One evening， I found myself hiding in the shadows of a tree in a Hong Kong park. I was on high alert， warily eyeing everyone walking toward me. I was checking my phone every few seconds， watching the locations of dozens of people who were trying to hunt me down.

某晚，香港某公園內(nèi)，我躲在某棵樹的陰影下，高度警惕地掃視每一個朝我走來的人。我每隔幾秒就看一眼手機，留意幾十個人的位置變化——他們正在搜尋我。

I wasn’t actually in danger. I was playing a game of hide-and-seek with 40 strangers in a park built on the site of the Kowloon Walled City. It wasn’t a typical hide-and-seek game， though， but rather one for the digital age： both the seekers and the hiders chase and evade each other by following their real-time locations on a map on their phones.

我并未身陷險境，只不過是在九龍寨城舊址上新建的公園里跟40個陌生人玩捉迷藏罷了。當然，這跟大家熟悉的捉迷藏不一樣，是數(shù)字時代的新玩法： 負責捉的“貓”和負責躲的“鼠”都使用手機上的地圖來跟蹤彼此的實時位置。

The “cat-and-mouse game”， as it’s usually referred to locally， has gone viral in China last year， drawing thousands of people across the country to events every week. It’s a fun combin-ation of a childhood game， in-person networking， the latest location-sharing technology， and meme-worthy experience. When the game first emerged in February 2023， videos of hide-and-seek players who went wild—climbing up trees， hiding in the sewers—got millions of views on social media.

當?shù)厝送ǔ７Q之為“貓鼠游戲”，這種玩法去年在國內(nèi)火了起來，每周都能吸引全國成千上萬的人參與其中。它結合了兒時游戲、面對面社交、最先進的位置共享技術和適合做成模因的體驗，可謂樂趣無窮。2023年2月，這種捉迷藏新玩法首次出現(xiàn)，玩家們的野路子玩法視頻——爬樹、藏進下水道——在社交媒體上的觀看量達到數(shù)百萬次。

Each contest convenes dozens of people in a predetermined area， often a large city park. All of them then joinrNB5s+B1jU6lsmbFsrBcvw== a group on Amap and share their live location. Among the participants， 90% are designated as “mice” and have five minutes to run and hide. Then the rest， who are “cats，” will go out and hunt down each mouse with the help of the location sharing， as well as a neon wristband that visually separates them from nonparticipants. Once caught， the mice switch teams and join the cats， so the game gets harder and harder for the remaining mice.

每場游戲，幾十個人聚在預定的區(qū)域（一般是大型城市公園），全都加入同一個高德地圖群組，開啟實時位置共享。90%的玩家當“鼠”，用5分鐘時間跑開、躲藏；剩余的玩家便是“貓”，他們要借助位置共享以及能從視覺上將玩家與非玩家區(qū)分開的熒光手環(huán)，把每一只“鼠”都揪出來。一旦被抓，“鼠”就轉(zhuǎn)換陣營，變成“貓”，所以對剩下的“鼠”來說，游戲難度會越來越高。

During a short trip to Hong Kong， I joined two cat-and-mouse games in the city. Both of them had about 40 participants and lasted one hour. The first park was larger and had fewer people， meaning it was prime for running and chasing; the second was crowded and smaller， which made it ideal for trying to blend in with passersby.

在一次香港短途旅行中，我參加了兩場“貓鼠游戲”。每場都有約40名玩家，時長是1小時。第一場游戲所在的公園較大，人也較少，非常適合奔跑追逐；第二場游戲的場地較小，人又很多，非常適合混入人群。

Being an indoor person， I’m not always a fan of group physical activities， but the two experiences went far beyond my expectations. The addition of location sharing has turned the kids’ game into a more interactive version of Pokémon GO1. Trying to remain hidden in the same spot throughout the game was not possible， since the cats could always see where I was; I needed to get more creative in crafting an escape plan. I quickly learned that deception—hiding my glowing bracelet， pretending to be an innocent jogger， and avoiding checking my phone too often—was also essential to being a good mouse.

身為宅男，我通常對團體體育活動不怎么感興趣，但這兩次體驗遠遠超出我的預期。新玩法增加了位置共享，把兒童游戲變成了互動性更強的《寶可夢GO》。游戲全程躲在同一個地方是行不通的，因為“貓”總能看到我在哪里。我必須發(fā)揮創(chuàng)意，精心制定逃跑計劃。我很快就掌握了訣竅：瞞天過海也是演好“鼠”的必要技能，比如藏起熒光手環(huán)、假裝無辜的跑步路人，還有別過于頻繁地看手機。

Just watching everyone’s locations in the app was an intense experience. Dozens of little avatars were floating around in the park at once， with cats gradually outnumbering mice as the game progressed. Delays and bugs were plenty， but that added to the fun and difficulty of the game. I could feel safe at one moment， seeing there were no cats around， and panic seconds later when a cat suddenly moved hundreds of feet toward me， likely because its location sharing had lagged.

僅僅看著地圖上每位玩家的位置就足以讓人心跳加速。幾十個小頭像同時在公園里竄動，而隨著游戲進行，“貓”的數(shù)量漸漸超過“鼠”的數(shù)量。延遲常有，漏洞常見，但這也為游戲增加了難度和趣味。前一刻，四下里一只“貓”都看不到，我覺得安全無虞；幾秒后，一只“貓”突然從幾百英尺之外向我沖來，我變得驚慌失措——很可能就是因為對方的位置共享出現(xiàn)了延遲。

As a first-timer， I did okay. For my first game， I survived as a mouse until the last few minutes， when mostly every- one else had converted to the cat side. For my second outing， I converted mid-game and caught two mice myself.

