Errant Signal - The Stanley Parable

[@JonesyMcDanes]

I beat this when it came out. You know the room full of monitors? I fell off the catwalk, it had no response for that. Therefore i win.

[@MrLosarath]

I fell off of the lift and I survived by falling AFTER I unplugged the phone. It's Hard to do, but possible. Nothing happened then.

[@MagusMarquillin]

I hope no one reported those bugs, it'll just ruin the chance for others.

[@masterj3344]

IIRC they patched an ending in for that.

[@GDNachoo]

7:27

[@HighordStarkiller]

GENIUS

[@TheKrillWillRule]

The broom closet ending is the correct ending.

[@justinwood2]

No! The White board ending is the correct ending!

[@The8BitPianist]

The Broom Closet ending was my favourite!

[@sarahalex4057]

This is how religion starts

[@elcucumber2847]

onecomputerkid The broom closet ending was my favourite!

[@jonu7280]

le cambrioleur ME TOOO

[@jockohomosexual]

Oh, the closet ending was my favorite ending!

[@aliciagarciafernandez7994]

+EmilyFilms I'm genuinly concerned about you.

[@Bacchasnail]

Right! It was teh bestest!!!

[@KrissLucia]

This game gave me an incredibly bad existential crises that lasted for a long time, one that picked at my depression with the futility of determinism and the pointlessness of my being. Even while I was stricken with these thoughts and feelings, I couldn't help but feel this game was incredible. Things that make you think- more specifically things that make you re-examine your previous thoughts and notions, tied together with actual feelings (in this case, dread, futility, depression, fear, etc), to me, those are what I think of when I think of video games being successful pieces of art. This could have been a choose-your-own-adventure-book, but the fact that it was a game self-critiques itself and me, the consumer of videogames. The Stanley Parable was an experience unique to itself that I deeply appreciate. Even if it did worsen my mental health, totally worth it! .. Probably worth it! ... Yeah. Something like that.

[@enzotibirica8458]

I loved the game also But never thought on look to myself on the mirror through it Because of you I will Thanks =)

[@KrissLucia]

***** Yes. Yes. This is all true. Yes.

[@michaelkemel9711]

KrissLucia Are you feeling better now?

[@Madoc_EU]

+KrissLucia I heard a dog bark once. The barking sound was so hollow and pointless. That dog threw me into an existential crisis that lasted for years. Hard stuff, hard stuff.

[@unslept_em]

+KrissLucia ...and then Davey Wreden releases The Beginner's Guide.

[@tearlach47]

6:49 "There is no wrong ending" So even the Broom Closet ending is canon?

[@ReedoTV]

I love that the only way to get the 'good' ending (where Stanley escapes) is to do exactly what you're told.

[@wolfdwarf]

"escapes" ~ never the end is never the never end the end is never the never end

[@fezman222]

The best part (in my opinion of course) was the ending forcing you to click buttons. Not only did it do an amazing reversal, where refusing the narrator's demand, which was generally allowed and rewarded, stopped even being a decision. Then, it calls Stanley a drone, staring at the screen as life passes by. It hit home because this game is not a game for the masses, not for the dude bros who play CoD or Madden, but the people who like to view video games as art, and people who have played a lot of video games. It outright tells us that what we are doing, clicking buttons in order to get a cheap high is a waste of time. Its so poignant because of its truth, but also its brutal delivery. The narrator has complete disdain for the player at this point, and not only does he force the player to have choice, he doesn't even recognize that the player is refusing him. In a way, the fact that the narrator ignores us forces us to press the button, and force us to realize that these buttons we press are completely meaningless escapism. The game forces us to realize what games are, and by adding in that interactivity, those few key presses, makes us interact with the message, and makes us understand the message that this ending wants us to understand. This ending got me the most, not just because of its brilliant execution, but how the message was about life, and if you had seen other endings, which were primarily about games themselves, it starts to tackle issues larger then games. In a way, it was its novelty that got me the most. Most games talk about games, as the video game industry struggles to find an identity. This ending is still about video games, but not on how video games should be presented, or how we accept violence, or the nature of choices, but on what video games really are to the people who play them. The fact of the matter that video games, no matter how much we try to analyze and dissect them, they are still distractions from life. It forces the player to think, not about the nature of video games, but about their life and the chooses they made not in video games, but in their life. Sorry about the super long analysis. When I start writing, it's hard for me to stop and I need to finish my thought.

