Line #67 Headscratchers/PapersPlease


1	[[foldercontrol]]
2
3	[[folder: Giving your names to a government agent? This won't backfire in any way later!]]
4	* Why do EZIC think it's a good idea to give the names of their revolutionaries to an officer of the Arstotzkan government? It seems a bit stupid to just hope the inspector sympathises with their cause and is willing to betray his country to help them out. I suppose they're giving him money, which would help ''if they told him about it before asking him to break the law''. That's not how bribery works. Hell, if they just bothered to get proper documentation, it wouldn't even be necessary to have to ask an immigrations officer to illegally let them through. These guys are the worst conspirators ever.
5	** Without the inspector's help, they need to have impeccable forged documents with rapidly changing requirements. With the inspector, they skip all of that and, as it turns out, have the help of the only sharpshooter on an important border. The gift was a bad idea on [=EZIC=]'s part, but was good for the game's plot. But an even bigger headscratcher is how the masked EZIC agent(s) keep managing to enter your booth without being seen by anyone else. Also (and this is another AcceptableBreakFromReality), the order agents never hint who they are until after you've denied or accepted them. If they could hint afterwards, why not before?
6	** Speaking of [=EZIC=], how in the living hell do they have the key to the sniper rifle installed in the booth? How did they get to it? And for that matter, why was there a sniper rifle in the booth anyway? You don't need to snipe the terrorists, you just need to tranquilize them. Then again, the tranquilizer doesn't have enough ammo for the large terrorist attack that's set up to kill Sergiu and prevent you from getting the 100$ bonus for keeping him alive, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation so...]]
7	*** Actually, tranquilizer does have enough ammo, it holds 3 rounds. There are 3 terrorist and if you aim your shots right, you only need 2. Wait until both bikers have stopped and shoot one, the explosion will kill both. Then shoot the final terrorist before he throws the grenade.
8	*** The Ministry of Admission installed the Sniper Rifle Locker along with the Tranquilizer Rifle Locker but leaves the task of providing the Inspector with the proper access key to an irresponsible official who never gets around to doing it. Conveniently allowing [=EZIC=] to provide another access key without raising suspicion from the Ministry of Information.
9	** In the Soviet Union, there existed a permit system called "Propiska" which kept track of people's movements and applications for residency. Supporters of Propiska said that it allowed them to track criminals and suspects more easily and prevented overcrowding of lower-class dwellings while opponents said that Propiska violated freedom of movement and promoted segregation by excluding people from certain areas. Perhaps the reason why [=EZIC=] agents don't bring Entry Permits is because they don't want to be identified and tracked down by the Ministry of Information.
10	*** That'd be a pretty persuasive argument if it weren't for the fact that Corman Drex has full documentation, including a state-issued ID card. This means either Drex is operating under their legally-recognized identity (inadvisable to say the least, but not nearly as stupid as annoucing your ties to revolutionary organisation to a state agent) and EZIC isn't overly concerned about leaving a paper trail, or that it's within their capabilities to have these documents faked. Unless there's a good reason Drex is a special case, either explanation would render the Inspector's cooperation completely unneccessary.
11	[[/folder]]
12	[[folder: Why even recruit the inspector in the first place?]]
13	* Why do they even need the border inspector, who's going to eventually slip up and violate protocol, when the citation printer knows everything there is to know? Even if they need a human there, they can easily use the citation printer to tell him whether or not to deny.
14	** GameplayAndStorySegregation. You could imagine it that in real life the inspector's actions are reviewed weekly and any discrepancies are then deducted from his paycheck. However, this would be incredibly frustrating in the game, so it's abstracted that you get the citations immediately.
15	** This is the case, developer did state that he initially planned to have citations come after a week, but found that the imminent citation worked better, helping the player to recognize when they were slipping up.[[/folder]]
16	[[folder: No detaining EZIC members? ...Why not?]]
17	* Why can't you detain the masked EZIC operatives? You can detain people for all sorts of minor infractions (mismatched genders, invalid serial numbers, wrong hair colour, ect.), so you'd think that masked individuals with no identification handing out treasonous documents, coded ciphers, and POISON (!) would be enough to warrant arrest. Especially if the player is playing as a loyal Arstotzkan.
