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On Day 8 of Papers, Please, a hooded messenger working for EZIC will introduce himself and hand over a card that reads Corman Drex. No matter how kind-hearted you might be, Arstotzka will not fall because a husband and wife were reunited. For these individuals at least, even small decisions can be activist decisions.Įven so, Papers, Please also reflects how little these acts of kindness matter towards the whole.

Accepting a spouse desperate to join her husband or rejecting a suspected human trafficker subtly, but importantly, undermines the state’s control over moral decision making.

You could, if you choose, subtly undermine the Arstotzka regime by allowing in or barring individuals for moral reasons. As the border agent, you have the power to reject or admit individuals into the country. As such, you can in fact affect the larger system, but only blindly and indirectly. The political context of Arstotzka touches down briefly but significantly at the tiny border crossing in which you play. Importantly, these two systems are neither separate nor entirely entwined. The government of Arstotzka, fearing terrorism or revolutionary dissent, maintains a deeply troubling and despotic regime. Above the “look, compare, stamp” routine is a larger political system that defines the behavioral context. There is one very basic system that defines player behavior in Papers, Please: Familiarize yourself with the rules (although they may change from day to day) and reject immigrants and visitors who do not comply. In addition to portraying the bureaucratization of unethical behavior, Papers, Please also makes fascinating and compelling claims about activism. Watching yourself become villainous is one of the most interesting and disturbing parts of the game.

As the game progresses and feeding your family becomes increasingly difficult, you may sacrifice morality for another day with food or heat. In his PopMatters article on Papers, Please, Lucas Pope’s wonderful game about managing a border checkpoint for the fictional authoritarian country of Astotzka, Scott Juster calls the game, “a terrifying and elegant illustration of how inhumanity is created through systems.” This description could not be more accurate.