9 ms·

For those who aren't aware: Papers, Please is a video game about paperwork. You play a border agent in a fictional eastern bloc country, checking passports, vis

by teej 9y ago

For those who aren't aware: Papers, Please is a video game about paperwork. You play a border agent in a fictional eastern bloc country, checking passports, visas, and work permits. It's surprising and tense and incredibly good. It's currently on sale for $3.99 on Steam, I highly recommend it.

soup10 9y ago
it's a bore, but maybe politically interesting for some
- DrJokepu 9y ago
  That's like, your opinion. I didn't find it boring at all.
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    It gets kind of tedious to be honest. But it's worth playing.
    - booleandilemma 9y ago
      I just played it for the first time after seeing it on HN tonight. It's entertaining in its own way and I'd recommend it, but as I stepped away from my pc it made me feel grateful that I don't work as a customs officer in real life. I suppose that was the intended effect :)
      - kbenson 9y ago
        > but as I stepped away from my pc it made me feel grateful that I don't work as a customs officer in real life. I suppose that was the intended effect :) That and a few others. IIRC, it gets fairly insidious quickly as you try to juggle values at varying levels (protecting your family vs general principle, for example).
- teej 9y ago
  I would call the gameplay mundane, but that's the point. Completing a tedious task with high accuracy and throughput while the complexity and stakes ramp up. I found it to be a very entertaining challenge.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- obstinate 9y ago
  In the same sense as Tetris is -- that is, unchallenging at slow pace, extremely difficult to do quickly.
- ionised 9y ago
  It is far from boring.
sondr3 9y ago
It's also on iPads (maybe Android tablets as well, don't have one) and is one of the best ports I've ever tried. I might even prefer it on the iPad simply because of being able to multi touch. It is a really great game, I recommend trying it simply for the experience.
- ClassyJacket 9y ago
  It should be noted that the iOS version was censored by Apple since the original contained nudity in the form of body scans.
  - thebooktocome 9y ago
    It also depicts extreme transphobia.
    - cyruscm 9y ago
      Are you referring to the section of the game where you use an x-ray to check for sex that doesn't match the passport? I don't think that's reasonable to classify as extreme, the US government exhibits the same strategies for identification, requiring proof of clinical treatment to get a sex change on license.
      - thebooktocome 9y ago
        The game teaches you that people with unclear gender expression are de facto suspicious, should be invasively searched, and the authorities should be called to carry them off to the gulag. That counts as extreme in my book. My moral standards are independent of US govt policy. They are neither a paragon of privacy rights nor of trans rights.
        Laforet 9y ago
        Depiction != Endorsement. Are we going to require all future fictional portrayals of the Salem witch trials to feature token minority characters too because we need to hold people in another reality to the same standard of the ones we are in?
patio11 9y ago
Paperwork, and the inhumanity of being a cog in a machine, with the machine not forcing you to do evil but rather making you very good at self-generating evil out of a desperate desire to survive. Another game with a similar take on moral choices is This War of Mine. Both are fairly serious works of literature; do not play either with the expectation that you will feel good about yourself or the human condition afterwards.
- chii 9y ago
  most games marketed to young adults or teens are a power fantasy - after all, they are what sells well because everyone has power fantasies, and those games fulfill them. But occasionally, a good game comes out which makes you think about the world, and evoke other kinds of emotions like papers please.
  - unixhero 9y ago
    Like I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream That was an awful game.
    - iamcreasy 9y ago
      What makes it awful?
      - unixhero 9y ago
        Could have been more elaborate here. Didnt really want to explore it. Well the story and the choices you must make. The game itself is a fine work of art; but it's more exploitation than a fun adventure game. I picked up the game because I thought it would be a spiritual successor to the text based game Mind Forever Voyaging. Well it wasnt exactly that. The game gets dark fast. In fact I don't see it as a game at all, as it isn't fun other than solving puzzles that are at time grizzly. (Nsfl) I was pretty shocked at having to operate an organ/eye out of a living and awake prisoner of war in a one of the game's simulations; of a concentration camp. Another simulation you play as a female that gets violated. Screenshot: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bf/I_Have_No_Mouth_and_I_Must_Scream_gameplay.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bf/I_Have_No_Mou... "The game's story is set in a world where an evil computer named AM has destroyed all of humanity except for five people, whom he has been keeping alive and torturing for the past 109 years. Each survivor has a fatal flaw in their character, and in an attempt to crush their spirits, AM has constructed a metaphorical adventure for each that preys upon their weaknesses. To succeed in the game, the player must make choices to prove that humans are better than machines, because they have the ability to redeem themselves. Woven into the fabric of the story are ethical dilemmas dealing with issues such as insanity, rape, paranoia and genocide." Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream_(video_game) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_...
mercer 9y ago
It's the kind of game that makes me believe in games as a distinct art form.

