The Achievement Parable

The Stanley Parable's"Go Outside" and "Commitment" achievements' stats on March 15th, 2022. Taken from Steam.

There's been a few serious-ish monologues regarding certain aspects of video gaming written by me for this blog: from my perspective on messy interpretations for re-releases and such to just as weird situation with gaming companies and their "brand relevancy". Or something that like, I feel like I make it sound more professional than those "posts" actually are and this is very important for material. Because now we need to get serious! I don't even know what label I'll give to this post, this is so exciting!

One of the topics I wanted to touch upon in in-game/service achievements and everything that comes with them. For a long time I couldn't come across the perfect point of time to start this discussion, but the miracle that is the release of spectacular The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe has enlightened me to finally get professional enough to challenge this topic. And this is a very pleasing coincidence since the original version of The Stanley Parable is  directly related to the achievements monologue I'm about to write down.

Achieving Collections.

For a long time, my experience with achievements was limited strictly to World of Warcraft. I knew about Xbox Live and its Gamerscore system because my dad had an Xbox 360 and also heard about other alternatives like trophies in PlayStation Network or achievements on Steam, but my options and goal achieving experience was limited to Blizzard's MMORPG. As a casual who didn't really raid or took PvP seriously all that much, I enjoyed going for certain achievements at my own pace. I remember trying to get as many of them as I could on Isle of Conquest, exploring the world to reveal all the maps and getting "The Molten Front Offensive", "Legacy of Leyara" and "Operation: Shieldfall Campaign". I had a lot of fun at certain points of Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria.

However, there's one achievements I just can't forget or ignore. Of all the achievements (an  actual ones or some other goals) and Fears of Strength (more difficult achievements) in World of Warcraft that I reached, "Insane in the Membrane" has to be one of the most proudest accomplishments I got while playing the game. It was different from most of my experience since I didn't use my main characters (gnome warrior and night elf death knight; orc hunter didn't existed at that time) for it and instead took on the path of madness on my human rogue during Warlords of Draenor. If you played WoW before for a decent amount of time, you might know that I picked an easy way for the achievements: every human character has Diplomacy trait that increases the reputation he gets by 10% and rogues have a slight advantage when it comes to Ravenholdt because of Fangs of the Father questline. So yeah, I got my rogue a legendary daggers too back then. That whole journey was very monotonous at times, but reaching the finish line was a bittersweet moment at the end. There was something in sneaking around Lower Blackrock Spire, you know.

Older dungeons & raids achievements, Brawler Guild, mount hunting... Oh, the mount hunting! That's about the forms of transportaion, not what you might've thought about. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked with all this good nostalgia about the game that nowadays is just there. Instead of getting sad about the passage of time and how things that were fun in the past are no longer so, let's catch up with the present. Since I don't play World of Warcraft anymore, I was fortunate enough to get more familiar in Steam. Mostly due to all the gifted (and some purchased) games I got in my library there. My appreciation and commitment to get the most out of this form of digital entertainment together with the aforementioned good memories from playing WoW lead me towards getting all the achievements in games I have on Steam. I became the completionist.

Completed Problem.

Those are the type of players who take on the challenge to complete the game instead of simply beating it. At least that what "completionist" usually means since that word is also used to describe the person who simply get all in-game achievements and that doesn't always match with completing the game. It depends on each title and what developers choose to make: there might be no challenge, and you just get everything during your ordinary playthrough, or you would have to complete certain challenges. The latter is obviously going to require some effort from the player, but the amount of difficult, again, depends on the game itself or its developer... and sometimes on the person themselves. Because nothing stops you from looking up a guide in order to learn how to get an achievement in intended way, discover a "cheese strategy" that would allow you to "cheat the system" because you're that smart or just cheat and use third-party tool or game's configuration files to get what you want.

There's nothing wrong in making achievements difficult as it can be very fun to overcome that challenge, but certain situation can become more irritating. In other words, be a complete bullshit. I'm not talking about the cases where achievement got bugged, and you have to use other means to get it since there's no other way to get it... You know, that's actually a lie in some ways. Because this particular scenario can often be applied to multiplayer achievements. That's one thing to have them in World of Warcraft as MMORPG forces people to communicate, but everyone knows that players don't have friends. Many gamers know that many multiplayer and cooperative titles rise and fall in months, if not weeks. Of course, I'm hardcore gamer who has friends and just too shy and worked up to ask for help with cooperative mode in Portal 2, but what about competitive multiplayer? For example, Quake Live, DOOM 16 or Tomb Raider game from 2013. Likes,  games where multiplayer portion of the game just doesn't have enough players or online services has been shut down by the developer. Sometimes they account for such scenario,  but for the most part you have to either go on a crusade to find desperate souls like yourself or break the system.

