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LKG Releases "LaMigra" in Kalistani Videogame Market
"Immigration Simulation" surprisingly addicting
Eveari, Ananto
April 1, 5088


"LaMigra" is about the drudgery and stupidity of Immigration and Customs laws

The Hutori-Kalistani Joint venture LKG, known mostly for a string of opensource quirky independent games that are almost always modestly successful, and a handful of hits which redefined computer gaming, seem to have struck gold once more. The Group released "LaMigra" last month to much anticipation and excellent critical and player reviews.

"'LaMigra' is a relatively foreign concept in a country that has no border controls, where nationality is granted to anyone in the world who claims it, and Passports are as common as birth certificates," said LKG spokeswoman Melanie Caruthers. "It is a simulation about the mindnumbing drudgery of high bureaucracy. Essentially you are a bordercontrol agent who has to apply an ever increasingly mindboggling set of restrictions to determine whether someone can come through your border control point or not. You have to decide whether this or that person is an enemy of the state, or is moving contraband across the border. You have to make a number of ethical decisions throughout the game. In short, it is about the absolute and inexplicable ridiculousness of not only border control rules, but also an explicit ridicule of those countries who maintain them."

The game is divided into a series of days. Each day, the player reports to work, and begins checking documents, like passports, work permits, fingerprints, and entrance visas. The player earns points not only for how many people he lets pass through, but how well he observes the laws, which can change from day to day. "It really keeps players on their toes," said Caruthers. "You have to be familiar with whatever the law is that day, first and foremost, making sure all the data in the documents is accurate, making sure that the person is legally allowed to enter the country, and so forth. Somedays, people will come in and beg to be let in, because they are being persecuted in their home country, but if you let them in when they are not legally allowed to enter, you will lose points." Points, according to Caruthers, are important because the player character is essentially trying to do a good job to earn food and medicine for their family, and if they fail, that food and medicine will be cut off.

"Our goal with this game is to illuminate the abject stupidity of both liberal nations and authoritarian regimes by simulating one part of the bureaucracy in those countries," said Caruthers."In liberal countries, which are supposed to have open borders, they still maintain border controls because deep down most people in those nations are afraid of foreigners. And authoritarian countries control their borders to prevent people with dangerous ideas from entering. Ultimately, in both cases, border control is about control. Control of the movement of people, control over who can come in and be considered part of 'Us', and use of those laws to define 'Them', and protecting the facade that there is something inherently valuable about 'citizenship'. In Kalistan, we see citizenship as a series of duties a person owes to their society. They clearly do not see things this way in Liberal Nations, were it is only about what individuals can take from the society, nor in authoritarian states which are really only about domination."

The setting for the game is a fictional nation of Ulyanovsk. Some claim that Ulyanovsk is based on Deltaria. "No," said Caruthers. "Ulyanovsk is an entirely made up country, speaking an entirely gibberish fictional languages. We essentially drew names out of a hat and this is how we settled on Ulyanovsk." The country is a recent;y democratized, former totalitarian state, which is surrounded by nations which are one day its friend, the next day its enemy, based on which faction controls the National Government. "There was a civil war right before the game began," said Caruthers. "They're still trying to figure out to what degree democracy is something they want to pursue."

Players have given the game high marks. "LKG is known for quality," noted game enthusiast Piper Downs. "This game feels like some designers ate a bunch of mushrooms, brainstormed a recently democratized state, and then picked one tiny part of it, and researched everything there is to know about the process, all in one night."

"Me and my buddies got stoned one night and played 'LaMigra'," said Mike Stacey, of Sulari, "and we tried to see how quickly we could get the main guy shot to death for f--king up everything. We just let everyone with a bomb through! What a hilarious night! 11/10!"

Critics were also happy with the game. Topher Nichols from Gamer Core Monthly praised its replayability. "The game is randomized so there is no real way to develop a strategy to win that is fool proof. Just when you think you have a method to check documents fast, the law changes and you have to remember that you are no longer looking for finger prints, or whatever. Its a simulation, but at its heart, it is a puzzle, like a labyrinth whose walls constantly change. You are still expected to make it to the center of the maze anyway, but you are also being timed."

Maggie Bolivar, of gaming blog "WspotGamez" said "I love that you can play it to win, or play it to lose catastrophically. There are enough choices that need to be made in a given moment: Do you let the poor refugees through, or do you put them in prison? Do you try to impress the boss, or do you work to feed your family. The game is full of mutually exclusive decisions, and despite not even having a name, you find that you get invested in the main character of the game very quickly. I think LKG really did a great job with this game."

Renee Smith, of "GOAT Games" praised its remarkable consistency and lack of bugs. "They must have had hundreds of hours beta testing this game. I have yet to find a bug in this game and though the rules change all the time, there is an amazingly consistent story that makes the changes seem like the next logical step in a coherent overall foreign policy. I've played this game dozens of times and while I know the changes in the rules are procedurally generated, the story always feels like a consistent narrative. I am, surprisingly hooked, and will try some of the scenarios next!"

There are only a handful of critics. Liberal blogger L. Lawrence Bildersley said "I really think their critique of liberalism is a little heavy handed. What we really need to pay attention to is that Kalistan has itself rejected liberalism. If it had closed borders, I'd say this is an accurate simulation of the kind of octopus government of Kalistan." His voice was only echoed in a handful of other reviews, and over all, the game earned a 96% "good" rating on review aggregators.

"LaMigra" is available now for download or as physical media. It can be played on PC or on console. Its retail price is K4.50, and as are all LKG games, it is open source and encourages community development and modification. There are already more than 200 scenarios published for the game, created by players themselves.