Zero Punctuation: Papers, Please and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

[JonB]

Hi Everyone,

Please start behaving yourselves. Discuss civilly. Stay on topic.

If anyone posts anything further in this thread that's worth a warning, then they're going to earn a probation or suspension instead of a warning.

Some of you seem confused about the code of conduct, well, it's right here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/codeofconduct

If something is worth a warning, then shouldn't it just get a warning?
I don't understand why the rules would change specifically for this thread.

Because some people seem to find it fun to break the rules again and again just because others are. We don't lock feature content threads. That's just not something we do. I can, and will, hand out elevated penalties so that a thread falls back in line.

 

[Strain42]

So I have a question about Papers, Please that kinda wasn't addressed in the video but it's something that crossed my mind while I was thinking about buying this game and watching some trailers for it.

You get paid by how many people you process in a day, yes?
If you mess up and let someone through who wasn't supposed to, you get a citation, yes?

Both of those things make sense to me.

But is there any penalty to using the red stamp on someone who didn't do anything wrong? I mean sure, morally I get it, but I mean from a purely gameplay perspective.

Is there any in-game penalty for looking at a flawless passport and using the red stamp anyways?

If not, what's to stop you from simply using the red stamp on everybody real quick like? (aside from boredom I suppose)

 

[Miroluck]

So I have a question about Papers, Please that kinda wasn't addressed in the video but it's something that crossed my mind while I was thinking about buying this game and watching some trailers for it.

You get paid by how many people you process in a day, yes?
If you mess up and let someone through who wasn't supposed to, you get a citation, yes?

Both of those things make sense to me.

But is there any penalty to using the red stamp on someone who didn't do anything wrong?

Yes. (Read below).

I mean sure, morally I get it, but I mean from a purely gameplay perspective.

Is there any in-game penalty for looking at a flawless passport and using the red stamp anyways?

They'll print out a citation saying "Protocol violated. Applicant clear for entry."

If not, what's to stop you from simply using the red stamp on everybody real quick like? (aside from boredom I suppose)

For first two mistakes made on a same day, you get warnings. "Warning issued - no penalty" and "Last warning - no penalty".

After that, you'll be given penalties. Third and fourth citations (i.e 1st and 2nd penalties) is 5 credits each, then they raise penalties in arithmetic progression (i.e. penalties on fifth and sixth is 10 credits, then it's two penalties 15 credits each etc).

At the end of each day, those amounts will be deducted from your salary - and, if needed, taken from your savings.

And being in debt is a crime in Arstotzka (official charge will be "debauchery"), so if you have negative money before going to sleep - even after moving to cheapest appartment and going without heat and food - it's a game over for you.

 

[Strain42]

SNIP

Makes sense. Alright, thanks. I appreciate it.

I still think I might go ahead and pick this game up.

 

[Grach]

Is there any in-game penalty for looking at a flawless passport and using the red stamp anyways?

Yes, they give you a citation if you send someone with legit papers back with rejected, but valid, papers. Obviously it comes from balance, so that you actually play the game and face its challenges.

 

[Simca]

I don't know if it was mentioned on a previous page, but did anyone else notice Yahtzee changed the audio?

It now says "I only suck off pantomine dames." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime_dame) instead of "pre-op transsexuals".

 

[saruman31]

So many sexual deviants on this site. Also, i`l try Papers one of these days.

 

[Neferius]

Spoiler

I didn't like 1984 either, but you don't have to be broken by papers please:

Spoiler

If you want you can save up enough money (most likely at the expense of your family) for a short period, and take passports in order to get you and your family safely away to a different (far better) country where you can start over, and I like that ending a lot, the people you take the passports from will get new ones when they call the number you give them, and your family is safe from the terrorist attacks and oppressive government of Arstotzka.

I'm currently working for the shadowy order in trying to topple the government from the inside.
Basically, every disgruntled official beaurocrat's wet-dream :>

 

[Miroluck]

I don't know if it was mentioned on a previous page, but did anyone else notice Yahtzee changed the audio?

It now says "I only suck off pantomine dames." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime_dame) instead of "pre-op transsexuals".

Holy cow, he did!

Welcome to the brave new world, fellas. An utopian society a la "Demolition Man" is already being built as we speak.

