掩盖。这家店原本主要销售摔跤纪念品，但最近为了吸引顾客，开始扩大经营范围，销售各种宅文化商品：复古游戏机、恐怖收藏品、动漫手办、交易卡片等应有尽有。然而，遗憾的是，这似乎并不是这家店急需的转机，店内依然弥漫着它一直以来的陈旧气息。当我因未能找到 WWF Draft 系列的 Ivory 人偶而感到失望时，我开始翻阅朋友表哥与店主交谈时放在一旁的清仓游戏。就在这时，我发现了一个真正的考古发现——一张《古墓丽影：地下世界》的游戏光盘，看起来就像刚从碎纸机中幸存下来一样。
On that walk through the side streets of Manchester, we happened upon a beautiful visage of an ancient, seldom-explored collector’s shop. This was not my first time at this location, there had been a considerable number of scouting missions beforehand. In fact, it was somewhat a regular spot. The relics we were in search of were not golden idols, but actually old wrestling figures that I had seen online. My friend’s cousin knew the owners, a couple of local wrestlers who ran the shop to fund their passions. Their matches, filmed amateurly in local community centres and nightclubs, played on an old CRT television sitting on the front desk that would flicker constantly. The muffled noise of the recording was usually flushed out by heavy metal music from a neighbouring speaker. Predominantly being a wrestling memorabilia shop, they had recently expanded into all types of nerdy wares to drive business: retro gaming consoles, horror collectibles, anime figures, trading cards, the works. Sadly, it did not seem to be the kick in the pants the shop desperately needed, still smelling of the old sweat it always had. Disappointed by my lack of success in finding the WWF Draft series Ivory figure, I began flicking through the stack of video games on clearance as my friend’s cousin chatted with the owners. That’s when I discovered a true archaeological find. A copy of Tomb Raider: Underworld that looked as if it had barely survived a shredder.
在我的成长过程中，感觉英国每个人都知道劳拉·克劳馥是谁。安吉丽娜·朱莉主演的电影总是在各个电视频道上播放，我自己也在一台二手PS1上玩过《古墓丽影》的原版游戏——和很多人一样，我并没有完成克劳馥庄园的教学关卡，而是选择扮演劳拉，只是享受游戏带来的放松。随着我开始扩展自己的游戏知识，古墓丽影经常出现在我接触的内容中，被高度评价为一款重要的动作冒险游戏。这引起了我的兴趣。劳拉的角色让这一系列游戏与我所见过的其他任何游戏都截然不同。对于新手来说，这个游戏类型非常易于上手，而且作为一个热爱户外的孩子，它提供的发现远比附近的山谷和森林要多得多。秉承着那些曾风靡一时的T恤上的精神——“我是个玩家，不是因为我没有生活，而是因为我选择拥有很多生活”，探索古老的陵墓对只能找到废弃帐篷和其他随机垃圾的我来说，具有极大的吸引力。那种神秘感和奇妙感让人无法抗拒。
During my upbringing, it felt like everyone in England knew who Lara Croft was. The films with Angelina Jolie were always being shown on any given TV channel, I myself played the original Tomb Raider on a hand-me-down PlayStation One – and like many, did not advance past the Croft Manor tutorial level, instead opting to role-play as her and just chill out. As I began to expand my gaming knowledge, Tomb Raider made regular appearances in the content I consumed, being spoken of highly as an important action-adventure game. Intrigue began. Lara’s character set the series apart from anything else I could see in my periphery. The genre felt very accessible as a newbie, and as an outdoors-y child, offered a much bigger bounty of discovery than what could be found in the nearby cloughs and forests. In the spirit of those questionable “I’m a gamer, not because I don’t have a life, but because I choose to have many” t-shirts that used to be all the rage, discovering ancient tombs felt appealing to someone who could only ever find abandoned tents and other random garbage. The eeriness and wonder were irresistible.
