(2016 Discussion) Gone Home

[Redryhno]

Total apathy from me. As I've said before, it's a bland game with a bland story in which nothing the player does matters. Everything important has already happened. There's nothing at stake. You just listen to a girl brag about her love life for two hours. I wouldn't even wanna hear all that if I actually had a sibling whom I found out was gay. Big deal. Why should I care? I want to feel involved in the events as they unfold, rather than being told them by an unrelatable character whose face I rarely see. A backstory is all this game is. A backstory that supports nothing. Your actions are inconsequential and you're not there in the moment to care about the situation.

To be fair, I can sympathize with what I think they were going for, narrative-wise. That being there during the aftermath of a bunch of shit instead of being the big, goddamn, hero. Too bad it fell flat since you had no previous connection to the characters. Not like it would've been that difficult to build these people up a few months before the events immediately preceding the game take place.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I was wondering the same thing. One of the reason everyone got their panties in a bunch about Gone Home, was because critics fell in love with a 2 hour virtual experience that cost $20. That's what most of the 'haters' were upset about: the relatively steep price. However, now in 2016, Gone Home is like 80% off during every freakin' sale and you can literally buy it for the price of a sub. Or not. You know. That's a thing. Not buying it, I mean. Problem solved?

I bought it for that price and was pretty happy with my purchase. Flawed as the narrative was, wandering through that house did leave a strong impression. It was an interesting experiment in storytelling in games.

Yeah, basically this. My recommendation at the time was "If you want to wait for a sale, wait for a sale. That's what Steam is for." Because aside from the price point, the length is perfect; it keeps your attention for that full time, doesn't feel padded out, and is perfect to be played in one sitting, for which it's clearly designed.

Personally I loved it and was happy to have paid full price for it, but I feel like complaints about price (while totally valid) should be kept separate from discussions of the game as a thing on its own. I'm not saying that if a game is good, you ought to buy it no matter how much it costs, but that price against game time is a separate variable compared to the quality of the game itself.

 

[Elfgore]

A game that at this point I could piece together every single scene by how much I've heard people talk about it, even though I've never watched a video or played the game at all. Not my style of game at all, so not something I will ever pick up. So I don't think I can weigh in if it is a good game or not... Oh should probably say something that will stir controversy... Ummmm... Damn lesbian undertones!

 

[Bobular]

I quite liked it. Only thing I would add is make it so that each relative has there own fully fleshed out story. The sister was clearly the main story, but if you made it so that the farther and mother had there own complete story the same length, you would add replayability similar to different routs in a visual novel.

And that's kind of what I think of games like Gone Home as. A different take on visual novels.

 

[Zhukov]

I rather liked it actually.

Thing is, I bought and played it blind on release. Before the controversy happened.

I didn't even know it had lesbians in it. I got it because I liked the idea of piecing together a series of events by poking through a small but detailed environment. I've always had a soft spot for storytelling through passive environmental clues.

Sadly the game didn't quite live up to that. Most of the plot is delivered by just finding notes and letters that straight up tell you what happened with the environmental details being supplementary. Especially with the main plot. Some of the subplots are a bit more subtle.

I think it would have been more interesting if you had to really give it some thought. Although at the same time I acknowledge that if that were the case I would probably have failed miserably and just gone to Youtube for answers.

As for the main plot, eh, I thought it was cute. Rather cliche though. There's a bit with one of the girls serenading her girlfriend on stage that had me rolling my eyes. Come on guys, really?

And the controversy? Meh. Some reviewers liked a thing and failed to confirm the precious opinions of people who didn't like it. Better send in the national guard. There were the usual cries of SJW agendas and having homosexuality shoved down our throats. Thing is, for a lot of people the gay stuff is "shoved down their throats" merely by existing. It'd be like saying that, oh, say, the new Gears of War is going to shove heterosexuality down our throats because the trailer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3f8VgQ_dqk] shows a mother and a father who have a kid and have therefore presumably had straight sex at some point. The horror.

 

[Sharia]

It was my GOTY from 2013, an absolutely wonderful game.

It had been a long time since I really got stuck into any kind of story surrounding that era and cast of characters, so much so that I actually dug my DVD boxset of My So Called Life out right after I completed it for the first time; it was one of my favourite TV shows of the 90's and from playing Gone Home, it wouldn't surprise me if the developers were fans of it too.It's extremely well written; Samantha's actress was so spot on she may as well have been Claire Danes playing Angela Chase all over again.