 

[Balkan]

Jokes against transsexuals were completely unnecessary and completely offensive.

I agree.
However, this videos does not contain any jokes *against* transsexuals, only a joke against hypocrites that happens to also contain a transsexual person.

"No trannies"
hm?

I'm probably not the first one to reply but who cares. Papers, Please is a game about working on the border of a communist country. The "No trannies, No fatties " jokes was making fun of the insane political changes in the game(who you can and can't let in your country changes with time). I don't know if you've studied history but during the Cold War communist countries didn't have reasonable and fair treatment to all minorities especially when it comes to border control.

 

[shadowmagus]

Nice review. I think I may actually look into Papers, please. Sounds like an interesting concept if nothing else.

As for the whole "joke" issue. I find it hard to believe that people are being offended by Yahtzee. Yahtzee, the same man who has made a career out of slamming games, people, and all groups of people. So yes, he made a comment that was a little more edgy then he has been in the last few years. I welcome a return to form for him.

 

[alright_television]

If a small joke about a tranny is "edgy" I don't know what a much crasser joke about concentration camps is.

The bottom line is this: either accept all jokes or don't accept any of them.

That's really all there is to it. Anything else and you're a bunch of hypocrites. I'm very disappointed all around. In The Escapist that caved in. In the representative(s) of the transgender community that proved yet again that they are completely and utterly void of humor.

 

[JimB]

I don't know if it was mentioned on a previous page, but did anyone else notice Yahtzee changed the audio?

Aw, that's a shame. Don't get me wrong, I stand by anyone's right to complain (though I might not agree with the complaints), but I still think the joke was innocuous enough.

 

[golden silver]

Zero Punctuation? More like zero integrity. Since one demographic was labeled as "special" and you're not allowed to make any sort of jokes towards it, how long until Ben can't make jokes about gays, straights, furries, otherkin, or any ethnic groups?

Pathetic.

 

[alright_television]

Man, the holocaust was such a chuckle, right, Escapist? I demand that you remove that joke too. It's offensive.

 

[shakeymacshake]

Christ the forums on this site have gone to the dogs. Look at yourselves!

IT'S A JOKE GET OVER IT

Easy to say, untill your trans son or daughter kills themself because jokes like this create an environment where ridiculing and rejecting trans people is okay.

It'd be their fault for taking everything so fucking seriously. Me and my friends constantly shit on each other all the time and have a good laugh about it. It's only a hostile environment if you make it one.

Except you and your friends are friends. You understand it's all in good fun. A parent throwing their child out of their home at age 16 is not all in good fun. It's neglect. And it happens regularly because as long as people make jokes that deny what trans people are and treat them as freaks, it will continue to happen.

I got kicked out of my adopted family's home whilst I was below the age of 18. I got on with it and stayed in the YMCA before joining the Army. Do I take jokes about homeless kids, adopted kids and soldiers seriously? No!
Out of interest, what is a person with female breasts and a penis referred to as?

 

[Turbo_ski]

Man, the holocaust was such a chuckle, right, Escapist? I demand that you remove that joke too. It's offensive.

Jews don't get daily harassment and violence for being Jewish anymore and none the current generation experienced the holocaust. Transgender folk face constant harassment and violence everyday from people they don't even know. Transgender people are at higher risk of being killed than anyone else in the world. There has been a transgender woman murdered almost every week this past summer and two this very week in America. Keep in mind there aren't that many of us to begin with so that makes so many murders even more significant.

As a transsexual woman myself, I don't want my escapism from reality to also be spitting on me and my whole identity like the majority of people I meet in life do. So yes, for something that is supposed to be entertaining, I find it very personally offensive.

 

[Turbo_ski]

I got kicked out of my adopted family's home whilst I was below the age of 18. I got on with it and stayed in the YMCA before joining the Army. Do I take jokes about homeless kids, adopted kids and soldiers seriously? No!
Out of interest, what is a person with female breasts and a penis referred to as?

Unless they openly tell they have a penis, refer to them as women. Transwomen, Transgender woman, and Transgirl are all acceptable in private conversations, but you shouldn't refer to them as such in public. Outing a transgender person opens the high possibility of them being verbally and/or physically harassed. You wouldn't want people to judge you socially by the size of your penis and that be part of regular public conversation, would you?