Stanley Parable

[Doc ock rokc]

Okay for those that do not know the stanley parable, I have nothing to say to you. Litterally nothing. Go out and google it. The original source mod is something to behold beyond all reason

If you have played the original source mod. Congratulations you can now go an play the Stanley parable demo right now and enjoy what is possibly the most sureal demo you have ever made... (http://store.steampowered.com/app/221910/?snr=1_7_15__13)

Go on try it I'll wait here....


...Come on it is the stanley parable! you know it will be intresting...

It has wheatly in it...

Alright that was a lie just go play it...

[BB]

Eight.

[Seil]

EOnxXJyOJ0s

[Doc ock rokc]

Honestly don't watch a video on this...play it. Do strange things in the game watch the insanity

[Bells]

The best version of a "Fake Freedom" game

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EOnxXJyOJ0s

I don't really care if you want to play this game i just think you should give them money on principle alone. C'mon, this is awesome!

[Aerozord]

I was just watching a i2nfYPuxA34 of this myself, might have to add it to my "list of games I bought because of a Lets Play"

[Doc ock rokc]

...I already started a thread on this a while ago. Also this isn't a game you can watch You have to play it for yourself.

[Bells]

Its one of those games... if you watch instead of playing it, you are missing the point.

[Aerozord]

Its one of those games... if you watch instead of playing it, you are missing the point.

Alot of people that do Lets Plays stress that, but its a good way to get a look at a game. I definitely wouldn't have bothered with this game otherwise. Not sure if I'll get it, but thats more a matter of cost than anything.

[Bells]

Oh for sure. And i'm absolutely sure you can get this with 50% or even 60% on the Black Friday or Year end sale on steam, so really just need to hold up 30 days to get some savings

[Krylo]

The advertising for this game turned me off on it, to be honest.

Don't really care if it's the most amazing game in the world if I couldn't even find out what type of game it was without reading review that was tagged as having massive spoilers.

The whole 'look at how cool we are but we aren't going to tell you anything about us' is a great psychological trick to generate hype (and it sure worked!) but fuck anyone who wants me to give them money for something without telling me what I'm buying.

I'm still not entirely sure what kind of game experience it's looking to provide without watching a lets play. And just ugh onto that. As great as the narrator's voice is, just nope.

[Doc ock rokc]

The advertising for this game turned me off on it, to be honest.

Don't really care if it's the most amazing game in the world if I couldn't even find out what type of game it was without reading review that was tagged as having massive spoilers.

The whole 'look at how cool we are but we aren't going to tell you anything about us' is a great psychological trick to generate hype (and it sure worked!) but fuck anyone who wants me to give them money for something without telling me what I'm buying.

I'm still not entirely sure what kind of game experience it's looking to provide without watching a lets play. And just ugh onto that. As great as the narrator's voice is, just nope.

The Demo is a good way to show how it is. Like the demo I linked last week that had literally everyone who played it enjoy it.

[Krylo]

You mean the demo that's a huge joke about how it's not actually demoing anything?

Like I get that the game itself is kind of like that, after doing a lot of outside research, but every bit of media they presented about the game was presented in such a way as to obfuscate the game itself and tell as little about it as possible.

I wish I could say that's not a good way to advertise, because it, demonstrably, is. It's also a pretty scummy way to advertise, though.

[Bells]

It's a game about how you perceive games. THis is very hard to Honestly advertise in a Marketing-relatable way.

After all... it has to sell.

It's all about percepetion because it's not a game about goals, it's about journeys and experiences. You know you are playing a game, and the game knows it too. It's almost a fake improv session with an AI.

The Demo gives you that experience without allowing you to pick up the final version and go "Oh i know how this part goes" .

Unless there is some really clever DLC coming for this, it's a game that loses replay value with each playthrough, because it gets to be less organic with you. On the other hand... how do you market THAT experience without getting the same effect?

[Aerozord]

actually its on sale right now 20% off

[Aldurin]

It's very interesting, I actually got to the ending that has the credits, the game went back to the beginning and the change in the environment made me question whether I actually got the "real" ending.

Or is there no real ending? Who can really know.

[synkr0nized]

The narrator is being used to make a DotA 2 announcer pack. It will be difficult, to me, to top GLaDOS, but I'm looking forward to hearing it.


Also this game is pretty rad, but I am glad I didn't pay for it.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

For those still confused as to what type of game Stanley Parable is: You walk down hallways and listen to a narrator, then the hallway splits and you can go left or right. Depending on your choice the narrator says different things you do this for a while then go use various platforms to tell people to get this thing without telling them what to expect, they expect a game and instead get some HYYYYYYPPPPPSST-TUR's mental excretions because being metatextual is so clever, like, at least tell them that there's only gameplay if you squint really hard and don't know what the words game or play mean. It's a "game" about everything I hate in games. Unfortunately it is not clever enough to make it worth my time. Too bad I played it already.

