Gone Home from The Fullbright Company

[brkl]

So is Bogost not making the connection that all of those are different (and personal) forms of isolation that synergize with each other to create a house in which everyone feels alone? Or is that rhetorical and not expressive.

I guess I should ask Bogost.

It's interesting to think that sharing a form of isolation is something that many of us take for granted.

That would be a very good reading of Gone Home using Bogost's own damn concept of "procedural rhetoric". I have his book and it's really weird how blind his Gone Home review is. It's like he's forgotten everything he has written previously.

[clyde]

I enjoyed reading this response to Gone Home.

Note to TychoCelchuuu: skip the first 3 paragraphs.

http://metroidpolitan.com/blog/2013/8/19/growing-up-riot-grrl-the-nostalgia-lie-of-gone-home

Here is an excerpt:

I'm jealous that Gone Home's heroines did figure out their progressive politics at such an early age, and that they also seemed to live in a sort of magical zone where patriarchy was a problem, but, like, y'know, not a biiiigggg problem. For example, when Lonnie quits ROTC at the end of the game, we don't really hear about the consequences -- seems like a metaphor for how the game approaches authority structures in general. Basically, all you have to do to get rid of patriarchy in Gone Home-iverse is ... step outside of it. Leave. Get in a car. And drive. Away.

[jmbossy]

Yes.

 

My argument being, Bogost claims that as gamers we fear being pigeon-holed by "adolescence", and suggests we instead accept that even Gone Home, a game generally regarded as being one of the most mature in gaming is only less adolescent than something from Epic. That may be over simplifying his argument, and I do agree with TheCineaste, in that I'm glad it exists, but comparing the story told here or in bioshock to that of the hunger games or twiligiht Is overlooking all of the qualities which elevate either genre. Granted Bioshock isn't nearly as mature as Gone Home, but the importance of either aren't their existence within the genre. The best part of Gone Home isn't that it some how manages to be praised despite it being a video game.

[sclpls]

Rereading that Bogost essay I came away with the impression that the real object of scorn here is the popularity of superhero movies.

[clyde]

I'm watching Capt. Hastings play Gone Home. She has interesting reactions like "We are one receipt-keeping family, man. We need one of those receipt keeping things that you put receipts in. Well, I guess I have one Christmas present idea taken care of."

[sclpls]

Congrats to Steve and everyone at Fullbright for winning those awards. That is rad and well deserved.

[Steve]

Congrats to Steve and everyone at Fullbright for winning those awards. That is rad and well deserved.

 

Thanks so much! Yeah winning two VGX awards is bonkers. Now me and Jake and Sean are all Spike VGA buddies.

[jmbossy]

Congrats Scoops

 

 

Now me and Jake and Sean are all Spike VGA buddies.

 

 

I know its incredibly immature, but I feel it must be said.

Suck it Remo.

[Twig]

Suck it Remo.

No love for Nick?

 

(Congrats Nick.)

[jmbossy]

No love for Nick?

 

(Congrats Nick.)

 

This should be a shirt.

[pkirkner]

I know its incredibly immature, but I feel it must be said.

Suck it Remo.

No love for the GH:OST?

[Chris]

Congrats Scoops

I know its incredibly immature, but I feel it must be said.

Suck it Remo.

I worked on that fucking game too! OKAY STEVE

[Stuart]

I worked on that fucking game too! OKAY STEVE

 

Only in the Dishonored version. 

 

Nah, in all seriousness, congrats to both of you and everyone else at Fullbright. You guys deserve much better, but this will do for now.

[tberton]

Truly, then, it is Nick who is fucked.

[SecretAsianMan]

Steve's giving a talk at the 2014 DICE Summit

 

"Strangers in a Strange Time: Gone Home's Place in the Changing Indie Landscape." 

[mikemariano]

I beat this game a few hours ago.  I have a few questions.

 

The lighting was really distracting—was this just botched graphical settings on my part? Light didn't scatter at all. When turning on a light in the studio, I was unable to see the painting at all until I turned on a desk lamp that was facing away from the painting.

 

And story-wise:

 

What does Sam's story mean to me?  Besides general, sisterly concern, what did I think about her before I discovered what she got up to in the new house and new town?  Am I a different person after my trip to Europe?  I seem to have gained no life experiences worth mentioning—the highlight of my year abroad was apparently the Chunnel.

 

And after the game ends, I guess I'm going to pass out with my sister's stegosaurus, wake up, eat the cereal from the room under the stairs because the kitchen is locked.  My parents will come home, exhausted from searching for Sam.  The Military Police will be around to ask questions—they've got a soldier that went AWOL.

 

And I guess I'll drive to the mall and pick up some job applications.  Christmas is coming up and I don't start school again until next semester.  Staying busy and staying out of the way of my parents is probably the smartest option.

[Argobot]

That's why Katie is the most interesting (and devastating) character. While she was off having these frivolous adventures her entire family was disintegrating.

[mikemariano]

I've been hacking my way through this thread and it's wild to learn much more is in this game.  I didn't even know there was a basement!

 

But, roleplaying as Katie, I don't think I'm compelled to answer all those questions.  I'm worried about Sam, and I can break into locked rooms and file cabinets after the game is over.

[elmuerte]

did you figure out the christmas duck?

[Trip Hazard]

Steve said it. I haven't played Gone Home yet, although I do want to and I fully expect to enjoy it, but damn if this discussion hasn't got me champing at the bit.

 

Edit: Steve said it a while back and I didn't realise when posting. :/ Still, it stands.

[Stuart]

I GUESS IGN...

 

   WAS BLOWN AWAY.    

 

- IGN.com

[Bjorn]

That's why Katie is the most interesting (and devastating) character. While she was off having these frivolous adventures her entire family was disintegrating.

 

I have almost the opposite view of Katie.  The family may have been disintegrating, but they are also growing, changing and learning to heal by the time she comes back.  I think there's a fascinating contrast in how mundane her "adventure" in Europe was when compared to the lives her parents and sister were living in her absence (which while painful and confusing in some ways, were definitely not mundane).  I think it drives home the idea that adventure is where you find it, not where you go.

[TheLastBaron]

So my sister grew up in the 90's, lives in Portland, and just came back home after a year abroad.  I got her this game and watching her play it is the best thing ever.  She's played some video games before, mostly adventure games (our uncle worked at Humongous Entertainment when we were little so tons of Freddie Fish and such growing up, as well as Lucas Arts games).  When the Nancy Drew games first came out she was super into those and played all of them so she's already super stoked to play this because her favorite part about those games was exploring and being a sleuth.  I didn't realize until I started watching her, but she's never played a game that isn't point and click which seems like such a bizarre idea, but when I think about it I don't know why I would assume that she has.  She was using the arrow keys to move around and accidentally bumped the mouse and thought the game crashed and freaked out.  She was actually just now staring at the floor and when she realized she could just move around and turn the camera however she wanted she was so fucking stoked. 

 

The things I take for granted.

[TheLastBaron]

She keeps getting excited and calling her boyfriend over to show him stuff, like just now she got a picture and and called him over to show him it was Multnomah Falls. This is the most fun I've had with a game in a really long time and I'm not even playing it.

[clyde]

I'm interested in hearing more about it TheLastBaron.