Papers, Please explores the challenges of immigration from the perspective of a low-income border checkpoint officer in the fictional country of Arztotska. The player must make decisions about who to let into the country, examining their documents, trying to weed out potential terrorists, and confronting moral dilemmas on whether or not to help those that may lack the proper paperwork but desperately need assistance. Each day new requirements are set on who can and cannot enter (one day a passport is enough, the next entrants need ID cards and work visas) based on various story elements, and there are multiple endings possible that result from the decisions made by the player. Meanwhile, you also must consider accuracy and speed: your salary is based on how many people you correctly process, and failure to earn enough will result in being unable to make rent, heat your home, or provide medicine for sick relatives. In my first time through the game, all of my family members died because I was too slow in processing entrants. Thus there are numerous competing moral dilemmas: if I incorrectly process someone on purpose, I will help them, but my family will suffer; too many mistakes, and I will earn enough citations to be fired.
As one example: a woman came into the booth and all of her paperwork was in order–she was entering the country to work. But as she left she handed me a note which indicated that a man behind her in line had tricked her and was forcing her and her sister into prostitution. She begged me to keep the man from entering the country, even though his paperwork was in order as well. Keeping him out would earn me a citation and I would not get paid for his processing, so I chose to let him in. The news report the following day indicated that she died at the brothel. Human trafficking is therefore part of the story as well.
Papers, Please is a neat game, therefore, that will expose students to some of the challenges operating a border and some of the ways in which international relations (between Arztotska and its neighbors) trickle down to everyday life. There is also the fascinating set of moral quandrays that you face and can raise questions about justice and the law. It would work really well as a homework assignment prior to a class session on issues of immigration in general, human trafficking, terrorism, asylum, and authoritarianism.
The gameplay has a bit of an upfront learning curve, but then evens out. I would recommend having students play through a couple of days just to get used to the procedures, and then load a new game to play for real. The beta version of the game, which lets you play through about 8 days of the 30 available in the full version, is free here. There is a full version for PC and Mac available for $10 if you want to have students play through everything.
Earlier entries in the Poverty Games Reviews series:
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