The Philosophy of The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide – Wisecrack Edition

[Music] hey wisecrack Jared here today we're talking about two of the most meta games since Psycho Mantis read our memory files the Stanley parable and the beginner's guide both written and designed by Dave reading back in 2010 film critic Roger Ebert infamously claimed that video games can never be art to which Frieden essentially said hold my beer these games belong to a genre that's been derided as walking simulators since that's basically all you can mechanically do as the player but we're Regas games lack in loot and experience points they more than make up for in artistic ambition specifically in how they use the unique aspects of video games as a medium in order to smartly comment on everything surrounding that medium they explore the canvas on which games are painted by talking about engines like source to make all of these games coda is using an engine called source it talked about the commercial aspects of games through subtle jabs that steam they deconstruct the usually unquestioned conventions of genres such as first-person shooters but mostly they examine the role of the artist making this art the programmers and the audience appreciating it the players and the relationship between the two welcome to this wisecrack edition on the works of Davy Reba and as always spoilers ahead let's start with readings first game of the Stanley parable it's a walking simulator that can be beat in about five minutes by simply following the directions of the games narrator when Stanley came to a set of two open doors he entered the door on his left just take the door on the Left follow all the other instructions and before you know it you've beat the game except not really because you can always replay it and see what was past the door on the right or any of the other branching Forks game designers Sid Meier famously defined games as a series of interesting decisions and the Stanley parable is exactly that despite the mundane office environment decisions like whether to follow the path forward or take the exit marked escape are genuinely interesting because they all lead to a wide array of alternate endings many of which break the fourth wall or deconstruct the medium that's probably why it's often been described as a game about games but it would probably be more accurate to describe to Stanley parable as a game about gamers or rather a parable gamer's philosophy that's skipped sunday-school a parable is a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth religious principle or moral lesson Stan Lee aka employee number 427 is an overt allegory for the player and there are a lot of hard truths to swallow for us gamers right from the start the narrator explains and lo ye number four two sevens job was simple he sat at his desk in room four to seven and he pushed buttons on the keyboard orders came to him through a monitor on his desk tell me what bodies to push how long to push them and him order this is what employee four to seven did every day every month of every and although others might have considered it so linking Stanley relished every moment that the orders appear there we have been made exactly [Music] the parallels here are really on the nose while hearing that Stanley was sitting at his desk staring at his computer the player is doing the exact same thing the orders that come through the monitor represent computer games that require no critical engagement from the player at their most crude games literally tell the player press f to pay respects but even games that forego QuickTime events often boil down to press the right button at the right time a lot of us here wisecrack are loving the division too but a lot of that game is just following the yellow quest line to the next mission and then doing exactly what the voice over the radio tells you to he doesn't even need to ask would you kindly but the most damning criticism comes at the end of the narrator's description Stanley was happy as if this was exactly what he was made to do just follow orders mindlessly the problem isn't merely that games don't demand critical engagement from the player it's that players don't demand critically engaging games there's a famous quote by philosopher John Stuart Mill better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied readin probably isn't just trying to ruin anyone's blissful ignorance just to be a dick from the games he's made it's pretty clear that he thinks that gaming can be much more than dumb diversions designed to kill time the game further emphasizes the identification of Stanley with the player by having the narrator addressed both interchangeably no wait where are you going in the main path called the freedom ending the narrator always retains a third-person omniscient perspective he had one he had defeated the machine even here by virtue of the player's first-person perspective as Stanley there's more identification with Stanley than in passive media like film or television even though the narrator is explaining that Stanley took the door on the left the player is thinking I'll take the door on the left but in other paths the distinction between Stanley and the player begins to break down even in the insanity ending the narrator puts a thought inside the players head by describing Stanley as thinking it and then perhaps the strangest question of them all and to distend his head one he was amazed he hadn't asked him so sooner why is there a voice in my head dictating everything that I'm doing and thinking now the voice was describing itself being considered by Stanley who found it particularly strange in some paths the narrator even breaks the fourth wall to address the player directly as when the player stays in the broom closet too long and the narrator calls out for the monitor for the body to be cleared away assuming the player has died at his keyboard you've got to this broom closet exploded a bit and we're just about to leave because there's nothing here when a physical malady of some sort shut down your central nervous system and you collapsed on the keyboard as evidenced by all this pre-canned dialogue for the narrator Stanley as a character and therefore the player as well has never given any meaningful choices that the game doesn't account for as soon as a player thinks he's found a hidden corner of the map or a way to break the game the narrator immediately comments upon it revealing that this choice too was already accounted for this is lamb shaded in the real person ending in which the narrator concludes the player must be a real person and not Stanley by virtue of the fact that he makes a choice purportedly not accounted for in the script you'll note Stanley you're a real person I can't believe I was so mistaken this is why you've been able to make correct and incorrect choices the same is true with the out-of-bounds ending at first Stanley assumed he'd broken the map until he heard this narration and realized it was part of the game's design all along he then praised the game for its insightful and witty commentary into the nature of video game structure and its examination of structural narrative tropes here the game is pretty open about the fact that it's a commentary on the medium as a game about games it's easy to read the Stanley parable as exploring the illusion of choice in games after all that's clearly what it means by the structural narrative Propst but in reading stanley as the player the game does offer a seemingly genuine choice between playing the game and not playing the game in the museum ending a female narrator tells the player push escape and press quit this way to beat this game as long as you lose four would you be will pick someone else's path stop