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Phylodox posted:I just hate people who think there's only one way to tell a story (their way). I'm not sure it's really "their" way; most developers and industry figures seem way gentler and more open about the idea of expanding game narrative and action beyond nonstop shooting and violence. Almost as if the bulk of the people who get outraged about games like this existing at all are either horrible troglodytes without a thoughtful or creative bone or literal children. Entitlement is pretty much the best word for it, regardless of how people whine about games journalists overusing the term. "The only things you're allowed to create are the things I want to experience" is even more insidious than "the only good stories are the kind I tell".
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Aug 23, 2013 03:13
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Sure do love when I decide to check out the criticism a game has before buying it. Of course some loving rear end in a top hat who didn't like the game decided to spoil the ending. It's like Nier. I spend a few days working towards the awful ending and one of my retarded airhead friends just blabs about the whole goddamn thing and about how bad they felt about the ending. I want to feel bad about endings too. 
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Aug 23, 2013 03:16
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Zombies' Downfall posted:I'm not sure it's really "their" way; most developers and industry figures seem way gentler and more open about the idea of expanding game narrative and action beyond nonstop shooting and violence. I wasn't talking about the developers. I was talking about the raving fanboys who keep insisting Gone Home "isn't a game" because it doesn't have "excitement" or "killing stuff".
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Aug 23, 2013 03:56
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Blast of Confetti posted:Sure do love when I decide to check out the criticism a game has before buying it. Of course some loving rear end in a top hat who didn't like the game decided to spoil the ending. It's like Nier. I spend a few days working towards the awful ending and one of my retarded airhead friends just blabs about the whole goddamn thing and about how bad they felt about the ending. Since it is a Bad "Game" (like it's even a game, psh), you don't mind it getting spoiled for you, do you? I mean, it's not like you were going to enjoy it, being Bad
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Aug 23, 2013 03:59
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DreamShipWrecked posted:Since it is a Bad "Game" (like it's even a game, psh), you don't mind it getting spoiled for you, do you? I mean, it's not like you were going to enjoy it, being Bad Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 04:09
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This thread is officially a minefield for people curious and considering buying.
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Aug 23, 2013 04:22
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teethgrinder posted:This thread is officially a minefield for people curious and considering buying. Also that System Shock video is the best thing.
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Aug 23, 2013 04:47
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A lot of us stumbled in blind because, "oooh look, shiny new game on Steam!" (and the store page made it sound interesting) (and it was!) I personally feel I enjoyed it better for that. I would have probably ignored it had I seen the dev stuff prior.
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Aug 23, 2013 05:25
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I purposefully avoided most of the dev stuff but I knew that Gone Home was a game by Hot Scoops so I couldn't help but buy it at release.
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Aug 23, 2013 05:27
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Phylodox posted:I wasn't talking about the developers. I was talking about the raving fanboys who keep insisting Gone Home "isn't a game" because it doesn't have "excitement" or "killing stuff". That's a bit of an oversimplification, don't you think? I would consider it pretty reasonable to criticize this game relatively to its price tag for being pretty light on the "game" stuff. It's 20 bucks and it's ALL story. A very drawn-in, specific story. And if that doesn't do anything for you, that's a pretty hard sell. Doesn't Dear Esther do something similar at like, half the price? Granted, it could be done a lot more politely, but, internet. Lately, the internet seems to be responding really harshly in general to games that are being hailed as "GROUNDBREAKING 10/10, MOVES THE INDUSTRY FORWARD, I WANT TO KISS THE DEV'S FEET" and don't measure up in practice after they pay for them. Looking at you, Bioshock.
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Aug 23, 2013 05:47
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I've never heard anyone criticize a short movie for being pretty light on the "film" stuff and still charging as much for its DVD as a 3 hour epic.
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Aug 23, 2013 05:57
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Of course you haven't, that'd be insane. Interesting side note, films aren't games.
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Aug 23, 2013 06:00
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I feel a little weird that, despite my love for weird 'non-games' (Dear Esther), I couldn't really get into this. I check some of the boxes for the Relate-o-meter (young, female, non-heterosexual), but I wasn't ever a teen in the 90's, no interest in punk or riot grrl, no rebellious phase (I was too busy being a massive nerd during my teen years), no siblings, and I never went to high school, either. It feels like having a birth year some time in 1980-something is a requirement for enjoying Gone Home. Sure, I remember TV shows recorded on VHS and the days before internet and cell phones, but those weren't my formative years, and they don't hold nostalgia for me. I enjoyed this game for being a loud and confident statement about what games can do, what games should be, but I didn't enjoy it for what it was: to paraphrase a poster earlier in the thread, a mildly spooky historic mansion exploration simulator with a neat short story. In contrast, Dear Esther moved me, because it so perfectly captures the mood and feeling of, I guess I would say 'peace in loneliness'. It's a great exploration of of mental illness, without any pretentions or messages. I felt like an outsider playing Gone Home, but Dear Esther gave my outsiderness a home to dwell, and that's why it's my favorite game. Also, Dear Esther had better music than Gone Home. 
