mikemariano

Gone Home from The Fullbright Company

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So I've been thinking about this game a lot since I finished it but there's one thing that bugs me:

If the parents aren't home then where exactly are they? Have I missed something and it just full on tells you or is there not really an explanation for where they are? I'm fine with either one but it just kind of bugs me. How much time is supposed to elapse between you getting home and you discovering Sam has left? Do the parents know she's left? Have they gone looking for her and that's why she's not home?

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So I've been thinking about this game a lot since I finished it but there's one thing that bugs me:

If the parents aren't home then where exactly are they? Have I missed something and it just full on tells you or is there not really an explanation for where they are? I'm fine with either one but it just kind of bugs me. How much time is supposed to elapse between you getting home and you discovering Sam has left? Do the parents know she's left? Have they gone looking for her and that's why she's not home?

 

You've missed quite a lot, IMO. There's enough there to put together the answer to all the things you've asked. Full spoil follows:.

Q: If the parents aren't home then where exactly are they?

A: They're at a couples retreat to patch up the marriage. There's a pamphlet somewhere that describes it, probably(?) also a calendar/memo/agenda somewhere that indicates the date.

Q: How much time is supposed to elapse between you getting home and you discovering Sam has left?

A: Depends on what you mean exactly by "discovering Sam has left" but either way, however long it actually took you as the player to make that discovery.

Q: Do the parents know she's left? Have they gone looking for her and that's why she's not home?

A: Nope, She left when they were gone and they haven't gotten back. You can reasonably presume this because the answering machine has unplayed messages (until you play them).

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Oh yeah, I totally forgot about seeing the thing about saving their marriage. The only thing I found was the book though so I didn't really pay too much attention to it. Who do you think was initializing the attempt to patch up their marriage? The father doesn't really seem like the type and he's probably just way too focused on trying to get his writing career back on track. Do you think the mother actually had a full blown affair with Rich?

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Q: If the parents aren't home then where exactly are they?

A: They're at a couples retreat to patch up the marriage. There's a pamphlet somewhere that describes it, probably(?) also a calendar/memo/agenda somewhere that indicates the date.

 

Yes, it's in a drawer in the greenhouse I think

 

Oh yeah, I totally forgot about seeing the thing about saving their marriage. The only thing I found was the book though so I didn't really pay too much attention to it. Who do you think was initializing the attempt to patch up their marriage? The father doesn't really seem like the type and he's probably just way too focused on trying to get his writing career back on track. Do you think the mother actually had a full blown affair with Rich?

 

I missed whoever Rich is, but I got the impression their marriage might be strained by him being a struggling writer, and her being so successful in her career.

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Rich is the handsome woodsman the mother uses to blow off steam. Her friend kept asking about him in the letter on her night desk.

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My impression is that nothing actually happened with Rick. Mom was fantasizing about it, but Rick was oblivious (as is evidenced by his inviting her to his wedding).

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I don't think it's ever spelled out if there was a physical affair. I interpreted it to be an infatuation, with much prodding by the female friend to go further with Ranger Rick. I seem to recall an invitation to Rick's wedding (or maybe a calendar date somewhere), so my assumption was that the interest was unrequited as Rick already had a fiancee.

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I don't know if any of you have ever gone to an Earth, Wind, and Fire concert; but let me tell you, they can get crazy.

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I don't think an actual affair took place but the mom was certainly reading too much into Rick's flirtations with her (or whatever it was he did...I forget now) and seriously considering it. Did you notice their retreat overlapped with Rick's wedding? Not a coincidence.

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I felt like it was left open ended about whether or not an affair happened. I do not think you, an engaged man, casually take a married woman to a concert unless there is interest on both sides. It would be nice if we lived in a world where that was okay, but I think there was at least interest on both sides and that it's possible that something happened.

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I don't know if any of you have ever gone to an Earth, Wind, and Fire concert; but let me tell you, they can get crazy.

 

My mom can confirm this.

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re: the concert:

the ticket is unused. she never went.

 

Really, holy crap, how did I miss that?

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However, Rick did invite her to the concert, right? That still expresses interest. I feel like, for whatever reason, that there was interest from both sides. I think Rick mentions something about his fiancee's crappy music taste or something. That seems quite flirtatious to me. And depending on who organised the couple's retreat could say a lot about the mother's relationship with Rich. Either she didn't want to go to Rich's wedding and purposefully booked the retreat for that weekend because she thought it would be too painful, or the father was suspicious of Rich's relationship with his wife and he purposely booked it then.

