Is there a meaning?

[Cyresto]

First of all, i'd like to say the I LOVED this game. It was amazing. But what really bugs me is that there seems to be something that im just not picking up... Is there a meaning to this game? Something deep? Because it seems like it should have a meaning, but im just oblivious to it...

[Col. Sandels]

Yes, there is a meaning. No, there isn't a meaning. Your imagination is what gives it a meaning. Your imagination can't give it a meaning. The game is meaningless. The game isn't meaningless.

[comfyjack]

-Parable, "a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels". So, obviously the creator is attempting to communicate something spiritual, and as most of you have already assumed, it is most likely targeted at how false freedom is everywhere. You only have the choices authority gives you. The "authorities" tell you that you are free, but in reality you aren't free at all.

[Crooked_Mantis]

Messaggio originale di F2B Çyresto:

But what about Stanley? Is he a metaphor for something? Or is he just a guy? He could be whatever and whoever the player interprets him, but there must be a core fact. Something the creator was thinking when he made Stanley. Also, the name Stanley seems to carry alot of weight in the game... is there a reason for that too? Anyone know?

There are many ways you can picture Stanley, but two ways keep popping up:

A. Humanity
B. You the Player

Same with the Narrator:

A. God
B. Every Game Developer

If you think about it with both A's it becomes a true Parable telling you that you can choose any ending you want (you're the one with free will after all) but if god wants you to go somewhere, you go there. Otherwise you could end up dead.
But it's also the way the game handles the bad endings that's intresting:

Crazy Ending- Insanity
Bomb Ending- Greedy/Power-Hungry
Coward Ending- Well...coward
Game Ending- Loneliness (after being trapped in th original Stanley Parable for so long)
Space Ending- Suicide
Broken Ending- Wrath/Anger
Confusion Ending- Er...Confusion
Phone Ending- Laziness (daydreaming and refusing to do such things in reality)

Now, tell me, do any of the following emotions sound pleasant or good to you? No, they don't in fact they almost sound like sins(Not the seven sins but you get what I mean)! So the Narrator (God) is trying to send you down the path to happiness, but you can choose to disobey and go down the many paths of sin. Whilst the Narrator (God) is trying to get you "back on track".

Or if you think about it with both B's it becomes a story about a man having troubles writing a story. Which is true for almost every storyteller, it's hard coming up with the right path to follow, the Narrator chose a ending that conveyed happiness. But it could have been a violent, depressing tragedy or a confusing story about a coward. With so many paths, wouldn't you have some trouble making it? And then there's Stanley. He's like the player, the person playing the game, the auidence, the target demographic. What if the player doesn't like your story and wants to follow a different path?

Either way is a pretty good message, and I'm intrested in seeing which one you choose.

[Crooked_Mantis]

Messaggio originale di DoomedBunnies:

Messaggio originale di Gentleman Jake:

I really like that the only way to get to freedom is basically to do exactly as you're told by the narrator.

Do note that the moment the Narrator tells you that you've achieved freedom, the game takes away your controls for movement and looking around.

You definitely want to be a bit skeptical about what the Narrator tells you. :)

I actually interpreted that part as Stanley gaining control over you and by extension control of his life. The ablilty to make his own choices. It's not the game or the Narrator taking control.
It's Stanley gaining freedom.


And then, of course, the whole game starts over and Stanley's back in his office.

[Crooked_Mantis]

Also as my final comment for the day, I give you this theory:
You, Stanley, and the Narrator are considered the main characters throughout the entire game. And at certain times I hear the Narrator say, "I'm just playing to my intended purpose" and I start to wonder if maybe there's a higher authority... another player in this game.

And then I ask myself, "Who made/controlled the mind controls? Who was the female Narrator? She didn't seem like she was a part of the Narrator's control, unlike Stanley's wife and Mariella. Also, what determined the confusion ending?"

Then I took a look on the Stanley Parable Wiki, looked in the character section and noticed a character labelled "Game". When I looked into it, it claimed that the game controls the Narrator.

This gave me an idea!

The "Game" is the creator of the Stanley Parable, Davey Wreden. Who managed to make the perfect story on how a video game is made.

The cycle is complete, the creator (Davey),the executor/producer (The Narrator), the character (Stanley), and the Player (you).

The Stanley Parable, the game about making a game. Truly a work of art.

[Trans Catgirl Lenin]

It seems to talk about the sense of freedom. Do you decide to follow the narrotor's orders, or be free to do want you want, and to make your own story?

Also, the number 8 has a greater meaning. 8 on its side is the infinity symbol, and the game also goes on forever. Even on the title screen, you see infinity in the computer monitor.

[Mousey]

(I am not reading 40+ posts, so i don't know if it was awnsered.)
The game is a reference to how we waist our lives doing meaningless tasks. There is a choice we can take, but its a choice given to us, and we can only take it as far as they let us. There is no end, just us waisting our time exploring a seemingly meaningful story.
(Ironicly this is the most meaningfull messege a game has given us for a long time)

[JKerman511]

I can tell you what the meaning is.
this is very deep.
the meaning is...
there is nothing that is real in the game.
it is built to confuse you.
the end is never and the end is coming.
you are playing a video game and you are not.
the narrator erased your coworkers, but you must die to know that.
you are already dead from the moment you hit start and you werent.
you have free will and you do not have free will.

