At a surface level, The Stanley Parable is essentially just a walking simulator. You listen to the voice and decide on where to put Stanley in response to it. Discussion in class this week has gotten me thinking that maybe The Stanley Parable is less of a walking simulator and more of a choosing simulator. The primary mechanic in The Stanley Parable is actually the structure of the narrative itself. The game is closer to a visual novel than a walking simulator, the difference being that the choices in The Stanley Parable are discrete and hidden behind the facade of a walking simulator. The Stanley Parable never explicitly asks you to make choices. Rather than narrative choice, The Stanley Parable puts forward "mechanical choice". Every action you take in a game is to some degree a choice. It may not be as explicit as say, choosing the flavor of ice cream everyone in the universe gets at the end of Mass Effect 3, but the element of decision making in a game isn't dependent on narrative structures.
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I think it can be interesting to talk about genres and classifications for games, especially since games genres are can be marketing techniques in themselves. I understand that you're making a comment on the surface level like you said, and I think I actually really like your framing of "mechanical choice," but I'm not sure how much this kind of taxonomy is a fair argument for The Stanley Parable. For a game that's so clearly self-conscious of the tropes and trappings of game genres like walking simulators and other adventure games, the distinction between visual novel and walking simulator doesn't seem effective in talking about what The Stanley Parable thinks of itself as and positions itself as. The Adventure Line™…
I feel that I slightly disagree, but for primarily semantic reasons. The Stanley Parable does explicitly ask you to make choices - or at least, it tells you what choice you should be making and gives you ample opportunities to ignore the suggestion. However, it does do so through mechanical means. Staying in the employee lounge is a choice that doesn't require clicking a speech option, as would be the case in a visual novel, but it nonetheless has an effect on what the narrator says and, therefore, the narrative. Story choices are being made, but through more complicated means of interaction.
Thank you for your post! I think this idea of using narrative as a mechanic actually points towards another observation about the Stanley Parable which I encountered while playing. This observation is that the choices in the Stanley Parable have the purpose of moving towards an ending instead of for various elements of the game. When I first started played the Stanley Parable I assumed that there would be a series of choices and that the choices were the majority of the game. I assumed that once I made a choice I wouldn't be tempted to try choosing the other one, as I had in games like Fallout where going back to try another choice requires a lot of replaying.…
I believe the Stanley Parable works best as a functioning narrative in the sense that the player has total autonomy on what ending they choose, regardless of the fact that all possible endings have been thoroughly thought out by the developers. It remains up to the player what they'd like their gaming experience to be, adding a layer of depth to the gaming experience. Surely the fact that you have agency in life indicates that a more apt reflection of reality would be one in which you can choose your own ending.