this is not an arbitrary choice as between the doors on the left and right the game seems to imply that the player is wasting his life by sitting at a computer screen and following the orders it prescribes in order to advance and that the better choice would be to turn the game off and walk away this is spelled out explicitly in the wife ending in reality if all he's doing is pushing the same buttons he always has nothing has changed the longer he spends here the more invested he gets the more he forgets which life is the real one and I'm trying to tell him this that in this world he can never be anything but an observer that as long as he remains here he's slowly killing himself but is the game really implying that all games including itself are a waste of the player's time or is it being ironic after all the game indulges in irony in other parts the so-called freedom ending is only achievable by complete obedience to all the instructions barked at the player so is the game's own disregard for itself just further facetiousness well there's definitely evidence to suggest that the game is being straightforward in its implication that gaming really is an exercise in futility some of the achievements in particular require zero challenge whatsoever highlighting that they're not really achievements in the literal sense there's one called this is an achievement which is awarded just for enabling achievements in the options then there's the go outside achievement which requires the player to not play the game for five years the title even suggests that going outside would be a better use of the player's time the game even raises the question as to whether or not it has anything meaningful to say the art ending which requires pushing a button every few seconds for several hours rewards the players efforts with the intentionally disappointing essence of divine art a solid black monolith spouting pretentious gibberish it comment on the TVM gamers will endure to earn a reward that wasn't worth pursuing in the first place and yet the irony is that this commentary on tedium isn't in itself insightful enough to make it worth one's time alternatively the game at points thinks it does have something insightful to say as in the broom closet ending and instruct another human to take their place at the computer making sure they understand basic first-person video game mechanics and filling them in on the history of narrative tropes in video gaming so that the RNA and insightful commentary of this game is not lost on them so what's the ironic insightful commentary of the Stanley parable well we think it's this that a game which purports to waste the players time and undermine the importance of games as a medium is actually an example of the artistic merits unique to that medium particularly in its use of the first-person perspective to create an identification with the character by calling the player out on passively engaging with non-demanding games and asking them to engage more critically with the medium going forward the game becomes a valuable use of the players time it's a wake-up call to be a better gamer not by getting higher scores or better kill to death ratio but by being less a full satisfied and more like Socrates dissatisfied but if the Stanley parable merely encourages critical appreciation of games through its narrative the beginner's guide makes criticism the actual gameplay mechanic but before we get to that I want to give a shout out to this video sponsor better help the online counseling service if any of you are concerned about some controversy surrounding the company we've got a full breakdown in our true detective video better help makes finding a certified counselor easy and stigma free they've even rolled out some new features like group and ours and teen counseling so if online counseling sounds like the right fit for you or someone you love consider going to better help calm slash wisecrack or teen counseling calm slash wisecrack - to get 10% off your first month of counseling with a certified professional and now back to the show whereas the Stanley parable had bare-bones gameplay that really only allowed the player to decide between a series of Neri choices the beginner's guide strips back gameplay even more it's a series of short standalone games some only a few seconds long they're presented to the player in a particular order so you don't even have the choice of which game to play they're really more like linear levels and within those levels there might be a single simple puzzle or a gun but no enemies to shoot or dialogue choices that don't matter but mostly the only thing to do is just keep moving forward but it's by making a game with no obvious gameplay that readin is able to make criticism the main mechanic that the player learns the conceit of this game is that each of these levels were designed by a designer nicknamed Kota and a fictitious version of reiden offers his own observations and criticisms as you're walking through them it is less advanced than the previous game but actually it seems to be more focused more complete code is trying to give it a unique voice rather than simply basing it on a pre-existing trope by the end the player realizes that Kota is fictional there are a lot of theories as to what he's supposed to represent mostly some aspect of reading such as his past self part of his psyche his creative genius or how his fancy so other than walking forward what reiden really wants the player to do is to critically consider Coda's design choices and to internally dialogue with reiden on his interpretation that's why the game is called the beginner's guide it's your introductory walkthrough on how to do games criticism at the end of the first level reiden gives his email address and encourages players to write in with their own interpretation especially if they differ from his if you have a particular interpretation that I haven't mentioned here or if you just need to get in touch you can email me at da ve y WR e de n at gmail.com this sets the expectation for the player that their primary engagement with each level will be analysis as a critic rather than traditional gameplay but it also highlights that the interpretation put forth in readings narration shouldn't be taken as gospel truth the real meaning might not be laid out so easily that's important because the main motif explored across all levels within the beginners guide is authorial intent or the belief that whatever the author meant for the work to say is what it really means readin is taking that framework and applying it to games criticism asking us to ask the same questions about coda and his games because readin claims to be a friend of kotas with knowledge of him as a person and not merely as a designer he initially suggests that this gives him additional insight into the design when you're first playing the game and still under the assumption that coda is a real individual the biographical insights which read and shares really do seem to make sense out of the game design one game entitled islands begins on a series of isolated islands floating an empty white void while this could certainly be suggestive of solitude read enforces the interpretation of Coda's loneliness onto the player by explaining his friends emotional state during the development of the game now put yourself in my shoes playing here's a friend whose work is exhibiting signs of struggle frustration anxiety depression from my perspective at the time and just what I knew of him this was a result of how isolated he was he was in his own little bubble just sitting at his computer all day not really showing these games to anyone not releasing them onto the internet and so he didn't have anyone outside of himself to connect with he had no outlet