The Stanley Parable

[J T]

/didnt read large wall of text.

But i did watch a preview of this game and read some posts on it on other forums, and i really want to play this game, but i feel this game is insulting the player.

Play the mod or the demo. They are both unique standalone games that simply deliver a similar type of experience. I think the game is both insulting the player and playing with the fact that the game knows the player is smart enough to recognize the insult.

[Original_Name]

the problem is that they did not protect their own concept by preventing the ability to stumble upon it instantly, because doing so totally neuters it conceptually and meta-conceptually.

How does reaching that "good ending" in a few steps neuter the concept of a game that proclaims over and over again (even if you do it right away) that "there is no end"?

In five minutes of playing, the first (very finite) ending I received was one in which the entire game as a concept is laid bare and flat before you, you are reminded of the futility of the endeavor (which is completely true), and face a binary decision between ending the game lest you walk endlessly along paths laid out for you regardless of your illusion of choice, or alternatively dying in the game permanently.

There are so many ways that this being your first ending neuters the game. Once you have made this decision, your only options are to die and consult the main menu, or quit and consult the main menu. Once you're in the museum, you're given the symbolic switch which turns The Stanley Parable off, and it is your only option. There is no impetus to continue now (since the the narrator does not start you over at the beginning as he apparently does in other scenarios), other than to start the game over, but that would be propelled by my own curiosity rather than any sort of engagement with the narrator or the game's rules, however flexible they may be.

The ending is that I turned it off. What other ending is there to an endless game? I will in all likelihood find time to explore the game's world further, but it will only be as a tech-demo at this point because as I say, the entire thing was laid bare before me, and anything else that I do within its world, no matter how impressive, will not feel genuine as a personal experience.

The narration in this segment even pre-supposes that it's not your first ending. The entire thing was referential to paths I'd not taken, and made appeals to a sense of desperation that I only could have had with considerably more time trapped within the game's own rules. I got a five minute overview of everything, without the personal tension of having ever felt trapped in or even engaged with The Stanley Parable.

Now if I go back and play the game with all the weird mind-bending paths and fourth-wall demolition, it's just going to be a detached "golly, wow" conceptual tech demo instead of the more engaging endeavor that The Stanley Parable is intended to be. I'm not getting into some David Cage "emotions" argument here, I just mean that I now feel a dissonance between any other choice that I make in the game. This is fine. This is great. If I were making this game, I would absolutely include this in the game as well -- just not as an option available from the start.

This is the most genius game of the decade, and it's going to be referenced endlessly from here on out, and I love the game for that and I'm excited -- but amidst that sea of genius, there was the very questionable decision to make this path available from the start, which does not serve the concept or the players if it's selected first.

I'll definitely be playing other scenarios and enjoying the game for what it offers, and who knows, maybe there will be something in there that exposes some flaw in my interpretation of that ending's finity, and engages me in a way that I'm not personally having to force, but I'm not certain how that could be conceptually possible since this first ending I encountered does not, on an objective level, lie. Conceptually, the notion that...

"you're already dead if you're walking on paths laid out for you in advance"

...is so tremendously powerful of a sentiment for a video game (of all media) to state that I can't imagine anything "within" the Parable over-powering what I viewed from a distance negating that well enough to keep me engaged.

Genius, but poorly placed. That's all I'm sayin'.

[Original_Name]

/didnt read large wall of text.

Sorry man, I'm really bad about doing that. When it comes to making points that can easily be misunderstood, I often do everything I can to plug up as many potential leaks as possible, and this makes for posts that are often entirely too long. On the flip side, I'm sure I have more overlooked posts than anyone else around for that exact same reason. Eh, what can ya' do?

[J T]

Eh, what can ya' do?

Edit.

(see how condensed that was)