這種木頭小火車曾經是幾代人最喜愛的童年玩具，然而它最多只能吸引我2歲的兒子15分鐘的注意力，然后他就會像一個巨嬰怪物一樣把火車軌道拆得七零八落，讓我深感壓力山大——像我這樣一個工作極為繁忙的父親，要怎樣才能享受一些“低強度”的親子時光呢？

所有父母其實都知道這樣一條暗黑秘技——給你娃塞一個iPad，你就可以解放了。你娃見了這些閃閃亮亮的畫面，就像小貓見了貓薄荷。哪怕只是扔給他一部智能手機，他也能瞬間從無敵破壞神變回乖寶寶。

當然，把iPad當鎮靜劑使，多少會讓父母們感到內疚。但是時代已經變了，現在各種各樣的新玩具、好玩具以及能連接平板電腦的玩具層出不窮（另外美國兒科學會近日也發布了兒童每日面對屏幕時間的指導意見），完全可以打消你的這種擔心。

我給兒子買的第一款能用手機應用控制的玩具是Sphero公司出品的《星戰》原版機器人BB-8。在我只有我兒子這么大的時候，我也曾夢想過能擁有一臺R2-D2機器人，哪怕它的功能只有這臺售價199美元的機器人的一半也行。然而我做夢也沒有想到，有朝一日我只需要用一個APP就能操縱它的AI系統——當年，“APP”還是我們對Ground Round餐廳提供的餐前爆米花的叫法。我還在蹣跚學步的兒子也同樣不知道APP是個什么東西。

玩具產業協會的玩具趨勢專家艾德里安·阿佩爾表示：“孩子并不在乎玩具有沒有APP，他只希望玩具好玩。”

當玩具行業引入了應用控制的概念后，大家都爭先恐后地將玩具與APP進行配對，但這種趨勢卻使得孩子們將大部分精力（和視線）集中在手機屏幕上，而不是玩具上——比如《迪士尼無限》（Disney Infinity）就是這樣一款失敗產品，它讓孩子們化身為他們手中的玩具角色在視頻游戲里馳騁，結果孩子們的注意力全部集中在了配套的視頻游戲上。不過通過像Sphero BB-8和今年大熱的機器人Anki Cozmo等新一代玩具，APP的存在已經融入到了背景之中，使孩子們的注意力始終集中在實體玩具上，從而鍛煉他們與現實世界互動的能力。

Anki公司一直走在APP聯網玩具領域的前沿。該公司是在2010年成立的，也就是iPhone問世的三年后。2013年，該公司發布了一款賽車玩具Anki Drive，將刺激好玩的賽車游戲搬到了實體世界中。你可以將它看作數碼時代的四驅車。Anki Drive（還有它的最新版本Overdrive，也就是它的卡車版）是我和我兒子都很喜歡的一款游戲，從安裝賽道到看著賽車你追我趕，無不充滿興味。在這款游戲中，作為APP終端的手機只是充當了賽車的遙控器，所以你完全不必擔心它會讓你的孩子對手機屏幕上癮。

玩具行業專家艾德里安·阿佩爾指出，Anki Overdrive之所以是一款極為出色的玩具，是因為它將實體玩具和APP的“玩法進行了無縫整合，從而使其產生了有趣和多姿多彩的體驗”。它的玩具賽車和APP是相輔相成的，因而營造了一種永遠玩不膩的動態體驗。玩具本身的可玩性也毫不亞于APP。

阿佩爾指出：“玩具的可玩性必須要根植在玩具本身當中。通過APP或者其它元素提高玩具的可玩性是個很好的思路。但是如果APP比玩具本身更吸引人，那么玩具就會變得不重要了。”

通過APP連接的玩具之所以日益火爆，還有另外一個原因。在這個數字化程度不斷加深的時代，要想給孩子送一個看得見摸得著的實體禮物越來越困難了。現在幾乎所有孩子都想要iTunes的禮品卡和Spotify會員之類的虛擬禮品，但是孩子的父母和爺爺奶奶還是想給孩子買個玩具，好享受跟孩子一起玩玩具的過程。阿佩爾表示：“玩玩具是一個更加社交化的過程，這個過程中有可分享的東西。”

從這個角度看，桌游也是送給孩子的一種很好的禮物——現在桌游基本上早就被吸收到iPad里了。不過《平衡野獸》卻是一款將桌游玩具與APP完美整合的堆積木類的解謎游戲，玩家可以將游戲的實體玩具像積木一樣堆起來，這些堆出來的角色模型會被還原到iPad游戲里，并且在屏幕中與玩家進行互動。孩子們在玩的過程中需要親手操作這些實體玩具并大聲說話，從而同時鍛煉了他們的社交技能和空間感，可玩性遠遠超過了一款桌游APP本身。

APP為《平衡野獸》這款原本十分簡單的游戲添加了很高的可玩性，為這些塑料積木增添了故事情節和魔法元素。它充分證明了當玩具與科技碰撞時所產生的神奇魔力。該游戲的出品方Sensible Object公司很可能開辟了一個全新的市場。想象一下經典桌游《龍與地下城》如果搭配上這項技術會是什么效果——當屏幕上出現一只九頭蛇向你咆哮時，你可不要嚇得跳起來哦。

