Eric

Yeah there seems to have been an interesting rhetorical effect going on with popular media over the last dozen years or so with the term indie. Film, music, and video games all seem to have seen the rise of a distinct style that has been associated with medium or low cost but relatively high production value. I think the accessibility of technologies has led to the viability of easy and high fidelity recording or development for young, moderately wealthy, connected folks who share similar intents, inspirations, and mindsets. This is why the indie genre in film seems to be represented by the digital gloss of the Canon 5D, music is 4 - 8 college educated white male sweatered and soft spoken 20-somethings, and video games feature throwbacks to the medium as it was in the early and mid 90s. I think there is this middle group of folks who prior to now would have either a) never been interested enough to leap the cost or technological gap and engage fully in a medium they find interesting and/or b ) been given access to a space where they could be recognized. Now these folks have access to low barrier to entry (at least for a relatively well off young person) technology and spaces in which they can display their work and garner interest, the modern internet. Video games are slightly different from music and film though. True success in those genres usually still comes through traditional avenues like playing in bars and local venues and through film festivals. Over time, however, I think it could be argued that indie film festivals and indie music audiences have been trending toward this new consumer space as the internet more and more informs and reproduces our consumptive tastes. Through this process the "indie genre" rhetoric is reproduced in those mediums. Video games, on the other hand, as creative products made on a computer to be enjoyed, mostly, on a computer have a natural home and showcase on the internet. So, when the new indies showed up on the scene in earnest, genre notions of that word were quickly reproduced in a space that was already amenable to that sort of development. Furthermore, video games are especially amenable to odd categorization because it's a young medium and what actually constitutes and delineates genre is pretty vague to begin with. The big split that I think will eventually have to be codified is how differences between gameplay, narrative, intended audience, and economics affects functional differences in video games as a product. Anyway this is just stuff that bubbles around in my head from time to time. I'm no expert in film, music, or video games so there's still odd (and probably just wrong) stuff in my analysis. Like obviously music has come a long way since the shins and film I'm sure as well. I think the fact that indie has been held on to as a category is because its a new style associated with a certain economy of production that society hasn't figured out on a whole how to define just yet, if it even can or should be defined.

I bought an Xbox 360 for the sole purpose of playing Skate and those are still the only games I play on it. I've probably spent less on games than on the console. Exclusives are hell

I feel generally that it's sort of butt that universities use standard math courses as prerequisites for other courses that allow access to the full toolsets available to you. I wish there was a mathematics stream for dumbs like me that are more interested in the concepts and logic of math but struggle hard with operations that can be done with a computer anyway.

The main problem that I have with that XKCD comic is that both of the characters are assholes and presumably we are supposed to agree with one of them I think that this is the interpretation that I like the most. It reinforces the thematic prevalence of memory and nostalgia. It's interesting that, given this reading, all of the gameplay is in the past tense and that the things that are currently happening (i.e. the passages Katie is currently reading) are even further in the past. It says something weird about the nature of fiction and I think especially the nature of interactive fiction though I haven't really parsed through it yet. vv I see your point. I get a little razzed when people use xkcd as an image macro intended to make a point about something and usually it just seems preachy and reductive.

I'm of the mind that overanalysis doesn't exist. It may not be useful to do deep analysis of a piece of work and it may be even harder to substantiate and back up that analysis but I think that generally there is nothing wrong with picking something apart and drawing ideas from an art work. I guess the problem here is that people seem to think that having plot holes invalidates all other analysis (and perhaps enjoyment). I think that's wrong at its base. I also think that probably for some people it's hard to overlook the mistakes that they notice and they may even enjoy finding and pointing out those inconstancies than playing the game at face level. To me it boils down to a whatever floats your boat scenario. Having writing flaws pointed out rarely should have an effect on the meaning or value of something so long as they aren't glaring and overwhelming or you're writing a wild post-mordenist criticism about how the plot holes reinforce the holes in Katie's interpretation of the events in her family or whatever. On a somewhat related note I'm watching my friend play through this game bit by bit (they have to stop frequently because they don't play games much and get dizzy in first person things) and it's really interesting to hear what they say. For example they couldn't account for Katie hearing the journal entries when she discovered things. I had to think about it and I couldn't really either. The best justification I could come up with was: It also made me realize that I didn't think twice about the decision to have voice overs playing as you went along while I was playing it. I wonder if that has to do with me being so familiar with audio journals in other games and sort of taking it for granted. what does this tag do

I sort of approached this game with the attitude of expecting the unexpected and my expectations were really exceeded! When I heard it was going to be set in the 90s I was a little bit nervous. Knowing that a large part of the demographic was going to be people like me, 20-somethings who grew up during that time, and knowing how easy it is in media (especially video games) to fall back on nostalgia I was worried that it was going to be a mess of thoughtless surface level references(a la Tumblr circa 201X). I was relieved to discover though that Gone Home is a period piece that, rather than using nostalgia to justify it's existence, uses the time in which it is set to enrich the narrative and make it more relateable. I think the way we look back at the 90s here in the second decade of this millenium is often overshadowed by memories of pop culture, MTV, Video Games, Saved By The Bell, Bill Clinton, but Gone Home depicts the 90s not through the lens of pop culture, though obviously without these things an image of that time is incomplete, but of real culture. The modern romantic view of the 90s is eschewed for a depiction of the world and true experiences of young people during that time. The angst and frustration in the face of still prevalent social issues and the attempts by young people to cope and react are expressed along with the decade's forgotten banalities and defining characteristics. And within that setting a conscientious, meaningful, and remarkably affecting story is told from all sides, a feat which is still after however many years of narrative in video games a frustratingly rare thing. And then that fucking ghost showed up. OK, joking. Admittedly I could have a narrow view of things as I grew up in the Pacific Northwest in the 90s but I really think this game is important. I think it's important for its thoughtfully reproduced setting, I think it's important for its story, and I think it's important for how it can have both of those and still be a compelling video game that is Fun to Play. Gr8 game Steve, I like the same music you do we should hang out some time e: Additionally, I think this game made great steps toward telling an authored story by utilizing the characteristics endemic to a video game. This is as opposed to games that have cut scene driven narratives or games in which the narratives are expressed implicitly within the mechanics of the game