I enjoy the premise of the game but to me the message seems to be blatantly anti communist, but I have not yet played it. Any thoughts on this?
While Arstotzka has a eastern bloc aesthetic, I think the game is more of a commentary on post-9/11 US security theater. The invasive strip searches/gender checks is a direct reference to similar abuses in US airports, and the general treatment of the people crossing the border mirrors the abuse of migrants. The treatment of terrorism is similar. You have basically no ability to stop attacks before they happen. Each new rule that is introduced just makes things harder for you and the people trying to cross the border, and does little to keep people safe. Likewise, you have the ability to treat every violator as a potential terrorist, no matter how minor. You can have people extra-judicially detained for typos. Again, this is another part of the US security theater.
Another reason why I don't think the game is really commenting on eastern bloc governments is the fact that you are processing immigrants and refugees, people trying to come into the country. Anti-communist tropes/propaganda have always positioned socialist states as someplace people are trying to flee, whether that be East Berlin, Cuba, or Venezuela. It's the US and capitalist Europe that have the practice of trying to stop people from entering the country. I don't think the game/creator has a positive view of communism, but the point being made is that it's comparing the current practices of western "democracies" to the perceived corruption/heavy-handedness of socialist "autocracies."
I think you kind of danced around saying that the game's aesthetic is deliberately meant to compare that American security theater to a liberal idea of a totalitarian 1984 Eastern bloc country. I think it is a deliberate negative portrayal but focusing on it isn't really the point of the game.
I'm with you on this analysis, particularly once the full-body scanners come into play I think it has to be read as a game about America, but most people only engage with this kind of stuff on the surface level so most of the discussion I've seen about it is thoroughly anti-communist.
I don't remember the game ever mentioning the economic and political system of Arstotzka. I remember it as giving bigger hints on the ideology of the other neighbouring states than its own.
Only if you Google enough you'll find the creator saying it's a communist country, but the mechanics are far from it: for example an excessive rent is used to coerce the player throughout the game.
The game does however have an extremely transphobic mechanic when an immigrant or tourist's sex as written in the passport does not match the developer's idea of gender that's completely unexamined and uncritiqued within the game. If this mechanic was addressed instead of let be you could play the game knowing it's a fascist state without any contradictions.
Yes, the country from what I have seen doesn’t seem communist, but to me even without googling I knew what it was trying to represent. It’s pretty blatant that it’s imitating the eastern bloc, aesthetically at least, although I think it’s more of caricature of it than reality. The whole sex thing is pretty transphobic imo. It would be a better mechanic if the regime was explicitly fascist, who have been historically transphobic, and perhaps incorporating moral problems into that by forcing you to choose between sending someone to prison for being trans or feeding your family. That would probably also be a controversial mechanic, but the point I’m trying to make is that the game should try and comment on fascism’s inherently evil fixation on trans people. On the other hand I’d be worried if that flew over actual gamer’s heads who would be like “haha deport trans people” or something, not considering the moral implications of such actions
You could headcanon it as "What if the Hungarian Uprising succeed but also I was a transphobe".
I didn't get the sense that the game was being transphobic so much as it was portraying a transphobic society. Nothing about the presentation makes me think we're supposed to take the invasive body scanning and blanket rejection of those who don't fit the mold as cool and good. Having said that, though, portraying behavior without appearing to endorse it can be a difficult thing even for the best creators (see: Fight Club, The Sopranos, 1987's Wall Street) and I wouldn't tell anyone who sees endorsement of transphobia in the game that they're wrong.
I see what you mean, but it unsettles me that none of the people you can imprison for presenting a different gender that what's on their passports mention or even hint at that they are trans. They say stuff like "what?" or "that must be a mistake" instead of something like "I was born female and could not change the paperwork, please don't send me to the gulag". You can play the whole game while not acknowledging that transgender and intersex people exist.
For most other paperwork mistakes you get one migrant with a story and you need to make a choice. For the mismatching sex, the developer seems to comment on body scanning but not on transphobia.
It's basically a 1984-style incoherent attack on the USSR. It's fun and well-designed, though, so it's better than 1984 at least.
I think artstotska is communist in that the creator said it is communist and I interpret it as a very blatant propaganda thing
You have to pay rent and utilities and the cost of both is far above the wages the game gives you. This is a core mechanic of the game.
The games portrayal of communism is the same as every liberal who doesn't actually know anything about it other than it's bad is.
An old co-worker of mine recommended the game to me and I enjoyed it but he was a very strange dude. He was definitely Alt-right and loved Trump based on what I could tell from reading between the lines but “hid his power level” from me fairly well. He was born in Belarus I believe and said he was a communist but there was a lot going on with him. Brilliant coder though by any means
-Soulja
Aesthetically arstotzka is communist, but if that was the intent it has as much weight as criticizing communism because bread lines or whatever. It isn't actively anti-communist.
I think the main anti communist aspect is their very stereotypical portrayal of eastern bloc countries. It seems everyone who comes through the gate is human traffickers and drug lords or terrorists, not to mention no aspect of the government is ever portrayed positively. The eastern bloc had a lot of problems, but this portrayal is like Orwellian nightmare propaganda.
It's probably more anti-Eastern European than anything. There's a whole genre of white people who are super-racist and hate slavic peoples. Many of these are in the White House and Nato right now.
Yeah that's the thing, the entire game was designed by one person, an American, who probably has some (incorrect) notions of eastern bloc aesthetics and built the game on that. I don't think it's meant to be explicitly anti-communist.
even though medal of honor underground is like 25 years old at this point, every time i read "papers please" my neurons immediately fire WHAT IS YOUR NAME WHAT IS YOUR NAME WHAT IS YOUR NAME
I love the game for how much it can do with such simple mechanics but I always saw it as generally more anti-authoritarian than anti communist. But I may be wrong the last time I played it was over 5 years ago
And the time period, and the mock Eastern European setting, and the aesthetic...
It's clearly playing on Western tropes of depressing, bureaucratic totalitarian communist regimes
Creator of the game in an interview or something says all the countries are communist
For the same reason that many portrayals of fictional bad guy armies are fascist. Since it would be boring to go really into the material conditions of the state, aesthetically fascist is enough to show that they're fascist.
Likewise, aesthetically Soviet-style communism/state capitalism is enough to invoke that feeling in Papers Please.
Papers Please is good. I don't think the game is a commentary on communism, but more on bureaucracy. The creator's other solo dev game Return Of The Obra Din is another game centered around bureaucracy. You (the player) are constantly hounded for money because of daily rent and heat expenses, and you only make money per person processed, but also must make moral choices throughout the game. For example, at some point a new border guard introduces himself to you and says he is from the same town as you. He offers a cut from the money is get processing detainees, which incentivizes you to detain anyone given the option. Eventually he tells you his lover will be attempting to cross the border, when she gets there, she does not have the proper paperwork and she pleads with you saying she will die if she can't be reunited with her love. Do you take the hit to your income and let her through? There are many such occurrences like this in the game, which makes it good
