The Stanley Parable: Part 1: Relinquishing Free Will:

I recently played the game The Stanley Parable, and wanted to share my thoughts on it. I have a lot of thoughts, so these posts will come in no less than two parts. The second part will come later this week.

I highly recommend you play the game before you read this. However, I understand that many of you won't, so I'll tell you about it anyway. If you ever plan on playing this game, or even watching someone play this game, do not read on. I will ruin everything for you.

Here's the plot of TSP: A guy named Stanley works all day pushing buttons in an office. Then, one day, he finds his office building entirely abandoned.

This is where the player gets control. You, playing as Stanley, walk out of your office and eventually see a set of two open doors.

Accompanying you on your adventure is The Narrator. When you get to the two doors, The Narrator informs Stanley that he takes the door on his left.

This is the crux of the game. You, the player, get to choose which door Stanley takes. You can follow The Narrator's instructions, or disobey them. Your choices impact the story and every time you choose something different from the last time you played, you experience a different story. I want to talk about one of these stories, as I found it brilliant and thought provoking.

My favorite path was when you follow The Narrator's instructions every time. This story has Stanley finding a mind control device deep underground which controlled the emotions of the workers in the office building, keeping them happy while they pushed buttons endlessly. Stanley, upset and aghast that he had no autonomy all this time, turns the device off and finally becomes free from its influence.

Here's what's so brilliant about the ending: You, the player, were not free whatsoever. You obediently followed the narrator's every instruction; you pushed the buttons the computer told you to. You were doing what Stanley does, day after day. You sacrificed every part of your own autonomy. Even better, you lose all control of Stanley at the end of the story and have to just watch him walk around, all while The Narrator sings about how free he is. The game functioned as a mind control device for you -- the mind control device Stanley supposedly turned off in the story.

There's more. TSP is a commentary on video game design. Video games with stories often provide the player with the illusion of choice; however, everyone who plays the game experiences the exact same story in the end. This phenomenon is known as railroading. TSP mocks railroading while simultaneously asking, "Could it be worth it to sacrifice your autonomy to experience a story?". After all, the game designers worked so hard on the game.

If you answered yes to the above question, another follows: "Are we, as humans, willing to sacrifice our own free will just to be happy?" We typically think of free will as one of the most precious elements of the human experience. If someone offered to make all your decisions for you, and this caused you to be the happiest you've ever been, would you take the deal? Would you willingly become Stanley, pushing buttons all day under the influence of a mind control device?

Why not? After all, if you've experienced this ending, you've already made that choice.

-Me