手里拿着那张脏兮兮的《古墓丽影：地下世界》光盘，我感觉自己已经准备好要投身其中了。这张光盘可能被当作过杯垫、门挡，甚至可能在某个时候还被贴在了碰撞测试假人上——然而它的售价仍然是3英镑。我不确定这张光盘是否能在我的Xbox 360上玩，但我还是用零花钱赌了一把，踏上了一段不可思议的旅程。整个泰国海岸线的游戏体验是我永远不会忘记的。从劳拉乘坐的船只停泊在悬崖边开始，她踏上征程，迎面而来的是一座被绿色苔藓和树叶环绕的美丽寺庙，伴随着美妙的合唱声回荡在四周。从此，一个引人入胜的故事在基莉·霍斯——一位英国家喻户晓的演员——的精彩演绎下展开，劳拉被推到了身心极限。从那一刻起，我就成了古墓丽影的粉丝。
With the grimy case of Underworld in my hands, I felt ready to make a plunge. This thing had been used as a drink coaster, a doorstopper, and was probably taped to a crash test dummy at some point too – and yet the asking price was still £3. Unsure of whether it would even play in my Xbox 360, I took the gamble with my pocket money, and set off on an incredible journey. The entirety of Coastal Thailand is a gaming memory I will never forget. From her boat sat cliffside, Lara ventures forth and is greeted by a beautiful temple surrounded by green moss and leaves, with sounds of a beautiful chorus echoing throughout. From there, a gripping story unfolds with an incredible performance from Keeley Hawes – a household name in the UK – where Lara is pushed to her physical and emotional limits. From that moment on, I was a Tomb Raider fan.
SmashLara 网站页面
SmashLara website pages
在浏览粉丝网站和社交媒体时，我被这个社区的巨大热情所震撼。那里有大量的粉丝艺术作品、故事、角色扮演，以及多年来被精心保存并代代相传的系列历史。我尤其被Stellalune和Katie Fleming的贡献所折服，她们在与我交流时非常友善，对我这个天真的年轻人给予了极大的帮助，尽管她们本可以不必如此。Katie的作品还激发了我自学平面设计的兴趣——她和其他粉丝在GameTap古墓丽影纪录片中的亮相让我开始思考自己的贡献可以是什么样子。我已经告诉她们，她们给了我多大的启发。很多。可能太多了。然而，我仍然认为她们永远不会知道她们对我的影响有多大。随着我对古墓丽影的痴迷日益加深，2013年重启版的“转折点”预告片发布了。作为一个年轻人，我真的很想看到劳拉的早期经历，而相对于《地下世界》来说，这部作品的图形改进简直是翻天覆地。我从未对一款新游戏的发布如此兴奋过。这份激动占据了我年轻而有限的生活，于是我通过Weebly创建了一个简陋的粉丝博客，希望能撰写关于这款游戏的文章。我的大梦想是：成为一个官方的古墓丽影粉丝网站。我的长期目标是成为像Stella和Katie那样在古墓丽影社区中举足轻重的人物，即使我并不具备她们那样的技能、知识（或者七年级的英语水平）。
Searching through fan sites and taking to social media, I was struck by the immense dedication of the community. There was an abundance of fan art, stories, and cosplay, as well as years of franchise history that had been lovingly preserved and passed down through generations. I was particularly awe struck by the contributions made by Stellalune and Katie Fleming, and the two were so kind to me in our interactions, acting as kind guides to a very naïve young person when they really did not have to. Katie’s work also led me to self-teach myself graphic design – as her and other fan’s appearances in the GameTap Tomb Raider documentary led me to consider what my own contributions could look like. I have let them both know how much they have inspired me. Like a lot. Probably too much. And yet, I still don’t think they will ever know how much of an impact they had. As my obsession with Tomb Raider deepened, the “Turning Point” trailer for the 2013 reboot was released. As a young person, I really wanted to see Lara’s early days, the graphical enhancements over Underworld were earth-shattering. I had never been more excited for a new game release. The excitement took over my very limited young life, and so I opened up a shoddy attempt at a fan blog through Weebly with the hopes to write my own articles on the game. The big dream: to become an Official Tomb Raider Fansite. My long-term goal was to become an important figure in the Tomb Raider community like Stella and Katie, even if I didn’t possess the skills or knowledge (or a grasp of Year 7 English) to do so.