I really enjoyed that both the story and the characters were built and delivered to the player by just about everything around you, and only if you were committed to it were you going to pick up on it all and see just how masterfully it has all been put together.

If the game is to be commended for anything, I would say it is the way in which it turned what was only a few hours spent poking around a house, into what felt like I had spent an entire year with this family instead. Through the smallest of detail, on the smallest of post-it-notes I found on the wall, I could build a picture of just about everything that had transpired over the last year, the emotions the characters felt, and the family issues that came along with it. In fact it captured both female teenage life, and family life in the 90's extremely well in my opinion.

I have bought Gone Home three times now. First was the original Steam release on day one, I then picked up the physical collectors edition on PC and then finally bought it on PS4 just to support the devs. It really was a truly wonderful experience and it's not a game I will ever forget.

 

[MrFalconfly]

Eh, it's less gay relationships seen as pandering, and just so few of them being given the same basic respect of straight relationships. In gaming it's pretty much always either some kind of forbidden love thing that gets the people involved alienated/beaten/etc.

That's a reality a lot of gay people have had to live through. I'm not sure reflecting it in media is somehow dishonoring gay relationships, or (god forbid) "pandering". It's not a universal reality for every gay person who ever lived, but good luck finding a universal reality when scripting a game or a show or writing a novel.

Thing is, why does it have to be persecuted or righteous?!?

Why can't it be like the US American ambassador in Denmark (Rufus Gifford)?

I mean, he's a nice bloke, who just happens to be gay, and the only thing extraordinary about him is the fact that he's an Ambassador for a nuclear superpower.

Why can't we have more gay characters in games who are like him?

 

[MrFalconfly]

Why can't we have more gay characters in games who are like him?

Bioware has gay characters without tragedy, but their games make up 90% of all lgbt characters in gaming so theyre not the best example.

The thing is, were gonna need more than 1 gay character every 5 years to move past the tragedy angle. Which is going to be difficult when a large vocal population of gamers cry pandering amd "shoving it down our throats" whenever any character might look at a character of the same sex for more than 5 seconds

Well f*ck them, then.

Also, to be honest, I think most of the Bioware characters fit into the "righteous" category.

What I wanted was more along the lines of Agent 47 (who I have a sneaking suspicion might be gay, just like Frank Martin in the Transporter movies).

EDIT:
What I mean is, the character "happens" to be gay. Not "The character is gay". Just let it be a subtle, blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing.

Treat it like it's absolutely normal, and nothing to be noticed.

EDIT:EDIT:
Although, I may have shot myself in the foot, using Rufus Gifford as an example there, but that example works here in Denmark, where we just see him as "the US Ambassador", not "the gay US Ambassador".

 

[SecondPrize]

I think most of the pushback with Gone Home was because of the reaction from the gaming press and the marketing playing up a possible spooky ghost angle that wasn't in the game. Everyone's going on and on about how great a game this is and then you pay twenty bucks and what you got was Gone Home. That may work out for some people but others are going to be upset about it. The only stellar review I read about the game where I actually believed that the author believed what they were publishing rather than just jumping on the praise train for whatever reason was Tom Chick's on quartertothree.

Why can't we have more gay characters in games who are like him?

Bioware has gay characters without tragedy, but their games make up 90% of all lgbt characters in gaming so theyre not the best example.

The thing is, were gonna need more than 1 gay character every 5 years to move past the tragedy angle. Which is going to be difficult when a large vocal population of gamers cry pandering amd "shoving it down our throats" whenever any character might look at a character of the same sex for more than 5 seconds

Well f*ck them, then.

Also, to be honest, I think most of the Bioware characters fit into the "righteous" category.

What I wanted was more along the lines of Agent 47 (who I have a sneaking suspicion might be gay, just like Frank Martin in the Transporter movies).

EDIT:
What I mean is, the character "happens" to be gay. Not "The character is gay". Just let it be a subtle, blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing.

Treat it like it's absolutely normal, and nothing to be noticed.

EDIT:EDIT:
Although, I may have shot myself in the foot, using Rufus Gifford as an example there, but that example works here in Denmark, where we just see him as "the US Ambassador", not "the gay US Ambassador".

