The Stanley Parable and the Illusion of Choice in Video Games

I don't even know where to begin.

As of a few minutes before writing this post I had finished playing The Stanley parable. Normally I would write about something I had planned to talk about but in this instance I felt I should just get all of my thoughts down now.

Honestly I really enjoyed my time with it and plan to revisit it. It's very short but it's definitely a title that I can see myself sinking my teeth into and showing off in the future. I felt it was a good idea to go over the general feeling I got from The Stanley Parable or what I feel the overall point is. It's actually something I've had many conversations about and that is the illusion of choice in video games.

Pick a Shepard. Any Shepard.

I see a large amount of conversations pop up over how video games in general need to allow the player complete freedom. People will then give examples: Mass Effect, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls and essentially every other choice based video game that you could shake a stick at. But what people don't understand is that these titles don't actually offer "choice" as one would consider real life. A game can never offer you total and complete choice due to the restrictions set by the programming. Rather, you are given the illusion of choice. And that is honestly a beautiful thing. You as a player will never be able to deliver yourself from the constraints the game offers whether that be in the gameplay or the writing or the character creation. But a developer constructing an experience that makes you feel like you can do that is incredibly impressive. It's not easy to craft an experience that allows a person to feel that way.

Never has a choice so simple resonated so strongly with me.

I'm not going to spoil the experience for all of you but instead will talk about the first big choice of the game and nothing else. I got the point of the game right at this segment and had an enjoyable ride the second, third and fourth times I ran through it. In the first segment you are presented with two open doors. The narrator simple says, "When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left." The presentation here is absolutely brilliant. You can either choose to do what the game tells you to do or you can disobey and stray from the beaten path. But even in straying from the beaten path you can end up exactly where the game had intended you to go anyways. And that's it. That's the point. Some individuals say games are bad that games "don't have enough choice" but the simple fact is that there is no choice. Regardless of what you as a person choose to do you are still limited by what the designers have put into the game. But does this realization lessen the impact that the Stanley Parable has on you from this point? No. The experience is still great beyond this point. And the same can be said about any other title out there as well. Maybe it's time that we stopped asking developers to give us more choices and just simply ask for a solid experience. The Stanley Parable, the Witcher, Mass Effect, all of these titles, they all had "choice." Did a lack of actual choice lessen this experience? I think not.

So what do you guys think? Are you ok with "choice being in games rather than choice? What else do those of you that have played The Stanley Parable think it was trying to say? Will you play it after reading this post? Let me know in the comments and I'll see you all next time.