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Writer's pictureDaniel Sharkey

I went outside. A Stanley Parable Retrospective

When I was fourteen, I bought and played through the Stanley Parable. I "finished" the game. I finished it a couple of more times, and then I looked up the various endings I couldn't find. To me the game was finished. With nothing left to do, I stopped playing. This isn't surprising; it's usually the end of a game's cycle. I didn't think much about the meaning of the game; about the messages it might have been trying to tell me. I didn't think about the idea of choice or all the things the narrator told me. I moved on. I was a freshmen in high-school, and I continued my life. I didn't think about the Stanley Parable. I got older; I made choices about what classes I would take. Eventually, I made a choice about what colleges I would apply to. Then I made a choice about which college I would attend. At college, I made a choice about what I would study and who my friends would be. Then, last year, I saw something in my steam news. People had started getting the achievement in Stanley Parable for not playing the game for five years. It popped back into my memory; I realized I had bought the game near launch, and that I could get that achievement, so I booted up the game, and I got it. I was never a completionist, achievements were traditionally not something I cared about, however I felt compelled to get this one. It's a novelty and a fun thing to show off on my steam page.


Another year passes, and I am now playing the Stanley Parable again. This time for a class. Now older and more able to comprehend the ideas in the game. I looked at how the game described going outside for Stanley in the freedom ending. The narrator practically mocked me, pretending that Stanley had been free; that his life was all his own choice, when of course you had only followed the Narrator's instructions. However, I realized that while Stanley had not lived this life of free choice, that I had. I had made so many choices over the five years I had been outside not playing the game. Potentially some of the most important choices in my life. Or had I? Had I really been the one making the choices or was I pushed down a path with only the illusion of choice dangled like a carrot on a stick in front of me? Who really controlled which college I went to? Who really controlled what classes I took? I'm not saying there is a secret mind control facility causing me to take my actions, but can a person ever make their own choice without (whether knowingly or not) being influenced by the world around them?


These aren't questions I'm trying to answer. They probably have no 'right' answer. However what is interesting to me, was my two very different experiences with the game six years apart. Back when I first played the game, I mostly played it because it was funny. I liked the gags and the jokes, and didn't really think about the philosophy that surrounds the game. I understood some of the ideas. I understood the inherent idea of my interaction with the narrator, but only after I had come back to play the game much later did I get a better appreciation for the ideas the game is presenting.


I think the 'Go Outside' achievement is interesting because, to me, I feel it might have been created to try to create these moments. The time I spent 'getting' the achievement was a quarter of my life, and for most of the audience of the game I'm sure it wasn't smaller than 15% of their life. With how much changes in our lives over the time of five years, playing the game after a gap like that leads to a much different play experience. It almost puts you in (an albeit one sided) conversation with your younger self. The way you see the game changes, and the feelings the game evokes are different in much the same way. I found myself thinking about my own old memories and thoughts about the game. This created an experience I've never with any other game before. There are games I haven't played in a long time, but since the Stanley Parable as a game is designed to make you think, it's a different experience than, say, booting up Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo 64. I have fond memories tied to the game, but I don't find myself grappling with complicated ideas that I had been to young to understand.


I think this feeling is more common in other media. I'm sure plenty of people saw shows like The Simpsons or South Park when they were younger and laughed at the crass humor. However if they watched those same episodes now, they might have a different appreciation. Now that they're older they might understand the situations the crass humor was satirizing in the first place.


Either way, I suppose I followed the games instructions from six years ago. When I checked the achievements page as a fourteen year old boy, it told me to go outside, and I listened. I went outside. I lived a life of choice. I experienced so many things. I may not have climbed the mountain that is the photo for the achievement, but there is always more time to go outside.

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yansera
yansera
Oct 28, 2019

Good analysis on the idea behind the achievement and its correlation into the story of the game. I find that most achievements don't tend to correlate to the actual theory behind the game. Perhaps it is this actual tie in to the game that makes this achievement memorable. perhaps that it is because it reminds you of the core theme in the game that the achievement is so appealing and causes the player to look back on the game, whereas achievements that are time reliant but are just for fun (halos play on new years achievement) are not so memorable.

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Liben Hagos
Liben Hagos
Oct 25, 2019

I like how you included the line about narrator mocking the player for "pretending that Stanley had been free; that his life was all his own choice, when of course (the player) had only followed the Narrator's instructions." because it draws a lot of parallels with the "go outside" achievement. Applying the narrator's logic, the player also does not have "freedom of choice" because he or she was specifically told to go outside, and they complied with those instructions. I think this is completely false, the player made the choice to the follow the instructions outlined in the achievement just like they made the choice to follow the instructions of the narrator. The fact that some outside force gave the…

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mozkan
mozkan
Oct 24, 2019

I had a very similar experience with playing Mortal Combat on my Playstation 2 and then cracking it out again because this class made me miss the games I would play as a child. The concept you mention about grappling with meaning makes me think about how all I wanted to do was just win and see the odd body part mechanics of the game. Now, I realize I was actually engaging in quite violent combat for a second or third grader. I can also now look at it with a critical eye in how the physics of the game in terms of the jumping and bounces when landing actually made the game feel so much more real to me…

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Catherine An
Catherine An
Oct 24, 2019

I think it's really interesting that the creators of The Stanley Parable, has chosen to establish an achievement for players of the game to not play the game for five years--a "reward" for listening to their message or following their instructions. Furthermore, I wonder if this achievement is also an attempt to entice players to return to the game, highlighting the manipulative effects games have on our minds. The achievement reminds players of their interaction with the game, and having not played it for so long, perhaps they forget or want to revisit the game and fall back into the trap of gaming and following directions. The "Go Outside" achievement is interesting in that it seems to be a reward,…

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