Rule No. 1

Oftentimes in video games, especially ones more linear than not, making the right choice can seem obvious given the circumstances and context. However, some games don’t necessarily have choices that are right or wrong–or even necessarily obvious. The Stanley Parable is a game which reinvents the way players make choices in a game by removing context and challenging the player to defy directives.

The game follows you, the player-character named Stanley, and a faceless narrator whose voice incessantly drolls on, ordering the player around and scolding them when directives are disobeyed. There’s not much story to the game. It begins with Stanley in an office, awaiting the order to type something on his computer, but it never comes. The narrator prompts Stanley to go look around and find out what’s going on, but it’s really up to the player to decide how to go about doing that (or not).

The narrator will say “Take the door on the left,” but there are two doors. The player could listen. But then again, nothing is stopping the player from taking the door on the right. And since there’s no narrative particularly interesting enough to prompt the player to listen to the narrator, the curiosity of finding out what’s behind the door on the right could hypothetically be just as interesting.

Who’s to say the player can’t jump out the open window? The narrator will be mad, but honestly, his anger makes the game more humorous. At one point, the player may find his or herself on a moving platform. You could just get off on the other side of the room–the obvious choice. Or, if one notices, there is a small ledge that Stanley could reach, if he were to jump off half way across. Eventually, the the player may begin to question how many options there are aside from just doing what you’re told, and thus the game turns into a challenge to see how far one can push the narrator until he just snaps and shuts the whole thing down.

The Stanley Parable is a very meta game–almost like it’s a game within a game. Is the narrator talking to Stanley, or is he talking to you–the player? How many endings to this game are there? Is it infinite? Well, no; but it is very expansive. If you view the attached image, you can see a flow chart of all possible endings to The Stanley Parable, as well as hidden secrets. You’ll also notice, though, that there are areas of the game where the player does finally hit a wall. (You can sit in that damn closet for as long as you want; nothing is going to happen.)

So whether you decide to follow the narrator’s suggestions the whole way through, ignore his every directive, or just shut Stanley’s office door and end the game before it even begins, I think the first and only rule of The Stanley Parable is perhaps that there are no rules.