选择这篇做翻译的原因自然是因为作者的观点相当有趣：在声讨之外，这篇文章启发了我去思考一个“后热修时代”的核心问题：我玩佣兵到底是为了什么？
一样的，意译为主，仅供参考，主楼不做任何个人评判。翻译仅是心血来潮。这次尝试改进排版中。
另外，并没有找到能解决英文原文换行断词的办法，各位将就一下。
单纯的中括号为原文没有但我认为加上可以提升中文观感的潜台词，有疑义的翻译部分用下划线+中括号二次解释。斜体用于来源不明确的消息（可能的hot takes)，均在段落后解释以提升连贯性
翻译：我；校对：你
原标题：The devs designed the reward structure wrong for Mercenaries. Instead of addressing that core issue, their "fixes" have been to simply take away whatever enjoyment can be found in the game mode.
Look, I'm not one of those people who need to optimize everything. Quite the opposite: when I play a game, I'm looking for the fun. I hunt for experiences that are enjoyable to me, not the ones that will give me a 100% winrate. On ladder I tend to avoid the highest ranked S-tier decks and instead try to come up with ways of countering them, because that's more fun to me even if I would climb the ladder faster by just going with the flow and sticking to the meta decks. Hell, my favorite deck of all time is Burgle Rogue, a deck that doesn't even have a predetermined win condition and where you have to figure out your strategy on the fly in every single game.
Likewise, I don't pick the best heroes to play in Battlegrounds, I pick the ones that I think are the most fun to play.
我并不是那种一定要纠结于“最优解”的人，恰恰相反，在玩游戏时我最重视的是找寻乐趣。相比于常胜不败，我更希望获得一些有趣的经历。打天梯时，我倾向于刻意不使用T0卡组，而是去实验可能的counter——虽然用T0可能上分更快，后者明显更有趣。我最喜欢的卡组，剽窃贼，甚至没有固定的获胜计划：【玩游戏嘛，就是图个乐。】
在战棋里也是一样，选英雄时我通常不选T0英雄，而是选那些玩起来最有意思的。
So when Mercenaries came out, I applied the same mindset. Since the farming grind itself seemed to be the main objective of the game mode, I intentionally didn't pre-order anything, because I thought that would probably just take away the fun the game mode had to offer. The way Mercenaries works right now, once all your Mercs are maxed out there is literally nothing left to do. It has no endgame. There's nothing to use your maxed out Mercs for, besides a bare-bones PvP mode that doesn't really feel meaningful enough to engage with.
在佣兵模式推出的时候，我还是抱持一样的态度去享受游戏。刷刷刷似乎是佣兵模式作为游戏的主基调，所以我故意没有预购任何东西，因为我觉得那可能会减少这个模式能带给我的乐趣。目前的佣兵模式在刷完硬币后没有什么终局内容，刷满的佣兵也并不能派上什么用场——【对我来说，】那个简陋的PvP模式并不是特别有意义。
So the fun to be had in Mercenaries right now is the farm itself. That means farming tasks, and farming coins. This means that the more I can farm, the more fun I will have. But the way the mode is built, they created an ecosystem where the best ways of farming are to not actually engage with the game mode at all. If I want legendary coins, it's better for me to retire my run instead of completing it. If I want to collect as many tasks as possible, it's better for me to skip as many nodes as possible and then retire my run instead of completing it. If I want to collect coins in PvP, it's better for me to concede and tank my MMR instead of trying to win. If I want to buy packs without spending real money, it's better for me to play other game modes because Mercenaries doesn't earn me any gold for playing it.
佣兵模式中所能找到的乐趣就是刷。刷任务，刷硬币。刷得越多，乐趣越多。然而，他们却打造了一个奇怪的经济系统：在这个系统中，最好的刷法是去消极地对待这个游戏模式。假如我想要（在悬赏中）刷传说佣兵的硬币，中途放弃比打到底更为明智。假如我想刷出更多的任务，最好的方法同样是努力跳过战斗，然后中途放弃。假如我想在PvP中收集硬币，互投比努力去赢更有效率。如果我想不花大洋买佣兵包，我就该去打其他模式，因为佣兵模式连一个子儿都不会给。
1. 在这句话单句中，更好的用词是“养成”，但为了与后文保持一致，此处用“刷”。
2. Engage with真的难翻译，这里暂且用“消极”来指代 "not engage with"
Why did they make it this way? Why am I not getting meaningful rewards for completing bounties? Why am I not getting meaningful rewards by increasing my ranking in PvP? Why am I not getting meaningful rewards in Mercenaries by playing the game?
