A Hipster’s Guide to…: The Stanley Parable

For Christmas this year, I got a Steam gift certificate. I got it because the present my brother-in-law and his girlfriend had gotten me, turned out to have a bunch of problems that ended with them in the last minute, having to find me another present.

I still cannot thank them enough for this. Not that the other idea they had for at present was not very appreciated, but it turned out that this steam gift certificate, more than I had anticipated, was just what I needed. I had not actually bought any games for a long long time (years) because I somehow had gotten into my head that it was mostly my boyfriend that played games anyway (this is actually baffling that I would think that when you consider the fact that I met my boyfriend through an online game over 10 years ago).

Given this certificate, I all of a sudden had to think about what games I would want to play, and spend money on buying to play them, without factoring anything or anyone in, except me. It turned out that I had absolutely no problem with spending the money, and I quite readily knew what games I wanted, I had actually made a list in my head of games I wanted to try out. Therefore, I ended up with buying a nice short list of games and have already had my fun with some of them (and still have many playable hours left in many of them), and this is the story behind why this blog post ended up being about The Stanley Parable.

Because one of the games on the list that I bought was The Stanley Parable, and now I finally got around to actually playing it.

I had reasonably high hopes for it, since both Gametest (a very small-scale program with a bunch of people testing games) and Smagsdommerne (A danish program that invites the cultural elite of the Danish society to review different cultural products, from art exhibits to movie blockbusters) both liked it a lot, and recommended it. The fact that the trailer also looked interesting and this text “about the game” from their website captured my attention:

“The Stanley Parable is a first person exploration game. You will play as Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will follow a story, you will not follow a story. You will have a choice, you will have no choice. The game will end, the game will never end. Contradiction follows contradiction, the rules of how games should work are broken, then broken again. This world was not made for you to understand.

But as you explore, slowly, meaning begins to arise, the paradoxes might start to make sense, perhaps you are powerful after all. The game is not here to fight you; it is inviting you to dance.”

So… I was actually quite excited when I finally got the time to spend some hours playing as Stanley in “The Stanley Parable”. Let it be said firstly, this is not a game that challenges your ability to play, most people will be able to play the game, and get enjoyment out of it, without actually being very good at the controls. This is a game that challenges the players perception of games, and gameplay, and game story building, and it can be quite challenging on many levels, but it is not difficult, in the conventional sense, to actually play.

This is just one of the “interesting” signs you will encounter while playing the Stanley Parable

And when that is said, the rest becomes quite difficult to write. This is not because I do not have the highest praise to give to the game, it is amazing, and maybe one of the best games I have ever played. And also a game I would recommend warmly to both regular gamers and novices, since it is an amazing experience, unlike anything else I have tried. But, it is hard to say very much that makes actual sense about the game, without spoiling it senseless, and thereby ruining the potential great experience it could be to other people. So continue reading with caution. I will try not to spoil anything significant, but I cannot not spoil anything, since just talking about the game is a sort of spoiler all on its own.

All that being said, why should you as a hipster fall in love with this game, and rush out to buy it as soon as you have finished reading this blogpost?

There are several good reasons for this:

1. It is an indie game, and as a hipster it is our job to look very favourable at anything independently produced, whatever the real quality of it is (after looking at it we can then conclude that we did not like it, but we at least need to give it a chance on the basis of it being independently produced by probably very hungry and self-reliant artists, and thereby extra deserving of our attention – do not ask me why – I do not make the rules 😉 I just follow them).

2. It is filled with exciting meta layers, and even the meta layers have meta layers. It is like game heaven for hipsters.

3. The narrator have a hipster ironic distance to almost anything, and will try to solve dissonance by using irony or sarcasm in some form.

4. The game tries to say something about the nature of gaming, and maybe also about the nature of the world in general, something we as hipsters would like if not then most of our cultural products to do, to say something about the nature behind things.

One of the many many references, in this case to corporate culture, that you will encounter when playing the Stanley Parable

5. The game is filled with references that we as hipsters are sure to understand and laugh at, because the caricatures are just so accurate, and we just gets it (As will everyone else probably, since understanding and laughing at references are not just something hipsters do).

On a more basic level, I actually thing that everyone that has ever played a game, even if it is only Candy Crush saga or Solitaire will get something out of this game. The games touches on how we make choices in games, and how we make choices in life, and is on a fundamental level interesting for most people that have lived in the age of the computer, and the leisure products that have followed the evolution of the digital age. It also touches on what it is to be human, what it is not to be; and it is all wrapped up in mystery of trying to figure out what actually happened in the Stanley Parable.

Just please, even if you are not a big fan of computer games, go buy this game and take out a few hours to play it, I promise, Hipster or not, it will be well worth your time.

Thank you in advance, and…

“…Stanley went on Steam and bought the Stanley Parable. That is odd, He thought, This is a game, about me. I will start playing it immediately.”