To be honest, it's not dystopian at all. This is EXACTLY how crossing the boarder to Czechoslovakia, Belarus, Ukraine or Russia looked like just 20 years ago, and probably still looks similar today. The only thing missing from the game is people trying to bribe the guards, as that was a bread and butter of their existence. Having crossed these borders hundreds of times I know that border guards would hold you off for days even, if you didn't bring a "gift". Russian guards told me to fuck off and wait in the car since they were playing football and were busy. When I complained the guy took out his pistol and threatened to shoot me if I don't get back to the car. I watched the entire playthrough of this game on Giant Bomb and it did strike some familiar vibes.
> This is EXACTLY how crossing the boarder to Czechoslovakia, Belarus, Ukraine or Russia looked like just 20 years ago, and probably still looks similar today.
I doubt the current borders of the Czech Republic and Slovakia (both in the European Union) are like this. Exactly 20 years ago they split, so it should have been quite messy times, though.
Obviously, yes, I didn't mean Czechoslovakia, I know they are part of EU now. But I am pretty sure that Belarus didn't change too much, and Russia(especially in the Kaliningrad Oblast, while crossing from Poland) is the same as it used to be.
Indeed, these are probably similar. I had a friend travel relatively recently to Russia, Ukraine and the zone and he says that although he didn't suffer anything odd, the general feeling around borders was... tense.
I guess the game could be classified as dystopian for its day-to-day change in the regulations and permits needed... It kind of makes it into a mock of the "real" strong border policy of some of these countries (and many others around the world)
In Russia this already happened with their "state farms":
> a system of internal passports prevented movement of employees and members from rural areas to urban areas. In effect farmers became tied to their sovkhoz or kolkhoz in what is described by some as a system of "neo-serfdom".
There's 20 million people living in Beijing though, which allready makes it a transportation and housing nightmare, with prices for rent skyrocketing. If you've been to beijing around Spring Festival, where most people head back to their families, you'll notice that it is almost empty. Like positively razed of people. In a way, yes, controlling such migration is a horrible thing to do, but I couldn't imagine Beijing with another 20 million migrant workers trying to crowd their way through the city, along with the major Spring Festival rush that'd happen.
Right, I was going to mention this but you beat me to it.
My impression was that in reality, you rarely get checked unless you're in a region with stability concerns (western Sichuan, Tibet, Xinjiang), near a protest or terror incident, doing something official, etc. But it's a scary system to have hanging over you. Generally people can normalize with the support of an employer.
In some cities, like Shanghai a few years back, I've heard that the police do make more use of it to give immigrating rural people problems.
Choosing between having enough money for medicine for my son, or letting a woman with incorrect documents come through (her husbands were OK, and she was claiming that she would be murdered on deportation) was fairly harrowing.
This game is an excellent illustration of what allows evil to happen.
I denied her entry even though I didn't have any citations. Rules are rules. Her husband will have to think about how he thought he could tug on my heart strings by going through first when he knew his wife's papers weren't in order.
...it makes game-theoretic sense not to let that person pass. Even not counting the fact they already tried to trick you into doing what they want you to (by husband going first), you have no guarantee that she's telling you the truth. And as soon as you let her through, you can expect dozens of people trying to play the same trick on you.
Laws need to be upheld more-less consistently, otherwise they don't work at all. An inconsistently enforced border check doesn't eliminate the "going through with invalid papers" from the solution search space for people.
Looks good, but I'll wait for the Department of Motor Vehicles simulator. Can't wait to see the anguished look on all those pixelated faces when I tell them their proof-of-address is not valid and send them to the back of the line to wait another three hours for their license renewals.
The DMV I got my license from had an employee at the entrance to sort you into the proper category and check to make sure you have the proper documents. Not that this was 100% effective. Not all the tellers would agree though and would require extra documents you didn't have.
One teller required my social security card even though I had a current US passport with me.
It's a stupid system. Technically only the social security administration itself is allowed to require an SSN. But most banks, companies, etc. do require an SSN from you, or else they put you through a ton of hassle. In practice almost everyone just gives his SSN, and the few who don't can be subjected to more scrutiny. SSNs are also reused after you die. After all, we don't want to run out of numbers, our nation's greatest resource.
I finished the beta over the weekend, it's very playable (both Mac and PC) despite an unbalanced Oregon Trail-like mechanic that's ancillary to the job-mode (keeping your family alive).
It's incredibly well-polished for a one-man side project, apparently he did all the music, graphics, and writing himself. I think it's a telling sign of how effective he was at making bureaucracy "fun" that gamers are chiming in with how to make the game even more of a video game...though I think that's probably not the author's main intent. Definitely a work of political art, though.
> gamers are chiming in with how to make the game even more of a video game...though I think that's probably not the author's main intent.
Sadly, the Steam GreenLight community does not seem very open to these art-games, and there is at least a subset of people who are actively hostile. It's too bad, as I don't think these games are misrepresenting themselves. I'd rather those people just no buy them and quit imposing their taste on the rest of us.
Well Kentucky Route Zero got through and that is one of the strangest most abstract things I've ever played, but it also had a very successful Kickstarter. The Greenlight experiment honestly does not work very well but Valve and Gabe Newell are totally aware of this. Gabe spoke at UT and addressed the very issue of how inefficient Greenlight is. It was kind of a first try at community sourcing games and it will be massively overhauled soon. For instance, right now Mutant Mudds which is well regarded as one of the better platformers of recent days is finding itself hovering around 50% approval which is insane. This is a proven game already that can't get approved because of the system.
I see no reason why Valve needs to ask every 12 year old that only is on Steam to play COD whether or not they like some strategic art game.
My guess is they come to some sort of Kickstarter-esque model where people will pledge to prebuy a game and when it gets to a certain threshold, the game will be Greenlit. Makes a lot more sense that polling every user on Steam, let the people who are willing to spend money make the decisions happen.
Kentucky Route Zero only got through because Valve made an exception to the system where you automatically get a Steam slot if you are an IGF finalist. The IGF is a curated games competition that isn't subject to the will of the people who normally vote in systems like Greenlight, typically judged on aesthetic/design merit.
I think the "family" part is meant to be unbalanced. You are meant to be poor; it was pretty heartbreaking (!) choosing between food for my hungry son, or medicine for my wife.
I think the "unbalanced" part of it is that you can let your family go a turn of "Cold" and "Hungry", feed them the next turn, then they'll be back to OK. That's what I did my second playthrough at least; I ended it with a savings of $80 =P
While that is surely efficient, I suspect that choosing to do that avoids much of the point of the game -- like using an infinite ammo cheat in Resident Evil, or patching Oregon Trail so that you don't run out of food and can't get dysentery.
This looks really awesome. Also, you should check out Republia Times, one of the author's other games - you're the editor of the major newspaper in some country, and the pieces you put on the front page determine the mood of the people etc. It's a really cool game : http://dukope.com/play.php?g=trt
It feels a bit like a social experiment, as the gamer tries to advance through the "levels" to make enough money to support his family, whereas the result can have harsh consequences for the people denied from crossing the border.
You're supposed to use the discrepancy checker to note both the rule that he needs a passport, and the emptiness of the counter in front of you...it's not obvious that the counter is clickable...I think the author tried to make the instructions more explicit in the daily briefing but I found it by accident
I was pretty amazed that later on you can get a guy who is wanted on murder, and then if you deny his passport you get a citation for denying it based on invalid news!
I got a strange gentleman with no documents. Since each person seems to have only one flaw, I'm guessing he was from Arstotzka. He left before I could stamp anything.
