“UnderKingdom”, Enslavement Simulation, and the Normalization of Human Trafficking and Scam Compound Culture in Southeast Asia

This paper argues that Scam Center Simulator: UnderKingdom trivializes victim harm and dehumanizes trafficked persons. It normalizes offender identity within a documented and ongoing crisis. I examine these design features against Southeast Asia’s scam compound phenomenon. I adopt a viewpoint approach. The primary source is the developer’s public representation of game mechanics on Steam. This is supplemented by firsthand observation of available gameplay material. This constitutes a structural analysis of design intent, not a study of individual player outcomes. Theoretical analysis draws on Bandura’s moral disengagement theory and Sykes and Matza’s neutralization techniques. Evidence from the scam compound and online fraud literature anchors the argument throughout. The game’s design architecture reproduces the cognitive and moral architecture of scam compound operations. Its mechanics are directly mapped onto documented compound practices. Crucially, the simulator literalizes the emic offender argot “the game,” documented in the criminological literature. This renders a criminal self-concept as a commercially distributed entertainment product. This is the first critical examination of this game as a cultural artifact. I identify the literalization of offender argot as a structurally novel contribution to harm. My analysis has implications for trafficking research, media literacy, and platform regulation in Southeast Asia.