Gone Home and Walking Simulators

Hey you niggers, I'm here to shill myself out again like the faggot that I am.

I've heard how shit (or great) Gone Home is for years, but all I've ever really heard is that the game is bad because it has lesbians or it's good because it has lesbians. It seems that almost every video or review on the game has one of either of these opinions. I'd gotten the game for free, so I didn't have to waste my shekels on it, and I wanted to discover why the game is bad for myself. Well, I go over my various grievances in this video, but if you don't want to give me YouTubeBux, then here's a TL;DR:

The game's story focuses too much on Sam, who is the worst and most conceited cunt that I've seen. I don't understand why anyone would identify with Sam's personality. Outside of being a lesbian, she's shown that she abandons old friends while simultaneously trying to use them for their personal belongings to further her own interests. Besides these two very boring and dry characteristics, she's just a basic teenage girl with teenage girl problems. I was personally more interested in shit that happened between the parents, with your father having a somewhat faltering writing career and your mother trying to fuck a co-worker. Even then, these side-stories (because lets be honest, the game wants you to focus on Sam) are pretty basic and boring. The gameplay is walking and looking at shit, as you all might know. Still, the "game" has "obstacles" that you "have" to overcome by locating the combination to various locked containers. Instead of requiring the players to read their environments or actually read into the shit that they pick up, the combinations are basically given to you. I've read a lot of reviewers say that the game is really open and you can go wherever you want throughout the house, but the whole games steers you where you need to go.

I don't get praise for this game. The story is generic if not fucking boring, and the gameplay is just fucking boring. Why do people seem to like this game? Why do people like walking simulators in general?

That's probably the least of all it's shit it gets criticized for.

It has lesbians.

Oh.

well i dunno about "people" but the reviewers who hype these games up the most praise walking simulators because it makes them feel smart. you got niggas trying so fucking hard to be taken seriously that any time a game does some unfun bullshit they think its genius because the people writing that shit want to look like they're too mature for regular game devices

I suppose you're right. It still feels weird though, because Gone Home isn't smart. It doesn't do anything new or different. Pretty much everything in Gone Home has been done before. Before I made my video, I watched that one video that Adam Sessler did on Gone Home, and he kept saying shit like how it's an emotional rollercoaster and the house is spooky and stupid shit like that. Not that I respect Adam Sessler, but I thought he might have said something different about the game. Why is having a progressive relationship in the story so much different/better than a normal one? I covered this in my video, but if Sam's lover had been Lenny instead of Lonnie, then this game would have the same exact fucking story. I'm fairly certain if that were the case though, this game wouldn't have been as popular with Polygon and Kotaku and Adam Sessler and all of those other fags.

Real talk, i like the tall one, fuck, i would love to fuck a girl my height. Basicly would be the hottest shit ever.This arms and legs tangling around your body like an octopuss attacking a fish. Would be good shit. And shes got the lean like look for body type, sucks she has not tis, but fuck it. I would climb that palm tree and get those premature cocounts

Shills just need to be IP banned honestly. It's fucking deplorable.

I agree.

There's many reasons why one might like this game. There's a whole generation of people it sees who don't like videogames with actual gameplay, they want something more akin to a movie which is partly to blame for all the cutscenes and quicktime events and dumbed down gameplay in AAA games these days. There's people who are totally blinded by the kike media circus surrounding this game, they're not necessarily bad people or SJWs, but are incapable of looking at it objectively because of the shit surrounding it. Some of them may even be afraid to criticize it. And then there's those driven by SJW mindset who see the game positively as soon as they find out the developer was a female and there's SJW approved themes in the story, regardless of if they've touched the game yet. So they go in thinking the game is great because of cancer, and when they find the cancer they're looking for it validates their belief that it's a good game. These people often overlap with the people who want less gameplay.

