Does Gone Home conceptually work as a game? I'm not asking if you like it. I'm asking if it makes sense to exist as a game. Does the fact that you are interacting directly enhance the experience? Would 'Gone Home the Movie' be a functionally different experience?

Because while you could probably craft such a film to be better, it wouldn't be the same experience. The direct investigation and examination of items and the house does lead to a certain kind of intrigue that you can only have when directly controlling it. So, conceptually yes, I would say that Gone Home is in fact fine as a video game. Your choices and the fact that you are doing it makes it work.

But does MIxtape?

The discourse on this game is wild. It might be the only game I've ever seen where the trophies might actually save it. The fact that there is a trophy for jumping off a car with your skateboard or knocking down traffic cones or skipping a rock through a tire swing, on its own means that yes, this is a video game in the sense that your actions can make a difference. The physics simulation of the rolls while you toilet paper a house is actually rather satisfying, and you can TP the house in whatever way you feel like.

So the real question is: How was the experience?

This year, I want to ride a flaming stallion of delinquency

Nobody would ever say this.

The main conflict is of course in Cassandra, and I don't feel like the game really characterized or gave believability to her turn towards being so much of a Miscreant that she'd start a forest fire..

These things happen gradually. Why do we not see her first transgression and the thrill? Especially in a game about memories, why was the one we saw so unconvincing?

And the finale? Her father would never do that. I have to assume this is a memory warped because it is so beyond the bounds of believable, that if played straight it would ruin the entire thing. It has to be metaphorical and not literal, given the otherworldly depictions of events and emotions.

The biggest miss for me was the music. For a game that is explicitly about this: creating a literal soundtrack for all these moments in their lives, I just felt like none of it hit? Like, was "Love" by Smashing Pumpkins really the best you could do for a segment where you're pissed off and blowing up cars?! None of it felt right to me. None of it. Out of 20+ tracks, maybe two were kinda in the right ballpark?

Forget the discussion of whether it's a game or not. I just don't think it really did the job it was trying to do.

But hey, you can paint whatever you want on the door!

Does Gone Home conceptually work as a game? I'm not asking if you like it. I'm asking if it makes sense to exist as a game. Does the fact that you are interacting directly enhance the experience? Would 'Gone Home the Movie' be a functionally different experience?

Because while you could probably craft such a film to be better, it wouldn't be the same experience. The direct investigation and examination of items and the house does lead to a certain kind of intrigue that you can only have when directly controlling it. So, conceptually yes, I would say that Gone Home is in fact fine as a video game. Your choices and the fact that you are doing it makes it work.

I think games like Gone Home, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, and other walking simulators of that level of interaction work great as games, because the method of interaction is integral to the way you experience the story. The slow ingestion of details, the piecing together of moments, objects, and narration to build a timeline and understand the relationships between characters, it’s integral to the experience. I found Gone Home to slowly turn into a horror story the deeper I got into the house and realized I’m going to have to go into the attic eventually, as the dread slowly crept in as a result of my actions and interactions. 10/10

It’s different from something like What Remains of Edith Finch, where there is defined gameplay that isn’t “you” in the world, but the the wildly different segments are used to tell their own story about each character and how they perceived life itself. 10/10.

And then you have Mixtape, where the “gameplay” exists to just give you something to do so you don’t get bored while you are fed a movie. I’ve seen it described as “jingling keys”, which isn’t too far off the mark. Still, it’s technically a game, but there isn’t really a point to its interactivity outside of triggering nostalgia for certain things, as the kids, story, and your understanding and level of context will continue exactly the same, regardless of your input.

So the real question is: How was the experience?

This year, I want to ride a flaming stallion of delinquency

Nobody would ever say this.

The Diablo Cody school of teenage writing strikes again! Boy that can definitely be hit or miss.

I don't disagree with this at all, but also . . . I guess I just don't care. It didn't bother me. Mixtape hits for me. I like jingling keys, I guess. The gameplay, such as it is, is just enough to be engaging while listening to some stellar music. Admittedly, I haven't finished it yet, but I'm probably halfway through, and it's all worked for me.

Partly, that's because this game could basically be about me. That was my high school experience. I was Rockford in a lot of ways, the annoying music kid. I had my iPod with me at all times with at least one earbud in 24/7. I knew the stupidest trivia about my favorite bands. I wasn't quite a much of a degenerate, but it's also not that far off.

Partly, it's just that soundtrack is good. I honestly disagree with Cody, so far every piece of music has hit nearly perfectly. I love music, so I'm honestly not sure I'd recognize a bad game if it has a killer soundtrack that made me feel like Mixtape does. Maybe some people see it as cheating or cheap or something--this music is doing most of the work in the experience, and possibly making up for a lack in characterization and writing and gameplay and whatever. And I could buy that. This game wouldn't be enjoyable at all if the music wasn't hitting. But, I dunno, I'd say the exact same thing about Life is Strange, honestly.

The discourse around this game is fucking wild, though. I don't begrudge anyone not liking it, but for whatever reason, Mixtape has been sending people off the deep end.

Partly, that's because this game could basically be about me. That was my high school experience. I was Rockford in a lot of ways, the annoying music kid. I had my iPod with me at all times with at least one earbud in 24/7. I knew the stupidest trivia about my favorite bands.

As someone who was an actual teenager in the 90s, it all felt somewhat anachronistic to me. It feels like memories of the 90s filtered through the lens of an 80s movie. The 90s was such a wild decade, because early, mid, and late 90s were all pretty radically different. There was some overlap that just didn't match my experience. Granted I spent those years in Michigan rather than NorCal, but it was just off somehow.