to ground himself on it's a reading of the level that the player might not have given as much weight to had they not been told this background information but the game also explores the idea of authorial intent by repeatedly claiming to diverge from what the original designer had intended time and again throughout the games Breeden tells the player that he's going to modify the level in some way once you've been slowed to an absolute crawl the door at the top of the stairs opens so why if code is not showing these games to anyone why bother opening the door at all well to show you I'm modifying the game here so that when you press the use key on your gamepad it'll bring you back up to full speed so you can enter the door for yourself either in order to show something that would otherwise remain hidden or to simply make the game playable in the game down reiden claims that coda originally in ended for the player to be locked in a prison cell for a full hour in the game puzzle readin removes the walls of the cramped corridor to reveal an unseen exterior that is hundreds of times bigger than the playable area by explicitly breaking from kotas creative vision the player is prompted to give more consideration as to what coda would have been trying to communicate through those design decisions but this doesn't just force players to consider the creator's intent it also forces them to consider the creator's design philosophy whereas reading claims to be modifying all these games because he believes that all games should be playable and understandable the exact opposite belief is attributed to coda this is something that he and I used to argue about a lot you know whether a game on to actually be playable whether it means anything if no one can get through it and I would always defend that you know all this work goes into the game why not make it playable and accessible and so we just got into heated arguments over it and there is one time that after one of these conversations he went home and a day or two later he sent me a zip file entitled playable games that was full of hundreds of individual games each of which was just an empty box that you walked around in and nothing else if the player has been learning how to critically engage with the game then by the final level when it becomes evident that reiden is an unreliable narrator the player will likewise realize that there is no coda so if the player dismisses coda and just interprets these micro games as a creation of readings you might feel like he's gotten some insight into who reiden is as an individual and as such might be tempted to understand readings authorial intent behind these design decisions this is especially tempting if the player really does have some first-hand account from the real reboot such as his blog post written during the development of the beginner's guide where he lays out exactly what he was feeling after the release of the Stanley parable I couldn't do it anymore I couldn't talk to more people I couldn't continue to use other people's opinions of myself to feel good about myself and about my work every time I turn to someone else's opinion in the game I felt less sure of my own opinion but I began to forget why I liked the game I was losing the thing I had created but just as the player is perhaps considering this the text of the game challenges this theory underlying authorial intent the final game tower expressly rejects the notion that biographic knowledge leads to insight in it coda leaves messages to read and stating struggling to come up with new ideas is not making me depressed the fact you think I'm frustrated or broken says more about you than about me the point of this reversal isn't for the player to go back and replay the game with knowledge that readin made the game and that he himself was the one that was frustrated or broken but it's also not that the player needs to ignore those details and just focus on understanding the game in a vacuum the competing views of authorial intentional ISM which treats biographic data and the author's intent as relevant and death of the author which does not are two of the basic frameworks for critical interpretation in any medium the real reading that made the game doesn't seem to be prescribing one or the other so much as he's forcing players to consider both perspectives as part of their burgeoning careers as game critics by leaving fundamental questions about the beginner's guide open such as the reliability of reading as a narrator or the true identity of coda the game forces the players to engage it more critically than if reading had simply walked the player through the levels and spoon-fed them information about the design with the production or his own creative process the game never questions as Stanley parable had whether playing the beginner's guide and searching for these answers is a worthwhile use of the players time it tacitly assumes that the act of critical engagement while playing it is worthwhile near the beginning of the beginner's guide reading States there's a bigger picture that all of his games are meant to play a role in some larger meaning that we won't be able to grasp until we've seen all of them and once we have we can step back and start to understand what exactly that bigger picture is now he's referring to the games purportedly made by coda that together comprised the beginner's guide and as you complete Coda's games you do come to find that there are repeating motifs and that each of these games do work together to form a bigger picture but that got us wondering if these separate games Khoda are actually intended to be taken together could the same be true of the games reiden is making after all since there is no coda it's clear that the idea for communicating a complete idea over multiple games is coming from reading so do the Stanley parable and the beginner's guide taken together share an overarching message it certainly seems so it's not that we ought to turn the games off and do something more valuable with our lives that impress whatever buttons the game tells us to it's that by critically engaging with the games we're playing we can actually make that play itself a more valuable use of our time at least that's our interpretation and per his instructions it's one we're going to share with Davey reading but tell us what you think in the comments below share your own readings with reading by emailing him at Davey reading at gmail.com and tell them wisecrack sent you thanks to all our patrons who support the channel and our podcast be sure to hit that subscribe button and before you go this video is brought to you by better help the online counseling service if speaking to someone on a regular basis is something you've been thinking about better help is a great way to start you'll get paired with a certified counselor quickly and without any hassles when I tried better help I went to the site answered a couple easy questions and in less than a day I was paired with a certified counselor named Jennifer we made an appointment that worked around my schedule and it was a great experience you can communicate on your laptop phone tablet through text video chat whatever is most productive for you better helps also got some new services including group and ours for people who benefit from group therapy and for people with younger siblings cousins or children better help recently launched teen counseling so teenagers can get access to counseling with parental consent so if online counseling sounds like the right fit for you or someone you love consider going to better help calm / wisecrack or teen counseling calm / wisecrack - to get 10% off your first month of counseling with a certified counselor and as always thanks for watching guys peace [Music]

