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Post by Discoalucard on Jun 6, 2016 19:25:11 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/gonehome/gonehome.htmCausing a flurry of controversy when it was released in 2013, Gone Home is an emotionally impactful exploratory adventure game, one that kicked off the subgenre semi-derisively known as the "walking simulator".
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2016 19:25:55 GMT -5
I don't think it would have caused half as much controversy if it had been priced more competitively at launch.
EDIT: Article by jdarkside. How unsurprising.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2016 19:38:09 GMT -5
Wow, has it really been three years already since that game came out? Crazy. I think it's worth checking out, but only if you torrent it or get it for $5 on a Steam sale.
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Post by JDarkside on Jun 6, 2016 19:43:56 GMT -5
Wow, has it really been three years already since that game came out? Crazy. I think it's worth checking out, but only if you torrent it or get it for $5 on a Steam sale. Yeah, the base price was kind of ridiculous. I'd say wait for, like, 33% off (around 12 bucks) or less.
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Post by GamerL on Jun 6, 2016 21:06:49 GMT -5
I have mixed thoughts on this genre, on one had I think it's fair to criticize the lack of real gameplay, but on the other hand the ones I've played were well done for what they were. Gone Home is actually clever because while all you do is walk around the house, it's still up to you to pay close attention to the surroundings to piece together the full story, not everything is explained bluntly, there are lots of subtle details that are left to you to figure out (like why all the VCRs are missing), so you could say that exploring the house and piecing together the clues is the gameplay, contrast that with Dear Esther where literally all you do is walk down a mostly linear path. On the other hand, I was disappointed in the story, it's pretty easy to figure out very early on that your sister is gay and in my opinion making a game about a teenage lesbian love story is just a little too on the nose "this is an indie game!" if you know what I mean, I mean you have this empty house and the mystery of where everyone is, there's a million different directions they could have gone and when you finally realize what the main plot is, it leaves you with a "oh ok" feeling rather than anything really surprising. But what's more interesting to me than the story itself if the 1995 setting, this game explores an idea I've always been fascinated with and that's the idea of games as a kind of time travel, the Assassin's Creed series obviously lets you visit various time periods but Gone Home allows you to revisit a more recent past, which is a fascinating idea. The 1995 setting is handled well, there's lots of subtle details that make it feel like you're really there rather than obvious signifiers, what's weird is from a personal standpoint it really brought me back because I have an aunt and uncle who lived in an old house much like the one in the game in 1995 (complete with rumors that it was haunted even) and stuff like the SNES in the sister's bedroom reminded me of playing my cousin's SNES, the general atmosphere of the game is also very well done, I love the sound of the storm outside and the storm warning on the TV. I'd like to see more games with settings like that, imagine exploring an 80's or 70's era house.
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Post by Arale on Jun 6, 2016 21:51:35 GMT -5
I have mixed thoughts on this genre, on one had I think it's fair to criticize the lack of real gameplay, but on the other hand the ones I've played were well done for what they were. Idk if it's really fair, I mean, it can be a valid reason why you or I did not like a game, but if it's what the goal of the designer was, then criticizing that is missing the point and basically telling them to create something totally different than what they wanted. If a linear story suits that particular story well, then I guess that's what it is. You mentioned Dear Esther, it's true that it's a very simple game as far as your actions in it go, but I don't think what it is could work any other way. Yeah, you walk along an island and listen to stories, but maybe that's all it needs to be to reach its goal. I also don't know why western indies are targeted for this. Nobody ever has a meltdown over visual novels - and even outside of those, I'm pretty sure Gone Home has a higher gameplay-to-story ratio than P4: Dancing All Night, which has large swaths of redundant text for every few minutes worth of rudimentary rhythm gameplay. As for the twist... I don't know what my opinion would be if I discovered it myself three years ago, probably high, but just hearing about it and based on premise alone, and also with years having passed, I have some complicated thoughts. Also I kind of went off-topic but here's what I wrote anyway. (Keep in mind this more applies to the IDEA of the twist than the execution, since I really don't know THAT much about Gone Home and how the twist factors into the story.) As a queer person, the twist seems to rely on the viewers' assumption that all the characters will be straight. And while this twist may surprise people who don't expose themselves to a wide variety of media or backgrounds, to me, "a character being gay" is mostly just interesting information regarding the character, not a twist. It's rather hard to find LGBT+ characters who are both completely unambiguous AND have story beyond their identity. Too far in one direction and you have a character whose barely queer except for it being thrown in there for fun or shock value, too far in the other direction and you have a character who never becomes themselves because the story ties them down to their identity. (And in some trainwrecks (Kanji Tatsumi from Persona) you get characters who are somehow both - "Kanji is gay!!!!" is a "hilarious joke", but also he isn't actually because he's really just feminine.) I think the solution is to put these kinds of stories into works that are not necessarily "down to earth". More LGBT+/queer characters in fantastical stories, surreal stories, creative stories. I'm happy that Gone Home can do what it does, but I would personally prefer to see respectful themes in a story that isn't afraid to be something bigger too.
