The Existential Fear of The Stanley Parable

The Stanley Parable is a game that's often described as profound and thought-provoking. It's a game that requires the player to think on numerous levels of meaning, introducing symbolism and metaphor, while also at the same time never becoming pretentious or preachy in any fashion. Today we'll be looking at the game, deciphering the meaning behind certain outcomes and ultimately deciding if the game is worth the huge amount of attention and acclaim it's acquired throughout the years.

[BestBoi]

Narrator: I erased them, I erased all your coworkers.

Also Narrator: It’s bucket time!

[cauliflowering]

For me The Stanley Parable reminds me of how often I daydream, as I often ‘resett’ the daydream whenever it becomes ‘wrong’ or when I want something else.
I skip when I don’t want to continue the part I’m on.
This entire game feels like it, honestly.
Each part of the hame can match somehow. The reviews being myself even.
It’s an amazing game, honestly.

[haticehhhh]

The skip button scares me so much. The thought of being alone with my thoughts for years and years without anyone to be there is so terrifying. It's so hard to describe

[Collisto]

While not a particularly artistic point, it is worth noting that the Ultra Deluxe version was made in Unity whereas the first one was in Source, and yet it's really hard to tell the difference. That's because the developers painstakingly remade the entire game and its lighting in Unity. It looks exactly the same, because they took the time and effort to make sure it did, and suddenly the 9 year gap starts to make a lot more sense.

[KeinNiemand]

Did you get the brrom closet ending? The broom closet ending was my favorite

[tannerdodge]

The Narrator definitely projects his own insecurities and flaws onto Stanley. The ending where the apartment turns into the office, and he says Stanley just keeps pushing buttons all day, can be applied to the years the Narrator spent writing then making the game. He sat in a room alone, pushing buttons on his computer then spent who knows how long actively narrating it. He accuses Stanley of being small-minded, stubborn and cruel. He also sometimes praises him for his creativity and ingenuity. All traits he sees in himself, for better or for worse.

[sck]

Another interesting layer to the "freedom ending" at 13:10 is the fact that you the player lose control of Stanley the moment he is freed from the mind control facility's grasp and steps outside. In that sense, he's free from your ability to control his every action, and no longer a stand-in for the player, but a character acting independently of you.

This game has so many layers of philosophy and meta-commentary, and I love it!

[dopaminecloud]

It's rather ironic that some of the best dialogue in the game is in the part where you're enticed into skipping over all of it.

[lloydmartel]

I like stanley parable cuz you can look at it as a philosophical experience or a big joke. Most of the endings aren't connected, even the serious ones, so I believe none of them are what you could call "canon". Like each ending is trying to say something, but the Stanley Parable doesn't have a definitive story. It's a bunch of brilliant ideas expertly welded together.

[chesterstevens]

"The Stanley Parable" feels like a game that Douglas Adams might write, if he were still alive and had an upbringing as a gamer.

[TheLadysAtelier]

It might not be its main idea, but the thing I really liked about the skip button ending is the narrators' monologue about how there's value in just knowing that someone's listening.

Like it's not that Stanley (or the player) ever responds to the Narrator, this would never have been an active conversation anyway and in theory there should be no pragmatic difference between the narrator talking with us listening or without, but he realizes that even though it might not be tangible, there is a great meaning to just knowing that someone is aware of you, that communication relies on two parties. When you skip parts of the game, you refuse to engage and listen, whatever is said and shown becomes meaningless, because you weren't there to hear and experience it.

[Crystal_]

I love that the epilogue also achieves what the Narrator thought he couldn't. All of the elements of The Stanley Parable 2 come together to create a new, cohesive experience. The skip button brought us here, we go through the memory zone, find the bucket, past the name buttons and figlurines and down the bottomless hole, and we come back to the settings. Everything the Ultra Deluxe added was there and it kinda subtly serves to make you say in the back of your head "yeah, this WAS a worthwhile experience, all of these dumb little gags DID add up to something meaningful."

[sfglim]

The original is extremely dense and tackles so many ideas however the most interesting to me is how Stanley is stuck in the game with no way to truly be free. Ironically the freedom ending is the path where Stanley follows the narrator blindly. No matter where Stanley goes he is trapped in a constant battle against the narrator. There is no ending where both Stanley and the narrator get what they want and in that way, The Stanley Parable is more of a tragedy than anything else.

[connorwellercheese]

The Zending and the Skip Button ending made me cry when I first played the game. I didn't like the narrator, but seeing his fear and desperation got to me in a way no other game really has.

[Watcher-ptuq]

The epilogue I feel has an important message on the nature of games that reminded me of Undertale. That sometimes you need to put the game down, so that the story can have its happy ending. The player can choose to play the 'True Ending' or reach the Space Room and put the game down, so that the narrator and Stanley can remain happy. The Go Outside achievement may also connect with this.

[LiminalSpacedOut]

The Stanley Parable is currently a huge hyperfixation for me im so glad to get content like this about it in my recommended

[cactusguy]

My favorite detail of the freedom ending is the Narrator saying Stanley wouldn't be under anyone's control, that no one could tell him what to do, think, or feel. This being contradicted by the final line "and Stanley was happy" the Narrator literally telling you how to feel.

[Techhunter_Talon]

Random fact: Kevan Brighting, the Narrator, also voiced a scientist in Black Mesa during the beginning segment of the game. I affectionately call this scientist 'Dr. Brighting' after the name of his voice actor. He's one of the two scientists that lets you into the chamber with the mass spectrometer in it.

[Timmytimmy]

17:44 It's also really interesting that the part where you deviate from the Line ™ is arguably one of the most boring environments. All you have are just the same monotone wallpapers with no decoration at all, while the other endings all featured different environments.

Edit: Apparently I accidentally recreated the 'one of the most' memes.

[NoteBard]

This made me rethink a bit about the game. The skip button ending I always interpreted as a representation of the meaninglessness of forever, while also commenting on the torture of solitary confinement and how The Narrator loses his sanity when he has nobody to talk to. In that regard, it can also be taken as the fact that when you have no gamers, you have no games.

But the part that really stands out to me is the actual development of the game. I was always so disappointed when I heard that TSP:UD would be delayed until next year, and then this summer, and then this winter, and then next year again. I always brush things like that off, knowing that I'm willing to wait for something if it means reaching its fullest potential. A lot of games these days don't do that. After watching this video, though, I started to wonder if the choice to continue delaying Ultra Deluxe was intentional, as another meta commentary on games. The truth is though, that in being meta, it's hard to know what's real and what's a commentary. They very well could have been delaying the game as a representation for corporations delaying games to put out a final product that is incredibly lackluster (i.e. Cyberpunk), but it's just as likely that the delays were real, and they originally did mean to release the game in 2019.

At this point, it's a meta commentary on meta commentary, and I'm confused, but intrigued.