Polygon: "Why Gone Home is the Most Important Game of the Decade" - Polygon does it again

[Secret Asshole]

Agreed.

Zoe Quinn is a more reprehensible person overall, but Anita Sarkeesian did more damage as a moral guardian and I think rubbed a lot more gamers the wrong way while also knowing how to get the media types to buy into her grift a lot more easily than Zoe did.

She was basically the left-wing Jack Thompson, but unlike Jack Thompson, she knew how to get liberal media types to white knight her. The kind of people who work in the media and the tech industry are more likely to be wooed to your side if you invoke feminism than if you invoke Jesus.

Also, Anita is a lot more "clean cut" on the surface than Zoe Quinn or Brianna Wu, and that can go a long way in making a good first impression. She doesn't have the same kind of skeletons in her closet that Zoe and Brianna have and at the end of the day, she's just a fun-hating moral guardian who's willing to profit from her moralizing.

Zoe Quinn is a legit scumbag on all levels, Anita Sarkeesian is the secular left-wing version of Jack Chick or a fundie televangelist. She's despicable in her own right, but can more easily look respectable in the eyes of normies.

Had Anita not been attacked (and then white knighted) then I don't think Zoe Quinn and Brianna Wu would have been nearly as effective in trying to push their own personal narratives.

Brianna Wu is pretty much irrelevant now outside of being a Kiwi Farms punchline and Zoe Quinn's just now starting to face some sort of comeuppance thanks to Alec Holowa's death. If they didn't throw their lot in with Anita, Quinn would've fallen a lot harder and a lot faster, while Wu would have remained in obscurity.

Honestly, if it weren't for Anita Sarkeesian, I don't think GamerGate would have been as much of a shitshow as it turned out to be in the end.

Fortunately, Anita Sarkeesian is rapidly losing her influence in the gaming industry and the media.

Her attempts to publically extort CD Projekt Red after wokescold troons bitched about Cyberpunk 2077 failed massively and neither the gaming industry nor the media came to her defense. Even as recently as last year, they would have stanned for her to at least some degree (see GenCon 2018 and The Quartering guy being physically assaulted) but she was largely ignored on all ends.

It doesn't help that Anita was hired as a consultant on several high-profile video game flops such as Anthem and Mass Effect Andromeda, and apparently there's some rumors of reprehensible behavior on her part when she was there.

Chances are that Anita's getting quietly blacklisted from the gaming industry if she hasn't been already, but they're not ready to openly say anything bad about her just yet.

I do hate what she did to effectively sanitize video games and how she was above reproach for so long, but hopefully in the coming years, her influence will be gone. Keep in mind that most AAA titles take a long time to develop, so for all we know, we may be seeing the last of her influence over the gaming industry flicker out over the next couple of years.

If Sony's censorship policies fuck them over on the PS5's release or if someone like Rockstar or CD Projekt Red can do something strong arm them into getting rid of it, then I think that will be the turning point. Things like the puritanical costume designs in MK11 and the censorship DOA 6 went through only to be trashed and excluded by the woke crowd anyway is probably going to be remembered in the coming years by future developers.

As it is, Nintendo of all companies is relaxing their censorship stances, at least on third-party games. While Mai Shiranui was kept out of Super Smash Brothers for being too sexy, that was not a decision made by Nintendo, nor was it pushed by Woke Twitter or ResetEra. Apparently, the call was made by the CERO and the ESRB since Super Smash is rated E10+ and IIRC, I read that if Super Smash Brothers had a T rating, Mai probably would have made the cut with little to no changes made to her design or costume.

Needless to say, I'm cautiously optimistic that we may see things get better for gaming and pop culture in the 2020's. But the darkest hour is always before dawn.

Anita's influence started to die the second she criticized Doom's violence at E3. Her biggest defense that she 'wasn't Jack Thompson' was basically stripped of her. Even the gaming press couldn't counter that with what she said. This is in large part because 1) She really doesn't know video games and what effect this would have and 2) She largely left it to her cuck boyfriend Jon McIntosh which is why she said it.

This is basically why Josh McTosh got sacked from Feminist Frequency, because he massively fucked up by recommending to go down this route. It basically signaled the beginning of the end of her influence. There's also the major problem that every game she's 'consulted' on has crashed and burned. That and apparently her meetings at Activision and Bioware had some developers not really wanting her there.

