Video games have become a common pastime in today’s society, giving artists and creators opportunities to connect with their audience unlike ever before, but how could this be a bad thing?
The first example of this is creator Davey Wreden of The Stanley Parable, a revolutionary game with an interesting storyline. You play as the character Stanley, Employee #427, as odd goings on happen in your workplace.
With that as a starting point, the player is able to traverse the world any way they like and have multiple ways to hone the story to their liking.
With eighteen different endings, various things can be done in the world and have a different result as an ending, from breaking the fourth wall by saying the player is a person and could not play the game due to your uniqueness, to constant game restarts performed by the narrator of the game himself to get the right story.
It is a wonderfully crafted game, with well-constructed pathways that make it an enjoyable experience. It could seem on the outside that The Stanley Parable was Wreden’s best success.
But then, The Beginner’s Guide comes out, and it shows a whole other side of Wreden that hadn’t been seen before.
This game depicts a game creator named Coda that had stopped making games, and Wreden was trying to spread his work and help him get back on his fee and making games again. When you start the games he made, they seem lighthearted and fun, but as they go, they seem to go dark and depressing, like the games are a form of his own therapist for him.
Then a shattering revelation rocks the entire game; it was Davey who had the issue that Coda was trying to help, sacrificing his integrity and creativity to help his friend.
He talks about Davey editing his games to have endings, creating a lamppost as something that would be symbolism for him, doing so much that Coda thought the only way to get his message across with all of the destruction that he had caused was to make a game saying for him to leave him and his work alone.
The Beginner’s Guide was a cry in the dark, looking for recognition to help Wreden feel whole, help him feel purpose and get feedback like he had before, feeling satisfied in what he had done.
The second subject to pay attention to is Scott Cawthon, a rags to riches game creator, starting originally with small video games that never got very much recognition until a critic made a statement that inspired him from making cute, innocent games to grim horror jumpscare-laden experiences.
His creations, the Five Nights at Freddy’s game series, is a popular phenomenon, creating a plethora of games in a two year span of time, writing a book with another one in the works, and a movie by Warner Brothers supposedly in August of 2017. He even went as far as to create a Halloween Edition of one of his games to satisfy his fans by having their favorite characters in horrifying fashion.
As for Freddy and his gang, the story is supposedly over, to the dismay of many of his fans with the game FNaF World, but this is where things get dicey.
While seeming to put up well with people’s over-obsessiveness or over-critical remarks, he officially lets loose in this latest game, making himself the final boss and having characters he made in the past as other alternate endings.
He went on to say in the game that all that the loyal fans have done has asked for more and more, and while he tried to satiate their appetite, it seems that it only made his eager fans more excited to delve into these games and ask more of him. He even went far enough that when you defeat him, he states that you, the player, would rather kill off the author than get the ending he was willing to provide if given time.
As much of an oxy-moron as it sounds, almost everyone has complained about this newest game, making Cawthon frantically try to remake it to live up to expectations. Even as I write this article, new playable characters have been added to the game, making the potential eight endings already provided be much more extensive and stringing out Cawthon further.
While this is a perspective piece, I believe that this one asks more questions of the viewer than anything, so before I go spewing my opinion, what do you think of all that has been said?
Have you played these games, or intend to play them due to the intrigue and interesting backstory? Do you feel that I may have interpreted what I’ve researched incorrectly? Due to how much I’ve already said, I think it important for you, the reader, to explore and come to your own conclusions before I state mine.
I will do a follow up to this article, and if there is anything you discover or want to inform me of, you can contact me here at nathanielsentinel@gmail.com .