18	** Okay, I think the reason is because the protagonist think it's not the right choice to detain the agent of a secret group which he does not know anything about. Who knows how powerful it is and how far its connection can reach. You don't know who is the EZIC members or associates. They could take you out while you're sleeping, or the border patrol officer that would detain you instead should you have the option to detain the EZIC agent, he is desperate for cash, no, so what's preventing him from accepting the EZIC bribe? Hell, the EZIC agent somehow obtain a key to the sniper rifle in your own booth which no one else has access to. He MUST have a connection for that to be possible.
19	** Not to mention the one time you can give evidence on EZIC to your superior, you end up arrested for your troubles. It seems like the inspector is just trying to stay out of things and do his job.
20	** As for those "minor infractions", you're arresting people for forged documents, not documents with incorrect information. It's not as big a deal as terrorism, but it's not exactly a small deal, either.[[/folder]]
21	[[folder: Lotta formality over a blatant fake.]]
22	* This may seem minor, but why on earth does the inspector stamp Jorji's fake passport? You should use the denial slip. He gets denied for the reason that the document is a fake. Not a forgery, but a crude fake. No office anywhere would process it. What good is stamping it?
23	** Because that stamp of denial tells Jorji this (or at least, this is what I like to think is the meaning): "You're wasting my time with this piece of shit fake passport, holding up the line, costing me time and money to deal with your bullshit. FUCK. OFF."
24	*** That's subject to AlternateCharacterInterpretation; personally, [[RefugeInAudacity I would be impressed enough by the audacity of bringing in such a blatant fake]] that I'd stamp it real quick just to humor him. Plus, this early in the game, the inspector doesn't know him enough to know how he'd react; it might just be quicker to stamp it and send him on his way than take the passport and risk him kicking up a fuss. (He wouldn't, but the inspector has no way of knowing this.)[[/folder]]
25	[[folder: Just "forget" your passport, genius.]]
26	* There's one worker who has all his papers in order, but wants to be sent denied entry to free him from his contract, as he knows of a better job in Impor. Why not just lie and not give out all of his papers, rather than risk the inspector rigidly enforcing the rules and sending him through anyway? "Aw, shucks, I seem to have left my ID supplement at home. Sorry for wasting your time. Just deny me and I'll be on my way."
27	** He wants proof that he cannot enter, if he gets a slip saying he didn't have papers then his boss will just tell him to get them. If he shows up with papers, and then they are stamped as wrong he has proof he can't enter with the papers he has and will get out of his contract.
28	*** I think it's likely that if they get denied for forgetting, they'll get fired for incompetence. No need to risk the bribe then.[[/folder]]
29	[[folder: Trained soldiers are no match for a mighty...border inspector?]]
30	* How does a border inspector have better aim than a guard that has (one of them, atleast) fought in Kolechia for years? It seems the Inspector is the only person in Arstotzka who actually has training to use a gun.
31	** Maybe the labor lottery applies to the guards too?
32	** They stand all day long in the cold and wind doing nothing, while inspector at least has wind protection and some heat from the lighting as he handles papers and stamps and browses his handbook. Plus, guard salary isn't much, so they probably have to skimp on food and/or every now and then, too.
33	** Sergiu, at least, mentions that he fought in the war, and his aim is "not like before", suggesting he may be a ShellShockedVeteran. You don't get to talk to the other guards, but it may be the same case for them.
34	** Speaking of, we know nothing about what inspector was doing during the war — he could easily be an ex-soldier too, or even a sniper. His assignment as a border inspector is completely random.
35	** And it's not like civilian firearms were totally banned in the Soviet Union either. Depending on where the Inspector is from, he might have been a non-military marksman. If he was from somewhere sufficiently rural, perhaps he hunted?[[/folder]]
36	[[folder: Transit through Arstotzka...''why?'']]
37	* Transit Trips make no sense whatsoever due to the fact that Arstotzka is the easternmost country in the game's world (according to the map in the rulebook). Unless Arstotzka was a centrally-located crossroads nation and that there are actually more countries to the east of the known world, you wouldn't need to pass through in the first place. Unless Transit through Arstotzka provides a cheaper and safer alternative than Transit through the other countries. (Example: If you're in Impor and you want to go to Obristan, your Transit Routes are either the United Federation, Kolechia, or Arstotzka.)