Here's one video on the matter:

There's also the issue is that Feminist Frequency is flat fucking broke. Nobody is shelling out money to her anymore. It was hilarious when she was pissed that Intel didn't give her money. Another thing you have to remember about Anita is that she's a scam artist and originates from the school of Multi-Level Marketing. She saw an opportunity to exploit progtards and took it. The reason why she deflected any and all criticism and wouldn't debate anyone or anything and wanted to be unquestioned, is because she knew her arguments were shit.

The thing is, when games like Neir: Automata are outselling woke games by a huge margin that features a highly sexualized protagonist, people will notice. The gaming industry is a juggernaut and not niche like comics. With Japanese developers not giving a fuck and their games dominating sales, companies are bound to take note. A lot of them are losing mass amounts of money because they're 'woke'.

Turns out these people don't spend money on games. Shocking I know. I'm not sure when the trend will die or when these people will be ignored. The simple fact is that sex sells. Everyone wants to look at beautiful people. This will never, ever ever change no matter how much they want it to. Puritains couldn't stop porn. They couldn't stop sexualization which people wanted. These people are no different and we have no reason to believe that they'll have any more success than the Victorians or Protestants did. I mean, the Protestants wanted to cancel Christmas, look how that turned out.

Comics became barren and de-sexualized hell holes (just look at the extraordinarily ugly captain marvel). Marvel is literally only still in existence because Disney is pouring money into it and using it basically as marketing material instead of any sort of art. And even then, nobody is buying. What took its place? Manga. Western games became sexless, ugly shit. What happened? Eastern Europe and Japan took over. Star Wars mocked its audience, disrespected them, called them misogynists and became sexless, boring and womyn. What happened? Abandoned by the majority of its fans while picking up no new ones. The thing is, the world is capitalist. Some of the most degenerate pornography is made by people who don't like it but do it because they like money more.

The human desire for greed, for sex and for pleasure will override these sexless, ugly, white women who smell like cat piss and the beta rapists who white knight for them.

Morality movements inevitably fail. Whether they be left or right. When you suppress what people want, people will want it more. This is why authoritarianism and Communism is so popular among these people. Because you wouldn't have a choice and be forced to consume it. But even this doesn't work. In North Korea, currently the most oppressive and brainwashed regime on the planet, still has a black market where people trade USBs of Western Movies, Anime and SK Dramas. You can enforce it with all the violence in the world, it will not stop people.

This trend can't and won't last forever. It is just not possible, as eventually people just begin to ignore the movement itself and flout them. Without extremely stringent laws, morality witch hunts eventually flounder and die. Even with such laws, it just moves them underground. Look at Prohibition. It was extraordinarily tough but was flouted at every step of the way and even enriched criminal organizations to the point where it became a national crisis.

People will get what they want, one way or another. If you don't give it to them, they'll find someone who is more than happy to exploit a moral movement and make massive amounts of money.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Anita's influence started to die the second she criticized Doom's violence at E3. Her biggest defense that she 'wasn't Jack Thompson' was basically stripped of her. Even the gaming press couldn't counter that with what she said. This is in large part because 1) She really doesn't know video games and what effect this would have and 2) She largely left it to her cuck boyfriend Jon McIntosh which is why she said it.

I distinctly remember when both of them whined about Doom's gore and all I could think of was how little either of these chucklefucks knew about Doom. Doom was always known for its violence. Aside from being one of the grandfathers of the FPS genre, Doom stood at the forefront of graphic violence in video games since its inception. What made it hilarious to me was that for once, no one agreed with either of them. Complaining about it reduced them to the same whiny parent groups of the 90s who claimed video game violence was evil. If anything, their whining justified Doom 2016's place in modern gaming because it showed the series could still strike a raw nerve with assholes who wanted to censor everything.

I don't follow the drama with Sarkeesian very much, but her clout sharply fell after this. After Doom I rarely heard from her outside of this site basically when it used to be every other day she did something stupid.

 

[Cubanodun]

Anyone ever hear of Sunset? It was a boring walking simulator with no game play made by a bunch of pretenious assholes at a place called "Tale of Tales"
Quiet a few of the bigger gaming news websites gave it glowing reviews


Polygon reported that the game received over double it's kickerstarter goal. So, What happened? It sold about 4,000 copies and the devs rage quit gaming.

