Korax

The Stanley Parable

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eh, try using the chair that's turned away from the desk to jump on one of the desks on your left at the beginning, then fall outside the map. If that's not entertaining then I'm not sure what else would be.

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Semi-replying to Merus in the recently completed video games thread:

 

The main storyline of The Stanley Parable leaves a lot of unresolved questions, like where his co-workers went or the purpose of the deception.

 

As far as I can tell, answers to those questions aren't even hinted at in the rest of the game.  The story changes completely for each path.

 

Is that true?

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Yes that is true, but the game is about neither of those things - or at least it is not a about their resolution.

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The main storyline of The Stanley Parable leaves a lot of unresolved questions, like where his co-workers went or the purpose of the deception.

 

As far as I can tell, answers to those questions aren't even hinted at in the rest of the game.  The story changes completely for each path.

 

Is that true?

 

Yes and no. There are several paths which provide an explanation for what's going on, but like how the Joker got his scars, they're contradictory and there's no indication that one takes precedence over the other. That lack of... continuity? Consistency? is the one thing I didn't like about the game. I enjoyed the narration in most of the paths, but I started by heavily exploring the door on the right, and elements from a few of the paths gave me a sense that this was a world that operated on rules.

 

Specifically, I got the sense that Stanley was in a story, and his attempts to fight the narrator caused damage to the fabric of his world.

 

I was far from a complete understanding, but I felt like by seeing the content on a few paths, I was able to start putting together an understanding more advanced than "Anything can happen, unpredictably". But as I kept going, each path provided information that didn't fit together to form a larger picture. Eventually I was forced to accept that there was no grand mystery of the Stanley Parable to be figured out across multiple playthroughs, the story of each path exists in a vacuum.

 

It made the game's end a bit of a letdown. Instead of any grander conclusion, I finished the last path, spent a run or two confirming that I couldn't find any more paths, and then declared to myself "Well, I guess I've seen all there is to see. Done with that now." In the game's defense, I can't imagine how they could make it end any other way, but in my complaint's defense, that doesn't make it less dissatisfying.

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I took The Stanley Parable as exploring a bunch of ideas around the tension between player and game creator, exemplified by the iconic choice between the door you're instructed to go through and the door you're not. I don't think it's really intended to be coherent between playthroughs, in large part because your participation in the story changes what this story is 'about'. It's a parable. Specifically, the 'canonical' playthrough is the parable, where by following the Narrator's instructions precisely, you demonstrate your ability to make your own meaningful choices, and deviation from the path is an elaboration on the ideas brought up by the parable.

 

I also get the feeling it's not particularly malicious about the idea of telling stories in games, but that's meta-knowledge. On the other hand, the 'custom map' ending in the original mod makes a great point that the retail release doesn't really try - the closest is probably the corruption ending, where the player has full freedom but no meaningful interaction, but not making that point in the full release is a little odd. At the least, I can't really imagine a game where most of the fun is in finding new bits of dialogue really intending to say that this is a degenerate way of building games.

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I need to get my wife's family sharing thingy setup so I can try this. I like the narrator enough to have bought the DOTA announcer pack (and even launch and play a game!)

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I decided to play the new version (remake?Upgrade? Retail version?) and wow, did I enjoy it a lot more than the mod. 

 

Maybe because it's been a few years and my gaming disposition has changed or what I consider a "game" to be has lightened, but I think it's mostly the tone of the narrator didn't sound so condescending and my memory of that Will Farrell movie has faded.

 

Anyway, great little narrative game, a lot of cute stuff in it and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the branches.

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Maybe because it's been a few years and my gaming disposition has changed or what I consider a "game" to be has lightened, but I think it's mostly the tone of the narrator didn't sound so condescending and my memory of that Will Farrell movie has faded.

 

It also seems to be a self-conscious attempt to make the retail game less cynical. I had a chance to talk to the game's writer about the tonal shift, and he basically described the mod as a much angrier/darker thing, while his changing perspective on the game's theme lead to a more optimistic, if less focused final version.

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Ah good point, I found the mod took itself too seriously, but the retail had some light stuff in it which I enjoy more.

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This is a bizarre reason for thread-necromancy, but apparently Kevin Spacey plays The Stanley Parable in the new season of House of Cards?

 

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And he's the president now?

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This is a bizarre reason for thread-necromancy, but apparently Kevin Spacey plays The Stanley Parable in the new season of House of Cards?

 

In Season 1 and partway through 2, he plays shooters (mostly CoD I think) to blow off steam in the evenings. But once he becomes VP, the Secret Service tells him connecting online gaming services is too much of a security risk and they can't allow it. I haven't got to this part of Season 3 yet, but I'm assuming he's just playing SP games now since he still can't go murder punks in CoD.

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From what I understand, he's playing The Stanley Parable at the behest of his biographer, who's a video game journalist because in the world of House of Cards, video game journalists are good enough writers to become presidential biographers instead of beloved comedians

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