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adsorensen's Prison Architect (PC)
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| [February 15, 2018 11:17:00 PM]
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My third session of Prison Architect was good. I decided to just use one of the campaign prisons to mess around with instead of building one from scratch since I feared that would take too long (although I plan to in the near future. I hired lots of guards, made solitary confinement areas and made the prisoners schedules very strict. I did frequent searches and some bangups, but I started feeling bad before any riots happened. I get feeling guilty mistreating people, even in a video game.
I'm still trying to figure out some of the more advanced features of the game, such as policy, bureaucracy, grants and finances. These features aren't required to have a basic functioning prison though. It's been cool to see all the detail put into this game. Some features I really liked were the drug and alcohol recovery programs you could have for the prisoners. That was required to do in the campaign to help the addicted inmates. Another program that looked interesting was the spiritual guidance, but I didn't experiment with that one. Like I mentioned before, there are many ethical dilemmas and scenarios in this game that I find fascinating and I'm glad so much thought and functionality went into what I originally thought was a very basic sim game.
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| [February 14, 2018 10:52:23 PM]
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My second session of Prison Architect was entertaining. The missions I played were a little more stressful than the first part of the campaign. I had to put out a fire and rebuild some areas that were destroyed. I had to make sure the water and electric hookups were run to certain objects and that there was the proper staff working. After the fire is dealt with, you are introduced to some members of a gang, and their story ties back into the first missions double murder situation. The mission ends with two inmates being killed and some more drama with the gang. The next mission was exciting, since you are thrown into a prison that has a full scale riot underway. All the cell blocks are uncontained and you get riot guards to go in and cull the uprising. As you get some areas under control, you find there is a hostage situation with the CEO. Towards the end of the riot, you are allowed to use armed police officers, with the disclaimer that they might kill inmates, or that the rioters will surrender when they see the weapons. I tried to use this force as a backup measure, letting the riot officers go in first to avoid casualties. I didn't want to risk getting people killed, even if they were prisoners who rioted. The final part of the riot got a little out of hand and the inmates actually killed 2 riot guards, maybe I should have sent in the armed police guards into that section. After the riot is over with, you are tasked with rebuilding the destroyed areas and make some adjustments. You can make an armory so your staff is better equipped for future riots and solitary confinement areas to quell unruly prisoners.
I can see how this game relates to ethics since it touches on so many real world scenarios and you are able to choose how to handle them in different ways. There may not be the perfect way to solve a certain situation and deciding which option is "better" can be difficult.
I think I have all the knowledge I need to try and build my own prison, which I will try tomorrow for the next session. I would like to try and take the forceful approach for managing the prison, but I seem to go the passive routes a lot so we shall see how committed I'll be. Still enjoying the game overall!
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| [February 13, 2018 09:45:14 PM]
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I played the first two hours of Prison Architect on PC. I started out on the campaign and liked the easy progression of it. The first task you are required to perform is to build an execution center for a prisoner that needs to be put to death. The game teaches you how to build structures, segment rooms and provide the necessary utilities to certain objects.
After you finish building the execution chamber, you see a cutscene of the death row inmate killing his two victims. He seems very remorse about his actions, seeks a priest for forgiveness and turns himself in. On the way from his cell to his impending doom, the prison chief and priest have a conversation about the inmates fate. The guard thinks that the execution is the just consequence for the inmate, and the priest argues that he has taken all the right steps to not face death. He mentions that if he would have committed the crime a little further away, he would only be facing life in prison instead of the execution. That was interesting to think about since we know some states have the death penalty and others don't.
There are some complex mechanics to the game that I hope won't be overwhelming in the future. You can monitor your prisoners happiness and check which things you can improve to avoid riots. Making sure you have the correct number of staff is crucial to maintaining a good prison. I like the detail put into the game and I'm excited to finish the campaign and make my own prison from scratch.
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adsorensen's Prison Architect (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 13 February, 2018
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