This blog is dedicated to the game that took my heart for a long time. Ladies and gentlemen, Ladies and gentlemen, welcome The Stanley Parable.
In general, in my first blog I wanted to look at the physics in the game Control, bringing it into the real world. But my laptop, which does not support it, said:
Therefore, I would like to analyze the psychological component of the game The Stanley Parable.
The game The Stanley Parable tells us about the office plankton Stanley, who, like an ordinary NPC, performs the same actions.
As the developer described this game "You will follow the story, you will not follow the story. You will have a choice, you will have no choice. The game will end, the game will never end. Controversy follows contradiction, the rules of the game are broken and then broken again. This world was not created for you to understand.".
The game is narrated by the author. The player plays for Stanley, which is why the author breaks the fourth wall in the story.
Games were originally created https://peppermillcasino.co.uk/ to immerse the player in a fictional image and plot. However, people feel strange if the game talks to them directly. The same technique works in films and even books. However, the developers wove more than just the fourth wall trick into the plot.
For those who don’t understand: The fourth wall is the imaginary wall between actors and audience in a traditional "three-wall" theater.
All the tricks of the psychological game developers
Firstly, this is a pronounced illusion of choice. At the beginning of the game you are given a choice of which door to go through. The narrator says to go through the left door, but most players (including me) chose to go through the right door. This collective decision is determined by the fact that the player does not want to obey the rules of the game. This behavior develops differently for everyone. Personally, I wanted to do this because I experienced the capabilities of the game like many YouTubers. (There are a lot of such choices in the game, which smoothly leads us to the second focus)
Secondly, this is constant communication with the player. Literally every 30 seconds the narrator says something about the player, thereby forcing you to dive deeper and deeper into this strange fictional world. Every time you are faced with a choice, the narrator explicitly says that there is a choice. Due to constant contact with the player, and the next point, the narrator catches you in the bait of the “right” choice. By the way, regarding the third point.
Thirdly, this is an insult to the player. Yes, yes, this little detail really helps you catch the bait. It has all happened to you when you quarreled with a person and want to take revenge on him, you do the opposite of what he asks. It’s the same logic here. Throughout the game, the narrator makes caustic and sometimes even offensive jokes at you, so you increasingly want to stop “dancing to his tune”.
Fourth, that’s a lot of endings. The game has a lot of endings, so many players want to get them all, thereby completing the game countless times. The game is also filled with variable endings and details, which makes it interesting to look at them all.
Fifthly, This is the game description from the developer. I thought for a long time whether to download this game or not, but after I read the description from the developer, I decided. The creator intrigues the player from the product page in the store. We often see this on the preview or title of a video.
Sixth, these are interesting achievements. The developers know that many players collect achievements. The creators of this game not only know this, but also use it. After completing the entire game, there is usually a stage of collecting achievements. But here you will have to work hard, because the developers decided to break the mold here too. For example, there is an achievement in the game according to which you must not log into the game for 5 years, or play all Tuesday. My favorite achievement is “click on door 430 five times”. This achievement starts a whole quest.
Bottom line: the Stanley parable game is filled to the brim with various psychological tricks. The developers managed to integrate almost half of the psychology textbook into the game. No matter what you do in this game, you still fall for the hook of the cunning creators. And at the end of this blog I would like to say to the developers: “thank you for this awesome product”.
My subjective assessment: 10 brilliant developers out of 10.
P.S. I also wanted to say thank you to the StopGame portal for the opportunity to discuss this topic among other gamers.