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• 1 2025-09-04T16:54:18+00:00 Four Corners 1 13 Exercise in collaboratively building discussion around Ruberg's "Empathy and its Alternatives" plain 2025-10-09T20:08:34+00:00 Leading quotation: 

  "What makes the rhetoric of empathy as it is applied to queer indie games (and other video games by, about, or for marginalized people) so problematic? First, as many of those who have condemned this rhetoric have pointed out, it minimizes the lives and identities of those who are seen as “different” or “other.” Although a video game may offer a glimpse into queer experience, for example, no game can replicate the fullness of lived queer experience or the real stakes of being a queer body in the world." (Ruberg 60)

  
  Ruberg argues that the term "empathy", the ability to understand another person's emotions, when applied to queer indie games isn't completely accurate because they only show parts of the real world experience that these communities have to go through (Ruberg 60). In the interactive story game, Gone Home, the experiences of Sam are perceived through notes, journals, and letters which do not fully encompass the true life of Sam.  In this Image, we only see part of Sam's personality with her interest in ghost hunting, but we don't get the full picture of who Sam is. Hence, Gone Home exemplifies the issue with using "empathy" in games as the player doesn't fully understand Sam just like the player doesn't fully understand the characters in "empathy" games.