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Oh yeah, I totally forgot about seeing the thing about saving their marriage. The only thing I found was the book though so I didn't really pay too much attention to it. Who do you think was initializing the attempt to patch up their marriage? The father doesn't really seem like the type and he's probably just way too focused on trying to get his writing career back on track. Do you think the mother actually had a full blown affair with Rich?

 

You find the brochure for the couple's counseling retreat in the greenhouse, which is where the father does his writing, so it seems to be his idea. He probably finally felt up the task after his books found an audience, and he was inspired enough to write a third book.

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I'm going to reply to a couple of things here just to clarify author intent, not that that matters to interpretation.

 

re: the concert:

the ticket is unused. she never went.

 

Interestingly, my intent was that it was used. Karla based it on a real ticket of a kind that has tear-off tabs on both sides. The ticket is torn on one side but not the other. However, most people (including myself) wouldn't understand what kind of ticket this is, and would read it as being un-torn. Regardless, it leaves things really ambiguous, which I'm fine with. It is probably actually more interesting if she took the ticket then didn't show up to the concert.

 

You've missed quite a lot, IMO. There's enough there to put together the answer to all the things you've asked. Full spoil follows:.

: Do the parents know she's left? Have they gone looking for her and that's why she's not home?

A: Nope, She left when they were gone and they haven't gotten back. You can reasonably presume this because the answering machine has unplayed messages (until you play them).

 

This is only partly true. I very intentionally made the answering machine light not be blinking when you get home. This implies that the messages have been listened to--by Sam. This is how she knows that Katie is on her way home, and why she leaves notes for her knowing she'll be back before their parents are, etc.

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Agreed, thanks for clarifying those points. 

 

In which case, it does push me back to thinking that there was some level of infidelity between Rick and mom. Which, for what it's worth, I find her situation to be sympathetic and don't judge her as a character if she did.

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I'm going to reply to a couple of things here just to clarify author intent, not that that matters to interpretation.

 

Interestingly, my intent was that it was used. Karla based it on a real ticket of a kind that has tear-off tabs on both sides. The ticket is torn on one side but not the other. However, most people (including myself) wouldn't understand what kind of ticket this is, and would read it as being un-torn. Regardless, it leaves things really ambiguous, which I'm fine with. It is probably actually more interesting if she took the ticket then didn't show up to the concert.

Oh man! That's really cool. Thanks for weighing in.

Indeed I feel that the scattered evidence of attempts to fix the marriage has a really nice culmination in the unredeemed ticket. It's a more hopeful arc, at least.

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I have nothing to add to this thread, aside from saying I've been reading the slightly ridiculous amount of spoilers and they're really adding to my post-game retrospective experience. Thanks guys.

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So, I just bought this in the Winter sale and played through it yesterday. I think some of my impressions about the game were colored by the little bits of knowledge I picked up around the Idle Thumbs forums. For instance, I was able to guess a lot of the main plot after about the 4th audio log due to...

hints from Chris and Steve that the game might deal in gender or sexuality issues.

Still, the depth in the side story of Terry really surprised me and made the whole thing worth it for me. Looking back through the thread, I completely missed a lot of the Oscar related items that showed the darker side of that story, and I really wish I'd been more attentive and picked that stuff up. I also missed the lightbulb and the infamous note that Katie throws away.

 

Finally (and shamefully,) I never managed to open any of the combination locks besides the one required for the plot.

I know from reading the thread that the combo to the safe is 1963, what's the combo to the father's filing cabinet and how do you find it?

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So, I just bought this in the Winter sale and played through it yesterday. I think some of my impressions about the game were colored by the little bits of knowledge I picked up around the Idle Thumbs forums. For instance, I was able to guess a lot of the main plot after about the 4th audio log due to...

hints from Chris and Steve that the game might deal in gender or sexuality issues.

Still, the depth in the side story of Terry really surprised me and made the whole thing worth it for me. Looking back through the thread, I completely missed a lot of the Oscar related items that showed the darker side of that story, and I really wish I'd been more attentive and picked that stuff up. I also missed the lightbulb and the infamous note that Katie throws away.

 

Finally (and shamefully,) I never managed to open any of the combination locks besides the one required for the plot.

I know from reading the thread that the combo to the safe is 1963, what's the combo to the father's filing cabinet and how do you find it?

 

The combo for the filing cabinet is in the library room, there's like a folder or something sitting on a shelf that you can open and its in that.

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This is only partly true. I very intentionally made the answering machine light not be blinking when you get home. This implies that the messages have been listened to--by Sam. This is how she knows that Katie is on her way home, and why she leaves notes for her knowing she'll be back before their parents are, etc.

 

Oops. That makes a lot of sense. My memory is awful, apparently.

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