Blog Post #8

 

    After watching The Stanley Parable, I definitely have a better appreciation and understanding of interactive video games. Overall, I actually enjoyed watching the game and seeing it play out based on the player's choices, that I even watched the second video because I was so into it. 

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    I thought that The Stanley Parable contained the basic structures of a narrative. It had a backstory, Stanley who works in an office. The character of Stanley. The setting of Stanley's office. Then the general storyline of Stanley and the choices "he" makes around his office. 

    The game has the screen displayed so it looks like the player is actually Stanley. You see what Stanley looks like in the intro, and then it pans so that the player has Stanley's point of view. I think that's a helpful way of allowing the player to feel immersed in the game. You are making the choices Stanley is making. Therefore the player is Stanley and they let the real world kind of fade and allow the game to become their reality. 

    I thought that the narrator was so funny for this particular game and definitely helped enhance the experience as well. He provided hilarious commentary in the video when the player was not following his directions. In that way, he also acted as a checkmark for the objectives "Stanley" needed to do in order to continue the game. But the narrator's commentary was sort of making fun of the fact that you don't have total control over the character.

    With how many times the narrator commented on something, that means the writing was well planned out. The writers did a great job at writing out all of the possibilities that a player could do. It almost made it seem like the narrator is right there with you rather than the fact that it was all actually recorded prior to the game coming out.