Critical Play: The Stanley Parable
For this critical play of a walking simulator, I chose to review The Stanley Parable. This game is about a man named Stanley, whose job is to follow prompts that appear on his computer and push buttons. One day, Stanley notices that he hasn’t received any prompts and decides to leave his office to figure out why. As you walk throughout the building, a narrator tells Stanley’s story. Whenever you come to a decision-making part of the story, the narrator tells you what Stanley did, suggesting that you just follow these “instructions.” However, you are able to decide what to do, either following the narrator’s story or doing something “off script,” which results in sassy comments from the narrator.
In The Stanley Parable, walking tells the story by emphasizing Stanley’s free will and, therefore, increasing the humorous tension between the player’s actions and the narrator’s commentary. If this game were not in first-person and Stanley was merely some sort of avatar, his free will would not be as apparent. It’s because of the player’s ability to become one with Stanley that Stanley is given this human characteristic of free will and any rejection of the narrator’s story evokes a sense of childish rebelliousness and humor in the player. Because players feel that they’re truly in the game, they really feel in control of their choices, making it seem like a greater “f**k you” to the narrator when they disobey his wishes and intensifying the emotional effects resulting from these moments.
