Papers, Please as Philosophy

Abstract

One of the most interesting characteristics of the Papers, Please game lies in the fact that it actually makes the player seriously engage in the repetitive and monotonous task of checking official documents of visa candidates. In the “glorious country of Arstotzka” – a totalitarian nation surrounded by enemies somewhere in Eastern Europe during the 1980s – the work as an immigration inspector at a border checkpoint is reduced to checking for inconsistent numbers, expiration dates, altered photos, interrogatory sheets, and then stamping “approved” or “refused” in the candidates’ passports. The player’s work each day earns a paycheck from which he will have to choose which household expenses he can satisfy. No matter how many tasks the player completes, the paycheck is almost never enough to cover all bills: rent, heating, food, and medicine for his son. The consequences will be devastating for the character and, in a certain manner, for the player as well. As such, Papers, Please provides the perfect opportunity to explore Hannah Arendt’s notion of “banality of evil.” In a place like Arstotzka, under the shadow of an excessively rigid rule system and an oppressive and authoritarian form of government, where bureaucratic emptiness of everyday tasks is no longer questioned and actions become mechanical, the worker is refrained from “thinking from the standpoint of somebody else.” Judith Butler’s notion of “precarious lives” will also be explored and help us understand the biopolitics involved in the forms of violence against immigrants, refugees, and other individuals whose lives themselves are in constant wait for validation, in constant suspension between “approval” and “refusal.”