If you wanna experience it you may as well watch a playthrough without commentary, The element of choice isn't really adding anything, you may as well just watch someone else play it.

[Krylo]

For those still confused as to what type of game Stanley Parable is: You walk down hallways and listen to a narrator, then the hallway splits and you can go left or right. Depending on your choice the narrator says different things you do this for a while then go use various platforms to tell people to get this thing without telling them what to expect, they expect a game and instead get some HYYYYYYPPPPPSST-TUR's mental excretions because being metatextual is so clever, like, at least tell them that there's only gameplay if you squint really hard and don't know what the words game or play mean. It's a "game" about everything I hate in games. Unfortunately it is not clever enough to make it worth my time. Too bad I played it already.

If you wanna experience it you may as well watch a playthrough without commentary, The element of choice isn't really adding anything, you may as well just watch someone else play it.
I could have told you that after doing the outside research I mentioned above.

You also pretty much summed up why I hate the 'interactive story' genre. It just kind of ignores like 99% of the things that make games games, and reduces them to choose your own adventure stories at best, and movies where you hold down W at worst.

[synkr0nized]

It's really less a game and more a, "Let's see what the narrator has to say now."

[Steel Shadow]

Pretty short, too. Fun distraction for like 30 minutes, but it wasn't really worth as much as I paid. Oh well.

[Aerozord]

You also pretty much summed up why I hate the 'interactive story' genre. It just kind of ignores like 99% of the things that make games games, and reduces them to choose your own adventure stories at best, and movies where you hold down W at worst.

whats wrong with choose your own adventure stories?

[A Zarkin' Frood]

Choose you're own adventure books? Not my thing but cool, I guess. Choose your own adventure games? You mean actual games with branching paths and stuff? That's awesome! Games in which you walk down a corridor until the voice in your head tells you to make a choice? Eh. EEeeeeh. No. I think it is both poorly executed and lacks any incentive to play aside from listening to a soothing voice. And that gets old quick. I didn't even get all the endings when I played it. I mean, it's a nice little distraction but it couldn't keep my attention. Mostly because you don't do anything aside from listening to a voice and occasionally go left or right or pull the plug out of the outlet. There's no freedom, there's no exploration there's no gameplay and there's nothing interesting to do. What it does could be just as well done in another medium only doing it in a game engine apparently makes it commentary on games or something all of a sudden, I dunno. If that's what it's intended to do then it failed on another level because there's no game.

[Aerozord]

Choose you're own adventure books? Not my thing but cool, I guess. Choose your own adventure games? You mean actual games with branching paths and stuff? That's awesome! Games in which you walk down a corridor until the voice in your head tells you to make a choice? Eh. EEeeeeh. No. I think it is both poorly executed and lacks any incentive to play aside from listening to a soothing voice. And that gets old quick. I didn't even get all the endings when I played it. I mean, it's a nice little distraction but it couldn't keep my attention. Mostly because you don't do anything aside from listening to a voice and occasionally go left or right or pull the plug out of the outlet. There's no freedom, there's no exploration there's no gameplay and there's nothing interesting to do. What it does could be just as well done in another medium only doing it in a game engine apparently makes it commentary on games or something all of a sudden, I dunno. If that's what it's intended to do then it failed on another level because there's no game.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm152/GuitarDude215/thats_the_joke.jpg (http://media.photobucket.com/user/GuitarDude215/media/thats_the_joke.jpg.html)

Or to put it in a less condescending way, thats the commentary. Stripped down this is what all games are as far as narrative is concerned. The illusion of choice. You are given token choices, but choosing any but the "correct" one ultimately ends with you being dragged back to do it again. The point of the narration is to anthropomorphize this mechanic as an individual attempting to get you back onto the intended story once you stray away from it.

There is also another layer of the narrator being a stand in for the developer. Attempting to create ways to coax the player into doing what they wanted which you see in various story paths. The closet is a great example of this. First time you enter and look around, if a developer saw playtesters doing this they'd first attempt to show there was nothing of interest. Second time the developer would avoid any possible incentive. Third time they'd just remove the area.

[Doc ock rokc]

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm152/GuitarDude215/thats_the_joke.jpg (http://media.photobucket.com/user/GuitarDude215/media/thats_the_joke.jpg.html)

Or to put it in a less condescending way, thats the commentary. Stripped down this is what all games are as far as narrative is concerned. The illusion of choice. You are given token choices, but choosing any but the "correct" one ultimately ends with you being dragged back to do it again. The point of the narration is to anthropomorphize this mechanic as an individual attempting to get you back onto the intended story once you stray away from it.

There is also another layer of the narrator being a stand in for the developer. Attempting to create ways to coax the player into doing what they wanted which you see in various story paths. The closet is a great example of this. First time you enter and look around, if a developer saw playtesters doing this they'd first attempt to show there was nothing of interest. Second time the developer would avoid any possible incentive. Third time they'd just remove the area.

There is also the entirety of the "Map breaking thing" as a good example of them taking and commenting on video game narrative tropes.