[@aravindpallippara1577]

By that extension of that logic, everything that's not directly transactional is meaning-less Reading a book, watching a movie, browsing a game wiki - smelling flowers Should all our actions be tied to meaningful transactions in purpose of a greater good?

[@ellabar252]

@@aravindpallippara1577 In a sense, yeah. In life, all we can hope for is happiness, and our human brains love stories, sensations, feelings, and entertainment. This is exactly what video games are

[@CrossKnights]

I REALLY don't like spoilers but I love Errant Signal videos...so I've actually bought a number of games and played them just so I could watch these video without being spoiled...I'm not sure what that says about me... I do know that playing through a game, forming my own opinion and then coming back here after it's all done has pretty much always given me a greater appreciation for whatever game I just played. I wish there were more channels like this one.

[@ArloMathis]

Same, except I can't stand games that *aren't* the title game being spoiled. Seriously. Had that happen *once*, and I swore off the spoiler videos.

[@marcusmattern]

I've never played a game which more viciously attacked my sense of free agency within my actual life-which is really quite remarkable and commendable. Thank you for distilling its ideas into a complete, if appropriately diverse, thesis. I've realized the only actual choice most games provide is not inherent to their interactive nature: it's in the subtext of character actions and the justification of choices. Choosing whether to kill or reprogram the Geth in Mass Effect is an excellent example, more so in light of the Stanley parable. The choice of what to do is effectively meaningless: the game still proceeds either way and almost no acknowledgement is made down the road for your choice. The player's justification, on the other hand, becomes a living thing: it causes them to think about whether they chose the 'right' path, talk to other players about their choices, and potentially reframe how they make choices going forward. I actually played a Metal Gear Solid game (ghost babel) that caused me to commit to nonviolent means whenever they're available in the games, because it actually tracked how many people I'd killed and talked about how hypocritical I was to condemn the villains for being murderers. It added meaning to a choice I had assumed was inconsequential. Choices in games only have meaning in the context of their characters. Player choice has no meaning until a character defines it. If the Narrator of The Stanley Parable was equally pleased with any choice Stanley made, there would be no story. It's actually the Narrator's rigid adherence to a defined set of choices which Stanley may or may not follow which makes him a character and allows his choices to have meaning. The conceit is that the Narrator is a ridiculous sham of a character with a horrible ideas about how to tell a story with games, which makes every choice Stanley makes a parody of free will. I think The Stanley Parable is a perfect videogame adaptation of Sartre's No Exit, brilliant because you are one of two people trapped in hell and the only way to win is to quit engaging with someone whose sole interest is curtailing your freedom.

[@thegeekclub8810]

8:44 I should wear a cabinet today.

[@jjcoola998]

Yes they trying to make money bro

[@TheTrueBatBrain]

Seems like Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. The narration, questioning of how things work and why we believe and wish for certain things and do some things, in a humorous way.

[@TechniqueSan]

this 'game' is the definition of meta, lol.

[@enzotibirica8458]

I loved Stanley Parable But I never realized the approach that : We have no freedom ,we have no choice because everything was already built by galatic cafe Thank you so much for that

[@joshxkerrigan]

how do these not have more views, they're so interesting and well done..

[@aftermarket122]

The music in that helicopter fight was more a nod to "Apocalypse now".

[@crithon]

seriously, you make excellent videos about critiquing games

[@lelderp11]

I liked the broom closet ending XD !!1!!!!!!1!!1!!!!

[@johncameron1935]

I think my favorite thing in the stanley parable was (besides the broom closet) when you hop into and then back out of the boss' office real quick-like, leaving the narrator behind. You actually escape? I think? And then it leaves it up to you to interpret what happens next.