View attachment 1012433
View attachment 1012432

The people who review things like this do not like or enjoy games. They don't want a challenge. They just want to write pretentious bullshit and be payed for doing nothing useful.
I miss the old grognards who'd argue they would have survived that one battle with another Counter Strike player if the muzzle flash of their enemy's rifle had been 100% accurate or historial autists who claimed "ACUTALLY ARCHERS COULDN'T SHOOT THAT FAR AND ARMOR WOULD BE MORE PROTECTIVE" in RTS games.

The best thing i remember of going home it how much a joke it was in the pirate scene, when someone asked about it there was always a troll saying that there were not good cracks or that it had Denuvo

 

[Pissmaster]

Anyone ever hear of Sunset? It was a boring walking simulator with no game play made by a bunch of pretenious assholes at a place called "Tale of Tales"
Quiet a few of the bigger gaming news websites gave it glowing reviews


Polygon reported that the game received over double it's kickerstarter goal. So, What happened? It sold about 4,000 copies and the devs rage quit gaming.

View attachment 1012433
View attachment 1012432

The people who review things like this do not like or enjoy games. They don't want a challenge. They just want to write pretentious bullshit and be payed for doing nothing useful.
I miss the old grognards who'd argue they would have survived that one battle with another Counter Strike player if the muzzle flash of their enemy's rifle had been 100% accurate or historial autists who claimed "ACUTALLY ARCHERS COULDN'T SHOOT THAT FAR AND ARMOR WOULD BE MORE PROTECTIVE" in RTS games.

I had never heard of that, but I'm not surprised they're the same people behind The Path. Those idiots were just way too cynical and resentful to make any kind of art, not just video games. Growing that resentful when they churned out shit and dropped a bunch of money on a PR campaign in a field they don't understand just reeks of a certain kind of snobbery that shows just how much they look down on the entire subject of video games. Every developer starts out undiscovered, and people find out about games through either Steam sales, streamers, YouTube reviewers they trust (as in, not game journalists), or good ol' word of mouth. If I made a game and sold it on Steam, I'd sell a ton of keys to Fanatical to sell in their cheap bundles, and pass them out like candy. If it's good, I can sell some DLC and fund a sequel. Hell, I hope the gaming press gets wind of it and hates it for some reason, that'll just make my sales skyrocket. But, you know, that's just me, a guy whose been playing video games since before I could walk, and reads about every aspect of the industry I can find.

Come to think of it, if I started selling shoes, I'd try to cut a deal with a model or a popular fashion YouTuber to help sell them - not hire some ridiculous PR firm and just place ads on fashion websites. I don't know a thing about the fashion industry, but I do know that the world's full of hucksters looking to make a quick buck off of the gullible, and nobody gives a shit about you enough to need a PR firm unless you're significantly famous. You need to give the public a reason why they should use your product, not just throw it out there and throw a fit when everyone overlooks it. Especially when its icon artwork looks more like it belongs on a hair product for black women:

Shoulda paid a decent artist to make an appealing icon instead. But whatever, Tale of Tales, you hate everything and everyone related to video games and you hate capitalism, so maybe you should stop selling your video games for money? You know, minimize stress in your life, just take down everything you sell and start begging your government for gibs. Or don't put your money where your mouth is and keep crying despite getting the funding and resources to do something I'd absolutely kill to do: design and sell a video game. But whatever, take your Target-logo ass game and get the fuck outta here.

 

[AnOminous]

Polygon reported that the game received over double it's kickerstarter goal. So, What happened? It sold about 4,000 copies and the devs rage quit gaming.

This was some of the funniest tard rage in all of goobergrape history. A complete chimpout.

Anita's influence started to die the second she criticized Doom's violence at E3. Her biggest defense that she 'wasn't Jack Thompson' was basically stripped of her.

If you have to deny you're Jack Thompson, you're Jack Thompson. Actually, Anita was arguably worse because her motives were purely mercenary. Jack Thompson, as nuts as he was, was actually sincere about his crackpot crusade.

 

[Judge Dredd]

You know, minimize stress in your life, just take down everything you sell and start begging your government for gibs.

