But the story will not progress until you do, and once you do, you prove him right. You can accept his challenge, sit there for as long as you wish, resolve unwavering as you laugh in gleeful triumph that you’ve beaten him. The Narrator challenges you: “Stanley, the next time the screen asks you to push a button, do not do it.” And by all means, you can refuse to press it. He continues to submit to a slave-like existence even though the Narrator is trying to tell him not to. And as he gloats and degrades our protagonist, instructions come up on the screen for you to press buttons to do more menial everyday tasks, just like Stanley does at work. He even provides minor spoilers for a couple other endings by way of saying they’re just more of what Stanley imagines. The Narrator laughs, and as I stand helpless, he goes on a rant about how oblivious and pathetic Stanley is, how he lives his life doing utterly nothing but what he’s told and is so used to it, that he creates scenarios in which he gets to make his own choices, rather than actually making them. With seemingly no options left, I am forced to continue on as he tells me, until I eventually find myself locked in an apartment. He’s only trying to help me, he says to show me something important. I climb on, and it takes me across to a separate platform as the Narrator quips about us getting off on the wrong foot. I continued to ignore his instructions until I reach a strange maintenance looking area with a cargo lift. Naturally as I came to the first choice, I ignored the Narrator’s words and walked through a different door than he said I would.
And of those endings, I love them all, but these are some of my favorites, in no particular order (Note: numerous spoilers follow): Although it may seem lackluster and pointless to some, it’s brilliantly narrated and humorous, and makes you want to keep going back so you can see just how many ways Stanley’s story can come to an end. You can choose to either listen to the Narrator telling the story and do as he says, or defy him and choose your own paths to follow, many of which branch from a single choice in where you can walk through a door on the left or the right. There is, however, another main character: the Narrator, who-as his name implies-guides Stanley through his journey. Stanley then resolves to find out what has happened to everyone. He does this at work all day, every day, until one morning he sits down at his desk to find there are no commands or instructions for him, and the office is completely empty. This first-person, interactive fiction game published by Galactic Cafe first has the appearance of a simple story: a man, Stanley, leads a simple, uneventful life pushing buttons on a computer according to what it says on the screen.