The book The Curious History of Relativity by Jean Eisenstaedt cites a beautiful quote from Albert Einstein, stating, “unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” I interpreted this statement in two ways. First, we may take “unthinking” to be a synonym for “blind”—arguing that questioning authority begets truth. However, we may also interpret the word as a verb, which implies the opposite case—that questioning authority opposes truth.
I had this quote in mind the first time I played through The Stanley Parable, as I grappled with obeying or disobeying the narrator.
In the spirit of videogame scholarship, I obeyed all of the narrator’s orders. He guided me, affirmed the morality of my choices, and integrated my mistakes into the storyline. I agreed to destroy the mind control facility, and the rest of the game was outside of my hands; the screen moved into a lush landscape as the narrator’s voice said, “for it was not knowledge or power that he had been seeking, but happiness.”
As the setting returned to Stanley’s office, a sense of unsatisfaction broke my hypnotic state. Happiness, admittedly, is nice to have, but didn’t I also want power? Upset, eager, and unfulfilled, I began a second trial. Having known the path, I ran through the rooms to get to the meat of the storyline. I almost finished typing the code into the keypad when the narrator made me stop and listen to elevator music (which is available as a 10-hour loop). So I turned off the volume. I kept the volume off for a while to explore the gamespace. The Stanley Parable does not force players to do anything; we choose to listen.
I remember reading about two systems of thinking in the book Thinking, Fast and Slow by psychologist Daniel Kahneman. System 1 is fast but inaccurate—we may blame stereotypes and off-the-mark intuitions on this part of our psyche. System 2 is analytical but requires a level of intentionality that is not sustainable for an entire day. Interactions between these two systems facilitate behaviors.
Playing obediently is not useless—from the player’s viewpoint, it is easier, more comfortable, and appeals to System 1. Disobeying the narrator creates an experience aligned with System 2; it is challenging, engaging, and intentional. The Stanley Parable does not push noncompliance over obedience; players draw vitality from elements of each. Contrary to the narrator’s claim, there is no objective happiness, knowledge, or power within the gamespace.
I believe all player experiences arise from an urge to make meaningful choices. In The Stanley Parable, every decision has merit because the game ultimately guides the player to certain endings. But what makes a choice meaningful? To return to Einstein’s quote, I propose that meaning is connected to truth—seeking, questioning, and creating it.
I like your ideas about how obedience and disobedience come together to form play and the two systems of thinking concept. I think you overlook other genres of games when you say "all player experiences arise from an urge to make meaningful choices ... [by] seeking, questioning, and creating." Consider multiplayer games; although we haven't covered them in any depth in class, they make up a large portion of the games industry and market. In a competitive shooter, there is not the "seeking, questioning, and creating" that you mention. Player experiences instead arise from competition and progression. Still, now that I think about it, the enjoyment of a competitive shooter comes from the combination of quick reactions and higher level strategic…
I found your description of the systems to be very compelling in understanding choice in the game space. It seems as though finding a balance between the two in terms of video game design is required to maximize one's potential when playing the game. In other words, though you may give the player an environment to make their own choices / follow different paths (system 2), ultimately the player is still confined to the rules, mechanics, and world of the video game (system 1). To answer your question, I believe that a choice is meaningful when it is made with the intention (or illusion) of self-control. When we play Stanley Parable, we are still being forced into pre-written endings, even…