Part of the reason Sunset was such a failure was because their previous games were funded via art grants. I think they said in an interview that when those government gibs dried up they had to rely on Sunset making it's development budget back. It's no surprise they went under immediately.

 

[cecograph]

I mean, was Gone Home like the gateway? To me it seems something like Penumbra was the catalyst for that.

I don't think I remember "Gone Home" coming out. The first walking simulator I remember hearing about was "Dear Esther". I'd played "The Path", but as far as I was concerned, it wasn't anything: just a really experimental art project.

But Penumbra: Black Plague? That series was flawed, but the developers were clearly on the right track in reinventing the modern FPS survival horror with Lovecraft tones. They got there with Amnesia.

 

[Hux]

I still adhere to the Matt Stone reasoning of why Journos in the review industry do what they do in that while there has to be plenty of them that are true believers that eat whatever shit any hipster developer pushes out of their ass, there's a lot of them that recognizes the games they review are complete dogshit but they give them high marks anyway because they don't want to get fired and the twitterati sicced on them

 

[AnOminous]

Part of the reason Sunset was such a failure was because their previous games were funded via art grants. I think they said in an interview that when those government gibs dried up they had to rely on Sunset making it's development budget back. It's no surprise they went under immediately.

The sheer entitled tard rage of it was what made it so deliciously hilarious. They actually went belly up in real time for everyone to laugh at, and the sincerity of their rage came through. These fucking little worms actually thought they were somehow owed free money by people they openly despised, and when they let their raw rage rip, it was delicious to watch a couple of these arrogant fucks get punched right in the face by reality.

 

[KillThemCrackasBabies]

The sheer entitled tard rage of it was what made it so deliciously hilarious. They actually went belly up in real time for everyone to laugh at, and the sincerity of their rage came through. These fucking little worms actually thought they were somehow owed free money by people they openly despised, and when they let their raw rage rip, it was delicious to watch a couple of these arrogant fucks get punched right in the face by reality.

iirc they didn't even wait a full two weeks for Sunset to tank before they sperged the fuck out, the second it debuted to crickets they flipped shit.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I don't think I remember "Gone Home" coming out. The first walking simulator I remember hearing about was "Dear Esther". I'd played "The Path", but as far as I was concerned, it wasn't anything: just a really experimental art project.

I think Dear Esther was the first walking simulator, or at least the first one to make waves. It was a Half-Life 2 mod, and at the time it was an idea which hadn't really been done before. Stanley Parable also got it's start as a mod. Both were remade after Gone Home showed you could make money off of them.

In hindsight, I wonder if the mods had money put into them? At the time Dear Esther had above average graphics and voice acting (by mod standards).

The sheer entitled tard rage of it was what made it so deliciously hilarious. They actually went belly up in real time for everyone to laugh at, and the sincerity of their rage came through. These fucking little worms actually thought they were somehow owed free money by people they openly despised, and when they let their raw rage rip, it was delicious to watch a couple of these arrogant fucks get punched right in the face by reality.

For me, the best part was when one of devs started a Patreon where he said if he didn't get paid, he'd write articles critical of the gaming industry. As if so no talent hack could single-handedly ruin the entire games industry.

While looking for the archive of the patreon rage, I did come across this article talking about them funding games via pubic funding.

Let's Talk about Tale of Tales' Sunset and Public Funding for Games -…

archived 23 Jun 2015 21:42:07 UTC

archive.is

Isn't it odd that games manage to be self sustaining for decades, but as soon as hipsters who hate games want to make walking simulators, games need the support of government grants?

 

[UnclePhil]

I bought Gone Home for $2 at the height of its popularity. Two reasons why: first, for the advertised '90s nostalgia and the idea that I would be 'going home' to hang out in childhood memories from 1995; second, for the nosy, almost voyeuristic glee of walking into some stranger's place and rummaging through their shit. Gone Home got it right design-wise: the house is appropriately messy, and most people IRL will have puzzle pieces to their entire personality lying around because they aren't expecting strangers to poke around in their end tables.

Now this is where I try to be nice. Gone Home could have done something special with its underlying theme of how abuse trickles down through the generations and adversely affects everyone.