The Elder Scrolls Online did that. Their quest writing is generally fantastic compared to the standard fare from MMOs and playing through all of the Daggerfall Covenant's quests and part of the Aldmeri (I think) I ran into two or three quests with just characters who happened to be gay and no big deal is made about it. The DC one comes later in leveling and you help a guy find his missing husband and the important bit everyone is concerned with is the lycanthropy, not their sexual preference. I've never seen it praised for doing so, nor for that matter any game where it's just a normal thing and part of a character.

 

[MrFalconfly]

snip

Well praise isn't what we're looking for.

Normality is.

And if anything ESO was a bit hampered by middling reviews because of the gameplay iirc.

If anything, the fact that the gay characters of ESO went under the radar should itself be a praise of their well-written gay characters.

EDIT:
I mean we're looking for a way to introduce gay characters without people shouting "SJW agenda" or "Pandering".

 

[SecondPrize]

snip

Well praise isn't what we're looking for.

Normality is.

And if anything ESO was a bit hampered by middling reviews because of the gameplay iirc.

If anything, the fact that the gay characters of ESO went under the radar should itself be a praise of their well-written gay characters.

EDIT:
I mean we're looking for a way to introduce gay characters without people shouting "SJW agenda" or "Pandering".

I feel actual praise would be better praise, if only to show devs who just don't get it how people feel it can be well done.

 

[MrFalconfly]

snip

Well praise isn't what we're looking for.

Normality is.

And if anything ESO was a bit hampered by middling reviews because of the gameplay iirc.

If anything, the fact that the gay characters of ESO went under the radar should itself be a praise of their well-written gay characters.

EDIT:
I mean we're looking for a way to introduce gay characters without people shouting "SJW agenda" or "Pandering".

I feel actual praise would be better praise, if only to show devs who just don't get it how people feel it can be well done.

Well that criticism should be directed at the journalistic staff then.

It's hardly the devs, nor the buyers fault if the ones who are able to create the largest amount of media buzz decide that such characters aren't worthy of praise.

 

[Amaror]

What I mean is, the character "happens" to be gay. Not "The character is gay". Just let it be a subtle, blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing.

Treat it like it's absolutely normal, and nothing to be noticed.

Here's the problem with that language.

Heterosexual couples and relationships are a big deal. At least, in the context of most stories. Every show, every book, more than likely has a "will they or wont they" plot. Romantic kisses are a big deal, internal fireworks are shot off. Just off the top of my head, Atom and Hawkgirl's ongoing romance in Legends of Tomorrow, Flash and Iris, Peralta and Santiago, Daisy and Lincoln etc etc etc

their romantic subplot is on screen, their romantic drama is on screen, their kisses are on screen

so why, oh god why, do Gay couples have to slide under the radar and be "subtle" and "blink and you'll miss it"?

I don't want to miss it. I want gay couples to get the same romantic plot tumors that straight couples get. I want a woman to mention her wife as much as a straight guy would mention his wife. I want a plot where a dude forgets his own anniversary so he has to rush and buy cheap flowers on the way home for his husband.

This whole idea you're going for is just as toxic and harmful as not including them at all.

Why not both? Why do you either have to have all relationships be pure drama or all relationships be barely noticeable.
There can be relationships in stories that are full of drama and "Will they, won't they", but having every single relationship be like that is just unrealistic and overdone by now. And this is in general, it doesn't make a difference whether they are relationships between women, men or blue aliens form mars.
I also think it's hilarious that you are accusing him of homophobia while advocating to stereotype all gay relationships.

btw. A gay character I always thought was well done was Dumbledore. There were definite hints towards his sexuality in the book and the story, but it was never made a big deal, because ultimately it doesn't matter what he likes in a romantic partner since he is never really interested in a relationship during the story. And that's while there was a definite opportunity for them to make a big deal out of it with the whole Grindelwald-substory and Rita but they never did.

 

[Sharia]

God this thread us (mostly boring). Less about the game and more about a highly uninteresting, general subject.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

God this thread us (mostly boring). Less about the game and more about a highly uninteresting, general subject.

you expecting GT like discussion my friend?

 

[Sharia]

GT was no different towards the end. Discussion on any political, religious, social or any other subject unrelated to the games themselves always bought the most discussion sadly. You only had to look at the likes of the gamergate thread.