Where are the Suda-style psychological thriller action-games about lesbian assassins? The surreal religion-infused RPGs about trans mecha pilots? An adventure game that uses gender as a motif and gameplay mechanic? A survival horror game which uses shifting identity and dysphoria-themed imagery for its ambiguously-real monsters? LGBT+/queer experiences are filled with potential for creative and extravagant storytelling, and although some works use it (most notably anime director Kunihiko Ikuhara) most of it is still untapped.
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Post by JDarkside on Jun 6, 2016 22:06:06 GMT -5
I have mixed thoughts on this genre, on one had I think it's fair to criticize the lack of real gameplay, but on the other hand the ones I've played were well done for what they were. Idk if it's really fair, I mean, it can be a valid reason why you or I did not like a game, but if it's what the goal of the designer was, then criticizing that is missing the point and basically telling them to create something totally different than what they wanted. If a linear story suits that particular story well, then I guess that's what it is. You mentioned Dear Esther, it's true that it's a very simple game as far as your actions in it go, but I don't think what it is could work any other way. Yeah, you walk along an island and listen to stories, but maybe that's all it needs to be to reach its goal. I also don't know why western indies are targeted for this. Nobody ever has a meltdown over visual novels - and even outside of those, I'm pretty sure Gone Home has a higher gameplay-to-story ratio than P4: Dancing All Night, which has large swaths of redundant text for every few minutes worth of rudimentary rhythm gameplay. Visual novels got made into anime that are popular and people got waifus from them so they get more of a past because these games don't have wank fantasies in them. Also, there is a significant amount of bigots mixed up in there, and the games of these types that get picked out most are almost always connected to queer or feminist creators or themes in some way. Similar situation to Her Story. I mean, that's a ridiculously flawed game, but goddamn if most of the complaints I heard about it were either just echos of "NOT A GAME!!!!!!!!!1!!" and nothing else or just outright sexism. There are so many complaints you can give to that game, especially the writing, but the discourse is instantly destroyed by the usual mobs popping in to jump on any possible criticism as justification for their rabid hatred. Those lots usually whip up the crowds at start when discourse is growing, so you see a lot of people who aren't bigots starting to parrot bad arguments because their friends or fellows in gaming circles said them with a lot of passion. They do the same thing with non-controversies we get bombarded with every week these days, finding as many complaints as possible when there's barely anything to talk about and treating this as justification for terrible behavior. Talking about games is really hard these days because that gross minority is really, really good at controlling the mainstream discourse. And it's not just games. Same thing happening with the new Ghostbusters. People just want it to be good at this point so the MRA loons don't have another reason to thing their sexism has any founding, even though it's not looking that way. TL;DR: Nerds like anime girls and The Discourse is awful
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Post by Kubo Caskett on Jun 6, 2016 22:22:32 GMT -5
Idk if it's really fair, I mean, it can be a valid reason why you or I did not like a game, but if it's what the goal of the designer was, then criticizing that is missing the point and basically telling them to create something totally different than what they wanted. If a linear story suits that particular story well, then I guess that's what it is. You mentioned Dear Esther, it's true that it's a very simple game as far as your actions in it go, but I don't think what it is could work any other way. Yeah, you walk along an island and listen to stories, but maybe that's all it needs to be to reach its goal. I also don't know why western indies are targeted for this. Nobody ever has a meltdown over visual novels - and even outside of those, I'm pretty sure Gone Home has a higher gameplay-to-story ratio than P4: Dancing All Night, which has large swaths of redundant text for every few minutes worth of rudimentary rhythm gameplay. Visual novels got made into anime that are popular and people got waifus from them so they get more of a past because these games don't have wank fantasies in them. Also, there is a significant amount of bigots mixed up in there, and the games of these types that get picked out most are almost always connected to queer or feminist creators or themes in some way. Similar situation to Her Story. I mean, that's a ridiculously flawed game, but goddamn if most of the complaints I heard about it were either just echos of "NOT A GAME!!!!!!!!!1!!" and nothing else or just outright sexism. There are so many complaints you can give to that game, especially the writing, but the discourse is instantly destroyed by the usual mobs popping in to jump on any possible criticism as justification for their rabid hatred. Those lots usually whip up the crowds at start when discourse is growing, so you see a lot of people who aren't bigots starting to parrot bad arguments because their friends or fellows in gaming circles said them with a lot of passion. They do the same thing with non-controversies we get bombarded with every week these days, finding as many complaints as possible when there's barely anything to talk about and treating this as justification for terrible behavior. Talking about games is really hard these days because that gross minority is really, really good at controlling the mainstream discourse. And it's not just games. Same thing happening with the new Ghostbusters. People just want it to be good at this point so the MRA loons don't have another reason to thing their sexism has any founding, even though it's not looking that way. TL;DR: Nerds like anime girls and The Discourse is awful I hate to be on the contrary but you sound like people not liking stuff like Gone Home and Ghostbusters are mostly made up of sexist pr--ks who just hate having women be featured in various media. I mean it's not a really healthy viewpoint to have, really. I mean granted there may be a few people who are like that and trolls but still sometimes people may have a point in not liking them; you can disagree of course, not saying you can't.
