Gone Home, developed by The Fullbright Company, is a beautiful walking simulator about a character learning about her sister’s discovery of her sexuality and her struggle with the family. Katie, the first person protagonist in the game, returns home after a long trip and realises that her sister, Sam, fell in love with her friend Lonnie, an ROTC cadet. Katie walks around the house, discovering clues about their love and what her sister and Lonnie went through in a family that initially found it difficult to accept.
Like many walking sims especially centred around sensitive issues, the aesthetics of this game mostly comes from its narrative aspects. I personally found the voice recordings driving the narrative a really powerful tool. Not only was the acting good, but instead of allowing me to spacebar through the narrative, it maintained control over the pacing of the game. I think it made me empathise with both Katie and Sam. And this made me think about the different roles games can play in driving social change, to different extents.
When it comes to feminist or LGBTQ issues, this one would appeal to gamers that are already feminist, queer, or queer-friendly, which I believe most gamers at Stanford are, hopefully. They serve a completely different purpose from the gamers who are more neutral or even opposing reluctant to accept these views. I believe both of them serve different but important purposes. Gone Home was thought-provoking, and I thought it would have been nice to play this game when I was in high school.
On the other hand, I believe the changes in the gaming community itself and society can also come from larger scale games just having more exposure to these discussions. I think popular games just having some exposure to these issues just help people think about these issues and help facilitate social change. I grew up in a country that still has not legalised same-sex marriage. The pride parade was disallowed from being held in the space where it has been held for the past four years, by the city government because they gave priority to a Christian event, reasoning it is ‘beneficial’ to children. There’s no discussion even from the left-wing party about any queer issues, and ‘Are you a feminist?’ is used in an accusing manner.
I experienced toxic masculinty in so many ways in games. Growing up as a guy with a deep voice, I never knew what my female friends were going through when they were playing games, how they would be sexually harassed by guys on voice chats all the time in all the multiplayer FPS. When they play ‘feminine’ supporter characters in League they blame you whenever you make a mistake. The list goes endless.
There have been many progresses made in the gaming industry. For example, League came from literally the most misogynistic and homophobic gameplace in 2012 to where it is now. Its character Taric (supposedly a queer character) was initially mostly a meme. They were releasing character skins embodying toxic sexual fantasies of men. They only showed some seriousness about queerness when Varus became a character with two male lovers soul connected. There’s still not a trans character nor a queer woman in League.
The gaming community has a long way to go. Games like Gone Home have a distinct role at the forefront of feminist and queer games, provoking thoughts, helping people understand these issues better, and helping queer people understand themselves better. Changes in games like League of Overwatch also have their roles in turning more gamers into allies and provoking more thoughts among general gamers who would have otherwise been exposed to toxically masculine gaming environments. Games’ influence on society is still growing, and it would be important for gamers and game designers to continue to have feminist and LGBTQ discussions to make games more welcoming to everyone.