Please tell me a part of the game that is real, i promise to be impressed.

[Green Goblin]

It's not AS deep. Stanley's job is to press the buttons he's told to do, like every video-game ever. So this game is the big F*CK YOU to standard video games and making it a bit more free.

[⭐=Vu= zarathustra⭐]

Nihilism FT... oh, never mind - nothing...

[Burger McFries]

MAJOR SPOILERS:

Listen to the narrator until you get to the staircase. When you get to the staircase, go down.
Eventually, Stanley realizes he's in a first person videogame. He realizes he has no feet, the doors close behind him, etc.
He starts having an existential crisis, questioning how the narrator can read his mind, realizing he has more than one voice in his head, and he thinks he's in a dream. He starts flying and ♥♥♥♥, then he realizes he can't wake up, the screen starts turning red and it cuts to black.

The game cuts to a normal street sidewalk, with a blond haired lady looking down on a man who just passed out in front of her. That man is Stanley, and he had been walking around aimlessly while screaming at the top of his lungs before blacking out.
She calls an ambulance, the narrator gives us a monologue on how we're lucky to be in control of our own thoughts, and the game ends.

The game is actually a statement on mentally ill people, and puts us in their shoes by creating a clever video game.
Very, very well done.

[Nisom]

I think that the game tell you to do your choices and not to just do as you're told... If you strictly choose the path that the narrator tell you to chose, you go to the "liberty" but is this liberty ? I don't think so because the narrator told you what to do, so this is not the Liberty... And if you turn left just before the end of the game, the girl tell you that the dead and the life have no sens if your destiny is already done... she says that we knew at the moment where we clicked on the start button that the game will have an end that stanley is going to die... And at the end she says: "Now you can really stop the game and don't let Stanley die by clicking escape and quit the game..." and that tell you that you have to do your own choices to enjoy your life. (At least, that what i understood)

[Alskumyn]

Messaggio originale di Worldaway:

Messaggio originale di Cyresto:

No need to be a prick about it. I was mearly wondering if there was a WHOLE meaning, for example why everyone disappeared, who Stanley is, if hes a metaphor, etc. I dont need you defining the word PARABLE to me. I'm aware theres multiple ENDINGS, but there must be a collective meaning.

Stanley is a man who has a pointless job, and longs for freedom. I think he starts imagining everyone has disapeared, and is free to go on his own adventure, but takes it too far. He imagines it over and over, each time different things happen, and every time, becasue he's just imagining it, he ends up right back where he started. He goes insane.

This is as far as I know, the whole thing is open to interpretation.

Whoa that's deep.

[Dracoso]

After I played through it the first time, I thought it was simply a commentary about how our inner voices can guide us to act and that sometimes it can be impulsive and that we can follow new paths in unusual circumstances.

My second play through had me considering more about this idea of how we don't really pay attention to the world around us. (SPOILERS) the ending where you follow the directions has Stanley simply leaving the building and you are free, but it doesn't actually end. You just restart. It is almost as though you missed something. You can follow several paths and each one will lead you back to your desk, meaning that we are just starting a story that will end back where we started. You can die in the story, you can get free, you can explore a hall that shows you development pieces of the game, or you can touch all the screens with Input on them and go to the land of buttons.

My last play through gave me a new view on it. Many people see it as a story where you are defying a voice speaking to you and expressing free will. Some people see it as a game where you are controlling the rate you want to travel through your own story.

I thought through this again and I realized that it is really a story about how we need some other person there with us and that we may not truly be able to handle being alone. Similar to the movie Castaway, our character is alone in the world and trying to figure out what is going on. Everything we experience is from his viewpoint until you reach what is considered the actual ending.

You go crazy, but people are all around you in the ending. You transport from one game to another, or follow a line that randomly leads you all over the office until you become unsure about what to do.

Could that voice leading you be an inner voice actually trying to give you someone to talk with? Think about if you played this game without narration. How quickly might you get bored? But the character can't sign off, they are still walking around in this empty world.

I believe, overall, that this game could be a commentary on loneliness and the needs we have for comfort and for others around us. The world tries to limit us to following standards that they give us the most direct example of where we feel like we can be ourselves but not as open as we want is in a workplace. In such a labeled and sterilized office, walking around with no one there, Stanley created a voice that would guide him. He decided whether he would follow it or not and he created his own story. Whether you kill yourself, go crazy, leave your own body, or get crushed in a very unusually placed 'freedom path', you are making a story and each time it ends badly, you just start it over to go again.

Isn't that a bit like love?

[SwordsAndSongs]

Messaggio originale di Dracoso:

Isn't that a bit like love?

Wow thank you for making my brain explode at 8 PM on a Wednesday night lmao.