The Stanley Parable Review | SpawnFirst

Chris West of SpawnFirst writes: "When it comes to video games, I believe a strong narrative to be just as important as the gameplay and that both should complement each other to create an engaging experience. Currently, more games are focusing almost entirely on narrative and story structure, which is fine with me as long as the story is good. Despite my love for a good story, I’ve never truly thought about the philosophies of narratives, writers, the audience, and their complex relationships…until now."

[Xof]

Stanley Parable was like a solid 5/10 for me. +5 for being funny, -5 for not being a game.

But that was before I got to the Minecraft bit.

[Pandamobile]

Care to explain how it's "not a game"?

[Xof]

There's no failure state.

[Pandamobile]

That's an extremely narrow definition for what a game is (and quite frankly, it's wrong).

[coolbeans]

*Sigh*

It seems like every time I see this game/non-game discussion (typically by accident) I'm being dragged closer and closer to making a blog about it, even though I though PA's recent vlog really nailed this.

@Xof

Seems like an arbitrary way to determine X as a game. Isn't there a lack of a fail state in certain pet sim games and such too?

[Xof]

Funny, I thought defining a game as something with a win and a lose state was the MOST general definition possible. Although maybe I was a little vague. I define a game as "Interactive media with a win and/or lose state."

Stanley has neither. And, obviously, I'm defining interactive electronic visual media games, not games in general.

@coolbeans: yes, that's correct. In that case, instead of a game, you're dealing with a simulation. Alternatively, simulation games are games like The Sims where there are win and lose states.

Not all interactive electronic media are the same, people. I get it: we're all gamers. But that doesn't mean everything we play MUST be a game. That's not how it works. Stanley Parable is interactive fiction. It's the digital equivalent of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book.

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I should also point out that just because something is not a game does not mean that a gamer cannot enjoy it. I get the feeling that way too many people here identify themselves far too strongly with that label.

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And for the record, since some people seem to have missed the "subtlety" of my first post, the second statement implies a change of opinion of the first. IE, "And then +5 more for being so awesome."

[annus]

Stanley Parable does have an 'end'.

And what about games like Prince of Persia on PS3? You couldn't die in that, is that not a game? Are you not playing a game of Minecraft when you are in free building mode, since you cannot win or lose?

A game, by definition, is something you can play. Can you play Stanley Parable? Then it's a game. You make decisions, you have choices, reactions occur to said choices. So how isn't it a game? It's not like it's a movie where you can just move the camera.

Just because YOU don't define it as a game doesn't mean it's not a game.

[coolbeans]

@Xof --Sorry this is much later. I've been traveling.--

It's not really the broadest way of defining a video game, actually. Technically, one can be defined as an electronic game in which there's a given user interface that generates visual feedback to the player. That's why I think determiners like fail state or being able to take damage just strike me as subjective determiners for what a game is/is not. I can't stop you from rigidly defining a game, but this whole game/non-game stuff is getting annoying.