Tag: Papers Please

Morals & Mechanics of Papers, Please

Papers, Please is an indie game that very effectively expresses its values via gameplay. There are several values that Papers, Please though the most evident one is its critique of ineffective, corrupt governments (represented by Arstotzka, the dystopian soviet inspired country where the game takes place) and the rigid unfeeling bureaucratic institutions (the border crossing where the player works) that are a common stereotype of them. At the start of the game players are presented with a simple objective: let the right people into the country and keep the wrong people out. What qualifies as “right” and “wrong” shifts with each new round, which is experienced in the form of a day at work. Sometimes a person’s photo ID does not match their appearance, other times they are from a neighboring country that is hostile to yours. Such constraints constitute the game’s mechanics on a technical level, though they also express values. The ever-changing requirements for entry highlight how fickle our perceptions of right and wrong our, and the government’s role in influencing them. For example, a trade embargo on another country leads to citizens of that country having to be denied. Overnight individuals who had no choice in the affairs of their government are vilified and detained while simply trying to go about their everyday lives. Especially given the US’s treatment of refugees and immigrants from “undesirable” countries, this message is one that can impact players’ perceptions and behavior towards people in similar situations in the real world.

While this surface-level relationship between values and mechanics is striking in its own right, it continues to develop in complexity the longer players play Papers, Please. While it’s not the first game to evolve in a way that “redefines its own…experiences”, the possible ways they can be redefined highlight the complexity of its message. (Zimmerman) Players can choose to work with EZIC, an organization that claims to want to bring down the Arstotzka’s government, but there are multiple ways this ending can go. Even if players help EZIC at several points in the game, they can choose to betray them at multiple points, such as shooting one of their terrorists or refusing to let the members into the country. It poses players with a hard moral dilemma, as both sides can sound right. If players aid EZIC they are betraying their government, risking the safety and security of their family. But is this such a bad thing when their government is bad? Or might whatever change EZIC wants be worse than what’s already there? While the mechanics of Papers, Please pose moral questions in their own right, the game’s narrative and multiple endings reveal that morality itself is not easy to define.

Papers, Please is available on Steam.

Sources

Papers Please. Lucas Pope, 2013.

Zimmerman, Eric. “Play as Research: The Iterative Design Process.” 2003. PDF.

Exploring Character Design: Paper’s Please

Welcome to the first of a series of posts where I briefly analyze the archetypes and design choices of video game characters. In this installment we will examine some of the characters from Papers, Please.

Protagonist: The Inspector

Archetype: Anti-hero and Everyman

While there are several factions the player can have the Inspector side side with, at the end of the day he will be acting in his own self-interest. The Inspector is a simple bureaucrat whose just trying to make a living and not get on the wrong side of the government. He’s not actively trying to do good, he’s just following orders. Even though his actions can have larger implications, the Inspector is still just a regular human, lacking any special powers and unprepared for what’s to come.

Design

We do not see many images of the Inspector, but in the ones we do he comes across as a bland ordinary citizen. There is nothing remarkable about him and his only power is to approve or deny entry for people crossing the border. He is a blank slate visually, only being shown as a hulking shadow sitting down at their desk and once as a highly pixelated grey image. This allows the different choices the player makes on his behalf while playing the game more believable, as there is not much visual pre-establishment of what he would do if not being controlled by the player.

Antagonists: M. Vonel and Dimitri

Archetypes: Superior and Opposing

Both M. Vonel and Dimitri fall into the superior and opposing antagonist archetypes. Although they do not belong to the same government agency, M. Vonel and Dimitri rank higher then the Inspector in the internal government pecking order. It is also the job of each of them, albeit by different means, to monitor the Inspector. This can lead to them acting as opposition to the Inspector if the player’s goals do not align with theirs.

Design

The colors used for M. Vonel are blue and black. This creates the interesting effect of being scared (black), while also feeling an uneasy calm (blue). His presence becomes further intimidating by not being able to see his eyes, as they are blocked by glasses. His attire and mustache also remind the player of a Nazi, adding to his terrifying yet authoritatively serene demeanor as a special investigator for the Ministry of Information.

Unlike M. Vonel, Dimitri initially has a warmer, more inviting style. However, soon after the player first interacts with Dimitri it is clear that he is not there to be your friend. The true meaning of what his red attire is meant to convey becomes clear: not warmth, but anger and danger. As the protagonists’ supervisor, Dimitri has the power to reduce his salary or terminate his employment.

Conclusions

Although most of the characters encountered in Papers, Please are randomly generated, the ones that are consciously designed display choices that are intended to reflect their role and influence the mood of the player.

If enjoyed this post, consider checking out my review of Papers, Please.

Papers, Please is available on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/239030/Papers_Please/

Sources

Papers Please. Lucas Pope, 2013.

Image Sources

https://papersplease.fandom.com/wiki/Inspector

https://papersplease.fandom.com/wiki/M._Vonel

https://papersplease.fandom.com/wiki/Dimitri

Papers Please or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bureaucracy

There is a saying: “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” I feel an adjusted version of this proverb could accurately describe my time playing Papers Please: “one person’s nightmare job is the same person’s dream.” You see, I am an ex-bureaucrat. For a year and half I worked as a paper pushing, permit checking, document stamping permit intake specialist for a county level Planning and Development Department. Yes it was just as boring as it sounds, and yes I am quite glad to be out of there. However, I cannot deny there is something I still find viscerally satisficing about a perfectly stacked, stamped, stapled, and checked pile of paper. This is one of the reasons why I enjoyed Papers Please, a game that can best be summed up as a Cold War Communist Bureaucracy simulator. Considering the popularity of Papers Please, I assume I’m not alone in feeling this way, but why?

It’s highly unlikely that all the 34,000 plus people who have given a positive review of Papers Please are recovering paper pushers. As I thought about it, I realized that the less than desirable aspects of my job which I previously described are not exclusive to permit specialists. So I assumed that at least some of the other players also have or had a real life job that somewhat parallels their role in the game. However, the question still remained as to why these people found the game enjoyable. After pondering it, the best answer I could come up with is simply Papers Please is a game, and games are something we willingly do with the intent of having fun. When we enter a game’s “magic circle” we know that we are abiding by it’s rules because the end result is fun. (Fullerton) This is in contrast with most jobs, which in a way involve entering a different type of “circle” (e.g. there are rules, accepted behaviors, and tasks that need to be completed). At a job things are done willingly but not primarily with the intention of having fun. It would seem that the main difference between Papers Please and a real life job would be that we go into one with the goal of having fun and we go into the other without trying to have fun.

As weird as it sounds, the ability of Paper’s Please to turn an unpleasant aspect of life into an enjoyable game is a skill I would like to emulate. So often in real life we get annoyed or stressed out by tasks that are tedious. By showing players that the same constraints they are put under at work can produce an enjoyable experience may help make those real life situations less stressful. At least for this player, should I ever find myself working a less then pleasant job in the future, I’ll try to channel some of the same intention for fun I had going into Papers Please.

Sources

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. 4th ed., Taylor & Francis Group LLC, 2019. PDF.

Papers Please. Lucas Pope, 2013.

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