Gameplay Journal Entry #9

For this journal I played “Papers Please” for the first time. When the game came out I saw some lets plays of the game but I never played the game for myself until now. When I first saw Papers Please, I was attracted to the art style and the gritty story behind the game and those values translated into its gameplay. The mechanics of the game were fairly simple but the fact that you are incentivized to go as fast as possible adds a pleasant challenge to the game. The introduction of new unique people that are trying to cross the border gives the game more of a realistic feeling and hit the emotions harder when the NPC pleads to you to let them through to see their family.

Paper’s Please is a great example of critical play because it generates a humanitarian playstyle. The game plays on human connection and the want to help others with the addition of internal and external conflicts. As Mary Flanagan said in the provided readings, “Critical Play primarily focuses on individual artists or collectives of artists making work because they have something to say” (Critical Play Radical Game Design, 3). The creator of Papers Please was trying to highlight the struggles of migration and give it a more “human” light on it while also making it entertaining for the player to casually play. Papers Please aims to convince the reader that life can be full of difficult decisions and to carefully evaluate them.