This is Not a Promise To Share My thoughts on The Stanley Parable Demo

You're almost about to play the demo

The demo that was not a demo but rather a gathering of thoughts that seemed coherent but weren't really coherent but placed in a way to make sense of nothing much at all to begin with. This to me sums up how I felt about playing the Stanley Parable demo. Can this even be called a demo? can it even be called a game to begin with? What is a game? These are the kinds of questions that I ask myself after playing this game. Its breaking of the fourth wall is an experience that puts the player right into the front seat. The game is very aware of the player and it's this awareness that carries this experience, if this is a precursor to the actual game it would do the game justice of encourages players to purchase the retail version to see where the game wants to take you or accuse you of next. 

I did not press this button for 10 minutes

The way the game speaks to the player it feels alive and yet very responsive to what the player is doing on screen, through all the dialogue it never felt to repetitive to the point where the narrator became annoying or overbearing he had the right mix of witty banter mixed in with direction to control the pacing of the game. It starts with the promise of a demo, and continually promises the player of this grandiose demo that's only just around the corner. It's a demo that's built upon the hype factor and trying to encourage the player to do strange things. Due to the way the game is setup I felt the need to constantly rebel against what the narrator was asking me to do, one of the first instances that this happens is the first time you walk into the screen room and it asks you to stay as still as possible for 20 minutes. I moved straight away and it triggered the next event. Another moment in the demo I felt carried weight was the first moment the player is presented with the yes or no answer for if they would purchase the full game, as the player approaches the platform his movement speed is slowed, its gives the player the feeling of physical weight to whether or not they would purchase it. It also likes to mention a lot that the decision to purchase the game should not be taken lately and should be an exciting prospect for the player. The game purposely tries to use reverse psychology on the player to be able to achieve a intriguing level of engagement. There are many scientific case studies where children are given a choice of eating the marshmallow now or wait for another 20 minutes and they would receive another marshmallow, it's the promise of more that some children will wait where others will not. This to me is exactly what the Stanley parable demo is. It is exactly as to what a demo should always be for any video game the promise of more.

Image References

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