#TR25徽章套装，展示各种徽章和一枚奖章
#TR25 pin pack showcasing various pins and a medallion
当我刚进入高中时，我在交朋友方面遇到了困难。由于我在短短几周内就自发组织了自己的课外活动小组，并因此在全校范围内声名鹊起，我发现自己成了社交圈中的异类。我被视为直言不讳，而且并不酷。但我一直就是这样的人。早在小学时，我就为班级组织自己的音乐会、知识竞赛和才艺表演。我是学校合唱团中唯一的男生，也是学校舞蹈团中的两个男生之一（我还是当地的舞蹈冠军）。我通过政治手腕争取到了每次学校话剧的领衔角色。所以，当一个同学（他并不是我的粉丝）用上网本浏览我的社交媒体和我的古墓丽影博客时，几分钟后，这些内容就被发送到了每台电脑的屏幕上，并成为了大家嘲笑的对象。我的精神受到了极大的打击，当天就关闭了博客，并放弃了自己成为古墓丽影内容创作者的梦想。当重启版游戏终于发布时，我坐在床上泪流满面地玩着它，手里拿着一袋老师送给我作为年度演讲礼物的麦芽脆心巧克力球（在某些方面我还是无法控制自己），还有我用卖掉大部分游戏收藏品换来的限量版Xbox 360手柄——除了那份《地下世界》的拷贝，他们不愿意交换它。
As I had recently started high school, I had struggled to make friends. I found myself to be a social pariah when I had become known school-wide for spearheading my own extra-curricular groups within just a few weeks. I was seen as outspoken, and not particularly cool. But I have always been this way. As early as primary school, I was organising my own concerts, quizzes and talent shows for my class. I was the only boy in the school choir, one of two in the school dance troupe (I was a local champion). I politicked my way into getting the lead role in every school play. So, when a classmate (who was not my biggest fan) used the netbooks to scroll through my social media and my Tomb Raider blog, within minutes it was sent to every computer screen, and was the subject of wide ridicule. My spirit was so crushed, I shut down my blog that very day, and kissed my dreams of being a Tomb Raider content creator goodbye. When the reboot finally released, I sat playing it on my bed in tears, eating a bag of Maltesers gifted to me by a teacher for a year presentation I made (I still couldn’t help myself in some aspects), with my limited-edition Xbox 360 controller that I sold most of my game collection to afford – except that copy of Underworld, they wouldn’t trade that one in.
劳拉的决心激励着我继续前行。她孤身一人对抗数百人。我可能还太年轻，无法完全理解游戏的深意，但如果没有这款游戏，我可能会失去自己的一部分——那种好奇、勇往直前的精神，它至今仍在塑造着我的生活。随着时间的推移，欺凌变得更加严重（相信我，我有故事可讲），但我坚持了下来。渐渐地，我远离了自己最喜爱的系列游戏，因为我不想公开与这个系列有任何关联，害怕它会被用来对付我——但那份信息仍然存在，那款游戏对我来说永远都是特别的。高中毕业后，我进入了大学预科，一切都发生了改变。我不再是那个被排斥的人——如果有什么变化的话，我变得相当受欢迎和受人喜爱。我不断追求自己课余生活，比如在学校电视频道上制作和主持节目，变得让人喜爱和令人尊敬。我也有了信心去竞选学生会主席，并再次开始在社交媒体上积极发帖。那个曾经的书呆子回来了，并且正在掌控一切。
Lara’s drive inspired me to continue on. She was one against the hundreds. I might have been too young to play it, but if it were not for that game, I probably would have lost part of myself – the curious, go-getting side that has informed my life to this day. The bullying only got worse over the years (trust me, I have stories), but I persisted. As time went by, I drifted away from my favourite series, not wanting to publicly associate with the franchise out of a fear of it being used against me – but the messaging remained, and that game will always be special to me. After high school and going on to sixth form, things really changed. I was no longer an outcast – if anything, I became quite popular and well liked. My constant side quests, like running and hosting shows on the college TV channel, became endearing and respectable. I was given the confidence to run for Student Council President, and resume active posting on social media again. The mega swot was back and taking over.