[@EmperorOfLols]

4:48 "We presuppose that a game has a win state. That the point of them is to be won. The SP questions of that is true." Didn't Missile Command did the same thing with its "You cant win in a nuclear war" message? We THINK we can defend the people and eventually win, but level after level your start to fuck up from bad to worse. You have start to make moral choices in your mind about which people are going to be sacrificed so you can save the many for the future, or to defend you missile silos in order to HAVE a chance to defend more people. But for what? the game is not going to stop (a Killscreen doesn't count, its a bug and therefore unintended by the vision of the artist). Oh, there may be winstates by completing each level, but what once was a sign of victory and joy (YAY! I WON!) it will now mean represent your worst nightmare (No....not again. No more. Stop), since the battle is getting relentless and worse with no hope in the horizon. And then...you break. The mantle of Nihilism finally reaches you, and everything you fought is finally gone. The nuclear bomb is just the cherry on top. Its basically the gaming equivalent of: "The only winning move is not to play" from War Games.

[@Robbay363]

I love how after playing the baby game for 4 hrs you are treated to an extremely laughable ending like the game is saying "yeah you did just waste 4 hrs on a painful experience and got nothing for it". Lovely piece of art this one.

[@jaredong]

A new Errant Signal episode. Yay!

[@Kinos141]

Somehow, I'm getting God vibes. The fact that choice is mute, because all oaths are already chosen for you before birth. Nice.

[@EhCanadianGamer]

Other games can probably explore the themes of choice while actually having a narrative. Like for example, no choice you make is never really good or bad. While most games are a power fantasy where the player is the hero and in the end he saves the day. You can make choices, while the choices are predetermined, you can explore the theme that maybe no one choice is never good or bad. Like in real life for example. I mean, people can argue there is technically good and evil, because there are always extreme examples of people doing good or bad. But there's always many grey areas.

[@squibtoad]

Thanks for putting it into and articulate string of words and accurate points. This game took me so aback, I could only tell my friends that they had to play it.

[@LinkMEP]

The philosophical similarities between Stanley and The Matrix likely come from mutual inspiration from Plato's Cave.

[@nonsensicalabyss]

LinkMEP Thisssss

[@jabberw0k812]

Jan Berrios Plato explained reality, or at least our perception of it, as an imperfect reflection of the true world that humans are unable to perceive, like people chained in a cave who could only see the shadows of the world outside on the wall. Connected to his notion that all ideas reflect the perfect version of a thing, but no thing in reality can be that perfect. You will call something a chair, but in reality any chair that exists will differ from the perfect idea of what a chair is. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave ;D

[@islandboy9381]

That comparison doesn't work because Plato's cave has a very sharp, clear distinction between what is real and what is not real and also has the correct way to find the real. The Stanley Parable on the other hand never gives you that sharp distinction, it deliberately misleads you constantly about this to play with your expectations that there has to be a true reality. Same applies to the Matrix more specifically the sequels where Morpheus questions in his final moments if they really escaped from the Matrix.

[@KemalPerkasaAriadi]

Can't like this video enough. a small suggestion, if you dont mind. use your script as the caption. can be so helpful :)

[@knexator_]

"Life and death is meaningless if everything has already been written" Imagine a supercomputer that can know the state of every atom and knows all the physical laws. It would be able to calculate all of our future. We have as much free will as Stanley...

[@Erika-gn1tv]

Well, there is the uncertainty of quantum states.

[@knexator_]

Erika Söderlund Then our universe is a binary decision tree, like Stanley's. Still, all branches are already planned

[@Erika-gn1tv]

Daniel Hurtado The point being that none of that can actually be known. Quantum states can not be detected without being disrupted.

[@knexator_]

Erika Söderlund Mhh, didn't knew that. Then I guess we can say the outcome is prett much random. Or the universe has free will, if you think there's a God part of it who chooses between the outcomes of every quantum interaction

[@LivingChords]

+Daniel Hurtado on the other hand this is only one possible interpretation of quantum physics.

[@milesmassey5219]

A wonderful, interesting dissection of the game and story. Your videos are full-bodied and fluid, always excited to see what you have to say.

[@DeadpoolandTgwtgFan]

To me this is like playing a Monty Python movie.

[@zandaroos553]

Red_Sprite “Were not a development company were an anarchosyndicalist commune of freelancers”

[@Ronin11111111]

Thank you for this wonderful episode Campster, now I finally have some idea what I played.

[@FloopersteinMcGoof]

The Stanley Parade's philosophy was an interesting one, and it still is. However, I'd like a similar meta game that tries to comment on the opposite philosophy - how choices and player freedom DO matter. When players begin to break games through speedruns or establish metas outside of the developers' control. I would love to see a big digest of how games complex enough cannot contain nor predict player expression, and thus evolve and become an experience that belongs to the player and their shared community.

