Each character owns and operates a street cart of some kind, and the gameplay is centered around running said cart. Andrus just moved to the states and needs to find a place to live. Melanie has just gone through a divorce and wants to keep custody of her daughter.
In Cart Life, the player takes on the role of one of three playable protagonists Melanie, Andrus, and Vinny. The experience of playing Papers, Please feels very similar to coming on stage at the end of a play, assuming the role of the protagonist, and trying to change the scene, except in Papers the player is the protagonist for the entire play as opposed to just one scene.Īnother game worth mentioning (and worth playing) is Cart Life. The game, though set in a fictional county, comes from the developer’s real life experience with immigration, just as TO scenes all start with a personal story of an actor. The player has the option to do what they feel is right in morally ambiguous situations but, like in a forum play, there are consequences. The game allows the player to make choices, and responds to them, much like how actors will push back against an audience member’s intervention. Papers, Please incorporates many aspects of a forum play. Others potential migrants have made convincing forgeries, and if the player doesn't notice, a terrorist could be allowed to cross the border, where they will then set off a bomb, killing dozens in the vicinity. If the player decides to let them pass, their pay may be docked, and there is a family at home that needs food and medical supplies. Some of them are on the run from violent ex-lovers, or have family on the other side of the border. Many people that come to the player’s desk lack the proper documents. Every day, the player receive new memos from the administration about what to look for on passports and work cards. Set in the fictional dystopian country of Arstotzka, the player takes on the role of an immigration inspector, checking documents, fingerprints, and body scans to keep what the administration has decided are “undesirables” out of the country.
Considering the ways that forum theatre resembles video games, are there then video games that in turn resemble TO?
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Both are media where the audience directly experiences the events in a story, since in both forum theatre and video games there is an onus on the participant to take action in a situation, rather than simply watching a series of events unfold. Both are interactive methods of storytelling where interactivity is used to inspire audience identification with the player character. As someone who loves video games, I can’t help but see the similarities between forum plays and video games. There are rules in the game of forum, and an end goal as well. After audience members view a play, they are invited on stage, where they play as a character. The model of forum theater is also, in many ways, a game. Games are a large part of the process of TO, where practitioners use them as mental exercises to examine mechanization, inspire imagination, encourage solidarity with troupes, enhance the theatricality of scenes, and of course, to have fun. In Theatre of the Oppressed (TO), we start every rehearsal with a game. The moment goes on too long, the whole group yells “Fire!”, runs about, and finds a new spot in the circle. The actor pauses for a moment, unsure of what to do next.
The next person points to someone across the circle from them and shouts “Gunslinger!” The actor who was pointed to makes a diamond with their hands in front of their body and says “Ricochet!” in return. The actor to the left of them quickly makes the same motion, also to left. An actor swings their arm in an underhanded motion across their body to the left. Everyone stands in a circle, or the closest approximation we can given the shape of the room, facing each other with anticipation.