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Aug 23, 2013 06:32
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suztan posted:It feels like having a birth year some time in 1980-something is a requirement for enjoying Gone Home. I was born in the early-mid-1990s and I hate Dear Esther, yet Gone Home is already a strong contender for my GOTY 2013. 
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Aug 23, 2013 08:13
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suztan posted:Also, Dear Esther had better music than Gone Home. quote:In contrast, Dear Esther moved me, because it so perfectly captures the mood and feeling of, I guess I would say 'peace in loneliness'. It's a great exploration of of mental illness, without any pretentions or messages. I felt like an outsider playing Gone Home, but Dear Esther gave my outsiderness a home to dwell, and that's why it's my favorite game. I think it's interesting that Gone Home might have gone in a similar direction, had they gone for a more stereotypical 'tortured gay youth' plot. That they didn't, and Sam actually turns out to be a strong character who lives as she wants to, means she is easier to admire but possibly harder to relate to or identify with.
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Aug 23, 2013 11:47
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It's perfectly reasonable for people to not want to pay $20 for a 3-hour game with not much replay value.VJeff posted:That's a bit of an oversimplification, don't you think? I would consider it pretty reasonable to criticize this game relatively to its price tag for being pretty light on the "game" stuff. It's 20 bucks and it's ALL story. A very drawn-in, specific story. And if that doesn't do anything for you, that's a pretty hard sell. Doesn't Dear Esther do something similar at like, half the price? I think the reaction combines two major forces of the internet: misogyny and contrariness.
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Aug 23, 2013 12:12
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I certainly got $18 out of Gone Home, and the game has stuck with me for quite some time. It's admittedly not for everybody though, and if someone is wavering on the concept I'd say stick it out until the inevitable Steam sale where you'll get it for like $5. It's equal parts baffling and amusing that a game advertising itself as "no combat, no puzzles" is met with criticism that there aren't even any scary ghosts or challenging sections. Will somebody please address the severe social issue of functional illiteracy in today's gaming population.
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Aug 23, 2013 12:27
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exquisite tea posted:I certainly got $18 out of Gone Home, and the game has stuck with me for quite some time. It's admittedly not for everybody though, and if someone is wavering on the concept I'd say stick it out until the inevitable Steam sale where you'll get it for like $5. It's equal parts baffling and amusing that a game advertising itself as "no combat, no puzzles" is met with criticism that there aren't even any scary ghosts or challenging sections. Will somebody please address the severe social issue of functional illiteracy in today's gaming population. It would have helped a lot if they defined themselves as something other than a game, which it really isn't. I liked it, I enjoyed it experience; I think I paid too much for it but whatever. I think someone earlier in the thread said that it was more akin to a "visual novel" but I haven't played any of those so I wouldn't know.
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Aug 23, 2013 12:40
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Visual Novels tend to be like Phoenix Wright with less gameplay and more words. Edit: They really are pretty much just novels with art, music, and some branching paths.
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Aug 23, 2013 12:43
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Grapplejack posted:It would have helped a lot if they defined themselves as something other than a game, which it really isn't. I liked it, I enjoyed it experience; I think I paid too much for it but whatever. I think someone earlier in the thread said that it was more akin to a "visual novel" but I haven't played any of those so I wouldn't know. It's a game, just under a broader definition than what you are used to. "Visual novel" doesn't really encapsulate what Gone Home does and in my mind is too reminiscent of those bad "interactive novels" on CD-ROM from the mid-90s.
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Aug 23, 2013 13:16
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"Interactive fiction" is a term that's pretty much reserved for text adventures, as far as I can tell, but, taken literally, seems to describe Gone Home perfectly. I'm perfectly fine with calling it a game though, especially if calling it a game will annoy people on the internet.
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Aug 23, 2013 13:57
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docbeard posted:"Interactive fiction" is a term that's pretty much reserved for text adventures, as far as I can tell, but, taken literally, seems to describe Gone Home perfectly. Edit: This was meant as a discussion of genre, not whether it's a game or not. Kegluneq fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 14:26
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It has its own little niche that you can call its own name but you're still a person walking around from a FPP and you actively interact with the environment to continue on. Its gameplay is shallow for the sake of allowing its details to become the focus, but at its core the game is still a game. It's a mystery game, but the mystery is "what happened here" and you find out about it by exploring, which is by itself one of the most important and most lauded aspects of a lot of the games released in the past couple of decades. I mean, we're talking Banjo Kazooie and Super Mario 64 here, where you're given a lot of room to just look around and find the little things. That in itself is still gameplay, albeit an extremely simple version of it. Really as far as I'm concerned the conversation about "it isn't even a game" or "it's not worth the money" are getting to be extremely dull, because both sides have said what there is to say about it, and getting into it further just drives the argument into dumb analogies and tangents only partially related to whether or not Gone Home is a game worth $20. It's not like we're treading new ground with each reiteration of the argument, it's just something that people are going to have to agree to disagree on and not get worked up over the minor details to nitpick on either side. To steer the conversation a little bit out of the way: From what I gather, each journal entry is tied to an item in the house. Seeing the item would activate the sound file, because it's Katie remembering a specific letter that Sam wrote. Does anybody have a list of what item goes with what topic/letter? I think it'd be interesting to see how they all fit together, because I thought a few were pretty random.