Compare it to Standard ladder: the higher I end up at the end of the month, the better rewards I get. I get several packs, I get several rare cards, I get an epic card, I even get a legendary the first time I hit Legend.
Compare it to Arena: the more wins I get in a run, the better rewards I get.
Compare it to Duels: the more wins I get in a run, the better rewards I get.
Even in Tavern Brawl, the free pack is tied to winning the brawl.
In all of the other game modes that exist in Hearthstone, I am incentivized to win.
But in Mercenaries, winning is not the optimal strategy for earning rewards! LOSING is the optimal strategy! Playing at the lowest levels is the optimal strategy! Why did they design it this way?
暴雪到底为什么要这么设计？为什么我打完整轮悬赏却得不到应得的奖励？为什么天梯上分也得不到应得的奖励？说到底，为什么努力的去玩佣兵模式反而不能带给我最多的奖励？
经典模式天梯：等级越高，奖励越丰厚。卡包，几张蓝，一张紫，第一次上传说我还能拿一张橙。
竞技场：本轮胜场越高，奖励越好。
对决：本轮胜场越高，奖励越好。
甚至在每周炉石乱斗里，那免费的一包都需要你赢下那一局。
而反观佣兵模式，获得奖励的最优解并不是打赢每一局游戏，而是输掉【与放弃】！不去追求高质量对局才是最优解！说真的，他们到底为什么要这么设计？
And what happened when this was discovered? Well, since farming is the fun to be had, people started intentionally losing of course, and only playing the lowest level content, because that's how you farm.
And what has been the reaction from the devs to this? Has it been to change the reward structure so that actually putting in the effort to compete your bounties, push yourself to the limit and win your matches becomes a better way of farming? No, they've simply gone in and removed every efficient farming method that people have discovered.
Every "fix" so far has only served to take away the one fun thing you can do in Mercenaries right now, which is to farm tasks and coins.
What are they thinking?
I mean I get it. At its core it's simple, mundane, boring corporate greed at play, and nothing else. They want to force people to buy packs, they don't want there to exist efficient ways of farming without buying packs. They have no intention of making the rewards better for actually playing the game, because that's working as intended. You're not supposed to be able to farm efficiently, you're supposed to be buying packs.
But that doesn't work, because they've given us nothing else to do! They've given us no other way to engage with Mercenaries in a way that feels fun, besides farming! So with these "fixes", all they're doing is taking away the one fun thing you can do in Mercenaries. If I can't farm, then I'm not having fun.
If all I have to do in Mercenaries is farm, then stop trying to prevent me from farming. All that accomplishes then is simply that I have no reason to play the mode at all.
那么当大家发现了这些机制之后呢？Hmm，既然只有刷刷刷能带来快乐，玩家自然而然的开始互投，开始故意降低对局的质量——因为这是最好的刷法。
面对这种情况，开发者又做了什么反应呢？他们是否修改了奖励模式，使那些努力打完悬赏的人或追求每一把高质量对局的人获得了更多奖励呢？不，并没有。他们仅仅是封死了玩家们发现的每一种高效率刷法。
佣兵模式的乐趣仅止于做任务与刷硬币。而【至今为止的】每一次热修其目的都是在削减这种乐趣。
他们到底在想些什么？
啊，这当然不是疑问句，我知道他们在想什么。简单，而又俗套，他们只是想赚钱，仅此而已。他们想逼玩家买包，而能绕开买包的高效率刷法自然成为了眼中钉。他们并不打算提升认真玩游戏的玩家的游戏内奖励，正如他们原本所计划的那样。在他们眼中，高效率的刷法不该存在，玩家们应该通过买更多的佣兵包来提升自己。
但是这不可能奏效，因为除了刷以外，我们什么都不能干！除了继续刷以外，我们在佣兵模式中找不到其他乐趣！这些修复仅仅是削减了佣兵模式中所能找到的乐趣。而如果刷不了了，佣兵模式的乐趣也将不复存在了。
如果我在佣兵模式中所能做的只有刷，那就请别再尝试去阻碍我刷了。这只会让我丧失玩佣兵模式的全部理由。
1，2. 这里的"fix"都可以理解为双关，同时指代“系统层面的修复”与“改正之前的错误”，有隐含的讽刺意味。
写在最后：我强烈建议读者尝试去理解原文，原文作者写的有条不紊，逻辑通顺自然，而我浅薄的翻译水平很有可能遗漏了英语的风味。
翻译用时：约2小时
