Quick Look: Papers, Please

Awesome. I don't have a pc at the moment to play this so if they wanna do an endurance run on this I'd be quite happy. Oddly addicting and tense to watch and all the comments are great

The unending torrent of idiots trying to trick you, the way the rules change every day and you need to relearn your job each time you come into work, and just the terrible defeated/depressing atmosphere reminds me way too much of my job at a call center to ever be able to play this game.

You can argue a metaphorical sense for Arstotzka being a Western country or idea, but the game is set in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Regardless of what the game's intended message is, there's no ambiguity as to what Arstotzka is modeled after.

Then you really shouldnt play I get this call everyday ;p

(i'm not advertising the game, it just isnt in the site's database)

Yes! I am picking this up tonight!

edit--- stopped watching a few minutes in. I wanna go into this fresh as possible. Looks awesome. :)

Games like this are why Quick looks are fantastic.

It had sounded great when Jeff had talked about it earlier in the year, but watching this Quick Look sold me. Headed over to papersplea.se and bought it through humble. :D

Played the hell out of the demo, definitely grabbing this.

Cause no trouble.

Bought it instantly, great little game.

I had a fairly similar job for about five and a half years. Not really a game I could see myself getting into but as others mentioned, it is fun to watch.

The whole "I don't care about your story. Goodbye." thing came up a lot. We had nicer ways of saying it, of course.

@boozak: Uh....

http://www.giantbomb.com/i-get-this-call-every-day/3030-40910/

This actually looks pretty fun and interesting.

It's called demos, alphas, and betas, and they've been around for a long time, bro. It even clearly says "early access" when you buy Mercenary Kings.

There was something a bit surreal about going through the steps to buy this particular game. Okay, Paypal, here's my email address... here's my password... here's my current authentication code... okay, now I take this fifteen-letter code and I carry it over to the Steam window over there... I kept on half-expecting DISCREPANCY DETECTED.

Hmm, this seems really intriguing in ways I cannot fully explain.

Great quicklook, I really enjoyed the demo. Going to be picking this up soon!

@kickahaota: GLORY TO ARSTOTZKA

NO GAME FOR YOU

With so much mouse movement, I can see this being awesome on a tablet.

I played a lot of the free alpha version and pre-purchased it on Steam. I can recommend it to anyone who is open to new game experiences. It's a great and unique game.

@ollyoxenfree said:

...discrepancy detected...

can't wait to play this, awesome QL Jeff!

It is, as I Get This Call Every Day.

Somehting about this game is really captivating. I appreciate Jeff's preparedness playing this too, it's fun watching someone who knows what they're doing.

FUCKING FINALLY. Buying this asap

I remember them talking about this on podcast a little while ago. I'll probably have to pick this up soon.

@mdimmett said:

Wow, didn't know Vinny was that old. Still can't tell if you made this or it's really in the game.

@auron570: 100% sure he was being sarcastic.

@m2cks: I know. Thanks for assuming I'm an idiot, I guess? Not hard to do on the internet.

The point I was making was (I thought) pretty clear: that back in the day, you pretty much had closed betas, but games got covered by the gaming press when they were OUT out. Not "out." The only people who used to do open betas consistently were people developing MMO games, and you knew those weren't out yet because you weren't paying them money yet. This is key - Mercenary Kings, despite saying "early access," feels like a complete product mostly because I SPENT $15 DOLLARS ON IT.

Nowadays there are so many "early access" games that it's started to get truly confusing. Is DOTA 2 really out now? Because I've been playing it for over a year and paying Valve money pretty consistently [because I'm an idiot (that's a whole different story)].

Personally, I blame Minecraft for showing that you can release an unfinished game, call it "alpha" and still charge money, and then put the rest of the features in once you could pay for them. It's not an industry trend that I love, although, hey - I seem to love playing video games more, since I still pay for these "alphas."

@mdimmett said:

This needs to be appreciated by more people.

Let's just say I originate from a certain Eastern European country and this is almost exactly how everything goes down when you are dealing with any embassy, immigration officials and/or customs. One thing that is missing is bribing. I reckon some people should try to bribe you with a high enough amount of money and you can take the money and get one wrong, or refuse and receive normal pay. Basically trade mistakes in for cash.

When you make a game about paperwork the game that everyone wants to play, that's when you win at video games.

This sort of things does indeed happen in the game, just not in the first few days.

@branthog said:

This game seems a lot closer to making light of or even parodying it's inspirations than making any kind of real commentary.

I don't think that's true at all, this game really doesn't seem like it's trying to make light of this subject matter. But I think you're right that it's not trying to take a position either, it's simply presenting this world without comment. There's a big difference between exploring a given subject matter, and trying to make a specific point about it. You see how all of these regulations and requirements make everyone's life miserable, but they also make a point to always illustrate the reasoning behind each rule, and how this dizzying system of forms and official seals and verifications came to be. Hell, if that asshole on Day 2 doesn't throw that grenade, everyone's lives might've been a whole lot easier.

You can be fined for not letting in someone who has the correct papers, yep.

The built in conflict of interest is the kicker. Imagine a border guard who is paid 100% on commission based on the number of people he is able to process in a shift. Total anarchy. Love it. :D

@homelessbird said:

@mdimmett said:

This needs to be appreciated by more people.

Outstanding

This actually does happen. In the demo, a guy offered me money to let him slip by at the risk of me taking another strike. Me, with little money and a very sick son, made the choice to take it. The money, unfortunately, didn't last very long.

Thing is, Minecraft was legitimately an alpha. Ever seen/played those pre-alpha and alpha releases?

@hi_im_rob:

@hi_im_rob said:

@homelessbird said:

@mdimmett said:

This needs to be appreciated by more people.

Outstanding

Haha thanks!

It's weird that this reminds me a lot of Cook, Serve, Delicious in that the PC version seems fine, but I bet this would be really awesome on an iPad. Don't think I can wait that long for it to possibly be ported, though.

Super happy to support this game. I loved the beta, and the full game is even better.

I play this game 1 day a day. The body scanning was a miserable day.

Yet another game that I don't understand why so many people like

I can't stop watching.