Why I'll never finish Papers, Please

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In Papers, Please, you take the role of a citizen of the fictional nation Arstotzka, modeled after Cold War totalitarian Eastern European nations. The government of Arstotzka has just ended a war with the neighboring country of Kolechia, and the player character has been appointed as an immigration inspector as the tensions from that recent war continue.
Papers, Please is also a game that reminded me too much of my real life.
0:00 - This makes me uncomfortable
0:03 - Papers, Please
1:28 - When I finally played it
1:53 - Too close to home
2:55 - No wrong way to be an immigrant
3:46 - I'l never finish this game

[@MattHorton]

The Canadian Niagara photo is from 2022 🤦‍♂

[@itswavelengths]

As one of the people who played this game in 2013 when it first dropped, I remember walking away from it thinking "this game is absolutely accomplishing what it set out to do, and I never want to play it again." Also at the time I was like twenty years old and didn't know as much about the world from perspectives outside my own as I do now, so the message really landed with me despite being pretty surface-level. Sometimes I think it's important for stuff like this to exist for people who have the desire to grow and expand their understanding of society at large, sometimes I think the best way to educate is to say the most obvious thing out loud just in case they haven't heard it said. But the years since 2013 have obviously forced the very topic Papers, Please covered into the frontal consciousness of society. I don't think I need to get into specifics but there's no escaping the inhumanity we've seen on display. I think as time has gone on, this point the game is making has become less necessary - not that I would ever say it shouldn't exist because I think its resonance with people at launch can't be understated - but the thesis is so obvious now as to make me hesitate telling people "yeah you need to play this." Anyway: I really really appreciate your perspective here, and I think you've done a great job capturing it concisely. Thank you for making this video.

[@MattHorton]

Thanks! Yeah I tried to be very intentional about not saying "This is a bad game that shouldn't exist" because of all of the things you said. I think 10 years ago, maybe, this game did a lot more work than it is capable of now. I just also see the walls of videos on this game with people min-maxing it and think "Cool. So you didn't get it. Even when they yelled it into your ears."

[@jared_biz]

Beautiful video Matt! Well done, as always. Thank you for sharing.

[@MattHorton]

Thank you very much!

[@fingerbelly]

Excellent video, thanks for sharing!

[@MattHorton]

Thanks for watching!

[@aviatedviewssound4798]

This is deep man.

[@MattHorton]

Thanks. That's kinda my thing

[@chaseallhart]

Great video, Matt! Hugely appreciate the perspective on this one.

[@MattHorton]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@MrSu]

Great video and I see the issues you raise. The game, as you said, it very blunt in what it wants to say, that exactly makes it so wild to me how in it's twitch-ification so many people out there presented their min-maxing approach to the game. Maybe not surprising, but wild nonetheless.

[@MattHorton]

Truly wild that it holds this space in people's brains

[@null0byte]

I remember thinking when this game first came out, “Oh HELL NO I don’t want to play this. I already know what kind of special hellscape the US immigration system is and I don’t need to play a fictional version of it to understand that. If I want more perspective all I need to do is look around me and talk to someone.” Sadly my family are part of that segment of the population a game even as blatant as this would sail right over their heads. ☹️

[@MattHorton]

this game has a whole min-max culture on youtube that is beyond my comprehension

[@AndrewConkling]

Beautiful essay, thanks for sharing your experiences. 💛

[@MattHorton]

Thanks for watching!

[@sliverhanded8012]

Wonderful video Matt, great to hear your perspective. I think the game will accomplish its goals for a lot of people with a full play thru but maybe it doesn’t have to - this was something you already knew about yourself but playing one round or more rounds and “failing” is also probably a valuable experience for some. You know this of course, too smart not to! Just putting out there one of my takeaways. I also loved your point that some people will see the abuse and gladly think it’s just the only way for it to be. In a game like Papers, Please and real life. Keep up the good work!

[@MattHorton]

Thanks!