I've also come to think that there's 2 separate things you can have when you review a game; perceptiveness and taste. You can make brilliant game analyzations if you're very perceptive, but your taste can still be total shit leading you to like something like this. There's that guy who makes Game Maker's Toolkit and he thinks Her Story is a super cool and innovative game and I think he's talked positively about Gone Home too, but simultaneously some of his GMT videos have excellent content.

i'd round this back to people thinking walking simulators are "smart". They don't wanna be told it was 2deep4them because they found it boring when really the gameplay aspects don't do much to actually excite or engage players

Hey, this is pretty good. As for people who want "games" with less gameplay and more story, that I wouldn't mind so much if the story was at least something interesting. I guess Gone Home's story might resonate with some people personally, but even then, the story is really simple, so you think they would need interesting characters. Most people seem to latch onto Sam, but Sam is a shit character. The only thing that I would suppose that people would find interesting in regards to the story in Gone Home is how it's told, where nothing is told through cutscenes or extensive expository dialogue (except for Sam constantly opening her fucking mouth of course). There's dozens and dozens of "games" out there now with little to no gameplay or challenge but have better or more interesting stories and settings. It's just weird to see Gone Home get the immense amount of praise for it's story when the story isn't very good. I'd bet that a lot of it does have to do with the media and journalists saying that the game is amazing and progressive and most people just can't be assed to have differing opinion, although I see that quite a few do for various reasons.

As for the second point, I can see someone liking a game like this if it has something innovative even if the story and gameplay isn't very good. I'm just not sure what is exactly innovative in Gone Home. Is it that you have to discover the story for yourself, even though Sam still has exposition throughout the game? Do you know what he said in regards to Gone Home exactly?

Let's talk about more interesting walking simulators.
I tried this thing and i feel conflicted about it.
It's made by the guy that made Stanley's Parable.
Here's the breakdown:

-Due to the subject matter, and how it's presented, this needed to be a video game, it wouldn't have worked the same way if it was a book, or a movie.
-It's a linear experience compared to even Stanely, there's no choices, it's a single story from A to B.
-It's pretty short.
-I don't think it's worth any money (maybe like, 2 bucks, just to pay the author for a little bit of work but it doesn't really have any replay value, i wouldn't even pay 5 bucks for it).

I feel like he basically wanted to write a short story, but he succesfully integrated it into the medium of video games, it works BECAUSE you play it, instead of reading it, or watching a movie.
But at the end of the day it's still just a walking simulator, and it has no replay value.
So i dunno, i feel 50-50 on this thing, it's one of the better examples of a linear walking simulator done right, as much as you can do with such a limited genre, but that's not saying much.

I didn't bring this up in the past years because making a thread about this would've just resulted into "CUCK CUCK SJW SHIT GAMES SAGE" as usual, maybe it has a better chance being actually analyzed here.

I see your point and I basically agree. This and The Stanley Parable are, in my opinion, better examples of what I think Walking Simulators should strive to improve upon. And like you said, how the "game" is presented and how various parts of it are scripted, it's something that definitely requires user input to fully…I don't know, appreciate the "experience" presented to you? In contrast though, the actual story to Gone Home could have been a movie or a book as opposed to being a video game. The only thing Gone Home has going for it is that it's told a bit differently than most games. For the most part you actually have to search around for the story, but like I said earlier, Sam will basically tell you a lot of the story, and I'm fairly certain that Sam is what the developer wanted you to pay attention to anyways, so it may as well have been linear shit with cutscenes.

So far I feel like Walking Simulators have been akin to a children's pop-up book. Not so much the content of the stories, but moreso how much content is actually there. You "play" for an hour or two and then there's no real reason to play it again for a few years when you forget everything. The stories or experiences included aren't like a good book which may take someone all day to read, or could be something that someone reads over the course of a week or a month. Walking Simulators are so short in comparison, it almost feels like a ripoff for all of the content that you'll get in something like Gone Home compared to a book with 400 pages. I think that for Walking Simulators to evolve, they need a better hook. The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide are decently enjoyable for the short time you'll play them, but there's nothing to keep you there for hours and hours. Walking Simulators are just videogame appetizers.

Yeah.
Also i seriously think that there should be a rule in place where unless a walking simulator offers a lot of interaction, gameplay, different endings, and has some replay value someone, it's price should NEVER go past 5 bucks.
You should never pay more than 5 bucks for an interactive book.
Putting a monetization cap on lazy projects would be the main driving force incentivizing devs to make something more.

I want to /agdg/, but I'm such a no-dev.

If Sam's lover had been Lenny instead of Lonnie, the devs behind pic related would have taken them to court for copyright infringement.

This game, specifically didn't even want to be a book, or a movie.
It wanted to be a PAINTING.
I think the closest thing you can compare it to is some art school student little "ambient" film composed mostly by still shots of exteriors and some interiors spliced into something half coherent while the entire team was smoking weed.

