Gone Home from The Fullbright Company

[Merus]

I had a lot of problems with that Bogost review. Comparing the game to other literature with queer characters -- especially something written by Virginia Woolf -- felt unconstructive to getting at what makes the game good or bad. Of course Gone Home wouldn't make a good novel; it wasn't designed as a book, it's a video game.

 

I think the point that Gone Home doesn't really reach very far is an important one, though, as it suggests the narrative limitations of the medium. It has strengths, and while we're still discovering them, we've known of a few strengths for a while (games are very good at horror, for instance). But there's a tax you pay on what you're capable of covering in a game that you don't have if you're working in a novel, for instance, so you'd better hope you're getting something you need in return.

 

I think Gone Home trades some nuance in Sam and Lonnie's relationship for the ability to have a front-row seat for someone you love coming out. Which is really the strength that we already knew - no other medium is able to put you into a situation like a game can. It's why games are so good at horror, movies and books have to work really hard to put you into the world, whereas even a mediocre game manages it as a matter of course.

[juv3nal]

The Bogost piece is also, um, aspirational is not quite the right word, but close to it. He does it obliquely, but there is a way in which the piece isn't addressing GH or its developers, but rather other narrative game developers who have been praising GH. He's saying "GH is good. It's arguably even better than any other narrative game that has existed thus far, but don't see it as a kind of goal to aim toward; now that you've seen an example of how this has been done, it should instead be the point from which you start."

[Latrine]

I didn't agree with Bogost's criticisms of a lack of literary merit or complexity. There can be beauty in telling a simple story, especially in the context of a medium that doesn't tell simple stories. I hate to use the word but basically it feels like Bogost wants the game to be more pretentious and Gone Home refuses him at every turn. Also I think he focuses too much on the narrative elements and overlooks the overall design of the game and the player experience, attributing it as simply derivative of Bioshock or Dear Esther.

 

His whole point seems to be that storytelling in games may be stuck in adolescence because there's this one critically praised game about an adolescent? He says that very well and gets double meaning out of the word "adolescence", but it doesn't make a lick of sense.

[Gormongous]

The Bogost piece is also, um, aspirational is not quite the right word, but close to it. He does it obliquely, but there is a way in which the piece isn't addressing GH or its developers, but rather other narrative game developers who have been praising GH. He's saying "GH is good. It's arguably even better than any other narrative game that has existed thus far, but don't see it as a kind of goal to aim toward; now that you've seen an example of how this has been done, it should instead be the point from which you start."

 

In academia, it's usually phrased as "a call for further research," which you usually write when you know something is important but you don't know why. Alternately, because you hope something is important and you want someone else to prove you right.

 

No real comments from me about the Bogost piece, though.

[SecretAsianMan]

I didn't agree with Bogost's criticisms of a lack of literary merit or complexity. There can be beauty in telling a simple story, especially in the context of a medium that doesn't tell simple stories. I hate to use the word but basically it feels like Bogost wants the game to be more pretentious and Gone Home refuses him at every turn. Also I think he focuses too much on the narrative elements and overlooks the overall design of the game and the player experience, attributing it as simply derivative of Bioshock or Dear Esther.

 

His whole point seems to be that storytelling in games may be stuck in adolescence because there's this one critically praised game about an adolescent? He says that very well and gets double meaning out of the word "adolescence", but it doesn't make a lick of sense.

 

That's how I felt about the piece too.  I also got some of that from his tangent on why Bioshock was overrated, which seemed like an unnecessary thing to talk about.

[tberton]

The Bogost piece is also, um, aspirational is not quite the right word, but close to it. He does it obliquely, but there is a way in which the piece isn't addressing GH or its developers, but rather other narrative game developers who have been praising GH. He's saying "GH is good. It's arguably even better than any other narrative game that has existed thus far, but don't see it as a kind of goal to aim toward; now that you've seen an example of how this has been done, it should instead be the point from which you start."

 

This is what I got from it too. He's saying that Gone Home is nice, but that video games can do a whole lot more and that developers should be taking the game as a challenge, not as a change to dust off their hands and say "we're done here, folks."

 

He's not saying that he wants Gone Home to be more pretentious. In a way, he's saying that Gone Home is already pretentious, in that it pretends to have more depth than it really does. He's saying that he'd like to see something like Gone Home with more substance.

