Beyond Choices: Chance and Factors Beyond Player Control

In The Stanley Parable, Loved and Papers, Please, the player is subjected into a situation which they did not choose and forced to find ways to escape or survive. At first, it appears that these games offer little choice to the players: either to obey or disobey for The Stanley Parable and Loved, or to Accept or Deny in Papers, Please. However, as remarked in Cory Johnson’s “What Games Can Learn from the Engagement Layers of Papers, Please,” the stakes behind the two choices fluctuate as the game progresses and different factors are added into the game, based on your previous choices (This is most evident in The Stanley Parable, where your choice to explore certain areas would lead to different paths). Even with two simple choices, the gaming experience can proliferate and grow increasingly complex. In Papers, Please, through the simple choice to Accept or Deny, the player can reach a variety of endings. It seems counterintuitive to the simplicity of the game mechanic; yet, with the pressing of each button, the player is twisting and winding to reach his own eventual fate.

However, this means that in these games, the player can control the outcome of the game through the choices they make with increased familiarity of the game. There is minimal interference of chance or factors outside of player control within these games. Especially in The Stanley Parable, everything during the gameplay is determined by the player's choice to obey or disobey the narrator. As a player, the omission of chance in these games should be noted. Most applicable in the case of The Stanley Parable, I think we as players are tempted to transfer the gaming experience directly into our daily lives, especially since the graphics in The Stanley Parable are close to real world imagery.

Even for Papers, Please, one could argue that the intermittent terrorist attacks and mishaps, events that are out of player control, are only random for the first-time player. Those attacks are programmed to occur at certain times in the game, only unexpected and therefore seem out of control for the new player. But if one attempts Papers, Please, again, the "random" events become expected.

The lack of chance in these video games should perhaps be contrasted with the random chance that occurs in our daily lives. While one could argue that the random events that occur to us are consequences of others' actions or even actions of our own from the past, in the moment we do not expect them and must account for these sudden changes in our lives and the future choices we make. While the intention of games like The Stanley Parable, is to illustrate the likelihood of someone to obey a voice that establishes themselves as authority, I wonder how this main message may be enriched if chance could be incorporated to these games of choice. If the choices we made in the game has no effect because of some random chance events, would we be more likely to challenge the authoritative voice who seems to hold all knowledge and direct our actions? Or, would we be more likely to scramble to follow every instruction that voice because of the threat of uncertainty that chance poses? Will chance become a tool or a prison, and is that up to us to choose or has it already been predetermined?