I'm just going to add to this how much I liked To the Moon, and the fact I nearly started crying at one point(those who have played the game know which point I'm talking about).TheYellowCellPhone said:
Why you should play "Gone Home"
- Thread starter LeoJaye
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I was actually coming here to respond to his comment myself, but you have said it better than i would have. Thank you.Deshara said:EDIT:
Look out guys, T_ConX the grand puba of all things Fun and Interactive is here to tell us what we are and aren't allowed to enjoy in video games. All hail his great wisdom! Tell us, o grand master, what video games shall thee decree us allowed to enjoy upon this day? I purchased the Stanley Parable and genuinely enjoyed it. Shall I drip this burning candle's wax upon my eyeballs for enjoy a game with a tight environmental design and a minimalistic, nearly parodic plot and a well-written narration?T_ConX said:
In what ways shall we punish ourselves for having preferences different than your own?
It isn't worth the money at all; you figure out the dull story minutes into the "game", there's really not much detail or interaction with environment beyond the notes, and I don't imagine this would have gotten nearly the same amount of attention, ratings, and praise if it was...
The very fact if you learn about the story before hand, you have no reason to play it tells you it's not a very solid game to begin with. You might as well read a book because the same story has been told better dozens of times in books.
...A gay son. There wouldn't have been the "Ohhh such a woooonderful story in such an imooortant game" if it was a an effeminate gay son that fell for a would-be army dude.
The very fact if you learn about the story before hand, you have no reason to play it tells you it's not a very solid game to begin with. You might as well read a book because the same story has been told better dozens of times in books.
Gone Home doesn't really do anything new with storytelling. All it really is is those virtual museum games libraries used to rent out a decade ago, but with fiction instead of dinosaurs or anatomy. The story it tells is decent, but I don't think it really gained anything from being in a video game; in fact, I think it's an example of the kind of storytelling that might be better served in film and or literature. The catch, of course, is that film and literature already have stories like it, so it would have been utterly unremarkable and soon forgotten. In purely economic terms, other media already offer a comparable experience at a comparable length for a fraction of the cost.
As if all that wasn't enough of a reason not to spend money on Gone Home unless you have enough of it that buying a game of that price is a genuinely trivial expense to you, the game is buggy as hell. I experienced a game-breaking glitch on my first playthrough, and so did six of the seven other people with the game I know personally. I have since seen enough complaints online to feel confident that this is no freak of coincidence. For a game that relies so heavily (one might even say exclusively) on immersion to deliver its experience, that level of buggy-ness is inexcusable and must be considered to detract considerably from the game's overall quality.
I can see spending $10 on Gone Home, but more than that would be hard to justify in my book.
As if all that wasn't enough of a reason not to spend money on Gone Home unless you have enough of it that buying a game of that price is a genuinely trivial expense to you, the game is buggy as hell. I experienced a game-breaking glitch on my first playthrough, and so did six of the seven other people with the game I know personally. I have since seen enough complaints online to feel confident that this is no freak of coincidence. For a game that relies so heavily (one might even say exclusively) on immersion to deliver its experience, that level of buggy-ness is inexcusable and must be considered to detract considerably from the game's overall quality.
I can see spending $10 on Gone Home, but more than that would be hard to justify in my book.
Boring gameplay with an overly 'heartfelt' story about the social issue that's 'in' right now.
Yeah, no thanks.
Yeah, no thanks.