38	** Drug and contraband trafficking. Arstotzkan border is ridiculously easy to pass if you have the connections or funds to get flawless papers, forged or not.
39	** It's also possible that the map we see isn't of the whole world, but only a continent, or part of a continent.
40	** Arstotzka has large coastal area which means a number of docks for travel by boat which can a lot faster then travel by land even if it is on the same continent.[[/folder]]
41	[[folder: Arstozkan Credit, best currency in the world! (?)]]
42	* The use of Arstotzkan Credits by foreigners raises some interesting questions. Are all the nations part of a Currency Union with Arstotzka as the strongest economy? Or are Credits the only valid currency when you're inside Arstotzka? On a side note, where's the coinage?
43	** Credits are only used for bribes, if I remember correctly. They probably exchanged their currency for Arstotzkan credits well before they ever make it to you, to be 'sure' they can get through.
44	** If you're traveling to a new country, it's generally a good idea to get that country's currency to use before you get there, regardless of whether or not you plan on bribing someone. As far as the coinage, why would someone bribe you with coins? Just because you never see Arstotzkan coins doesn't mean they don't exist.
45	** It's not unrealistic to assume they all use Arstotzkan currency. There are still are countries that don't issue their own currency, as in most members of European Union. Argentinian government (as of December of 2023) plans to stop using their pesos and make US Dollar their legal tender.
46	[[/folder]]
47	[[folder: Buil...er, ''raise'' the wall and make Kolechia pay for it!]]
48	* You'd think that the first time a terrorist jumps over the low wall that the Arstotzkan government would be sensible enough to raise it or at least add barbed wire to deter future attempts. But no. The corruption is so bad that they can't even afford to install barbed wire. Or maybe they're trying to present a better self-image of openness. (High Walls + Barbed Wire = Oppression)
49	** There's also the fact that the Arstotzkan government is plagued by bureaucratic inertia and plain old corruption. Very likely there were plans to upgrade the border wall but the resources kept getting "allocated" elsewhere. Plus, the inspector is considered expendable considering how easy he is to replace if killed or arrested.[[/folder]]
50	[[folder: Kolechian border control as the plot demands?]]
51	* Elisa's callous treatment by the Kolechian Government is hypocritical when you consider the fact that some of the generic entrants that you process are ''Kolechian Emigrants''. If they could get the necessary paperwork for leaving Kolechia, why couldn't Elisa get them as well? Is it just bad luck or some other messed-up reason?
52	** Someone in the Kolechian system might not like that she'll end up with an Arstotzkan soldier, if they have such intel. It could also be that there aren't enough women in Kolechia, and someone thinks that a young, presumably pretty, woman shouldn't leave the country.
53	*** Not enough women? Is that really something that realistically happens to an entire country?
54	*** Yes. See China and other countries that have instituted gender-selective birth policies in the past.
55	*** Although a nation that's just lost a war would probably lack ''men'' instead...
56	** Alternatively the immigrating Kolechians are either in extremely good standing with the Kolchian Government (and possibly spies, given what Arstotzka has been doing to them) or their permits are forgeries. Really really good forgeries (which is possible, given that Jorji will have one at some point).
57	** It's actually really, really simple. Elisa is poor, so she can't afford the bribes necessary to obtain paperwork, despite being legally eligible. The other entrants have enough money to grease the corrupt system. It's very TruthInTelevision. There are places in the world where bribes are simply the normal way of getting things done.[[/folder]]
58	[[folder: A glorious Inspector of Arstotzka has no need for trivial things like "food" and "heat".]]
59	* When the Inspector tries to save money by not paying for food and heat, only his family will suffer. How is he unaffected by the lack of food and heat?
60	** Every member of the family has a different threshold of suffering they can take before getting sick and eventually dying. The son, for example, will get sick after only a single day of hunger, while the uncle can go for a full three days. It is possible that the inspector is simply the most resilient of his family.