People gave it a pass back in the day because it was somewhat unique, but if you go back to it today it truly is a horrid piece of shit that isn't even pretty visually anymore.

HEY NEWSFLASH: do you want a game that is pretty as one big painting but has actualy gameplay in it?
Play fucking Myst and Riven.
In fact, most people that are attracted to walking simulators today should play Myst and Riven.
Once, these were puzzle games.
You just walked around and looked at the pretty scenery and became immersed in it, but would actually have to solve puzzles.
It was a game, at least.

People give shit to The Witness for being pretentious, yeah, it's pretty pretentious, but you know what, at least it's a puzzle game, the goal is to solve puzzles, that's gameplay right there.

Metroid Prime is the best walking simulator, tbh.

Just got around to actually watching the video, it's pretty gud.


I think it's supply and demand, there aren't many/any story-based games with angsty teenagers whining about their mundane teen problems as the main character. So when they play this and finally get that, it fuels their rebellious teenage spirit. All angsty teenagers hate their parents, and this story is exactly that, with some modern day "progressive" (see: rebellious) themes thrown in.

There also seems to be a lot of people who consider a game good as long as it surprises you or has one good hook or concept or 2deep4u tidbit or something, praising those tiny indie games with "a neat thing" as if it's some kind of an indie GOTY. It's kind of a curious phenomenon for multiple reasons.

I like good stories too so I totally agree with you on that. I'm a little iffy about the fact that "walk around and experience the story" is in the same category as videogames, but I can definitely enjoy them otherwise.

I can't remember, I THINK he referred to it in a "pushing games forward" context along with a few other games, and may have mentioned it elsewhere. He seems to think highly of games that do things other games don't, whether it's "lol lesbians" or something else in the case of Gone Home, I don't know.


Walking simulators are actually pretty easy to make, Unity/UE4 basically come pre-packaged with all the basic systems to allow you to walk around and point at things. You mostly need to provide the models and textures for it. There's so little gameplay mechanics you need to code that as long as you know how to find your way around the engine, you can basically make a walking simulator just by googling "how to do x" a few times.

Cultural Marxism the Art Installation

Actually even communists would spit on that whiny dyke so I guess it's just a poorly conceived story

Read it and weep, fegs.

Weebs btfo.

You idiot, don't blow our cover
No one must know that only little girls that sometimes pretend to be fat men play JRPGs

Grand Strategy always get me, that's probably a bigger percentage than on Holla Forums. What's your excuse?

Every girl loves Kingdom Hearts.

I don't see how this is a problem.

Best genre just got better.


Oh yeah, FF and KH count as JRPGs, no matter how much they become "mash X to win".

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was okay for a walking simulator/GPS Adventure game.

I suppose that's true. I can't say that I can name any other games with this kind of story off of the top of my head.


I wouldn't mind that so much if it was something in regards to gameplay or gameplay mechanics. But Gone Home's only real hook is…what that Sam is a lesbian? What a boring fucking hook.


I'm in the same boat. I don't give a shit that they exist. In fact, I think that developers could make some good shit that's just a walking sim, but most seem to be boring trash.


Oh, so a shit opinion then? Gone Home is decent in terms of telling a story through exploration (excluding Sam's story), but if it really is just because the game has a lesbian character, then that's fucking dumb.


Thanks, it took way too fucking long to make.

I'd agree and say that it's just a lot of women praising the game for progressive values, but most of the reviewers I've seen praise Gone Home are men. Adam Sessler and those faggots over at Polygon.


I always hear the The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is decent. I've tried getting into it personally, but it can't hold my interest past the initial area. It's a really pretty game, but I just hate walking around doing nothing in games. I had to force myself to play Gone Home for my video.

An old (2012 was 5 years ago) 4/v/ thread had some neat games archived More specifically, there was Kairo. Kairo is a pretty neat "atmospheric exploration game" that sprinkled some puzzles here and there (from the same guy behind The White Chamber back in 2005). The atmosphere and environments, were the type of abstract floating landscape secretly are my favorite jam. The problem with that game, however, was that due to the sheer abstractness of the game, ingame puzzles were way more harder than they had to be. The man somehow managed to make switch puzzles mindblowingly opaque.