Hacker Cinema
Gone Home
2020 · Film · documentary · 20 min
Directed by Pegah Moemen Attare
Pegah Moemen Attare discovers a letter from her grandmother, sent 20 years ago, which has gone unanswered. These phantom words, written in another era, and this other country, Iran, serve to retrace the souvenirs of a place that no longer exists, through three generations of women. A film by way of an impossible correspondence, a poetic and political journey through the memory of exile.
2 positive1 negative4 neutralfrom 7 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
7 comments on Hacker News
Being a huge fan of the genre of "interactive narratives", I have to disagree. Games like Gone Home, Life is Strange, Mass Effect, Skyrim, Fallout, Deus Ex, and others have had a profound impact on me. The author doesn't seem to make a compelling point why they would be better as books or movies. I haven't really been able to derive a more coherent argument from the article than "they're worse because they're worse, so they should not be games". I think that is a bit harsh on the incredible achievements of the games that painstakingly build an interactive narrative on a medium that is both technically and artistically extremely challenging. Take Mass Effect for example, to me the whole franchise has been one of the most successful science-fiction stories ever. It rivals Star Trek, Star War, and The Expanse. Especially since Mass Effect came out during a period where Hollywood had pretty much given up on the genre as a whole. Mass Effect constructs this beautifully detailed and coherent universe set in a future where mankind discovers advanced technology from an ancient race. This propels mankind into a new era of exploration, conflict and intrigue. Te reason why Mass Effect "works for me", besides the "world building", is that you have the ability to construct a secondary narrative on top of the one presented by the game itself. You are allowed, and encouraged, to make decisions and reflect upon them. While it's all arguably superficial and closed-world, the moment you immerse yourself /in the character/ it offers something very few books and movies can: the ability to guide the story, and become a "person" in a complex world. Then again, I'm biased…but so is that author it seems.
Yeah, and it's weird that he keeps insisting that games like DOOM and super meat boy wouldn't be considered art (while treating games like Gone Home and Firewatch like they've somehow betrayed the medium). I mean, if you don't consider those "gamey" games art, then why do you argue that games can be art at all? We often consider movies art based on qualities that only movies possess (acting, how it's shot) instead of pure narrative quality. So of course we can consider Super Meat Boy art, based on how well it is designed.
> A movie is a story. A good game today is a place you visit. VR track rides are somewhere in between.
I've always looked at it as a sort of spectrum of interactivity/freedom [0], and I suspect that as VR tech. and people's understanding/usage of it improves we'll see games across the full range - from movie-like experiences where the player doesn't even get camera control, to fully open worlds where the player can do basically anything.
I'd agree that the problem is largely the same as with 3D movies - designing a game that takes advantage of VR without it feeling gimmicky, or that it adds nothing to the experience, is a HARD problem; one that I'm not yet 100% convinced will be overcome.
[0] Something along the lines of (from least to most interactive): Traditional books/movies ; Choose-your-own-adventure books/visual novels ; Narrative/adventure games (something along the lines of Gone Home or the Telltale games) ; Story-driven open world games ; "Exploration" games (not sure of the right term, but something along the lines of Minecraft)
>VR is going to be a real game-changer for entertainment
I think the jury is still very much out on this. Personally, I hate VR. Its claustrophobic, asocial, dizzying, and I do not like the idea of giving software my entire field of view either. Cheap HMDs are going to be nice, but I don't know how well they're going to do outside the hardcore gamer demographic. I can't imagine watching a movie with friends with each of us wearing these things or even playing a console game with the other players in the room.
AR gaming, on the other hand, isn't something that gets much press, but I can really see some novel uses. Imagine playing something like "Gone Home" but in your home. Clues hidden in your real-life closets, drawers, etc. Or peering into the mirror in your bathroom and seeing the main characters face instead of yours. Or something in the background that's not really there.
i'll agree. but when you are that immersed in a story it almost doesn't matter what the story is. i guess it depends what you're looking to get out of it. i feel like immersion and direction are mutually exclusive and you give up one for the benefit of the other. sleep no more went pretty hard on the immersion front.
but this is kind of my point and i think we are saying the same thing. with enough going on in a virtual environment, you make your own story. that is the experience i'd look for in true VR. if that is exploring empty rooms so be it. this differs from film where there is strict direction.
there is room for something in the middle, like "Gone Home", but that experience is not the future of film, nor does it exploit the best aspects of VR/Rift.
the obtuse point from the article is right: Rift, VR, (and i'll extend it to AR) is cool for games, but what's cooler are the new types of art they will enable.
If you ever get the time, I feel like Half-Life would be an awesome play-through for you. It really is the #1 FPS in terms of story for me, and I've been playing through the new Black Mesa port (it's HL on a newer engine) and it's been great.
HL2 is practically unbeatable in my mind, I sound like a fanboy but it and its Episodes are really an amazing series of games.
They are extremely good at putting you in the mindset of Gordon Freeman and at creating a sense of being chased and action while presenting very relatable characters.
Also, if FPS really has you that turned-off, there has been a great revival of strategy and Rogue-like indie games recently. But it all depends on what you're interested in.
If you hate action and want to be impressed by an immersive FP experience, look at Gone Home.
http://www.gonehomegame.com/
It's taken me a great deal of time and a large amount of consideration to distill my feelings about journey into language that well-enough eloquates how I felt playing it. At the end of the game, I truly felt like I had had a transformative experience. I would be embarrassed of it if it wasn't so true.
In regards to gone home, I really really wanted to like that game. I wanted it to be more. Not gameplay wise, but in what it aspired to tell us about the human experience. The resolution of the story felt so cheap and derivative, I could barely believe it was the same game that I had been playing up to that point, with its multifacted characters and spotlight on the ennui of the American family. The end just felt like a lazy wrap up of an ABC Family movie, and it was so disappointing it poisoned the entire game for me.