 

The Bioshock comment was relevant because it's an example of how people who play and make games are quick to jump at any seemingly deep aspect of a game and ignore its shallower aspects.

[Argobot]

He's not saying that he wants Gone Home to be more pretentious. In a way, he's saying that Gone Home is already pretentious, in that it pretends to have more depth than it really does. He's saying that he'd like to see something like Gone Home with more substance.

 

Right, that's where I fundamentally disagree with Bogost. There's nothing pretentious about Gone Home; it's incredibly straightforward with the story that it's telling. I'm trying to imagine what a "deeper" story would look like, and I can't come up with anything satisfying. Bogost compares the game to other literature with queer characters, and says that because Gone Home isn't as "literary" as these books, it has failed as a piece of writing. But again, Gone Home isn't a book, and comparing it to other books while ignoring the game part is poor way to approach criticism. (Tangentially, I'd argue that Gone Home is just as well written as many "literary" novels.)

 

I see the aspirational angle of his piece, but it gets lost in the unnecessary literary comparisons. Statements that are akin to -- "how can readers of "serious" literature find any value in this game" -- do nothing to prove a point. As a reader of "serious" literature, I found that whole argument to be very reductive.

[TychoCelchuuu]

But you can compare Gone Home to games, too. Compared to its main predecessor System Shock, there's less stuff to find, less freedom in moving through the environment, fewer incidental details and more storytelling done through straight up notes that just tell instead of show, and no organic in-game way to explain the voice logs. It's basically baby's first immersive sim if you critique the game angle rather than the story angle.

[sclpls]

Right, that's where I fundamentally disagree with Bogost. There's nothing pretentious about Gone Home; it's incredibly straightforward with the story that it's telling. I'm trying to imagine what a "deeper" story would look like, and I can't come up with anything satisfying. Bogost compares the game to other literature with queer characters, and says that because Gone Home isn't as "literary" as these books, it has failed as a piece of writing. But again, Gone Home isn't a book, and comparing it to other books while ignoring the game part is poor way to approach criticism. (Tangentially, I'd argue that Gone Home is just as well written as many "literary" novels.)

 

I see the aspirational angle of his piece, but it gets lost in the unnecessary literary comparisons. Statements that are akin to -- "how can readers of "serious" literature find any value in this game" -- do nothing to prove a point. As a reader of "serious" literature, I found that whole argument to be very reductive.

 

Maybe I missed it, but I don't see where he said that Gone Home failed as a piece of writing. At one point he compares it to John Hughes movies or Judy Blume novels, and goes on to say that these things are "not bad", and "have a place in the world".

 

I felt like his piece was more directed at people heaping critical praise on the game rather than the game itself. His point that Gone Home isn't going to make games appealing to a broader audience is well taken.

[Argobot]

Again, I just disagree with Bogost's argument. Personally, I play very few video games, largely because they don't appeal to me on a story/mechanical level. Something like Gone Home has a much better chance of keeping my attention than the majority of games that are made. The idea that Gone Home might not appeal to "non-gamers" because they're used to a richer depth of story, or whatever Bogost is trying to say, doesn't really jive with reality.

[sclpls]

It seems to me that's an untested hypothesis. I have no idea what the numbers are for people that picked up Gone Home that have never played a video game before, and what they thought about it. It would certainly be interesting to find out.

[Latrine]

But you can compare Gone Home to games, too. Compared to its main predecessor System Shock, there's less stuff to find, less freedom in moving through the environment, fewer incidental details and more storytelling done through straight up notes that just tell instead of show, and no organic in-game way to explain the voice logs. It's basically baby's first immersive sim if you critique the game angle rather than the story angle.

 

It's a smaller game, so I guess there's less by volume? I would say it's more dense given the size of the game. The environment is perfectly realized as a realistic space, not just a sequence of video game corridors. The game is all about incidental details and I do not see the notes as "telling" since they aren't explicitly expository and the player has to interpret meaning from them. In films you have the "show, don't tell" principal because you're trying to differentiate from books and use the tools of the new medium. For games this should be "interact, don't show", why show the player every scene of what's happened when they can interpret what happened by personally investigating evidence? The voice logs are just a narrative device, I agree the explanation for them is tenuous but I think the game is better for having them.

 

It's a minimalist independently funded immersive sim that shows off a ton of narrative tools employed by its predecessors and employs them with great effect. I haven't played the original System Shocks but for me Gone Home is a much more interesting and mechanically sophisticated and refined game than its other predecessors.

