In Defense of Gone Home

I was recently at a symposium where the speaker briefly talked about a relatively new indie game Gone Home. Among the various points she made, the one that stuck out to me the most was the claim that the amorphous mass of “gamers hate this game”. I have to disagree.

Unlike most video games, Gone Home does not focus on action or skill. At the core, it is a point-and-click puzzle game where the player, after returning from the airport, explores their unexpectedly empty house, finds leftover notes, and pieces together the story of why exactly their younger sister left. This format may be off-putting to some gamers, but for no other reason than they just don’t like that genre of game, just like how they might not like first person shooters, sidescrollers, or mmorpgs. Everyone has their preferred genre. It doesn't make it less of a game. And Gone Home didn’t exactly do anything new with the basic mechanics. There are plenty of other games that have similar gameplay and mysterious plot, like Myst, Year Walk, The Stanley Parable, and the multitude of Nancy Drew games. All of these have generally positive responses. So what sets Gone Home apart?

Gone Home had the misfortune of getting popular right when the gamergate conspiracy started gaining traction in 2014. It immediately drew attention by the movement, because of some shakey claims of nepotism. But it also came under fire because the plot twist at the end (spoiler alert!) revealed that the sister ran away because she is a lesbian and wanted to pursue a relationship with another woman without judgement.

Gamergate exploded because of some gamers’ hatred of the feminist critique that some games were garnering. It’s no secret that the majority of games contain sexist portrayals of women, and some gamers desperately want to keep gaming communities a “boys only” club. They claim that gamergate is really about “ethics in video game journalism”. But the majority of the anger seems to stem from critiques that point the prominent one-dimensional portrayal of women in games, the skimpy outfits, the lack of diversity in characters, and the rampant misogyny, homophobia, and racism in gaming communities that make them such hostile environments. Many of the original critics that unintentionally became the ignition point of the controversy came under very targeted attacks and harassment. There were multiple accounts of rape threats, death threats, doxing, and even a threat for mass shooting when Anita Sarkeesian planned to give a guest lecture at Utah State University.

Gone Home got stuck in the crossfire of all this unrest. Since the game features a prominent multidimensional lesbian character who is not fetishized for the fans, the game became the perfect example for how feminists and SJWs were supposedly ruining games and don’t know how to make a proper video game.

“The problem people have isn't the fact that Gone Home isn't a game but that it is about subject matter that makes people uncomfortable.”

All of the intense hatred from a vocal minority has drowned out the majority of the reviews. Aggregated reviews from well-known game critique sites generally score the game in the mid-80s/100, a definitely positive score. It has gained critical acclaim and won multiple awards, including a BAFTA. Even general users on the popular gaming platform Steam give the game generally positive reviews. It is not has hated as some users would like people to believe.

Gamers don’t hate Gone Home any more than most other video games. Gamergate hates Gone Home.