61	** It is very likely that inspector's food share is provided by the goverment. They want employees to work properly and not be distracted by such things as hunger due to accidently skipping dinner. The time used to consume that food is skipped for the sake of gameplay, but it exists. This also explains policy "supply your family or get fired" - without it, workers could survive infinitely while doing really bad ad their work but having no formal reason to be replaced.
62	** As for heat, there should be some heat source at his workplace, so he don't have to suffer from cold whole day - and he is probably more cold-resilent than his family[[/folder]]
63	[[folder: Those Obristanis sure have some harsh immigration laws...]]
64	* The Inspector's family is five members (himself, wife, son, mother-in-law, and uncle) with four Passports. When the niece is adopted, the size increases to six and there are five Passports. The reason why there are only five Passports is because the son is too young to bear a Passport. Yet, you need ''SIX Passports'' for everyone to escape to Obristan. ''Why does Obristan Immigration require underage minors to carry Passports???''
65	** Obristan probably has lower standards for legal age. If you consider this with the fact that the son recently had his birthday, it's possible that he barely reached the required age for carrying a passport in Obristan. Either that or every person wanting to enter Obristan has to have a Passport with no exceptions whatsoever, ''even if the entrant is 10 years or less''.
66	** Turns out this was a bug that was fixed in version 1.4.8. The family now starts with five Arstotzkan passports, which updates to six upon adopting the niece.[[/folder]]
67	[[folder: "They hadn't started issuing ID supplements then, genius."]]
68	* Why do expired documents show up which are dated to before documents of that type were even issued? For example, ID supplements were not a part of the customs process until December 5th, 1982, but you'll run into ID supplements that expired on November 28th 1982 and the like.
69	** Crappy forgeries, of course. Whoever made it didn't think it through.
70	** Or other checkpoints, with different rules. Border with Kolechia just opened, but there could be checkpoints on other borders, or even an international airport in Arstotzka.
71	** Or bureaucratic error, forgetting to roll the 11 over to a 12 on the stamp.[[/folder]]
72	[[folder: Lazy journalists]]
73	* Why don't the journalists go through the trouble of getting the proper documents? Especially the second who tries to enter should know by that point that he or she will be denied.
74	** They are foreign journalists trying to enter a faux-Soviet bloc nation. Perhaps they tried getting legit documents and were denied.
75	*** This could be the reason. But they know (assuming the first journalist was denied) that the guard is not letting someone get in without proper papers, especially when they make a point of not having proper papers. Work harder to get the papers, get good forgeries, lie about your purpose when you apply for papers, whatever.. But trying to get in through a press pass is idiocy on the second attempt
76	*** Lying about your purpose for entering a country (to report as a journalist) when you're a journalist is a bad idea. And having a forgery can get you arrested, which is a terrible fate for any journalist. No one will come to your aid and the government will be eager to punish you. It might even declare you a foreign spy instead of a journalist, which, since you've broken the law, you can't really defend against (you can't prove your own government didn't put you up to it, and helped you obtain false documents). The journalists likely couldn't get approved for real papers, did not want to risk being 'covert' with forgeries, and so just attempted to wave their press pass and bluster their way past the inspector.
77	** It doesn't matter whether they get in or not, they get a good story. So they probably just don't care.
78	** And if they are denied, they still get a good story without actually leaving their homes for more than a few hours. They might prefer it that way.
79	** Both journalists the inspector encounters are smug, entitled jerks who expect their press passes to give them universal access to anywhere. Unfortunately, these types of journalists [[TruthInTelevision are fairly common in real life]].
80	[[/folder]]
81	[[folder:Suspicion-proof poison]]
82	* On Day 20, you can use the poison to kill anyone after the EZIC messenger who gives it to you. Applying it to the Man in Red eventually leads to the M.O.I. finding out, but if you kill anyone else with the poison, nobody ever suspects you of it. Wouldn't an investigation obviously trace back to you given that the victim bites it right after they leave your booth? Alternatively, wouldn't an investigator check the body, notice the suspicious powder on the stamp on the passport that the victim was carrying, and then investigate your booth and the rubber stamp that should also have some of the death powder?
83	** Notably, immediately after you poison someone (and approve their entry), a guard will investigate their body, and approach your booth.. before succumbing to the poison themselves.
