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What Is The Stanley Parable

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The Stanley Parable challenges the way one would typically view a game, specifically a narrative video game. A game can be defined as a medium where communication takes place and where the player attempts to make sense of their position in the game. The Stanley Parable clearly falls into the definition of a game, but what makes it different is that the game is aware of itself and is aiming to challenge the audience and the traditional view on the construction of a narrative game as well as why people play games.
The Stanley Parable gives the player limited movement and environment interaction – Stanley can only move around the office or push buttons, but in order to do this, he relies on the player’s choices or the narrator to guide him. Right…show more content…
The player can choose to follow the narrator’s instructions on entering the right door or ignore him and encounter a different scenario. If the player goes against the narrator, this forces the game to take into account a new path for the player and will often cause the narrator to become annoyed. The narrator pressures the player to listen, and will even add in some elements to continue to pressure the player – for example, when the player ignores the narrator’s instructions, the game will add the element of giant, yellow arrows on the floor which would point to the right direction and continue to the right path of the game. Another example would be the lights in the dark hallways of the basement, which would also act as an element to help the player walk towards the right path. However, if the player obeys the narrator’s instructions, the narrator becomes bored, as if following the script of the game agitates him. Perhaps this is a message to other narrative video games, and how this challenges the usual player obedience of games from start to finish. This also raises questions on the predestination of video games and the limited choices players have. There are many different endings to this game that are caused by elements to guide the player to one of its predestinations. Because of this, the player is…show more content…
By doing this, the game designers must be implying to the players to think about the narration instead of simply going through the motions of the game like one would with any other game. The way the game produces this illusion of seeking freedom in the game for Stanley but in reality, the player’s choices are limited and the game automatically restarts itself creates a message to the audience. When the player follows the rules of the narrator, Stanley gains freedom, but the player ends up doing everything Stanley was doing mindlessly in the beginning of this game and is now under the control of the narrator. Instead of Stanley pushing buttons, the player is now the one pushing buttons and staying in this repetitive cycle of a
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