Permaban

It's 2007. You're an unpaid moderator on a dying internet forum.Inspired by Papers, Please, Permaban is a forum moderation game about interpreting rules, making judgment calls, and dealing with people who hate your decisions.A user wants to know who has the leaked build. Someone found the admin's old profile page and is asking whether to post it. A member since day one says the new rules are garbage, in those words. The spam bot might actually be a real person.Every ban needs a rule citation, and every tool has its own price. Moderate too hard and the regulars stop posting. Moderate too soft and the board drowns in raids, scams and flame wars.Nothing in a shift is on a clock. No timer, no post that rots if you leave it. The queue waits while you decide.Between shifts, the people you banned come back to argue, the other mods ask for favours and remember your answer, and the admins rewrite the rulebook under you.And the forum is only one window. The machine boots cold, POST beep and all, into a desktop you can actually use: a browser, a media player with a real playlist, a paint program, and if you open the wrong file, an archiver that will not stop asking you to buy it. Almost none of it is required, and almost all of it is hiding something. Numbers the calculator was never meant to take. Archives nobody asked you to open. A Flash game portal that one night becomes the job. The forum is where you work. The desktop is where the game keeps its secrets.FeaturesModerate forum postsBan, warn, censor, investigate, scan a link, lock the thread, IP ban, or nuke. Or leave it alone, which is also a callCite the correct rule every time you ban, warn or IP banEvery tool has its own price, and skipping straight to the ban button is not freeNo timer on a campaign shift. The queue waits while you decideAnswer ban appeals between shifts, with the original post as your only evidenceA break room where the other mods ask for favours, and remember your answerDeal with contradictory moderation policiesTrack ban evaders and sockpuppetsA spam filter that barely knows what spam isKeep your job: one bad shift and the admins noticeRead DMs, forum drama, and user complaintsA whole 2007 desktop to hide in: a browser, a media player, a paint program, a file explorer, a calculatorEndless mode with escalating chaos, and a break every twenty posts or six minutes, whichever lands firstAuto-save between campaign shifts, so a campaign survives you closing the gameIncludes700+ handmade forum posts28 achievementsA soundtrack you queue up yourself in a period media playerMultiple board themes inspired by classic forumsThree playable games buried in the machine, and one night when beating one of them is the jobRecurring users and moderator dramaRetro desktop sounds, boot screen includedAnd way too many easter eggs...Before you buyThis is a reading game, and it is all in English: 2007 forum English, typos and slang included. The answer is in the text, so skimming, or fighting the language, turns the whole thing into noise.It is also a period piece. One specific corner of the internet, rendered from memory: if you were on a forum in 2007, half of this will feel like a room you used to live in. If you were not, it still works, but the game never leaves that year.A campaign runs about 40-80 minutes, longer if you stop to read everything and poke at the desktop. Endless mode is where the rest of the hours are. Nothing here is a forty hour game.The posts include harassment, threats, people trying to expose each other, and users being plainly cruel, because that is the material the job is made of.This game is for you if:You read the whole thread before picking a sideYou were on a forum in 2007, or want to know what that was likePoking at a fake operating system until it gives something up sounds like a good nightIt is probably not for you if:You want action, or any pressure faster than a hard decisionYou measure a purchase in hours of content2007 internet drama sounds exhausting rather than funny