[@RoyalFusilier]

I really enjoyed this video, it gives a lot to think about. I think having already seen an LP of this game helped enhance my enjoyment of it in some weird way since this video, rather than being my first impression of the game, helped me sort of put a frame on my thoughts about it? In any case, good stuff.

[@DARE0451]

I saw so much content in this video I missed when I thought I had exhausted every single choice. The hell?

[@QunaticPotato]

Thanks for doing this video.

[@ChinaTalkMedia]

this might be the greatest video game analysis on youtube

[@viscountalpha]

Maybe it has a deeper meaning that our lives have multiple win states and lose states.

[@SirAroace]

Just something to note, the choice video is a part of the unplugging/real boy ending, not the confession ending. Other wise this is good.

[@ZeratulM]

Love your channel! You are a very talented man. Keep up the good work sir :)

[@Darethus]

You have given me a lot to think upon :)

[@ZanderEzekial77]

You mean Gordon Freeman SURVIVES the end of HL2? I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED!

[@Phrozenflame500]

Well, it would explain why there's no HL3.

[@randomfox12245]

And hell, there ARE interesting ways you could have talked about this game. One that comes to mind just from watching this video is about how it seems to think no one else in the world except impotent office workers play video games. This isn't a game about a soldier overseas playing an MMO to still feel connected to some other version of society while so far away from home. This isn't about a kid playing games after coming home from school. It's not about a father or mother playing games with their kids to share their love and hobby with them via something they both enjoy. This isn't about an impotent office worker who is actually content and satisfied with their life. It focuses, to the point of over exaggeration, on one very specific type of person who plays games, to the exclusion and unintentional dismissal of all the others. It's white bread douchebags pretending white bread douchebags are the only people in the world who exist, like Fight Club without the anarchy.

[@randomfox12245]

I'm pretty sure Bethesda doesn't also think there's elves and cat people running around too =P could you possible have picked a worse comparison? I also don't get how you extrapolated any kind of opinion on the economic state of certain people by what I said. I merely said the game presents everyone who plays games as fitting a certain life style (white twenty somethings in dead end office jobs with crippling self esteem issues. Again, Fight Club comparison) when said life style is actually in the minority as far as the audience for interactive experiences go.

[@PetercAW]

I don't think you're quite understanding the meaning of the "impotent office worker". The game isn't trying to say that office workers are the only people who play video games; it's using the office worker as a metaphor for anyone who plays video games- both of them press buttons on a keyboard over and over and yet still enjoy it. The only reason the "office" setting comes into play is because it's posing the question of whether or not video games can be considered like dead end jobs, something ultimately meaningless that people feel compelled to do anyway.

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

***** Skyrim doesn't pretend to be in any way connected to or commenting on reality, though. It's complete fiction, nothing more, through and through. Meanwhile, The Stanley Parable makes a rather blunt statement about reality through the use of absurdist fiction, and that is what the maxbarrass1 is going on about.

[@randomfox12245]

***** Wait, I'm sorry, was that a reference to Waiting for Godot? Cuz if so, noooot exactly a good comparison to use here... >.>

[@randomfox12245]

Have you even played any of the games your listing off, let alone Stanly Parable? Hell, did you even WATCH the video your commenting on? x3 cuz you've clearly missed the flipping point in every conceivable possible way. Do yourself a favor and stop before you continue to embarrass yourself.

[@stuart2570]

Good stuff Chris. Thanks for the analysis!

[@yotamshitrit6820]

8:00 the informational video doesnt appear in the confusion ending (the confusion ending is the one with the line) but the one where you unplug the phone. i would never have noticed this if the video wasnt that damn good that i watched it like 5 times alredy >.>

[@Phhase]

Yotam Shitrit He meant to say the Real Person ending rather than the Confusion Ending.

[@Hadgerz]

The narrator HAS to be Scar from The Lion King...HAS TO BE. Jeremy Irons? *I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!!!*

[@LukeOfTroy]

Sounds like the Little Big Planet narrator to me.

[@Mr_Sex_Goblin]

These videos are amazing

[@jimuren8223]

Every time the adventure line theme plays I immediately, almost out of muscle memory start humming along, and then it stops all of a sudden and I get sad.