Spoiler: Everything

Dad was molested by Great Uncle Touchy. Uncle Touchy died and left dad the rape house in his will, and dad for reasons I can't remember moved the family there instead of selling it. Memories of being molested turned dad into a cold shut-in and affected his writing career, like The Shining minus murder, which in turn affected mom enough that she fucked her emotional friend at work. In the midst of this little sis outs herself as a lesbian and is met with indifference/hostility, because the parents have their own major issues and also it's 1995.

Except this is released during or on the eve of #GamerGate and journalists, looking for any excuse not to own up to anything, don't praise it for that reason. The whole point is how special and important the little sister is. In the end, what we have is what we're left with. You're supposed to clap as she elopes with her 18-year-old PoC military lover. The sister will live happily ever happy ever, at least until an hour after Katie explores the attic when sis is dragged home after almost making the biggest mistake of her life. The girlfriend will of course be court-martialed for going AWOL and little sis, at the very least, will face some uncomfortable questions from a police officer about bad touch.

Also as I mentioned previous, there is no reason for the parents not to be there, or to leave all the lights burning, or not attempt to straighten up a little. Katie isn't coming home unannounced. If Katie knew the parents were on a marriage retreat then it would have been mentioned somewhere. But you, as Katie, have no idea where mom and dad went. We're left to believe they just fucked off and jumped on a plane, oh screw our other kid who is due home any minute. Generally when someone is coming home after they've been abroad for a few years, you would think the parents would be there to welcome her, and have, I dunno, dinner ready or something. No, the hell with Katie, we gotta do this NOW. What?

Aside from that, there is no reason to revisit or replay this game. If you've played it for 2 hours, you have seen everything. None of it is groundbreaking, and nothing is going to make you tear up and whoop and cheer for les sis again unless you are that kind of gullible woke.

 

[AnOminous]

None of it is groundbreaking, and nothing is going to make you tear up and whoop and cheer for les sis again unless you are that kind of gullible woke.

Yes, but they made sure you had already been told what to feel by games journalists before you bought it.

They hadn't thought through the fact that this doesn't actually work, nobody cares what games journalists think, and if you play something because of completely manufactured buzz and then get a two hour walking simulator, you're going to feel ripped off.

 

[Oh Shit I'm Sorry]

I mean, was Gone Home like the gateway? To me it seems something like Penumbra was the catalyst for that.

There was actual gameplay in the Penumbra series though. GH may have ripped some of the survival horror style atmosphere off but that's about it. Black Plague especially is good enough to warrant repeat playthroughs whereas there's absolutely 0 reason to ever touch GH again after the first time you finish it (barring going for all the achievements or some shit). You already know how to get into the attic. You already know she ran away because lesbian. What else is left?

The sheer entitled tard rage of it was what made it so deliciously hilarious. They actually went belly up in real time for everyone to laugh at, and the sincerity of their rage came through. These fucking little worms actually thought they were somehow owed free money by people they openly despised, and when they let their raw rage rip, it was delicious to watch a couple of these arrogant fucks get punched right in the face by reality.

It's definitely telling how journos just completely ignored it. Any other industry some minor producer completely melted down after their latest product flopped, quit the industry and called their target audience subhumans and told them to die would receive slews of articles because there's almost nothing people love more than watching folks make fools of themselves yet ToT's implosion was met with complete radio silence. Articles about guessing Kanye's favorite Pokemons and freaking out over some tweets a guy made years ago are ok but for whatever reason these two pretentious dipshits Twitter tantrum was off limits.

 

[Poe-Shen Zcela]

I liked the exploration aspect of Gone Homo, but felt really gipped that it didn't turn into a haunted house horror after you found the little seance room. I had no idea about the whole family's backstory, so thanks for that @Uncle Phil.

Dear Esther was pure, pretentious trash. Just walk around an empty island and then kill yourself, loser.

