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• 1 2024-02-20T19:56:00+00:00 Gone Home Group 4 Exercise 22 plain 2024-02-22T20:00:21+00:00
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “The subculture of “speedrunning,” demonstrating mastery over
  controls at its highest levels, is mostly inimical to the walking simulator:
  while technically possible to speedrun a walking sim, such demonstrations
  provide no real value for practitioners or viewers and are rarely seen. Simply
  put, you cannot become better than someone else at a walking simulator, and this lack of a mechanism for dividing elite from noob might be what’s really behind some critiques complaining about the lack of gameplay”(121).
  
  Reed et al argues that that there is no beating other players in walking simulators. Traditional gameplay mechanics like speed running are not as applicable to games like Gone Home. This is the cause for many of the critiques about walking simulators and why many gamers don't consider them to be real games. (121)
  
  This quote caught our group's attention because it summarizes what makes walking simulators special and provides a unique interpretation about the genre.
  
  Group 3:
  LIke other walking simulators, Gone Home is still indeed a game with a start and an end, but the intention is not for players to "try their best." Rather it is to just play and take their time. The slow walking, with no sprint button, in addition to the extra fluff and lore around the map, slows down the player's pace and implicitly discourages speedrunning.
  
  
  
  Group 2 Image: The concept of playing the game slowly is also seen in the design of the map. The map does not contain any goals or quest for the player to complete. It only shows destination for the player to explore.
  
  Group 1: Because Gone Home is a walking simulator, the concept of speed running is harmful to the experience as the game encourages reflection and exploration.
  
  
   
• 1 2024-02-20T19:56:55+00:00 Gone Home 4 Corners Exercise (Group 1) 10 Evan, Srinithi, Clarissa, and Renee image_header 2024-02-22T19:58:35+00:00 "Just as the environments in first-person
  shooters exist to support action-packed combat, the environments in
  most walking sims are designed to be platforms for understanding and
  empathizing with characters." (125)
  
  As written by Reed, et al, the difference in environments when relating to first person shooter games and the walking simulators is that the simulators are designed to let players have a reflective experience, whereas the shooter games allow players to feel suspense while they combat other players.
  
  Why this quote is important:
  This quote is important because it outlines the differences between the shooter games and walking simulators by pointing out the difference in gaming experiences. The difference being that one provides a relaxing reflective experience, while the other is "action-packed" and allows the player to experience fear and other feelings associated with that.
  
  Gone Home is a relaxing and reflective experience. Its slow pace contradicts the typical action-packed shooter games. The environment of the game provides visuals for the player to take their time and observe closely, for example, the various newspaper clipping and the cassette tapes scattered throughout the mansion, although not as integral to the story, but allowed for the player to be more immersed into the game.
  
  In addition to being slowed down by the extra fluff around the map, Gone Home does not provide a sprint key. From one room to another, back and forth as you search for ways to get unstuck, you must walk slowly, while in a first person shooter, the expectation is to rotate from one point to another quickly, stowing away your main weapon to run faster.
  Group 2: First person shooters have environments which support the action-packed gameplay, however, for walking sims, the environments exists to provide a more laid back, exploration based experience. As a result, the environments of walking sims are more cluttered with things to interact with. 
• 1 2024-02-20T20:20:09+00:00 Group 2, 4 Corners Exercise 9 Alex, Kash, Izzy, Mary Claire image_header 2024-02-22T20:03:34+00:00

  "Gone Home also plays with player agency by subverting expectations about danger and complicity. The first moments of the game create a sense of mystery more frequently associated with survival horror: the abandoned house is cast as unnatural and threatening, with the player invited to explore it suspiciously, suspecting some external danger behind the apparent disappearance of the family. That danger, of course, turns out to be internal, not external." (131)
  
  According to Reed et al., Gone Home messes with the typical player agency in traditional video games. In particular, it uses its eerie environment and soundtrack to provide a false sense of external danger to the player, while the danger is actually internal in the form of a broken family.
  
  
  "Gone Home" does a great job with subverting expectations with the environment. The opening of the game creates a creepy space that influences the player's attitude toward the game, but throughout the game, the player becomes emotionally invested into the story and the characters; it builds a sense of agency that keeps the player invested before they gain any understanding of what is happening.
  
  
  
  The opening scene on the front porch creates a creepy environment that sets a mysterious tone for the game.
  
  "Gone Home" has a superficial element of horror that creates suspense to engage the audience in the plot of the story which has already happened instead of playing a game in which the environment changes in response to the player.