Topic: Gone Home

Man, just in skimming this message board I have been outraged by bigotry and had the way to end the game spoiled. I need to just stop reading gaming message boards.

I already had the game spoiled for me since I watched a let's play but i'll gladly dip once it hits consoles.

And that right there explains why this game got so many glowing reviews from critics. If anybody dares give this so much as a midlly negative review, the LGBT Police will descend on them like locusts and insist that the reviewer disliked the game because of, though I haven't played the game, what it sounds like are pro-LGBT vibes. This, in turn, would be blown WAY out of proportion and give the website or publisher as a whole a bad rap for being "anti-gay". From what I've gathered, it's not even strictly a "game", but more like a visual novel with a bit of interaction which is rather bland and uninteresting. My point being, it sounds like this is a thoroughly unenjoyable "game", but because of it's pro-LGBT stance, it's received universal praise merely because it's political suicide to say otherwise. I think that's wrong. I don't care what the game is about, if there exists a solid supporting argument for why the game is not worth the buy (e.g. the gameplay is extremely stale), reviewers should be able to give it a negative review and not be strung up for an unpopular opinion which was never explicitly stated, but wrongly inferred by over-sensitive LGBT supporters.

First of all, you don't have "freedom of speech" here.

Secondly, I don't agree with your opinion.

It is a game just not in the traditional sense. It has a beginning and a end and a series of check points that get you to each. From a game design perspective it takes from the gameplay style of horror games such as Amensisa and Outlast, but defies the players expectation by giving us a slow burn in the vein of Journey. It uses the Narration in conjunction with the actual house its self to infer what's a pretty endearing coming of age story as decuded by the protagnist.

I mean saying it isn't a game is total bull when Telltale one game of the eyar in 2012 for what was essentially a TV series, and Remedy and Quantic Dream did it to varying extents with Alan Wake and Heavy Rain.

And that's a direction some deelopers are taking that I disagree with. I play games primarily to play them, not to watch them or listen to them or get sucked into a story. It can look as pretty as can be or have an excellent story, but if the gameplay driving it is weak, I generally dislike it and try to avoid those kinds of games. It's for this reason that The Last of Us was such a disappointment for me. I picked it up about a month ago on the PS4 to see what all of the hype was about. What I discovered was a mediocre survival horror game with kickass graphics and an above average story. While I did enjoy the character development, it just simply wasn't fun enough to justify the sections in between cutscenes that made up the actual game. This is a big reason why I always keep the latest Nintendo console under the tv. Nintendo is the last company in the industry that is focused on gameplay first and whatever else second.

I don't agree with that direction either, but I'm not gonna pretend there's not an audience for it. In fact, I'd probably like it if I actually played one of them that was actually enguaging from a story perspective. You know, actually felt like the writing and pacing were good? Haven't encountered that yet, though...

@justlink

Just to let you know, I feel for ya. I really do. I still frequent NL, but I very rarely comment anymore due to the horrible way I've been treated by other people here. I saw how you were treated on this thread, and I just wanted to express that there are other gamers who aren't gonna bash or belittle you for your beliefs. Hopefully the mods won't be so slow to help this time. Good luck!

It's interesting, so long as you know what to expect going into it. I enjoyed it. It IS a fairly short experience, though, and one with almost nothing but narrative in its favor.

@justlink
If you're an American, your right to be a bigot cannot be taken from you by the government. It cannot tell you to not make bigoted comments. That is your right to free speech. That does not mean, however, that private forums are obligated to respect your right to post bigoted drivel. It also does not mean that individual users cannot speak up when such bigoted drivel is posted.

It's a two way street, remember. By calling his words "bigoted drivel", you yourself are treating him with just as much intolerance. Unless both sides have adopted the same set of moral principles to govern their lives, neither can accuse the other of being in the wrong because the wrong does not have a consistent definition between them. This is hardly the place to tackle an issue such as this, however, so can we just agree to disagree and steer the discussion back to Gone Home? Can anybody who's actually played the game vouch for its quality? How is it?

My problem with Gone Home is that I feel it would have been better as a different media and if the writing was a bit better.

Ty, the whole reason i posted here was because its coming to Wii U, and i just know some people just don't want to be surprised by that in a game. I am srry to people i came off as a bigot for trying to defend myself.

@Zach it's more of the journey rather than the destination.

Bigotry isn't deserving of tolerance, and I won't respect any public displays of it.

With that said, he has presumably said his piece, and I've said mine, so I can't imagine why it wouldn't be over.

You're basically wandering around a deserted house and piecing together what happened to the main character's family while she was away traveling. This is achieved via letters, voicemail messages, diary entries, etc. The bulk of the material revolves around a lesbian relationship the main character's sister is having. It's interesting, but there is little in the way of actual gameplay.