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Aug 23, 2013 15:22
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Holy poo poo can we not have this conversation please.
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Aug 23, 2013 15:28
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I don't get why people are saying this isn't a horror game, Gone Home scared the hell out of me! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMDaMK-9Tzc&hd=1
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Aug 23, 2013 17:05
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Beautiful, my good man, simply beautiful.  That also reminds me that there was absolutely no reference to the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books. They were totally 90's and I would have been so happy to see them.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:16
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Everdraed posted:I don't get why people are saying this isn't a horror game, Gone Home scared the hell out of me! Oh my god, I love Gone Home but I would play this version so loving hard if it existed. Fullbright please add steam workshop support.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:43
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That trailer, daamn.Accordion Man posted:That also reminds me that there was absolutely no reference to the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books. They were totally 90's and I would have been so happy to see them.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:50
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Kegluneq posted:Eh, Katie would probably have been too old/disinterested in them, and Sam probably would have thought they were too childish. She was trying to find real ghosts and doesn't afraid of anything
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Aug 23, 2013 17:51
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This game would be a lot better with more jump scares. Oh, and some enemies, and guns to shoot them with. Maybe a romance option with the Christmas Duck too.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:54
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Has anyone tried this game with the Occulus? Seems like it would be a prime candidate.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:55
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exquisite tea posted:criticism that there aren't even any scary ghosts I can't speak for the gamers.txt crowd, but the comparisons to Dear Esther inevitably lead people to expect the paranormal hidden in plain sight(which contributed to replay value for me). The mood of the game seemed to cultivate this. I've heard about whispers in the basement and creaking sounds, but I don't think I encountered them at all during my playthrough.
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Aug 23, 2013 19:54
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Everdraed posted:I don't get why people are saying this isn't a horror game, Gone Home scared the hell out of me! I'd like to thank you specifically for the get out frog being included right next to the appropriate post-it. 
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Aug 23, 2013 21:37
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The story of this game is alright but the fact that the house creeps people out even though the box screams "Peaceful 90s Simulator" makes it a goddamn masterpiece. I hope somebody is paying attention.
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Aug 23, 2013 23:42
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I've never played Dear Esther, but since it keeps coming up in this thread I'm curious now. Is it a horror game?
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Aug 23, 2013 23:58
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Wandering Knitter posted:I've never played Dear Esther, but since it keeps coming up in this thread I'm curious now. Is it a horror game? No. Like Gone Home, it has a semi-creepy setting and some parts where you're walking around in the dark, but it is an emotional story game.
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Aug 24, 2013 00:00
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the black husserl posted:The story of this game is alright but the fact that the house creeps people out even though the box screams "Peaceful 90s Simulator" makes it a goddamn masterpiece. I hope somebody is paying attention. It's possible to find evidence that explains where people are quite quickly, but for Katie it would still be a fairly tense period, as it would be for anyone in that situation. I know I'd be turning on every light if I were stuck in a house like that.
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Aug 24, 2013 00:04
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Steve Gaynor just had an interview about Gone Home on a local Portland news channel. http://www.kgw.com/thesquare/Tech-Box----220901501.html
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Aug 24, 2013 05:20
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I really enjoyed this. Kind of like Dear Ester, but likeably different. I probably had quite a different experience than most. I opened up, but totally forgot about the secret passage in the basement. So as I finally convinced myself that I had searched everywhere, I ventured into the attic. I heeded Sam's note and turned off all the lights on the second floor before I opened it, just in case I might accidentally ruin some photos. I arrive at the end of the story and nearly cried. I never got any of the information from the Kitchen, Greenhouse, Garage, or the magazine room. I ended the story feeling that the Dad was turning to drinking as his books were not selling at all and his frustration in trying again caused him to rage out at his dad who seemed supportive in his own way. Mom was probably feeling alone and helpless at anything but her job, reading marriage-rescue books and how-to-raise-a-teen ones. I was afraid they came home to find the house a mess with no Sam and not even a real clue why she was gone that they just collapsed in grief. Leaving the house as quickly as possible to get away from it all or go looking for their little girl. Thankfully, I learned that I had missed this whole area and went back. The parents won't be 100% in shock about why Sam isn't going to be there when Katie tells them anywhere from all to nothing about what happened. They are going on an Anniversary trip on a high of Terry's books being reprinted and even continued. Mom got a promotion and is working with people she gets along with. Though, I'm still sad that I can't see a way Katie could ever contact Sam on her own. Also, only after these 2 ending runs did I ever piece together why a lot of electronics were missing. Lonnie and Sam were really striking off on their own. For good, it seems and felt that they had to do it. Not the happiest ending, but thank god it wasn't what I thought.  Worth $20? For me, yes. If there was one thing that made it, it was the voice acting. I really loved the texture(?) of the voice over, really connected with me somehow. I know anyone I decide to recommend this too will enjoy it as much as I have. Roumba fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 07:44
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Accordion Man posted:Steve Gaynor just had an interview about Gone Home on a local Portland news channel.
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Aug 24, 2013 09:38
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