[@ARMTOAST]

New Errant Signal vid +4 happiness

[@VictorFrost]

Great video, as always.

[@objectiveirony]

So glad I subscribed. This channel is fantastic.

[@dennist3hmenace]

Best video about this game there is. Wonderfully done. Great work.

[@WollyChaps]

Except for the closet ending, that ending is not canonical.

[@vavakxnonexus]

L2112Lifz No! The Closet Ending is the only canonical ending!

[@JadynSopha]

The closet ending is muy favourite.

[@sky0kast0]

Thiago F that ending ends with Stanley dying of a heart attack or having an epileptic seizure kappa

[@andrewternet8370]

Or the whiteboard ending, where you just sit in your office. ;p

[@jr9529]

That one actually does have some deeper meaning too I think XD like it could express how annoying it is when someone just goes idle without saying anything in a multiplayer game, or just going and doing random little things that have nothing to do with the story in a certain level just for achievements. or perhaps it may even express what might happen if you just stop playing a certain game for a while~

[@guineapig55555]

The only way to win at 'Stanley Parable' is to never even play it. It's sort of like THE GAME

[@asperRader]

fuck you i wasnt even going for long and you already broke my streak

[@guineapig55555]

Meinkush dank meme #trumpfor2019 n 360 noscope 420 blaze it haha lol rofl xDD also i go to e621.net WTF are you going on about your little fuck-muppet? Speak sense turdburgler

[@asperRader]

Malaise "Speak sense turdburgler" so much irony i could get rid of the wrinkles on my clothes and besides, i was obviously talking about you making me lose THE GAME.

[@guineapig55555]

Meinkush dank meme #trumpfor2019 n 360 noscope 420 blaze it haha lol rofl xDD also i go to e621.net Game? What game? Stop speaking foolish nonsense.

[@asperRader]

Malaise i see you are in denial i'll leave you to your hijinks, brother

[@david.jacare]

thanks for making this.

[@wandermayer]

I'm very curious to see your reading of The Beginner's Guide! If The Stanley Parable was a dense text...

[@JBX07]

Speaking of bad endings, in Haven: Call of the King there's a QTE that regardless of your inputs cannot win and the protagonist loses being chained to the wall by the bad guy. I think it was supposed to get a sequel or be the first in a trilogy but that didn't happen.

[@sectorcodec]

Why are people saying that he spoiled stuff in this video? First of all, he does that in every video, and secondly, I think the whole "spoil" idea is bs in the first place. Shakespeare spoils the ending to Romeo and Juliet right in the beginning. Endings aren't what a make a story interesting, but the adventure and the characters.

[@sylentknyte]

Because it's a little unfair to throw in random spoiler from other games, even if they are old. I expected "Stanley Parable" spoilers, not Half Life 2 spoilers. It doesn't bother me since I don't like FPS games, but it's a slight dick move. It's like if I did a review for The Social Network and threw in Fight Club spoilers. I kind of disagree with you on spoilers. It varies from person to person. If I know spoilers in advance of seeing the story it impacts the effect of that moment for me. I like going in knowing nothing.

[@lychanking]

sylentknyte Half Life 2 is an old ass game, if someone complains about spoilers for a game that damn old they need to be shot.

[@IAmebAdger]

lychanking No you.

[@personalgao]

sylentknyte Thanks, I now understand what people mean with "Oh spoilers in this video". But YayItsScarlett has a point: this is not a review, where in the tittle say "REVIEW". This is an analysis, and the people watching this and all the others videos should already know this. Well maybe you're new and *facepalm*. But yeah why you thought this is a review? there isn't a score at the end, this isn't IGN, and there are a lot of spoilers of the game itself anyway! The problem wasn't the video, was you coming here for something else and making yourself an idea of what it should be.

[@danny1111105]

its like saying that minecraft ends with you dying .

[@kafkatamura7892]

dude this is ART

[@Pompo5]

the whole review was very complete and interesting, but i wanted to point out that thing you said about complete free will in games (when talking about the trailer video for the game). i found that to be a very useful insight into what i had been feeling/looking for in games and why i often felt unsatisfied in respect to the freedom i thought i would get o r that i went into. those specified rules in the system tuly rule over everything and they put certain limits into whaty a player does or not, which turns into what a player can feel or not feel

[@EllieStardust]

It's AMAZING that you mentioned The Fault in Our Stars, even if it was just a brief flash on the screen.