作為新手，我的表現(xiàn)還算可以。第一場，我以“鼠”的身份撐到了最后幾分鐘，那時其他玩家?guī)缀跞甲兂闪恕柏垺?。第二場，我中場“變?jié)”，捉到了兩只“鼠”。

I’ll readily admit some people were much better than I was. Hong， a 19-year-old college student， was crowned the “cat king” of the second game， having caught 11 mice by the end. “I like that you can both exercise and have fun in this activity，” Hong says. He first learned about the game through videos people shared on Chinese social media， and he has been to several games since. He told me the largest one had more than 140 participants.

我欣然承認，有些玩家比我厲害太多了。在第二場游戲中，19歲的大學生洪同學最終捉住11只“鼠”，榮登“貓王”寶座?！斑@項活動既能鍛煉身體又很好玩，我很喜歡?！焙橥瑢W說。他從國內(nèi)社交媒體上人們分享的視頻中了解到這種新玩法，目前已經(jīng)參加了許多場游戲。他告訴我，規(guī)模最大的一場有140多人參加。

His secret for success？ A lot of lies and politics： “You can make a deal with the mice and have them help you find other little mice. You can also pretend to be a mouse and strike up a chat with them2.”

他的成功秘訣是什么呢？謊話連篇，耍弄手腕?！澳憧梢愿蟆_成協(xié)議，讓他們幫你捉其他弱小的‘鼠’。你也可以假裝自己是‘鼠’，跟他們套話。”

Half the fellow players Hong has met in his games are students， the other half young professionals. Like Ultimate Frisbee and a few other social activities that previously became popular in China， cat-and-mouse games are considered a great way for young people to meet each other and make new friends. At my two games in Hong Kong， I heard many participants chatting before the game started， many of whom were new to the city and eager to meet people.

洪同學在游戲中結識的玩伴有一半是學生，另一半是年輕的職業(yè)人士。正如之前在國內(nèi)流行的極限飛盤等社交活動，“貓鼠游戲”也成了年輕人結交新朋友的好辦法。在香港的那兩場游戲開始前，我聽許多玩家聊天提到，他們都初到香港，急切地想要結識朋友。

Transforming an ordinary map app

普通地圖軟件也有新用途

Many cat-and-mouse games use Amap. It is one of the most popular domestic map apps， with over 100 million active users every day.

許多“貓鼠游戲”都會用到高德地圖。高德地圖是國內(nèi)最受歡迎的地圖軟件之一，每天的活躍用戶有1億多人。

Amap has enabled real-time location sharing within small groups since at least 2017， and it has in recent years expanded the maximum size of the group to 100 people.

至少自2017年以來，高德地圖就已提供小型群組內(nèi)實時位置共享功能，近年來還將群組成員的人數(shù)上限提高到100人。

Perhaps inspired by the overwhelming success of Pokémon GO， Amap has done some experiments with gaming too. It has worked with a few Chinese game studios， as well as Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms， to develop games that integrate live location tracking， whether individually or in a group setting. None of these games， however， have caught on. The turn of events last year seems to have been more of an accident： cat-and-mouse was first played on WeChat， but players gradually moved on to Amap on their own and have basically made it the default app choice.

或許正是受到《寶可夢GO》大獲成功的啟發(fā)，高德地圖也嘗試涉足游戲領域。該公司與國內(nèi)幾家游戲工作室以及阿里巴巴的電商平臺合作，開發(fā)集成個人和群組實時位置追蹤功能的游戲。然而，這些游戲都沒有掀起什么水花。去年的形勢變化似乎更像是一場“意外”：“貓鼠游戲”最初在微信上進行，但玩家漸漸自主轉(zhuǎn)向高德地圖，進而使其成為玩這個游戲的默認軟件。

Since September 2023， the app has introduced a few features that cater to players’ needs. Now， users can specif-ically choose to start a “cat-and-mouse game group” right in the app and create groups over the typical 100-person limit; it can even randomly assign the roles of mice and cats. It also allows users to set customized rules and automates some of the formerly manual processes， like changing mice avatars to cats once players are caught.

自2023年9月以來，高德地圖推出了幾項功能來迎合玩家需求。如今，高德地圖軟件內(nèi)有專門的“貓鼠游戲群組”開啟入口，用戶可創(chuàng)建超過100人限制的群組；軟件甚至能隨機分配貓鼠角色。用戶還可設置個性化規(guī)則，以前需要手動操作的流程也可實現(xiàn)自動化，比如“鼠”被捉后，頭像會立刻變成“貓”。

While it took a little time for the organizers to catch everyone up on how to use Amap and check that they had the right settings， the app is so easy to use that the whole group， including me， soon got the hang of it.

雖然組織者需要花點時間讓每個人學習如何使用高德地圖，確保每個人的設置都正確無誤，但高德地圖非常容易上手，包括我在內(nèi)的整個群組很快就掌握了要領。

For a while， I was awed， reflecting that I never expected to be playing games in an app that guides people through their daily commutes. But soon enough， I had no time to think about that. A cat was approaching， and I needed to run for my life.

有那么一會兒，我感到不可思議：一款用于通勤導航的地圖軟件，竟然也能用于玩游戲？但我很快就把這個疑慮拋諸腦后。一只“貓”正向我靠近，我要逃命去也。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）

1《寶可夢GO》（Pokémon GO）是任天堂、寶可夢公司、奈安蒂克實驗室（Niantic Labs）共同開發(fā)的手游。這款游戲采用增強現(xiàn)實技術，打開手機上的游戲應用程序，啟用地圖和定位功能，就能在攝像頭實時拍攝的畫面上找到皮卡丘、杰尼龜?shù)取皩毧蓧簟?，然后去捉它們。玩家可以用捕捉到的“寶可夢”與其他玩家戰(zhàn)斗或互動。

2 strike up sth with sb（和某人）建立友誼，開始交往，交談起來。