by teej 9y ago

soup10 9y ago

it's a bore, but maybe politically interesting for some

DrJokepu 9y ago
That's like, your opinion. I didn't find it boring at all.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  It gets kind of tedious to be honest. But it's worth playing.
  - booleandilemma 9y ago
    I just played it for the first time after seeing it on HN tonight. It's entertaining in its own way and I'd recommend it, but as I stepped away from my pc it made me feel grateful that I don't work as a customs officer in real life. I suppose that was the intended effect :)
    - kbenson 9y ago
      > but as I stepped away from my pc it made me feel grateful that I don't work as a customs officer in real life. I suppose that was the intended effect :) That and a few others. IIRC, it gets fairly insidious quickly as you try to juggle values at varying levels (protecting your family vs general principle, for example).
teej 9y ago
I would call the gameplay mundane, but that's the point. Completing a tedious task with high accuracy and throughput while the complexity and stakes ramp up. I found it to be a very entertaining challenge.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
obstinate 9y ago
In the same sense as Tetris is -- that is, unchallenging at slow pace, extremely difficult to do quickly.
ionised 9y ago
It is far from boring.

sondr3 9y ago

It's also on iPads (maybe Android tablets as well, don't have one) and is one of the best ports I've ever tried. I might even prefer it on the iPad simply because of being able to multi touch. It is a really great game, I recommend trying it simply for the experience.

ClassyJacket 9y ago
It should be noted that the iOS version was censored by Apple since the original contained nudity in the form of body scans.
- thebooktocome 9y ago
  It also depicts extreme transphobia.
  - cyruscm 9y ago
    Are you referring to the section of the game where you use an x-ray to check for sex that doesn't match the passport? I don't think that's reasonable to classify as extreme, the US government exhibits the same strategies for identification, requiring proof of clinical treatment to get a sex change on license.
    - thebooktocome 9y ago
      The game teaches you that people with unclear gender expression are de facto suspicious, should be invasively searched, and the authorities should be called to carry them off to the gulag. That counts as extreme in my book. My moral standards are independent of US govt policy. They are neither a paragon of privacy rights nor of trans rights.
      - Laforet 9y ago
        Depiction != Endorsement. Are we going to require all future fictional portrayals of the Salem witch trials to feature token minority characters too because we need to hold people in another reality to the same standard of the ones we are in?

patio11 9y ago

Paperwork, and the inhumanity of being a cog in a machine, with the machine not forcing you to do evil but rather making you very good at self-generating evil out of a desperate desire to survive. Another game with a similar take on moral choices is This War of Mine. Both are fairly serious works of literature; do not play either with the expectation that you will feel good about yourself or the human condition afterwards.

chii 9y ago
most games marketed to young adults or teens are a power fantasy - after all, they are what sells well because everyone has power fantasies, and those games fulfill them. But occasionally, a good game comes out which makes you think about the world, and evoke other kinds of emotions like papers please.
- unixhero 9y ago
  Like I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream That was an awful game.
  - iamcreasy 9y ago
    What makes it awful?
    - unixhero 9y ago
      Could have been more elaborate here. Didnt really want to explore it. Well the story and the choices you must make. The game itself is a fine work of art; but it's more exploitation than a fun adventure game. I picked up the game because I thought it would be a spiritual successor to the text based game Mind Forever Voyaging. Well it wasnt exactly that. The game gets dark fast. In fact I don't see it as a game at all, as it isn't fun other than solving puzzles that are at time grizzly. (Nsfl) I was pretty shocked at having to operate an organ/eye out of a living and awake prisoner of war in a one of the game's simulations; of a concentration camp. Another simulation you play as a female that gets violated. Screenshot: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bf/I_Have_No_Mouth_and_I_Must_Scream_gameplay.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bf/I_Have_No_Mou... "The game's story is set in a world where an evil computer named AM has destroyed all of humanity except for five people, whom he has been keeping alive and torturing for the past 109 years. Each survivor has a fatal flaw in their character, and in an attempt to crush their spirits, AM has constructed a metaphorical adventure for each that preys upon their weaknesses. To succeed in the game, the player must make choices to prove that humans are better than machines, because they have the ability to redeem themselves. Woven into the fabric of the story are ethical dilemmas dealing with issues such as insanity, rape, paranoia and genocide." Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream_(video_game) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_...

mercer 9y ago

It's the kind of game that makes me believe in games as a distinct art form.