VGEsoterica
Member
I love video games (obv...I’m here after all) but some of my favorite non-major classes in college were philosophy. It was highly entertaining to me to sit in a room and debate these large topics to try to see if you could make any sense of them. Even in the end if you weren’t sure you fully understood everything the insight you obtained into these lofty concepts was enough to be entertained and mildly enlightened.
So when I played The Stanley Parable I noticed that the entire story seemed to revolve around the concept of objectivism vs determinism, or whether or not Stanley, and my extension the player had free will to make their own decisions or if the game (and by extension life, the universe, some “higher power”) had pre-determined every course of action and that no choice was truly your own.
Clearly it’s a concept that has been around as long as humans have had the intelligence to wonder about our existence, but to see it play out under the guise of a video game is a unique concept
it has shades of Bioshock and the “would you kindly” setup except it went much further in breaking down the story to work with whatever you chose in game. Add in the fact the game was almost a wholly new type of experience and the narration was an A+ effort and you have a really unique and “special” feeling game.
I wonder if we will ever see a sequel and what topics it would pursue? Curious who else played and what they thought. I’m sure my interpretation is not the only one (or even the “right” one lol)
So when I played The Stanley Parable I noticed that the entire story seemed to revolve around the concept of objectivism vs determinism, or whether or not Stanley, and my extension the player had free will to make their own decisions or if the game (and by extension life, the universe, some “higher power”) had pre-determined every course of action and that no choice was truly your own.
Clearly it’s a concept that has been around as long as humans have had the intelligence to wonder about our existence, but to see it play out under the guise of a video game is a unique concept
it has shades of Bioshock and the “would you kindly” setup except it went much further in breaking down the story to work with whatever you chose in game. Add in the fact the game was almost a wholly new type of experience and the narration was an A+ effort and you have a really unique and “special” feeling game.
I wonder if we will ever see a sequel and what topics it would pursue? Curious who else played and what they thought. I’m sure my interpretation is not the only one (or even the “right” one lol)
