The Stanley Parable Analysis
Ryan Gabos
MDIA 2401
John Bowditch
10/20/14
Game Analysis #2 – The Stanley Parable My first play through of The Stanley Parable was arguably the most horrifying scenario I could have ended up with. I started off in Stanley’s office and the narrator goaded me into exploring the rest of the workspace. Not a single coworker was in sight and as I entered each new space of the building, the narrator told me to go forward into another. By the time I reached the stairwell, this is where I decided to disobey the narrator. Instead of going upstairs to check out the boss’s office, I went downstairs out of sheer curiosity. I was led into a parking garage where there was a single car parked with its lights on. I did not possess the courage to walk up to the car and look into the window because I scare easily and going into this game without knowing anything about it, I was thoroughly convinced at this point that it would feature some pop-out/screamer element to it that I did not want to fall prey to. I avoided the car and walked into the adjacent room, wherein the narrator began describing Stanley’s thought process. He came to the realization that he was dreaming and started to command the dream, seeing a field of stars in front of him and feeling himself float. Then he became tired of dreaming and wanted to just wake up next to his wife, so he closed his eyes and the screen went black for me as Stanley willed himself to wake up for a lengthy yet calming period of time in darkness. The eyes opened back up and I was still in the same endlessly repeating set of rooms as I was in the entire time. The narrator said that Stanley began to scream over and over out of insanity and the edges of the screen reddened and finally went black. That play through closed with an image of Stanley lying face down on a sidewalk with a woman staring at him because the narrator tells me that he was clearly a crazy man, walking around town and screaming until he collapsed on the
MDIA 2401
John Bowditch
10/20/14
Game Analysis #2 – The Stanley Parable My first play through of The Stanley Parable was arguably the most horrifying scenario I could have ended up with. I started off in Stanley’s office and the narrator goaded me into exploring the rest of the workspace. Not a single coworker was in sight and as I entered each new space of the building, the narrator told me to go forward into another. By the time I reached the stairwell, this is where I decided to disobey the narrator. Instead of going upstairs to check out the boss’s office, I went downstairs out of sheer curiosity. I was led into a parking garage where there was a single car parked with its lights on. I did not possess the courage to walk up to the car and look into the window because I scare easily and going into this game without knowing anything about it, I was thoroughly convinced at this point that it would feature some pop-out/screamer element to it that I did not want to fall prey to. I avoided the car and walked into the adjacent room, wherein the narrator began describing Stanley’s thought process. He came to the realization that he was dreaming and started to command the dream, seeing a field of stars in front of him and feeling himself float. Then he became tired of dreaming and wanted to just wake up next to his wife, so he closed his eyes and the screen went black for me as Stanley willed himself to wake up for a lengthy yet calming period of time in darkness. The eyes opened back up and I was still in the same endlessly repeating set of rooms as I was in the entire time. The narrator said that Stanley began to scream over and over out of insanity and the edges of the screen reddened and finally went black. That play through closed with an image of Stanley lying face down on a sidewalk with a woman staring at him because the narrator tells me that he was clearly a crazy man, walking around town and screaming until he collapsed on the