Sims, Or Something Like It.

Welcome back to the beginning of a new week and I'm here to talk to you all about sims.  No, I am not referring to The Sims, but to certain aspects and qualities of simulators and hoo-boy are there a lot of them (on Steam); I specifically refer to Steam as it's my gateway to AAA and indie PC gaming although I know (I'm sure there are; there have to be) other outlets for video gaming out there.  Right?

Last week when I was listening to The Patch (#75 I think), Gus Sorola brought up indie game developer Lucas Pope (Papers, Please) and how he frequently gets requests to make other "Gate-Sims" like Papers, Please but in different departments and how he has absolutely no desire to do another gate-simulator.  This led the cast to come up with other ridiculous gate-sims with Mr. Sorola finalizing that a Drive Through Sim would be great because of how complicated and specific an order could get, which then lead to Ms. Turney stating that there are people who are paid (horribly) for actually taking orders at a drive through.  Would they feel that the game trivializes the kinds of shit they have to put up with from customers?

Which brings me to video game simulators, or at least some games that are sims and one other in particular.

Now, I have a couple of sim-type-style games at my disposal: Papers, Please; The Sims 2 & 3; Civ. 5; Ace Combat X, Joint Assault, Assault Horizon Legacy and Assault Horizon Enhanced Edition; Day-Z; Reus; Goat Simulator. . . you get the idea.  Then there are a slough of games with "Simulator" in the title that I do not own nor have I played: Farming Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator, Ship Simulator Extremes, Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS World), Construction Truck Simulator, Surgeon Simulator. . . more ideas you are getting behind, yes?

Which then brings me to This War of Mine.  It's a game that came out last month (November 14th) that I first thought that I would really like to play.  To put this game into context, in This War of Mine, you play as normal everyday citizens in a war torn fictional country.  You are not playing as a super soldier armed with 184 lbs of guns, equipment and additional rounds of ammunition, but as people attempting to survive everything else around them.

Then I thought of the real life This War of Mine.  In Palestine. In Sarajevo.  In Baghdad.  In every city, town and country that has had some form of major military conflict take place within its borders.  People live their lives surrounded by what this game is apparently trying to represent.

A part of me thinks that I would and should feel guilty about playing a game about people who are living a life where they are afraid to go out at anytime, for any reason, because they could be attacked by either military force or by fellow citizens.  The simplist things in life become a hardship such as finding sufficient food to feed your family or find clean drinking water.  But the real question is why did 11 bit studios create this game?  Was it to glamorize the suffering of people who regularly live in such war-torn communities?  Somehow I doubt that those were their intentions.  

In an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, senior writer for 11 bit studios Pawel Miechowski said that This War of Mine "is not a simulator of atrocities, it’s a take on how people struggle and what are their emotional challenges" and that "We want to raise awareness about how civilians suffer when war is breaking out. We want to show the other side."  If this game had come from, say, Sledgehammer Games (Call of Duty) or EA Digital Illusions (Battlefield), I might question their motives.

When I started this short article (seven paragraphs ago), I was on the fence about buying/playing this game.  Now, I feel that I need to not only play this game, but to experience.  This War of Mine was obviously created with a lot of thought and care to convey the right imagery, tone and sense of weight as opposed to another war simulator.  It's quite a powerful trailer too that 11 bit studios released a while back.

It's settled then.  I talked myself back into it.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
And When Jesus Comes He'll March On With The Winning Side

Papers, Please [Beta] (PC)

Hmm, how to describe Paper's Please.  To say that it's a post cold war era simulation game where you play as an immigration official from a fictional Eastern European/ Soviet Bloc state would be a very wordy description. The "official" description from creator Lucas Pope, is that it's a "dystopian document thriller."  If those descriptions don't sell the game to you, the game trailer probably will:

There's something very odd about this game.  You sit in a booth looking over passports and travel documents while a national/foreigner stares at you, while you are deciding whether or not they can be allowed into the country.  You earn 5 credits for each person you let into the country or turn away, so one of the goals is to see as many people as possible.  If you admit someone who wasn't supposed to be or turn away someone who could've been admitted, a print out warns you not to make that mistake again.  You also do not get paid for seeing that person.  On your second or third mistake (depending on which day), you are docked 5 credits, which means that you really lose 10 credits for your mistake.

I first heard about this game a couple of weeks ago from Jerry Holkins' twitter.  I don't remember exactly what the wording was, but it somehow compelled me to play this odd bit of programming.

Playing this game as a co-op actually enhances the feeling of dread from an oppressive government and fear that you might make a mistake.  There were a number of times while playing that Conklederp was sitting next to me and I felt nervous that I wasn't moving people fast enough through my little box/world and thus not keeping it interesting enough for her to be watching and accidently let someone through whom should have been denied entry into the great country of Arstotzka.  So if you have someone to watch you play, who doesn't mind watching you play a video game, it could/will enhance the feeling not to fuck up.

There are a number of other little things that this game does that I love.  At the beginning of each day, after you read the headlines of the daily paper, you walk to work. 

It's not "go to work," but specifically "walk."  As if you're either too poor or not a high enough position in the government to be afforded a car.

Another thing is that there are events/people's stories about reuniting with a family or trying to escape from an abusive strip-club owner and while you can follow what your heart tells you is right, if it doesn't follow the law, you don't get paid, and when you don't get paid, there are real consequences

Now, this game is only in beta and only advances through the eighth day.  Currently there is nothing programmed to penalize you for the death of a family member, which kind of makes the game even more sad.  That after the death of, let's say, your son, you still have to walk to work where your meager earnings may only cover the price of rent and heat, but not food.  Life is sad.

Like I said, it's a very odd game that shouldn't be as fun and as addictive as it is to play.  Who wants to sit in a box for hours on end (minutes in game time) and go over papers hoping to not make a mistake so that you can earn enough money to only feed half of your family, not to say anything about funeral costs when/if they die?  This guy, that's who.

Glory to Arstotzka comrade.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Happiness