Channel: Wisecrack

Views: 685,202

Rating: 4.9098983 out of 5

Keywords: The Stanley Parable (Video Game), The Beginner's Guide (Video Game), the stanley parable, The Beginner's Guide, stanley parable, beginner's guide, the stanley parable gameplay, The Beginner's Guide gameplay, stanley parable 2013, davey wreden, davey wreden video games, davey wreden games indie, games, steam, Film Studies, Film analysis, philosophy, thugnotes, Wisecrack Edition, video essays, Deep or Dumb, Philosophy of, Wisecrack

Id: FSpIa3pdf48

Length: 22min 35sec (1355 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/LordyLlama]

As someone whose never played this game, it reminds me heavily of Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. Is that what it's going for?

[u/APeacefulWarrior]

If you like The Stanley Parable and would like a game that plays with many of the same ideas, but is an actual game rather than a walking sim, check out "The Magic Circle." It's a really great indie, made by a bunch of former AAA devs, but it totally flew below the radar and not many people played it. But they should.

(It's kind of a first person action-puzzler set inside a fantasy game which has been in development hell for a decade, with you as a beta tester trying to yank control of it away from its deluded devs so it can actually be finished.)

[u/perforcie]

Oh shit, I gotta play The Stanley Parable again. It was a rare gem.

[u/Syn-chronicity]

I don't think that Beginner's Guide gets enough love. Stanley Parable tends to overshadow it, and I think it's more amusing and easily accessible so that's expected.

Beginner's Guide is a wonderful commentary on the complexities of human relationships, on what media is and what it isn't, on how a person can take and transform another person's work, on the expectations we put on ourselves and others, and sometimes how those expectations can be misapplied (being vague to avoid spoiling the main thrust, here).

Beginner's Guide might be the single piece of gaming that I can think of that has made me sit and rethink my relationships with other people. It's a game I think of often and fondly, and I highly recommend it as it elevates the entire genre.