84	[[/folder]]
85	[[folder:Apartments]]
86	* Why does inspector has to pay rent for government-provided apartment? He would need to pay for utilities, so, heat. Is "rent" just the word the game uses for electricity and water for some reason? And also, how can inspector move to another apartment by saving up and paying? In such system as Arstotzka is supposed to emulate, you would be given a place and that's it.
87	** Probably rent is summing up things like electricity, water, etc. And according to the system it’s trying to emulate, it’s almost quite accurate. It was possible to move from one apartment to another, but it was paid.
88	** The way I interpret it, perhaps rather than actually ''moving'' to another apartment, the Inspector and his family just have their existing apartment kitted out with upgrades. Conversely, they can cancel those extras to downgrade their apartment.
89	[[/folder]]
90	[[folder:Visibly-forged seals]]
91	* Forged seals start appearing after it's reported that the [=MoA=]'s sealing plates were stolen. But if they're using the same sealing plates, why are imperfections so common? The logical situation would be that the visibly-forged seals start showing up ''before'' the plates are stolen, and then after the theft, you'd start seeing them less often, since you can no longer tell from the seal that it's a fake.
92	** The thieves who stole the sealing plates didn't sell the originals. They sold their poorly made copies of the originals so that they could get continuous income rather then a one off payment. Unfortunately for their forger customers the copies they mare are of poor quality with numerous copying errors.
93	** Plus, you can only use a stamp so many times before it starts to wear out. At that point, the stamp is immediately replaced, which the thieves can't do unless they plan another break-in.
94	[[/folder]]
95	[[folder:Road access?]]
96	* Everyone is shown entering Arstotzka on foot. How do they get their vehicles to the other side? Do they have another inspector in another booth for cars?
97	** This checkpoint is for foot traffic only. Cars were a luxury in 1982 in Eastern Europe, and lots of people, even international travellers, didn't have them. They travelled by mass transit like trains and buses. One of the Day 1 entrants even says she needs to catch a bus.
98	[[/folder]]
99	[[folder:Impossibly-Thin Bomb]]
100	* How the hell did that terrorist on day 15 fit that bomb through the tiny slit on the booth? You can clearly see it's too thick to fit.
101	** The slot is bigger then it looks because Arstotzka doesn't have the paper sized curved slots found in modern buildings. It has a brass lined slot big enough to shove a medium sized package through.
102	[[/folder]]
103	[[folder:"Call number on slip"...from outside Arstotzka?]]
104	* When the passport seizure program is instated, you are asked to confiscate passports from certain Arstotzkan citizens (and later all citizens), and when you issue the seizure slip, you inform the entrant that they have to call the number on the slip regarding their passport. But if you deny them entry into the country...how ''can'' they call the number? Unless the fictional world's telephone system lends better to international calls.
105	** The system is set up so that law-abiding Arstotzkan citizens are allowed in and can deal with the bureaucracy locally. Any Arstotzkan who is ''denied'' entry is either a criminal or not really Arstotzkan at all, and they can suffer from the misfortune of their own making.
106	** That said, international phone calls were hardly impossible in 1982.
107	[[/folder]]
108	[[folder: The only communist nation to speak English....yay, I guess?]]
109	* How did Arstotzka adopt a language that is very much associated with a former imperialistic power? Better yet, how did the British Empire end up on this part of the world? Was there a fight for independence, then a revolution? Or was it a "2-for-1"?
110	** TranslationConvention is presumably in effect; the characters are likely speaking whatever Arstotzka's official language is.
111	** I find the movie less believable in this regard. The characters speak Russian, but even internal documents are in English (such as the telegraph warning the inspector that Arstotzka has reached its daily limit of Kolechian immigrants).
112	[[/folder]]
113	[[folder:Denying Shae vs. detaining her]]
114	* If you detain Shae for having a Diplomatic Authorization that doesn't include Arstotzka, Dimitri abuses his post to makes up charges to have you arrested. Why doesn't he do the same if you just deny her entry? Is he less angry over a denial versus detention (since Shae ''merely'' gets sent back instead of being detained -- but still angry nonetheless), or is there some offscreen law about unlawful detention that he exploits in the event Shae is detained?
115	[[/folder]]

Context Headscratchers / PapersPlease