they decided on that score based on the review, not their impression on the game which could've resulted in a review which would justify a higher score
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Polygon's 2013 Game of the Year: Gone Home
- Thread starter zakislam
- Start date
they decided on that score based on the review, not their impression on the game which could've resulted in a review which would justify a higher score
So in other words they read the edited review and then come to the conclusion that the reviews reads like a 15/20. I see.
Gamespot in the past used to debate the scores more among the staff, rather than reading the review thereby deemphasizing the byline.
Not really as this actually involved starting up the game from the beginning.
The fact that the game gives people the option of completely undermining the entire point of it makes it a lesser game.
Neuromancer
Member
It's not that the review was wrong. The review was one person's opinion, and a team of editors for some reason read the review and jointly assign the score based on that review (again, one person's opinion.)
Personally I don't see why the person writing the review can't come up with the score on his own though.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Whatever you say. Myst sucks. So does Doom. Shitty games, undermine their own points.
Seeing the fade-to-black ending of the game does not mean playing through or beating the game.
some games offer cheatcodes to unlock the last level, and give you unlimited health/ammo. do they make a game worse?
Okay, I'll take back "review was wrong" and rather phrase it as "the review written for Polygon does not reflect the opinion of the Polygon editorial staff."
I love Sessler, but wow. Those reviews were ridiculous.
Neuromancer
Member
OK, but I don't think the review was meant to do that either. I think the only opinion it was meant to reflect was Kollar's.
go to the library. read the first page then skip forward and read the last page of any book.
lol literature owned. fucking idiots undermining their own stories.
The options were there since day one. You can certainly play it that way if you want; there is no wrong way to play Gone Home but the main narrative track is really only unveiled linearly without any modifiers.
Ho-leeee shit.
Why have a GOTY at all? Why not just point their audience towards the review section and tell them to sort if by score?
Part of the problem here is Metacritic culture, and the other is the fact that reviews are generally referred to as "Outlet X gave game Y score Z", when it should be "Writer A of Outlet X gave game Y score Z".
Reviews aren't science. There's no formula or equation that you can plug a game into and have an acceptable final score range come out. Reviews are written by one person expressing their personal thoughts about and experiences with a game. Reviewers are given a platform to express these things because the outlet they work for trusts and respects their opinion and ability to elaborate on it. That doesn't mean that everyone in the outlet agrees with them on every score. Otherwise, it would just be every game from every outlet getting reviewed by every employee, which defeats the purpose of a reviews editor, or scores being dictated by higher-ups to form a stance for the entire outlet, which defeats the purpose of a reviews editor, the review itself, and is just plain disingenuous.
On the other hand, GOTY is an award presented by an organization as a whole, and as such should take into the account of a larger portion of the staff. It's going to cause a discrepancy between the award itself and the regular review, as it should. Unless, like I said before, you'd prefer that everyone have a say in every review so that you can deal with a mush of wildly different opinions instead of hearing one person's clear argument.
If you do prefer that, I'd suggest you stick to sorting by score on Metacritic.
Yeah I guess there isn't much more to say about this because we don't have a transparency podcast like you have for Giant Bomb where you can hear that their own reviews don't count.
It does, but Polygon are the trailblazers in how to do modern enthusiast press stuff.
Clearly there was a change in the editorial position on the game, or it wouldn't rate on their GOTY list.
Do you realize this applies to every single site? An entire site does not ever review a game, a single person does. It means nothing for the site or the weight the score holds, it is and always has been simply the opinion of whoever happened to review the game. IGN has had multiple best of things where God Hand has made the list, a game that has the infamous 3.0...in one person's opinion. It isn't IGN thinks x game is a 3.0, it's one person who was appointed as reviewer of x game that works for IGN thinks x game is a 3.0.
It's not like GotY is some fabled magical pasture. It's a sillyass pointless award that sites churn up to get discussion and clicks going. People buy into it way too much, there is no need for technical stipulations on what a game can or cannot be a part of an overall site made list.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Lol, these threads always get so weird so fast.
I know better than to subject myself to Gone Home, but that video literally proves nothing but that the game offers some really weird cheat options. I mean, they don't make much sense, but what does that prove if the game isn't designed around them? I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that the Konami code means Contra is a bad game, just that it kinda ruins the experience.
I know better than to subject myself to Gone Home, but that video literally proves nothing but that the game offers some really weird cheat options. I mean, they don't make much sense, but what does that prove if the game isn't designed around them? I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that the Konami code means Contra is a bad game, just that it kinda ruins the experience.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Unlocking is basically intended to be used with the developer commentary track so you can explore the commentary without being bound to the normal game progression. There's not really much you'd get out of it turning it on without the commentary for obvious reasons, but I guess some people want vice versa (IE commentary on, but not unlocking the doors) so that's why it's a separate option.
Edit: here's an example of the problem with that argument
well, i guess doom is a bad game because you can beat it in ten seconds.
ab.aeterno
Member
King Mac of Furry Frog
Member
They deserve every bit of it. The industry is pretty saturated with typical games it's a breath of fresh air. I don't really care how much skill a game requires, its about the experience, not difficulty level.