[@fogrid]

Amazing analysis

[@ellac613]

I love this game's confusingly big amount of metaphores and ideas, because it satisfies my constant need to overanalyze narratives (my main form of escapism). That's also why the wife ending (or whatever it's called) is the one that gives me an existential crysis each time I think about it. The fun thing in that ending though, is that by saying that the story is simply a product of Stanley's fantasies, it could mean that the Narrator (who always talks about HIS story) is Stanley himself. When you create scenarios in your head, you have a general sense of where it begins and ends, and of how it progresses, but when you let it play out, something always doesn't go quite right, and the story messes up, and you restart, and again again again, and even when you somewhat manage to get to the "correct" ending, you hit replay, because you don't wan't it to be over, and so the end is never truly the end. This is obviously just what I like to imagine for that ending (The Beginner's guide has made me afraid of my own desire to overanalyse and give meaning to everything).

[@smugdancinghatkid5047]

Even the Trailer of the Game always sais: "Begin again" all the time

[@jarojoro7337]

Oh Stanley! Thanks for biting the bullet, we never face.

[@drifigzmusic3845]

Errant: There is no game with choice Minecraft: *Excuse Me?*

[@MellowGaming]

So I watch an interesting video dissecting and discussing game systems and narrative and how they intertwine and people are moaning about spoilers in the comments. You can't dissect a story's narrative and leave out the end. It is part of the story and it's effect on the rest of the story needs to be discussed. That goes for any other works referenced too. You need to encompass all relevant elements of any story you're bringing into the discussion or else you're going to fail to deliver the critique you're aiming for. Long story short, don't watch Errant Signal videos expecting to not be spoiled.

[@ghostsharklegs6687]

I appreciate the stanley parable and what it has to say about choice, but I think sandbox games are kind of it's antithesis. Sure, you can't do everything in minecraft, but you can do a lot. Nobody thought while making minecraft, "now I'm gonna put this in the game so people can build a castle" but sure enough, I built a castle. the number of things you can do are limited, but it's huge. Granted, you can't "win" sandbox games, but still.

[@luckyc4t110]

That's a great point. I think that the balance between narrative and freedom is the question here. Sandbox games completely disregard narrative in favor of freedom. Every game has its own balance of this.

[@wreagfe]

I think the/a point is that even in minecraft you as the player are still limited within the tools the game developer gives you. True, in most of minecraft you are yourself the narrator, but you cannot do anything that violates the mechanics in the game. In the same way as we cannot do anything that violates the mechanics of our universe, i.e. natural laws etc. I agree that in minecraft you have a lot of choices (limited to your imagination, but still limited by the game mechanics) that may not have been foreseen by the game developer. So yeah, you're right, and this comment doesn't really add anything to that, lol. Interesting to think about though. :)

[@ZPM7]

Minecraft is a bad example because someone somewhere in the Minecraft development line definitely said, "Yeah, people will make castles and shit."

[@kikones34]

+ZPM7 Do you think they also thought they were gonna do Atari emulators? Just to name one of the many crazy things that have been done in that game...

[@ZPM7]

Whoever came up with the whole redstone system might have seen it as a possibility. They basically introduced transistors, I'm sure they expected people to make machines with them.

[@RobinLionheart]

@1:01 "It's sorta like Ernest Adams by way of Erik Wolpaw as narrated by Stephen Fry." Yeah, went a bit over my head, but I like the concept of Stephen Fry doing a voice reading of Old Man Murray reviews.

[@butterman0007]

I subed because I like you. You have very valid opinions. Thank you for not having an obnoxious personality to get views.

[@RedHatGuyYT]

I'm writing my own little CYOA book about this game. If no one is willing to make an official one I will pitch it to the devs myself.

[@sleeplibrary2845]

I feel like this has always been one of the implicit purposes of the game as realized in its complete steam release - whether Davey realized or intended that as one of the purposes is somewhat irrelevant - in the beginning it was just him scribbling furiously on a park bench. I imagine a breakpoint where he realizes that he simply CANNOT bear the responsibility of unfolding the parable in some kind of fixed order and had to continue sculpting it in such the way as to turn over the player's sovereignty to the greatest extent possible, like a whole 2nd game concept was born at that breakpoint and the first one was buried forever in that moment.

