The delivery simulator from the perspective of a pandemic postal worker.

I've been wanting to post here to gush about this game for a while. I saw a video essay about Death Stranding today and since I quit carrying mail at the post office recently I feel like I finally have time to write out a post on reddit.

When the pandemic hit last year I just happened to have just started playing Death Stranding. Within days of everything being cancelled I realized my specific contractor job was going to go away for a long time and I thought it would be *very funny* to be a USPS mail carrier. I thought I'd ride out the pandemic with a very essential job that should be durable. It turns out that the pandemic made being a mail carrier absolutely insane. The amount of mail (especially packages) was off the charts and USPS was overloaded and understaffed to begin with.

I stopped playing Death Stranding for a while. I was working 70+ hours every week until a brief bit of relief in the early fall. Then the election and Christmas was also absolutely insane. When I did have time to play I just didn't have it in me to do it, even though the concept of playing a game that is just like my job was very funny. I finished Death Stranding in January when I took two weeks off.

I don't think I've seen it written about so what I really wanted to do is to talk about how much DS really is a mail/package delivery simulator. The gameplay loop is the job of a mail carrier, and probably a UPS/FedEx driver. The connection is obvious and it's been joked about but... I mean it seems to me that they *absolutely must have* interviewed mail carriers and made the job into a game.

Besides the very obvious, here's why I think that:

1. Inventory management. Obviously I loaded up a vehicle with all of the mail and packages for the day, but I also would load up my arms and satchels with packages and mail for each block on foot. I didn't always have room for everything that needs to be delivered. Besides walking, I would spend most of my time on the street getting loaded out for each block.
2. There was a whole calculation going on with what can I carry with me and what will I have to drive to the front of the house if it's too big or heavy. Is it faster to carry more or faster to move the vehicle? How close can I even get with this vehicle? Literally the gameplay loop and decision making is the same as delivering packages and mail.
3. Rain destroys your packages? Well it doesn't destroy packages in real life, but it does destroy mail. Every mail carrier has to put that rain hood up and figure out how to keep the mail dry - maybe shielding it with arms, storing it in the satchel and only holding a little at a time, or take a 10 minute break and see if it passes. 10 minutes in heavy rain and you could have completely destroyed mail, like envelopes falling apart and the contents inside ruined.
4. I could wear out a new pair of shoes in 6 weeks. It's not at all a coincidence that Sam has to print new boots all the time.
5. There was always a terrain calculation going on as I walked, but it became hard mode when it was wet or snowing. Then I would start having to judge how to change my path for how to keep my feet dry or how much grip I have. Getting my feet wet would make me miserable and the biggest threat to falling is dropping the mail.
6. Regarding dropping the mail: it's a super noob mistake. Everyone does it. The mail was sorted in order for that street, so it sucks so hard to drop it. After the second time when I was new I figured out how to never let that happen again. But, then came winter and I found out about black ice or tripping on something hidden under the snow. Same thing in DS, lol. I fell in the first hour of the game but quickly figured out how to not fall. But of course I did fall later in the game because of the challenging terrain and conditions.
7. This might be obvious but the different types of packages and the considerations for each is very real. You've got heavy, big, time-limited, and fragile. There's also those houses that always seem to get like 6 packages a day.

So, what I'm curious about it is how much thought and research did they put into making this a USPS simulator. It seems like a lot. I say USPS very specifically because as far as I'm concerned Bridges is USPS without letters. Fragile Express is FedEx. The USPS outerwear is basically Sam's suit when he works for Bridges. The vehicles have the red/white/blue stripes too.

Here's some other stuff I noticed:

1. On walking routes (that's what I'm talking about here) we definitely wear out a path from house to house. When I would deliver a route that I didn't know yet, I'd follow the worn out grass to figure out the best path to the next mailbox. Following the footsteps of other carriers was especially useful in the snow.
2. Mail carriers work together more than you would think. It's common to meet up with other carriers to help or get help. Sometimes one carrier finishes early and another one needs help. I would routinely get into another carrier's truck to take a bunch of packages out and deliver them. We'd share resources too like snacks, water, etc. A decent amount of my equipment was handed down to me by other carriers rather than assigned to me by management.
3. We have what's called "warning cards" sorted into our mail. That way if someone is covering my route I can tell them about a dog to avoid or where to find a hidden mailbox. They would do the same for me. So... signs.
4. The scanner that we use to scan packages is also GPS for snooping on us. It's required to carry it at all times and they will get on your case if it stays still for longer than your allotted breaks. Kinda feels like it might as well be handcuffs to be honest.
5. Working 70+ hour weeks definitely made me feel like I might as well call my bedroom a private room where all I do is shower, clear notifications from my phone, and sleep.

I quit the job because it just didn't make financial sense anymore and there are better options. It was a super hard job. But there were good aspects too like the appreciation from people and the absolutely bizarre sense of pride when you defeat the weather and the obstacles, knock out a huge workload, help out another carrier, and head back to the office in an empty truck.

In the context of what video games are, it's weird AF for this game to even exist. It's awesome though. It's like what if the hero isn't a soldier? What if the hero is a mail carrier? Even with the BTs, BBs, beaches, and other wild sci-fi/horror elements, I would go so far as to say that this is closer to a USPS mail carrier simulator than any other game has been to being a soldier simulator. So glad it exists and I'm so glad I decided to be a pandemic mail carrier while playing it.