Games difficulty normally ends in enemies becoming bullet sponges with better accuracy. Why has the AI not gotten smarter? Games like FEAR and STALKER proved it can be done.
ab.aeterno
Member
OK, this is one of my new favorite words.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
At least it wasn't The Last of Us.
Edit: here's an example of the problem with that argument
well, i guess doom is a bad game because you can beat it in ten seconds.
Fantastically put.
CambriaRising
Member
The game is okay, but its a rather boring adventure game to me. I understand why they picked it being who they are though.
If I was making Polygon's favorite games of all times it would be this,
"Brothers, Gone Home, The Last of Us, Heavy Rain, Tearaway, The Wolf Among Us, Broken Age"
so I am pretty sure you people have already figured it out where I am going with it. If not here is the full explanation,
I finally get Polygon's Game of the year.
It is a message -
I am really excited and grateful that for once we have got a list where cheese is bad and for once we can walk away from the norm of repetitive expectations or predictable results. For whatever it is worth, it is brave to come out and say "You know what? Fuck it" and expose your nakedness in the public eye.
This list is so bizarre and irrational but with a bit more thought, more philosophical thought it kind of makes perfect sense of their choices. It is extremely hard to grasp the rationale behind their countdown to number one but once you do I hope you can level with me in the end and sort of get what I am trying to say which right now it is hard to make completely sense out of it.
This sincere exploration and interaction with those aforementioned games, is what I wish to see more and more because it can bring the best of both of our worlds - the good and the bad one.
"Brothers, Gone Home, The Last of Us, Heavy Rain, Tearaway, The Wolf Among Us, Broken Age"
so I am pretty sure you people have already figured it out where I am going with it. If not here is the full explanation,
I finally get Polygon's Game of the year.
It is a message -
- That a simple, powerfully emotional game that draws its inspiration from the innocence found within the 90s, can be game of the year with them
- That nostalgia can be on the top of the mountain if there is a game that is good enough to weight it on its shoulders.
- That a game that interacts with our inner soul and brings out the best of our child within can hold its crown on its own niche market.
I am really excited and grateful that for once we have got a list where cheese is bad and for once we can walk away from the norm of repetitive expectations or predictable results. For whatever it is worth, it is brave to come out and say "You know what? Fuck it" and expose your nakedness in the public eye.
This list is so bizarre and irrational but with a bit more thought, more philosophical thought it kind of makes perfect sense of their choices. It is extremely hard to grasp the rationale behind their countdown to number one but once you do I hope you can level with me in the end and sort of get what I am trying to say which right now it is hard to make completely sense out of it.
This sincere exploration and interaction with those aforementioned games, is what I wish to see more and more because it can bring the best of both of our worlds - the good and the bad one.
AstuteClass
Banned
Had this installed on my laptop forever. Wondering if I should finally start it right now. How long would it take to beat?
GillianSeed79
Member
I actually finished Gone Home about two weeks ago and absolutely loved it, so much so I have to go back and re-edit my top 10 list. The actual game mechanic of interacting with the various items in the house to learn more about the characters is also pretty cool. There's a lot more story than just the two main characters and the main narrative arc, which I found profoundly touching.
I would assume two hours is the starting point.
About an hour and a half.
TheHollowNight
Member
Literally the most fucking ludicrous thing I've read today.
There aren't enough laughing gifs in the world to express my amusement at that comment.
It definitely wasn't that short for me. Took me a decent 3 hours to really explore everything.
BUNTING1243
Banned
Good choice. It's my number three next to Last of Us and Bioshock.
Also I like Arthur Gies and Polygon in general
I'm fairly confident that I got the full experience. I haven't come across any information since playing the game where I felt "Wow, I totally missed that!". I'm a fast reader, though.
TheHollowNight
Member
I'm fairly confident that I got the full experience. I haven't come across any information since playing the game where I felt "Wow, I totally missed that!". I'm a fast reader, though.
I guess I really enjoyed the atmosphere and rummaging through everything. I took it at my own pace, since I knew this wasn't the sort of game I shouldn't blast through if I wanted to get absorbed in the story. I did miss a few things as well actually haha. I want to go back and replay it but I have too many other games on the list to battle through including Bioshock Infinite right now.
Time is absolutely a non issue to me. I got more out of this game than I did from normal 10+ campaigns because the story managed to evoke an emotional response from me, which so rarely happens in videogames. These days, it's far more about what I take away from the experience, and Gone Home happened to resonate very strongly with me.
charlequin
Banned
It's also useful when (as has happened to me about three times since I finished the game) someone on GAF or IRC points out an object or letter you missed, so you can just hop in and go look for it without playing through the whole progression.
I'm quoting you here but there are a lot of posts in this thread that offer similar ideas about how this game is boring because the "plot" is "predictable," which I think speaks to some of the problem with how people have been approaching the game. In the worlds of film and literature, through the lens of critical analysis, it's understood that plotting is a very minor element in the quality of a work -- most "plots" have been told and retold ad nauseam, with minor variations, many times over, and most realistic stories have plots that are somewhat predictable specifically because the events that occur flow naturally from what comes before them. Gone Home isn't any different: when you start with the base premise (parents who don't understand their own children, faced with a child who wants something they're uncomfortable with) there's a limited number of directions events can really go in.