[@Au0s]

WHAT THE FUCK'S UP WITH THE HALF LIFE SPOOOILLEERR???!!!

[@dragonheart967]

If you still haven't played the game after all these years, it'son you. At this point, it's not a spoiler, it's old news.

[@thatgamereviews]

dragonheart967 Nope, it's still a spoiler. And I'm very pissed off about it. Just a warning would have been nice :(!

[@eazypop]

this looks so fucking awesome!!

[@hoorayboobs]

This is why dnd is the best game. Sure, the story is led by the DM and you're limited to rolls, but you can literally do anything you want. It's actually up to the player's imagination.

[@boradis]

I think I'm going to get this, even though I'm not that into games who are obsessed with narrative. I like it fine as a backdrop to learning and mastering a game's mechanics.

[@TinyDancerX99]

Far Cry 3 does actually comment on violence in games. The first half is a typical FPS affair with a bad guy and revenge but the protagonist, while doing drugs and committing murder has become what we, the players, have become in games: a violent and murderous sociopath. We were expecting Jason Brody to be the typical action guy but instead he's kinda a wuss who ends up going way too far. The second half is a leveled-up and crazier Brody wreaking havoc with a partner that reflects what we could become if we continue down this bloody road. This leads to the ending where we can decide Jason's fate on whether to go for redemption or revel in our violent craziness. It reflects the industry and ourselves as gamers: we can continue down this path of ultra violence and barbarism or move on to something better and hopefully more sophisticated.

[@ThePreciseClimber]

In today's Errant Signal - describing a critique. In case you didn't get it. Deeming it worthless in the process?

[@Wincenworks]

I agreed with the female narrator, hit Escape and hit Quit. She was right, it was the best choice. The alternative was literally more of the game explaining the obvious in regards to games - and fixating on it so much that it essentially turns into a game of mad libs that plays out the same every time. While I do get that people can pick it apart for deep interpretations - the fact that how the vast majority of people who claimed the Stanley Parable was genius about it still look at games that consist almost entirely of the tropes the same way says a lot about how well it actually soaked in. I guess that gives it the honor of the first mainstream Ivory Tower game.

[@sleeplibrary2845]

@ kim wincen: Could you elaborate on what you mean by mainstream ivory tower game? Is there a review or a video about this, perhaps by you?

[@skazkatzroy3444]

Ten years later bro.

[@evilagram]

It's lamentable how you compare choice in gameplay terms to choice in narrative terms, because conflation of the two is a massive disservice to the actual choices that do exist in games. Yes, all narrative choices in games are premade, but that doesn't mean that literally every possibility in a game's design space is deliberately crafted by the game maker, if that were the case, then all games would have as limited and small a possibility space as the stanley parable itself. Choices for branching narratives are governed by how many the writing, modeling, and animation teams can sit down and work out, choices for gameplay itself are exponentially larger than the rules set in place to govern that possibility space and have massively more potential impact on what can happen in a game, and can in fact extend outside of authorial intent, and have in massive numbers of games in the past (See any game ever where going out of bounds is possible). Choices in the context of gameplay DO constitute free will as much as manipulating your computer to produce web videos does. Simply having walls, rules, mechanics and limitations is not an anathema to free will, only when those are specifically leading into prescripted events. It's only choices in narrative that don't constitute free will, because all possible narrative outcomes, by the nature of what narrative is, must be preconstructed. In a fighting game I am perfectly capable of performing any sequence of moves I wish at any time. In Toribash, I'm capable of having fine muscle control analogous to a human. Games operate under limitations, so binding a spirit to a bicycle to ruse townfolk isn't possible unless there is support for it in the code, but that's an issue of scale. Our simulations are currently limited by software and hardware, but under the hypothetical circumstance that they are not limited, there is nothing stopping that level of freedom from being possible in a potential game, however even in that hypothetical circumstance, narrative will always not be free will, because narrative must be planned in advance. If events unfurl without a narrative guiding them, then they are simply events.