SmashLara 报道 CRFT MNR 新闻
CRFT MNR news covers by SmashLara
直到2018年，我才再次考虑创作古墓丽影相关内容。事实上，我是在和朋友们共进晚餐之前一时兴起创建了SmashLara。当时我坚信它不会持续超过几周，但我的帖子开始逐渐受到关注。我的设计作品还没有达到现在的水平；我仍在不断进步中。我不知道如何制作引人入胜的内容，也犯了许多至今仍让我耿耿于怀的错误。但我对自己迄今为止所建立的一切感到非常自豪。无论是制作CRFT MNR通讯还是我的臭名昭著的舰队（如果你知道，你就懂），还是那个人们仍然会观看的饼干视频——我很高兴地看到，我最终实现了多年前设定的长远影响。我能够报道最近的复刻版系列，并在卡姆登的《古墓丽影：现场体验》开幕前亲自参观（CRFT MNR的读者们会记得那个有趣的故事）。我从未想过会遇见这么多令人难以置信的人。在写这篇文章的时候，我正在等待一位通过SmashLara认识的朋友的到来，他将从墨西哥远道而来，在英国与我见面。如果我能回到过去，告诉年轻的自己这一切都是可能的，那该有多好。最重要的是，有人告诉我，他们因为SmashLara而受到启发去创作内容。我看到了自己的影响力，这让我感到无比自豪，不仅是对我自己，更是对下一代古墓丽影内容创作者的期待。
I didn’t think about creating Tomb Raider content again until 2018. In fact, I created what would become SmashLara on a whim before meeting my friends for dinner. Convinced that it wouldn’t last longer than a few weeks, my posts started to take off. My design work was not what it is today; I am still a work-in-progress. I had no idea how to make engaging content and made many errors that haunt me even now. But I am very proud of what I have built so far. Whether it is making the CRFT MNR newsletter or my infamous fleets (if you know, you know), or that biscuit video that people still watch – I’m pleased to see that I did eventually make the lasting impact I set out to all those years ago. I was able to cover the recent remaster collection and visit Tomb Raider: The LIVE Experience right before it opened in Camden (CFRT MNR readers will remember that funny story). And never in a million years did I expect to meet so many incredible people. As of this writing, I am awaiting the arrival of a friend I met through SmashLara, that is coming all the way from Mexico to the UK to meet me. If only if I could go back and tell the younger me that this was all possible. Above all else is the people that tell me that they were inspired to make content because of SmashLara. I have seen my influence and it makes me so proud, not only of myself, but of the next generation of Tomb Raider content creators.
截至2022年底，我认为自己是一个半退休的古墓丽影创作者。能够再次回来报道复刻版游戏是一次不可思议的经历，我永远感谢水晶动力的Vanessa让这一切得以实现。在游戏发布前进行报道是我最后一项需要完成的任务。我非常怀念发布内容和与大家互动的乐趣，所以也许我未来不需要保持那么大的距离。SmashLara在沉寂岁月中最为活跃，但随着新的冒险即将到来，我很高兴能与你们一起探索古墓丽影的未来。毕竟，我总是能找到新的目标去实现。
As of late 2022, I consider myself to be a semi-retired Tomb Raider creator. Being back to cover the remasters was incredible experience, and I’m forever indebted to Vanessa from Crystal Dynamics for making it happen for me. Covering a game before its launch was one last checkbox to fill in. I have sorely missed the enjoyment of posting and interacting with everyone, so maybe I don’t need to keep that big of a distance in the future. SmashLara was mostly active during the wilderness years, but as a new adventure awaits, I’m excited to discover the future of Tomb Raider with the rest of you. After all, I can always find new goals to fulfil.
我想感谢你们多年来一直以来的喜爱和支持，这对我来说意义重大。
I want to thank all of you for your continued love and support over the years, it truly means the world.
你可以在X（Twitter）上关注SmashLara！
You can follow SmashLara! on X (Twitter)
你是否有迫切想要分享的古墓丽影话题？请在我们的社交媒体上私信我们，表达你对撰写未来特邀嘉宾博客的兴趣！
Is there a Tomb Raider topic you’re eager to share? DM us on social to express your interest in authoring a future guest blog!