It's actually the very definition of a strawman argument verbatim, as you misrepresented my argument by comparing it to your intentionally misrepresented game synopses. My argument has always been that the story is cliche, and the way it told is not really compelling, unique, or immersive. While that's a subjective opinion, the fact remains that the story has been told before in many different mediums, and there was really nothing too unique about it's retelling here. The fact that you believe that there is really tells more about your inexperience with this genre of video game, or with immersive video game narrative in general. I can easily think of at least 5 titles with far more immersive story telling than this game accomplished with it's linear, creaky house scavenger hunt, and one of them is a Metal Gear Solid game. I honestly feel the only reason it's acclaimed as highly as it is has more to do with the subject matter of the story or the manner in which it was told. It's overpriced and highly overrated. That's why gone home is bad or at the very least, not worth your money.ClownBaby said:
I'm dealing with this topic because I think the other points you brought up are just going to be a difference of opinion at this point.ClownBaby said:
I think you may have misunderstood by what I meant about "the story not working in any other media." I didn't mean it as a story that can only be told in a video game, rather, I meant a story that were it in any other media would not be praised the way it is here. The point of course being is that there is such a glut of stories like this in all other media, that nothing about this story is necessarily "special." Further, seeing as how the main topic of the game is a fairly hot button issue within the games industry, I can't help but feel that the only reason the story was praised was because of it's subject matter, not because it was a good story or was even remotely compelling. I feel it is indicative of that "social justice" relation I mentioned in my earlier post; something whose story gets by and is praised simply because it's a hot button issue relating to social justice, and therefore must hold some importance. That's what I meant about it not working in other media. It's mostly an issue of critics, because the critics of other media would be smart enough to realize that past the hot button topic there is very little to praise this story for. Further, they wouldn't be compelled to give the game a pass simply for some ideological goal in an attempt to "better an industry"
Is that really where the praise is coming from though? Maybe that's the cause for some of the critical buzz, but when I hear people talking about the game (and as I said earlier, they mostly come from a demographic that's outside of the what we generally think of as the target audience for non-casual games), that's never been part of the praise. I hear a lot about the atmosphere, and a lot of happiness about a resurgence of adventure games.Eternal_Lament said:
And I realize that I'm coming a little close to saying "it's not important because of social justice, it's important because it appeals to middle aged women", and that would seriously patronizing of me (and obviously it doesn't exclusively appear to that market), but I do think it might be interesting to look at how this game succeeds/fails from the angle of that demographic difference.
I don't consider Gone Home and the like to be formal games, so I've been calling them walking simulators, virtual stories, and unlaborious games.
They have their niche, and it's not like I dislike them for "not being games." But I'm beginning to despise the trend because it's forwarding notions of development that I dislike, with A Machine for Pigs, the Chinese Room felt it would be fine to remove gameplay elements and still sell it as the successor to a game that was widely praised..
To me it shows failure to understand what sets games apart from other mediums. Videogames with stories CAN be very good, but they can't rely on their story as if it's the selling point.
Every mainstream videogame journal that I've seen praise the game (with one exception) has been on the SJW train in the past. Not to mention that there's some sneaking suspicion of some of those reviewers being friends with the creators of the game.
Otherwise I've seen the praise come from people who don't usually play videogames.
They have their niche, and it's not like I dislike them for "not being games." But I'm beginning to despise the trend because it's forwarding notions of development that I dislike, with A Machine for Pigs, the Chinese Room felt it would be fine to remove gameplay elements and still sell it as the successor to a game that was widely praised..
To me it shows failure to understand what sets games apart from other mediums. Videogames with stories CAN be very good, but they can't rely on their story as if it's the selling point.
Depends what you read and who you talk to.Raikas said:
Every mainstream videogame journal that I've seen praise the game (with one exception) has been on the SJW train in the past. Not to mention that there's some sneaking suspicion of some of those reviewers being friends with the creators of the game.
Otherwise I've seen the praise come from people who don't usually play videogames.
That's what I think is so interesting. Most of the people I've heard about it from are in that group, although many (if not most) are people who played point-and-click games in the 90s and are using Gone Home (and games in that style) to get back into that.Lovely Mixture said:
Whether you call it an informal game or not, I think there's something to be said for a game that has the power to appeal to people who aren't drawn to other games (or who gave up on gaming 20 years ago and are now being brought back into it). Because fair enough if you are I aren't a fan of that style, but if anything I'd take this trend to mean that it does work for that untapped market, and I hope that that's a trend that continues.
That's what I don't get about the negativity - I may not be a fan, but I totally think it's awesome that it's bringing in new blood/bringing people back. I don't think we're in danger of seeing the market flooded with nothing but basic point-and-click games, so why wouldn't we want to see more of that?