[@JackMack]

I agree. Chris also conflates "Games" under one umbrella, without mentioning non-electronic games. In a table-top role-playing game, you do have the ability to make choices that don't unfold along a path the designer fore-planned. The benefit of using a human being as a computer is that the players can do unexpected things, and the Game Master can react to them in a meaningful way, instead of giving the text parser style "I don't understand that". I get that this is specifically a video about narrative-based electronic games, but it wouldn't have hurt to mention that there are other genres that don't have these problems with choice.

[@ScrutesMaGlutes]

blue red pill, blue red doors, screen monitoring people, room screen room monitoring no one, ETC

[@DoYouReadSutterCane]

Great video, but it bigs me a bit that you said that the video on choice is from the confusion ending when it's actually from the "not stanley" ending

[@Bacchasnail]

I'm not even going to lie, I understood everything in the video, but there was a point, at almost exactly halfway through, where it just clicked. And the full message of the game seemed to hit home.

[@clubbasher32]

You are a genius. I love your measured cynicism.

[@philosophyclips5454]

Tough to make a coherent commentary of this really complex game, but you managed with flying colors! (Whatever that means.) Excellent job, Errant Signal. If I ever have to "explain" this game to someone, I'll send them over here.

[@cletch73]

"The ending Whne gordan freeman tripped and fell off the bridge" Freeman: Alright ... let's Win, OH SHIIIiiiiiiiiii.......

[@Larry82ch]

As I played the game I knew you would do a brilliant job reviewing it. and I was right

[@livlaughsss1217]

This game gave me an existential crisis that fed my depersonalization for a week 👌

[@CleaveTheDragon]

Having played them recently, I don't really look at Stanley Parable's endings as "win conditions" or whatever, I just look at it as content to experience. I don't think my goal in a game is to get what I consider to be the morally best ending, but whichever one(s) I feel show off the core experience of the game I want to have. Since Stanley Parable is entirely about the CYOA structure and hearing all the dialogue and seeing all the situations, there's really no good or bad ending in it that I would place on par with, say, Bioshock, since the endings themselves are the experience. Whereas in Bioshock, I really don't get much out of killing the little girls beyond some extra points and one cutscene, it doesn't really meaningfully change the rest of the way the game plays out. A closer comparison might be Undertale, and even with that I don't feel bad for the monsters if I decide to kill them all, that's silly as hell, I''m just experiencing it to fight the two cool boss battles and see the unique dialogue the developer added in, and then likely won't do it again since it's kind of a boring experience grinding monsters.

[@barrusDemonPlucker]

Because each day we march towards death in our meaningless lives with our predetermined choices.

[@sandwichboy1268]

I wish they made an update or dlc for the Stanley Parable, either adding more choices to discover or maybe a new playable mini-"story"

[@Nicholas_Steel]

They are or were working on a Ultra Deluxe kind of update with more content.

[@sandwichboy1268]

@@Nicholas_Steel it's out now!

[@Nicholas_Steel]

@@sandwichboy1268 Yep.

[@TheCrewExpendable]

Came back to watch this after watching the recent Dunkey video about the Stanley Parable.

[@HVAC_Sean]

thanks for the existential dread

[@Dgames101]

Actually there is one ending that does meet this middle ground, problem is it involves playing 8 hours straight.

[@No-hl4qm]

8

[@WhittoMaker]

i didnt read the achivement but i did once just happen to play this game for the entire duration of a tuesday

[@bugjams]

Stanley thought to himself about the video he just watched for a good 1 minute and 32 seconds. Then, Stanley typed out what he believed to be a witty and good-humored KZbin comment. ...In reality though, Stanley's actions have already been written. Even these sentences here. They've been thought of, written out, and put to paper before Stanley even thought that he thought about them.

[@SmolBloof]

So good. So dogey deep.

[@ChepsGaming]

Pizza or sandwhiches for dinner does not countbaa a choice.

[@robinvan1983]

it is the old question if life is truly deterministic or random. Which is in life the biggest paradox since we need random for statistical accuracy and digital passwords for creditcards.

[@aaronrizzo655]

Wow... art

[@sandwichboy1268]

I want to play a game where you play as the sidekick. There's big, huge choices to be made, but you're not the one making them. If you die, you don't respawn. Rather, you're easily replaced by a new guy.

[@umcarainteressante]

5:17 Oh, The Road. What a fascinating book and movie.