It is time to start calling the emotions and experiences that currently cluster under the umbrella term “empathy” by their names. Out in the open, without the cover of empathy as a catchcall buzzword, sympathy, depth, and allyship become more visible and therefore more accessible for critique. Caring, compassion, sorrow, loss, and queer entanglement are powerful concepts that deserve to be spoken out loud, not lost in the rhetoric of empathy. . . . More valuable than a video game that allows players to identity with someone else is a game that requires players to respect the people with whom they cannot identify. (Ruberg 68)

Ruberg emphasizes how the concept of empathy existing in video games restricts other emotional and literal factors of games. Empathy is being used in a way to demonstrate a surface level understanding of the "queer experience." Ruberg encourages people to not use empathy as a broad term to describe games that deal with feelings, but rather focus on the deeper emotions behind the message. Rather than focusing on empathy, players can actively focus more on respecting the identity of the character in the story versus identifying as the character of the story simply because they've played the game (Ruberg 68).

Gone Home is a perfect example of a game that could be described as an "empathy game" but should not be. Titling it an empathy game, which Ruberg describes as an umbrella term used to describe games which touch on sensitive emotional subjects, takes away from the queer focus that the story follows. The game does not ask the player to step into Sam's shoes (the queer identifying character in Gone Home) but instead simply requests the player to follow her story. The story touches on more aspects of being queer than simply empathy, therefore labeling the game as so would be an injustice to the game's greater messages.
AJ, SO, JL, CL

The picture shows Katie is an outside observer on Sam's situation without suggesting that she fully understands her thoughts through having the agency to read her diary. 


In conclusion, empathy games, such as Gone Home, should focus on understanding the players experiences rather than identifying with said experiences. 
JC, SB, YD, RC


Within the context of the game, the primary audience for this "sternly worded letter" is Sam's parents and the secondary audience is Katie as the letter is addressed to her parents but Katie, due to circumstances, ends up reading the letter as well. During the time period that the game was set in, homosexuality was greatly frowned upon due to the lack of support and understanding. Individuals were very reluctant to make the effort to respect those that were considered "different" at the time. The purpose of the letter was for Sam to express that she isn't the same person as her sister and that she has her own freedom to be the person that she truly wants to be. She wants people to know that she deserves the respect that comes with being a human being.