 

[Fagnacious D]

I had never heard of that, but I'm not surprised they're the same people behind The Path. Those idiots were just way too cynical and resentful to make any kind of art, not just video games. Growing that resentful when they churned out shit and dropped a bunch of money on a PR campaign in a field they don't understand just reeks of a certain kind of snobbery that shows just how much they look down on the entire subject of video games. Every developer starts out undiscovered, and people find out about games through either Steam sales, streamers, YouTube reviewers they trust (as in, not game journalists), or good ol' word of mouth. If I made a game and sold it on Steam, I'd sell a ton of keys to Fanatical to sell in their cheap bundles, and pass them out like candy. If it's good, I can sell some DLC and fund a sequel. Hell, I hope the gaming press gets wind of it and hates it for some reason, that'll just make my sales skyrocket. But, you know, that's just me, a guy whose been playing video games since before I could walk, and reads about every aspect of the industry I can find.

Come to think of it, if I started selling shoes, I'd try to cut a deal with a model or a popular fashion YouTuber to help sell them - not hire some ridiculous PR firm and just place ads on fashion websites. I don't know a thing about the fashion industry, but I do know that the world's full of hucksters looking to make a quick buck off of the gullible, and nobody gives a shit about you enough to need a PR firm unless you're significantly famous. You need to give the public a reason why they should use your product, not just throw it out there and throw a fit when everyone overlooks it. Especially when its icon artwork looks more like it belongs on a hair product for black women:

View attachment 1013871

Shoulda paid a decent artist to make an appealing icon instead. But whatever, Tale of Tales, you hate everything and everyone related to video games and you hate capitalism, so maybe you should stop selling your video games for money? You know, minimize stress in your life, just take down everything you sell and start begging your government for gibs. Or don't put your money where your mouth is and keep crying despite getting the funding and resources to do something I'd absolutely kill to do: design and sell a video game. But whatever, take your Target-logo ass game and get the fuck outta here.

I found a couple of Interviews with the cuck from Tale of Tales, Michael Samyn. I'm not sure when these took place but, this interview was posted on September 13th and the videos have less than 100 views (as of this posting)

Michael laments the fact that games need to cater to "Young males who need to prove themselves" and the fact that he wants to emancipate games from people like that.
He says that he doesn't know how to program very well so things aren't optomized and this is an obstacle for him and because of this people need to buy video cards. He says the pictures of big dragons and guys with swords on the video card manufacture's page scares people away.
He also talks about how everything needs to be the same and that anything creative is scorned or ignored.

The second half the interview has Michael talk about how his parents needed help getting through Dear Ester.
He also complains about how video games are not interesting to read about. He dislikes technical details on them.

This is what sort of mindset these people have. They don't understand or care to understand what makes a quality work. They're not just outsiders to the games industry they're people who dislike the idea of video games and honestly just don't care about them. They want to insert themselves in and be rewarded just for their asinine attempts at making something vaguely game like.

The youtube channel these happen to be on seems to be a really small project by someone either working solo or a very small team. Most of their videos are below 100 views.

 

[Neet Tokusatsu]

I found a couple of Interviews with the cuck from Tale of Tales, Michael Samyn. I'm not sure when these took place but, this interview was posted on September 13th and the videos have less than 100 views (as of this posting)

Michael laments the fact that games need to cater to "Young males who need to prove themselves" and the fact that he wants to emancipate games from people like that.
He says that he doesn't know how to program very well so things aren't optomized and this is an obstacle for him and because of this people need to buy video cards. He says the pictures of big dragons and guys with swords on the video card manufacture's page scares people away.
He also talks about how everything needs to be the same and that anything creative is scorned or ignored.

The second half the interview has Michael talk about how his parents needed help getting through Dear Ester.
He also complains about how video games are not interesting to read about. He dislikes technical details on them.

This is what sort of mindset these people have. They don't understand or care to understand what makes a quality work. They're not just outsiders to the games industry they're people who dislike the idea of video games and honestly just don't care about them. They want to insert themselves in and be rewarded just for their asinine attempts at making something vaguely game like.

The youtube channel these happen to be on seems to be a really small project by someone either working solo or a very small team. Most of their videos are below 100 views.

Why are people like this even trying to make videogames to begin with? why?

It's like, there are people out there, who are probably too dumb to do things like play a musical instrument, draw, or even read goddamn book beyond Harry Potter, so they feel the need that videogames should cater their own insecurities, sometimes i wish gaming was still considered a kiddy dumb hobby that nobody pays real attention to, at the very least, we wouldn't have people who can't code for shit or probably can't even beat world 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. trying to dictate how games should be made

 

[Sissy Galvez]

How does Polygon still exist with hot tales from 5 years ago presented as new content.