[Erkki]

Not sure how much I agree or disagree with Ian Bogost, but I found that he explained his perspective very clearly and it was a well-written gc² and enjoyable to read.

[Merus]

I had no problem whatsoever with the audio diaries - the game makes clear what the context of those diaries are, and while we as the audience get that information early, and in a form that Katie will never get, Katie gets that information as well and has fifteen years of experience with her family on us.

 

Something I think does work better here than in Gone Home's ancestors is that because most of the things to examine are in some way relevant to why we're here, exploring is significantly more interesting than it is in, say, Bioshock Infinite. There are story beats to find in the world in BI, but they're few and far between and most of the time what we find is $13 and a hotdog.

[SecretAsianMan]

This is what I got from it too. He's saying that Gone Home is nice, but that video games can do a whole lot more and that developers should be taking the game as a challenge, not as a change to dust off their hands and say "we're done here, folks."

 

He's not saying that he wants Gone Home to be more pretentious. In a way, he's saying that Gone Home is already pretentious, in that it pretends to have more depth than it really does. He's saying that he'd like to see something like Gone Home with more substance.

 

The Bioshock comment was relevant because it's an example of how people who play and make games are quick to jump at any seemingly deep aspect of a game and ignore its shallower aspects.

 

I agree with the idea that Gone Home isn't (and shouldn't be) the height of this kind of game/story telling/anything.  But his questioning of how players could be so easily satisfied doesn't sit right with me.  Is it wrong to have a personal connection or emotional response to a "simple" story?  Why is that so hard to picture?  Complex does not automatically mean good.  I feel like any level of pretentiousness applied to Gone Home was done by the public and not the game itself.

 

I understand what he was saying in his comments about Bioshock, I just felt that he didn't need to pick it apart in a piece about Gone Home.  A much simpler statement would have sufficed and been less distracting.  The same could probably be said of many of the other comparisons made.

[tberton]

 I feel like any level of pretentiousness applied to Gone Home was done by the public and not the game itself.

 

I feel like this is exactly his point.

[TychoCelchuuu]

I feel like this is exactly his point.

Definitely - Gone Home is like, the opposite of pretentious. It's young adult fiction, basically.

[Argobot]

Why is it young adult exactly? Because it has an adolescent protagonist? Because I can point to several "serious" novels that also have young main characters. If it's young adult because of the themes, again, I can point to several novels that cover the same ground as Gone Home.

 

Young adult implies some kind of immaturity, which I don't see Gone Home having at all.

[Twig]

I think maybe it's "young adult" because it's "simple"? (Note that I don't really agree with it being young adult, but it definitely is pretty straightforward, and I can see people confusing the two.)

[tberton]

Also, Steve has admitted that My So-Called Life is one of the main thematic inspirations.

[SecretAsianMan]

I took Bogost's use of "young adult" as meaning that Gone Home was written with a style similar to books/shows aimed towards young adults, thus giving the game an overall young adult feel.  In that sense it's somewhat fitting since the journals are written from a young adult's perspective, but to say that it dictates the overall tone and feel of the game feels restrictive and incomplete.

[osmosisch]

To me young adult doesn't imply immaturity so much as that a novel, while dealing with mature themes, does not go overboard with that to the point that young adults can't enjoy it (or more accurately, that parents can't enjoy watching their teen children reading it).

 

It's not a slur to me and I definitely can see where it fits Gone Home. Especially because, like the best YA fiction, it is also enjoyable by adults because it has a second layer that only life experience lets you appreciate, for example the parents' issueswhich are in the background, only to be picked up by more mature players.

 

Why is it young adult exactly? Because it has an adolescent protagonist? Because I can point to several "serious" novels that also have young main characters. If it's young adult because of the themes, again, I can point to several novels that cover the same ground as Gone Home.

 

Young adult implies some kind of immaturity, which I don't see Gone Home having at all.

[tberton]

From Chris Remo's Twitter.

 

The GH:OST is near...

 

[melmer]

Soundtrack is up on Chris' band camp

https://chrisremo.bandcamp.com/album/gone-home-original-soundtrack

And gone home is on sale, 50% off until the 25th. I wonder if they'll make more sales this week then they have to date

[elmuerte]

Gone Home with dev commentary is out!