And as for Gone Home, it doesn't look like my cup of tea considering what kind of game it is.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2016 22:24:06 GMT -5
I have mixed thoughts on this genre, on one had I think it's fair to criticize the lack of real gameplay, but on the other hand the ones I've played were well done for what they were. Idk if it's really fair, I mean, it can be a valid reason why you or I did not like a game, but if it's what the goal of the designer was, then criticizing that is missing the point and basically telling them to create something totally different than what they wanted. If a linear story suits that particular story well, then I guess that's what it is. You mentioned Dear Esther, it's true that it's a very simple game as far as your actions in it go, but I don't think what it is could work any other way. Yeah, you walk along an island and listen to stories, but maybe that's all it needs to be to reach its goal. I also don't know why western indies are targeted for this. Nobody ever has a meltdown over visual novels - and even outside of those, I'm pretty sure Gone Home has a higher gameplay-to-story ratio than P4: Dancing All Night, which has large swaths of redundant text for every few minutes worth of rudimentary rhythm gameplay. I think it's absolutely valid to criticize the lack of gameplay. A critic's job isn't to take the author's intent into consideration, but rather the end result. Xenogears was intended to be a massive story that spanned six games. It ended up a single, half-finished game. The true role of a critic is to tell people whether something is worth their time and, more importantly, money. Some people would find the lack of real gameplay as a deal-breaker. Some wouldn't. It's not the critic's job to pander to one side or the other there, they merely need to pass all of the information along to the audience. On the flip side, I think it's absolutely valid for one critic to give this game a 10/10 and another to give it only a 4. Different people will react to things in different ways, and will place more or less importance on specific elements. The general public needs to get their heads out of their asses and understand that giving something a low (or high) score that you disagree with is not the end of the world. I swear, it's like sports teams and tying your own sense of identity into something that you personally have no involvement with. It's just games, people.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2016 22:34:27 GMT -5
JDarkside: You're criticizing waifu culture despite loudly announcing whatever latest H-game you're playing.
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Post by Arale on Jun 6, 2016 22:35:27 GMT -5
Although I understand the rest of your post, Xenogears is not an accurate comparison. Gone Home is a game that sets a goal and reaches it, it's just a goal that most people don't care about. Xenogears is a game that set a goal and did not reach it. Both can still be good or bad or whatever, but Gone Home succeeded at what it was intended to succeed at. That's nothing at all like a half-finished game.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2016 22:44:50 GMT -5
It goes towards authorial intent. Some people might be more forgiving of Xenogears's failings because it wasn't intended to be so rushed at the end, and the story was meant to be expanded upon in five sequels (well, one sequel and four prequels). Likewise, some people might find the concept of a walking simulator to be a huge turn off, while others wouldn't bat an eye at it. A lack of traditional gameplay is what the author intended the game to be, but that doesn't mean it's above reproach.
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Post by Snarboo on Jun 6, 2016 23:02:21 GMT -5
I'm not sure a developer's intent should factor into whether or not a game is worth an audience's time. A game designer can easily set out to make a game that is impossible or infuriating to play, or worse, insensitive. They might even succeed at that goal, but that doesn't mean the game is good because they achieved everything they set out to do.
Granted, Gone Home is pretty solid for what it is, and I enjoyed my time playing it.
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Post by Malev on Jun 6, 2016 23:28:05 GMT -5
Wasn't Dear Esther the first major indie walking simulator type game?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2016 23:29:01 GMT -5
If you wanna get technical I think Myst would almost qualify too---although that had puzzle-solving gameplay to overcome and wasn't just a walking tour.
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