I get that Polygon only writes for hate clicks but why do people still go? It’s super boring.

 

[AnOminous]

Why are people like this even trying to make videogames to begin with? why?

Because hurr gamers urr dum easy money. It's literally that simple. They're scummy scam artists and thought gamers were easy marks and tard raged when they were told they sucked ass and needed to fuck off and take their shitty zero effort trash with them.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I bought Gone Home for $2 at the height of its popularity. Two reasons why: first, for the advertised '90s nostalgia and the idea that I would be 'going home' to hang out in childhood memories from 1995; second, for the nosy, almost voyeuristic glee of walking into some stranger's place and rummaging through their shit. Gone Home got it right design-wise: the house is appropriately messy, and most people IRL will have puzzle pieces to their entire personality lying around because they aren't expecting strangers to poke around in their end tables.

Now this is where I try to be nice. Gone Home could have done something special with its underlying theme of how abuse trickles down through the generations and adversely affects everyone.

Spoiler: Everything

Dad was molested by Great Uncle Touchy. Uncle Touchy died and left dad the rape house in his will, and dad for reasons I can't remember moved the family there instead of selling it. Memories of being molested turned dad into a cold shut-in and affected his writing career, like The Shining minus murder, which in turn affected mom enough that she fucked her emotional friend at work. In the midst of this little sis outs herself as a lesbian and is met with indifference/hostility, because the parents have their own major issues and also it's 1995.

Except this is released during or on the eve of #GamerGate and journalists, looking for any excuse not to own up to anything, don't praise it for that reason. The whole point is how special and important the little sister is. In the end, what we have is what we're left with. You're supposed to clap as she elopes with her 18-year-old PoC military lover. The sister will live happily ever happy ever, at least until an hour after Katie explores the attic when sis is dragged home after almost making the biggest mistake of her life. The girlfriend will of course be court-martialed for going AWOL and little sis, at the very least, will face some uncomfortable questions from a police officer about bad touch.

Also as I mentioned previous, there is no reason for the parents not to be there, or to leave all the lights burning, or not attempt to straighten up a little. Katie isn't coming home unannounced. If Katie knew the parents were on a marriage retreat then it would have been mentioned somewhere. But you, as Katie, have no idea where mom and dad went. We're left to believe they just fucked off and jumped on a plane, oh screw our other kid who is due home any minute. Generally when someone is coming home after they've been abroad for a few years, you would think the parents would be there to welcome her, and have, I dunno, dinner ready or something. No, the hell with Katie, we gotta do this NOW. What?

Aside from that, there is no reason to revisit or replay this game. If you've played it for 2 hours, you have seen everything. None of it is groundbreaking, and nothing is going to make you tear up and whoop and cheer for les sis again unless you are that kind of gullible woke.

The "struggling author" and "a man cheats because he's a pig, a woman cheats because she has needs" plots were common at that time. In games and outside of them. It's like people took "write what you know" literally and only wrote about themselves.

Since you've played the game, is it true that notes with compromising information are often so close together that it makes no sense?

Why are people like this even trying to make videogames to begin with? why?

David Gallant was the quintessential hipster game dev. He once said that he got into game development despite not liking games because he met some game devs once and thought they were cool. He wanted in that scene.

Another part of it is around 2008-2012 gaming (and "geek stuff" in general) became cool. Gaming was "the medium of the future". The barriers to entry had just been removed due to the popularity of Steam and Xbox Live Arcade. Any hack writers who couldn't sell a screenplay or a manuscript could use their connections to get a game development job.

This is reaching, but I think another part of it was they expected a place in the history books. No one cares about shitty arthouse films any more. You can't win Sundance simply by having a black and white film where a woman sits in a diner for 3 hours stirring coffee. TVs and books have already broken all the old taboos. They assumed that, by making a game with lesbians or minorities, they'd break the same ground and get the same place in history as Star Trek having the first interracial kiss on TV. It wasn't until Anita and Gone Home that they realized they had fucked up. All the nerds could list every game with a female lead, every minority, every LGBT character. It would be like thinking you're the first to climb a specific mountain, only to find an entire city on top. And you didn't climb it, but took a helicopter to the top and claimed you climbed it. And nobody likes you.