When it comes to The Stanley Parable and its Ultra Deluxe version, developers were geniuses. The game offers a lot of insightful and hilarious commentary on video game and the entire industry. Even game's achievements serve that particular and (I would argue) poke fun of completionists that can get too far due to their desire to complete the game or struggle with broken or silly requirements for their completion. All of them are peek comedy, but just try to get "Click on door 430 five times." to it captures the importance of providing players with proper challenge that would make an achievement feel rewarding. However, "Go outside" and "Commitment" have actually discouraged me from playing The Stanley Parable because there's simply no way I would be able to get at least one of them legitimately anytime soon.

Experience The Goal.

I mean, seriously? "Play The Stanley Parable for the entire duration of a Tuesday"? Why Tuesday? Most people that would actually want to get this achievement in proper way would just open the game in the background for more than 24 hours just to be sure, and I can't do that because my laptop is simply too janky for it and not handle the game such as The Stanley Parable on its background for such a long period of time. And not playing the game for five years? What's the point in that, how is that an achievement?

Those questions would be asked by those unfortunate players who simply can't grasp the smart messages of The Stanley Parable. While I don't mark my interpretation of those achievements as the right ones, just know that I still feel superior about it, and you're wrong if your view on this doesn't match mine. The fact is that achievements are as important as players make them to be. From the dawn of times for gaming industry, it was gamers who created their own challenges and dictated the rules of the game they're playing. People were simply having fun by enjoying their favorite titles however they want. While that's still a thing, we can clearly see a large departure from that in current time with how common actual achievements are, but it's not just that.

Although that's out of scope of this "article", let's just agree that many game train people to not have fun playing. No, creators of modern titles (no matter the platform and/or the type of game it is) usually tend to add some challenges, passes and other fluff that redirects the gameplay experience from relaxing in your spare time to working (again, I hope; don't be like me, get an actual job) on specific goals. And don't get me started on how it coincides with real money trading or blockchain games... because I don't think I have anything to say about it at this point of time, but that's besides the point. The Stanley Parable tried to free modern gamers and completions from this prison of mundane routine with artificial sense of fulfilment.

The Video Game Observational Experience™.

Okay, I know what you're gonna say or type. "You just want an excuse to cheat in The Stanley Parable and Ultra Deluxe, whenever you get it, just so you feel justified and not guilty about avoiding the challenge of not playing the game and playing it on Tuesday!" No, I don't need to do that because I've technically already achieved those achievements. How? Well, allow me to introduce each and every one of you to the concept of The Video Game Observational Experience™! You know how some people say that they've beaten or completed certain titles on YouTube?... No? I believe that was or still somewhat common in Russia, and I'm pretty sure I've seen comments like that on English... Either way, the idea is that you get to experience the game through videos or livestreams where someone else plays the game.

You can view it as an alternative of watching your parent or sibling doing the same thing. That way, you get to experience the game with different person in this unique form of multiplayer: perhaps you or that other person (which is more likely, let's be honest) took the controller or keyboard to beat a hard boss, puzzle or another part of the game. But I would argue that the fact of observation on itself is equal to actually playing the game yourself, especially when you keep in mind for some titles nowadays tend to play themselves, and I'm not just talking about mobile gaming.

Where I am going with this? Although I got The Stanley Parable on Steam only in 2019 and created an account on that digital distribution only at the end of 2016, the fact is that I had The Video Game Observational Experience™ of The Stanley Parable in October-November of 2013 since that's when playthroughs of this wonderful game started to pop-up on YouTube. However, you have to keep in mind that The Video Game Observational Experience™ is the equivalent of your first real-life playthrough. Maybe you've seen walkthrough or standalone videos later on, but that's really just not the same. There's no thrill, surprise and even romance that comes with playing a good game for the first time.

Because of that, I actually haven't played The Stanley Parable for more than five years. You could argue that Ultra Deluxe and the original version of the game are one of the same, but either way I had The Video Game Observational Experience™ of recent re-release. Therefore, there's no argument about my "Super Go Outside" progress... Commitment? No, playing a playthrough of The Stanley Parable for over 24 hours doesn't get it. You can just think about this masterpiece all the time in Tuesday. I know this might be confusing to some, but it really makes sense once you get to feel the true nature of The Video Game Observational Experience™! This is just something you can't quite express with words,  you have to really feel it... Or just cheat. Or be a time traveler. You know, it's not like anyone is actually going to judge you for that and don't try to fool anyone into believe that you have conscience. There's only one conscience that I see in Ilko's Hall now, and it's mine! Deal with it. My condolences.

P.S: How the hell do I find Cookie9's Blog? I want to read his full review of The Stanley Parable 2. )^: