Analyzing Kaitlin's Gone Home

Gone Home has been called a walking simulator, where the notion of a simulator suggests an attempt to recreate reality in the virtual world. Gone Home does attempt to recreate the protagonist’s, Kaitlin’s, home in a realistic setting. Exploration of this home is based on interactions with items, discovery of objects in plain sight, and reading. As promoted on the game’s Steam page, there are no battles and no puzzles. Simple. The game is founded on a simple premise as well—coming home to find everyone missing. Where is everyone? This question could have a multitude of answers that creates intrigue and allows the imagination to run wild. The problem? There is only one answer, one which is essentially spelled out for the player, and defies players’ expectations and wants. …show more content…
In the most literal sense, Gone Home is a queer game with a story of queer identity. And it is a very real story, likely a relatable story that many in the LGBT community could empathize with. But the story is spoon-fed. The map acts as a guide, leading Kaitlin through a house that she should be familiar with—the only abnormality is its abandonment. While the game does contain an emotional story, it is wasted on a system of simplicity and pure pathos. There’s little persuasive value in the game beyond emotional appeals in sound design and structure – a pathos approach over the other two rhetorical elements. Thus it becomes a matter of why we should care about these characters, why should we empathize with this struggle. The present world for Gone Home is a dull as reality. All the drama, what little there was to be had, has already occurred in the past. We are playing the epilogue of a framed narrative, with no steaks, no real obstacles, and only the vague guise of a goal. Where is everyone? And what does it really matter to players. What is Kaitlin’s reaction to all this? Like the answers to these questions, Gone Home leaves players