[chii]

> I remember wondering: "why is this fun?"

Other than the tactility of the UI (which is a major part of the game), the reason, i believe, it is fun is because the game's mechanics matches that of the actual role you play in the story. Many games don't really get this correct (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludonarrative_dissonance).

In papers please, your decisions aren't clear cut, like in a regular RPG game, where you can "choose" to be a good guy or a bad guy by selecting one of two options, and one is clearly meant to be the good choice with the good ending, and the other bad. Papers please actually make you think like someone surviving a authoritarian regime, and your actions reflect that role too (you would, for example, choose not to feed, if family isn't absolutely hungry, or that you would attempt to deny entry as fast as possible, since a denied entry doesn't make you any money - no room for sympathies).

It makes the game feel "real".

[marvin]

The "RPG" element of "obviously good, obviously evil" decision always felt contrived to me. Most people would never choose to be evil. Evil grows out of processes much more complicated and human than that.

This seemed obvious to me even when I was 14, but maybe our culture has been stuck in a place where people's understanding of good and evil does not match reality. Propaganda during WWII (or any was, really) would be an obvious culprit.

[mr_toad]

And the so-called good players have body counts that would make Ted Bundy blush.