所有《龍與地下城》的死忠粉看完上面那段文字估計都會對此感同身受，不過這也說明APP技術與玩具的結合也有著不利的一面。雖然玩具與手游的可玩性和吸引力已經遠遠超過了以往任何時候，但它們也在一定程度上扼殺了孩子的想象力——另外，玩具商們似乎想當然地認為所有孩子都擁有一臺平板電腦或智能設備。雖說數據表明情況確實正在朝著這個方向發展，但這畢竟也產生了一些進入壁壘，或者說至少讓一些沒有iPad的孩子難以享受到這種樂趣。所以我們暫時還是先別把布里奧小火車束之高閣為好。再說，等到你娃把iPad玩到沒電的時候，你總得先拿一個玩具來應急不是？（財富中文網）

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作者：John Patrick Pullen

譯者：樸成奎

The little wooden trains — the darling toy of generations of well-meaning parents — can barely hold my 2-year-old son’s attention for fifteen minutes before he tramples the tracks like a giant toddler monster. This is distressing on multiple levels, not the least of which being: What does an overworked guy like me need to do to get some low-impact dad time?

The answer is a dirty little secret parents know all-too-well: Hand your kid an iPad and you’re off the hook. The flashing lights and colors are like digital catnip to kids, and even dangling a smartphone in front of their eyes is enough to snap a melting-down toddler back into line.

Of course, there is the guilt of using a screen to (more or less) sedate your child. But times have changed, and now a bunch of great, new, tablet-connected toys (as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recently- relaxed screen time guidelines), can get you over that angst.

The first app-enabled toy I rolled out for my little one was Sphero’s Star Wars BB-8. When I was my son’s age, I dreamed of having an R2-D2 that could do just half of the tricks this $199 droid can perform. But never in my wildest imagination did I think a phone would be driving its artificial intelligence. Apps? Back then, that’s what we called the popcorn we’d get at the Ground Round before being served meals priced according to our weights. And my toddler has no idea what an app is either.

“A kid doesn’t care if a toy has an app — the kid wants the toy to be fun,” says Adrienne Appell, a toy trend specialist for the Toy Industry Association.

When apps first came onto the scene, there was a big effort to pair them with toys, but this pushed attention (and eyes) towards the screens, not the playthings. A perfect example of this was Disney Infinity, the ill-fated toys-to-life ecosystem that let kids play video games as characters whose physical figurines they (or their parents) bought in stores. But through toys like Sphero’s BB-8 — and this year’s hit robot, Anki Cozmo — the app has faded into the background, keeping the attention on the physical toys and making real world play the focus.

Anki has long held the pole position in app-connected toys. Founded in 2010, three years after the release of the iPhone, the company released Anki Drive in 2013, taking race car games off the screen and plopping them onto the floor in front of you. A sort of slot car racing for the digital age, Anki Drive (and Overdrive, Anki’s newest version featuring a track-dominating truck) was something my son and I have enjoyed together, from arranging the track to watching the vehicles zip around. In this case, the connected device serves as the car’s remote control — and is hardly a ‘screen time’ concern.

Paraphrasing Appell, the thing that makes Anki Overdrive great is “the seamless integration of play, making the experience fun and well-rounded.” The cars and the app is dependent on each other, creating a dynamic experience that never gets old. But the toy is every bit the equal (if not better than) the app.

“The play value has to be inherent in the toy,” says Appell. “Bringing on an app or any kind of element to make the play more enriching, more fun, that’s great. But if the app is more engaging than the toy, then the toy becomes irrelevant.”

There’s another reason app-connected toys are gaining traction. In an increasingly digital world, it’s getting ever harder to give a physical present. These days, all kids want is iTunes gift cards and Spotify subscriptions. But parents and grandparents still want to give toys and share in experiences, says Appell. “Toy play is much more social,” she says, “something that can be shared.”

To that end, board games — which were absorbed by apps en masse in the early days of iPads — can still be great gifts. Beasts of Balance, an app-integrated stacking puzzler, embeds game pieces with computer chips to create unique and interactive on-screen experiences over the course of a game. Requiring players to manipulate the pieces, talk out loud, and use both social skills and spatial recognition, the game is so much more than its app.

But Beasts’ app adds incredible value to this otherwise simple game. Infusing molded plastic with storylines and magic, this game shows what’s possible when you pair toys and tech. The company that makes it, Sensible Object, may be on to something. Imagine playing old-school Dungeons & Dragons with cards packing this technology — and try not to jump when a Hydra roars on the screen.

I have no doubt that almost every hardcore D&D fan winced at reading the previous paragraph, because they’re proof that there is also a downside to tech’s pairing with play. While toys and games now have the ability to be more dynamic and engaging than ever before, toymakers are not only smothering imaginations, they’re also assuming that little ones all have their own tablets or smart devices. While the numbers show that they’re increasingly right, this idea still creates a barrier to entry, or in this case a, barrier to enjoyment. So it’s not time to pack away the Brio trains just yet. Besides, you need to have another toy at the ready when the iPad’s batteries run dry.