I've already made a decision to pick it up at some point. Looks neat-o, kind of unique (as far as I know) for the realm of not-necessarily-adventure games type-games.
Kind of off-topic but seriously though are we calling this type of game "a game" yet or do we need to call them "interactive movies" or whatever? Because that's kind of a mouthful and I'd prefer to just call it a game.
Kind of off-topic but seriously though are we calling this type of game "a game" yet or do we need to call them "interactive movies" or whatever? Because that's kind of a mouthful and I'd prefer to just call it a game.
We could call them Interactive Cutscene Games, or ICG's. It would be a label that covers things like Gone Home and things like Indigo Prophesy.Full said:
Well, I'm not going to get involved in some of the arguments that have broken out, enough has been said about that, here are some different things I liked:
Wait, how do I do the spoiler tag things? Wahhh, I need to use forums more.
Wait, how do I do the spoiler tag things? Wahhh, I need to use forums more.
It's the boy-meets-girl (sort of) trope mixed in with the coming of age trope mixed with Romeo and Juliet-style forbidden love trope. You can see this sort of plot line in all manners of movies and drama/family television shows. Maybe it's a first for video games, but it's still essentially a form of juvenile teenage drama that might be considered trashy in other mediums. Just think of the endless torrent of movies where highschoolers are played b 30-something year olds.
A lot of it does come down to whether or not you like that genre in the first place. I definitely admit this story has its cute moments, but I've already seen all this play out amongst my own real life high school friends. One of my oldest friends is a girl in the navy... and getting married to another girl next month. Sound familiar? And as others have pointed out, there's nothing that makes a first-time homosexual relationship any more meaningful than a heterosexual one--it'll probably be as rocky and unstable as any other (perhaps more due to extra external pressures).
I suppose many of us older and not-so-sentimental players view the game as overly romanticizing something that, really, shouldn't be. There's only one real reference of doubt in the story that I remember:
"I don't think Lonnie even knows who Lonnie is." But then that's it.
In the end, all we see is another starry-eyed teenage love story. Dear Esther at least gave you backgrounds on multiple characters and created a believable and immersive environment. Gone Home, on the other hand, is an awkward mishmash of the creepy-mansion-in-the-woods trope that suddenly forgets what it is and becomes a string-along love tale. The game is beautifully made, but that transition feels unintentionally gimmicky and cheap.
Well it signifies a different audience. But I don't know if it means anything special about the game.Raikas said:
To me it says that they have very low standards for storytelling, but will glamor if it is presented merely differently.Raikas said:
If Gone Home was a movie or book, I don't think people would have turned heads.
If Gone Home's main story was about a heterosexual couple, I don't think it would have turned heads at all. After all TheChineseRoom did their narrative experiences and Dear Esther didn't garner anywhere near this sort of acclaim.
Sure, as I said, it has it's niche.Raikas said:
The negativity is mostly based on what it means for videogames in the industry in relation to mainstream critics.Raikas said:
Ducktales Remastered gets criticized for being too oldschool difficult.
Wonderful 101 gets criticized for being hard to master.
Dragon's Crown gets flack for its character design.
Here we have a "game" that barely has gameplay other than walking around and looking at things, and it gets praised because it has a mediocre love story.
Now, you can argue that reviews don't matter in the long run. But it's what these reviews reflect: we have people in the industry who don't see gameplay as important and would rather jump on the social justice train than be objective. Things have already been bad enough with nefarious paid reviews and doritogate.
Despite what I'm saying, I'm a person who very much values story in videogames. I'm critical of when story is sacrificed for gameplay and I'm just as critical when gameplay is sacrificed for story.
So there's no gameplay so it all hinges on the story, which from what I heard sounds like a snoozefest. Which admittedly isn't much because the little I heard was enough to make me lose interest. It sounds like a story you'd see on some crappy TV drama with a mix of those suspense movies which I'm too impatient for.