The real quality in a game like this comes from the subtleties of execution and the way that individual pieces of the scene hint at a larger reality. The scrawled VHS tapes of X-Files episodes or two popular movies each, the note paper with lists of Street Fighter moves, the boxes of unsold novels (of both printings!) sitting around in random rooms -- these are all details that were captured by a keen eye for the human experience, and translated into the game in a way that communicates volumes about the internal life of the characters. For something like Gone Home, the aphorism about "the journey rather than the destination" is really key to the appeal -- if you're just looking to "find out what happened," you can do that in five seconds, but the real appeal is in all the details and individual moments you can dig out in the process of getting there.
I don't see any problem with the length at all (I'm a big champion of games that do exactly what they need to and no more) though I do think there's something kind of ballsy (and not necessarily in a good way) in asking $20 for an experience of that size, while simultaneously encouraging everyone who plays the game to keep quiet about it so as to preserve the surprise.
I agree, although I do know people who skipped this and Journey just due to the short play time. Heck, just the rumor that Rising was only 5 hours made them complain. Guess they just have to miss out on some great experiences though.
Arozay
Member
The thread has more replayability.
HelenKeller:BlindDeafDTF
Member
I have a secret for everybody... you don't have to like it. Polygon liking it doesn't change anything. It's going to be ok, I promise.
BruiserBear
Banned
Agreed, and I enjoyed Brothers, but it will not be in my top 10.
I think there is some truth in this post. I'm glad a game tackled the topics Gone Home touched on, but I don't think that means it deserves extra credit in terms of evaluating it as a videogame.
3rdamention
Member
Lol, calm down brother. No need to get all worked up.
So a score then holds no merit? That is what you are saying, a score holds no value at all. It is a GAME OF THE YEAR candidate, and they said a game, that their website published a review for and gave it a 7.5 out of 10, was the 4th best game of the year.
If that makes sense to you, then great. They should just abandon the score then. Simply have a written review. They publish their GAME OF THE YEAR, and people may see The Last of Us, then look at Polygon's review of it and see a 7.5/10. Does that come off as a game of the year candidate? Not immediately, not if someone looks just at the number, and some people do. That is what I find funny. I will never lose sleep over it, just sharing my opinion.
Sorry it seemed to offend you so much, with a "Ho-leeee shit" and all. Maybe if they are determining these games as a group, they should VALUE their own reviewers opinions, or sit around and come up with review scores themselves if they are simply going to come up with Game of the Year Candidates as a group.
Or, simply let each writer/editor have their own Game of the Year list, then asses those lists for an overall. That way, we could see who enjoyed a game, who didn't, and I would assume the individual that wrote the review wouldn't have it on his list, and everyone else would.
Its just videogames dude!
An interactive story getting GOTY... Oh my god...
What are news publications turning into...
I'm so glad that games like gone home win awards just because of responses like this. Anything to chip away at these narrow and closed-minded definitions of gaming is welcome.
Thank you, you said exactly what I'm thinking. I'm tired of this growing trend of indie worship the last few years. I think they are some awesome games and very creative, but I wouldn't trade 100 Gone Home's for the amount of enjoyment I got out of playing GTA 5 or AC4 last year.
Not correct. Polygon have said numerous times that one dude may write the review but the score is given by all the team in a round table like discussion.
Basileus777
Member
I thought Gone Home was a novelty that wasn't particularly well executed or well written. But I suppose the amateurish storytelling connected better with others.
This is a poor argument because you don't need cheat options to beat the game extremely quickly. I played the game blind with no cheats and by happenstance got to the end in about 5 minutes because I found that room in the foyer right from the start. It undermined the game's storytelling pretty significantly even though I did play through it again to see it all.
Okay, it's great that you have an opinion, but people get different enjoyment out of different things. The emergence of indie in video games is similar to how there are more people that enjoy blockbusters than the critical darlings. I for one am absolutely thrilled that more games are emerging with artistic intent and smart direction instead of behemoth technological marvels like AC4 and GTA5. They both have their place, but to criticize a journalistic outlet for giving one more value than the other is to just damn opinions outright.
TheHollowNight
Member
It's bizarre indeed.
I enjoy the GTA's and TLoU type experiences as much as anybody else, but I also thoroughly appreciate the more experimental short-form games such as The Stanley Parable & Gone Home, or Kentucky Route Zero. Games, by definition are very abstract in their form, so it's highly amusing to see that people seem to try and judge & rate things by this unspoken metric of what constitutes a 'real game'.
I really don't understand this backlash of discrediting indie developers straddling the limelight with the big hitters. The two can co-exist you know!
Games come in all shapes and sizes, we all get to like & enjoy what appeals to us as individuals, don't get offended if someone doesn't agree with you because it was regarded more important in their eyes.
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