With its 1980s setting and the resemblance between Arstotzka and USSR, Papers, Please can easily make one believe that this is just another dystopian game. But Papers, Please is not meant to be played with such a light-hearted attitude. Incorporating modern issues and technology, the game compels the players to reflect on their own society and reality.
The in-game protagonists controlled by the players is a border-crossing immigration officer, whose job is to check the validity of papers presented by applicants and to grant or deny their access into Arstotzka. Among all others, gender is a piece of important information the players need to double-check. One has to judge whether the gender information on the passport is valid to decide whether the passport is counterfeit. Indeed, the players can use the applicant's name to make such judgment, but the game encourages them to judge upon appearance alone, given that the inspect mode links the applicant’s face to the gender column on their papers. If the applicant's appearance does not match the stereotypes of the gender indicated by passport—for example, an applicant with long hair but an “M” for gender info—it is considered a discrepancy and the players can deny the applicant’s access. Hence, using any other means to judge is a waste of time as the players have limited time to work each day. The in-game protagonist seems to be compliant with this, but for players who live in the 2010s, a time when individual gender identification is widely discussed and respected, this easily raises concern. Judging gender by appearance alone should not be fine. By forcing the players to do that, the game evokes moral struggles in players and makes them realize that despite the unfamiliar setting, this is a game about modern, everyday issues.
The in-game technology also suggests that the game seeks to generate concepts that surpass its setting. Later in the game, scanning mode will be installed and players need to scan the applicant whose gender information mismatches with their appearance. Fingerprints can also be taken to access the applicant’s past files when a mismatch in their names or pictures appears. While it is unclear that whether the technology was this developed in the 1980s, the players who live in 2010s no doubt are familiar with devices like scanners and AFIS (Automatic Fingerprint Identification System), as these devices are widely used at border checkpoints and airports. Incorporating modern, everyday technology, the game rejects the idea that whatever happens in the game has nothing to do with reality. We trust the border checkpoints to keep our fingerprints, and we trust the airport security check to scan us—but they are also technology in the dystopian world used to violate personal rights and freedom. When the in-game protagonist may take them as granted, the game wants to make sure that the players don’t.
Despite the setting, which seems so unrelated to reality, the game addresses issues that are modern and deeply relevant to the players’ everyday life. The immersion of this game is achieved through presenting issues with which the players are concerned and incorporating technologies with which the players are familiar. Are we that far from 1984, when we judge others by nothing but appearances, and when we give authority to the government without any doubt? Paper, Please is trying to make you think about it.
This is a bit of a chicken/egg argument but I want to challenge the assumption that Lucas Pope chose a dystopian setting and that it evokes reality. I think the setting fits the general container of a dystopia on all grounds except one - it isn't really imagined. Yes, Arstotzka is fictional, but nothing that happens in the game is imagined; people live the experiences of Papers Please every single day. I think Pope intentionally fictionalized the setting to give players distance. If Papers Please featured a booth at the US-Mexico border, our discussions would likely be dominated by politics. Instead of talking about how I became angry at characters who wasted my time with forgotten documents I would probably…
I definitely had a strong reaction to the presentation of gender in this game. On the one hand, as you identified, you are required to clock individuals to determine if their gender presentation matches their gender identification on their passport, and if there is a discrepancy, it is never the case that it is acceptable to admit someone with differing gender presentation and identity. On the other hand, gender, as it exists presently, doesn't exist in the world of Papers, Please. Gender is merely a matching game in Papers Please. Your gender identity either matches your gender expression, or it is does not. No one is denied a job on account of their gender. No one is harassed on the…
Your point of naming the historical setting "dystopian" really makes me think. Often when we talk about dys/utopia we refer to a constructed future world, not somewhere in the past. As you said, since this historical setting is imbedded without traces of modern technology, it compels us to rethink the present. Perhaps what we fear and think of history also reflects how we envision the future. And I wonder what you would make of imaginings of future technology let's say Tacoma and how they represent/criticize our contemporary society.