Brooke McLennan
100978431
COMS 4412B
Sarah Thorne
April 10th 2018
Representation Through Game Narratives
Gone Home released in 2015 is a first person discovery game set in 1995 and tells the story of the Greenbriar family upon the return of their eldest daughter Katie from a year abroad, only to discover her family is not home. The game is set within their mansion, soon to be discovered known around town as the "psycho house", you search for clues as to find out where the family is, but are soon lead into a deeper story of a young girl discovering her sexuality and journey through her first love, while also hunting the mysteries that lay within the walls of their home. This game is popular when discussing LGBTQ representation in games. This paper will discuss the representation of marginalized groups in video games and the importance of not only representation but the context in which this representation takes place. It is not enough to have queer representation in games, it is also necessary to look at the importance of narrative when telling these stories and whether or not there is even a place for these stories within games. The narrative types, impact of representation on audiences and how the industry could improve to create more inclusive media going forward are all in the discussion to follow.
This type of game, what Alisha Karibinus describes in her article as "walking simulator" games, correlates to Calleja's article on narrative involvement on how the actions one takes during the game play, creates the narrative. He states, "an on going narrative is not merely formed by a type of free association, but grounded in the games reaction to our specific actions (Calleja, 2013), and in Gone Home, that relates to the discovery of new items, unlocking journal entries from Sam's journal, which further moves a long the narrative, of the love story between the young girls, which eventually leads the player to the ending of the game, where you discover what happened to Sam. The mechanics of the game lead you from one discovery to the next, at first giving the impression that the focus on the game will be the "psycho house" and the discovery of ghosts and stories that potentially live there, the addition of the thunder storm and pitch darkness of the environment in which you are exploring all feed into that narrative. However, amongst the different ghosts artifacts, maps and notes the player discovers, journal entries from Sam to Katie start to tell a completely different story. A story of self discovery, young love, and the challenges of coming to terms with your sexuality in a less than supportive environment.
Juul states that "you cannot have interactivity and narrative at the same time", however, Gone Home seems to question that idea. While the player is interacting with the environment, the house, the notes found, secret passage ways, anything and everything you can pick up, a narrative is starting to form. Initially it is the mystery of where the family is, then it is the mystery of the ghosts that potentially reside in the "psycho house", and then it is the love story that is taking place between Sam and Lonnie. Henry Jenkins explains this in his paper "Game Design and Narrative Architecture", outlining four different types of spatial narratives. “Environmental storytelling creates the preconditions for an immersive narrative experience in at least one of four ways: spatial stories can evoke pre-existing narrative associations; they can provide a staging ground where narrative events are enacted; they may embed narrative information within their mise-en-scene; or they provide resources for emergent narratives” (Jenkins, 2004). Since these types of narratives are not mutually exclusive, it seems as though Gone Home could be categorized in numerous ways.
"Spatial stories can evoke pre-existing narrative associations", this happens when the player starts to discover artifacts around that house that put together a picture of who the Greenbriar's are, as a family and as individuals. Photo's on the wall inform you that they are a family of four, pamphlets and self help books demonstrate that the parents are going through some marital problems, books and letters let the player know the father is a writer who has suffered some career set backs as well as has potential drinking problem with all of the empties left around his space. Papers from the mothers new job and the new forest in which she now works. "They can provide a staging ground where narrative events are enacted", this would be the different locations throughout the house where Sam and Lonnie have hidden their ghost artifacts, their maps, their Ouija board and of course, the set up of their exorcism to try and contact Oscar. The biggest example of this however, is when the player finally gets to the stage of the game where you enter the attic. You can see where Sam and Lonnie has set up "their spot" as referred to in Sam's journal entries, you can see the pillows and blankets still there, as clearly a lot of memories were had in this "special place". "They embed narrative information within their mise-en-scene", this relates to the game as a whole. The explorative nature of the game, you put the story together as you come across more items in the house. Whether it is relative to the plot line, or just helps paint the image of who the family is as characters, everything in the house is there for a purpose and can be used as a puzzle piece in one way or another. The most prevalent of these spatial narratives would be what Jenkins describes as when spaces "provide resources for emergent narratives"(Calleja, 2013). Upon finding more and more artifacts that relate to Sam's character, we hear journal entries that she has left for Katie. Finding concert stubs, cassette tapes, or magazines to name a few, all trigger journal entries from different times that piece together what turns out to be the love story of Sam and Lonnie.
1 Arbor Hill, or what is also referred to in the game, and also throughout the town, as we discover in a journal entry, as "the Psycho House", is really a character all in its own, or rather the character of the previous owner is lived through the house. It's contents help push the narrative, while its secret passages and discoverable quirks give the story different layers, and truly get the player invested in the multiple story lines the game has created. It is set as a horror game, the storm outside, all of the lights being off, the fact that it is an abandoned mansion all give the sense that things will jump out at you, or someone is hiding to attack you, all give the feeling of being on edge, while in reality it is just the player alone set to discover the fragments left behind by a closeted young girl searching for love.
When looking at queer representation in games, it is imperative to not only look at if games include LGBTQ characters, but how they portray them and what they add to the game itself. The study conducted by Adrienne Shaw and Elizaveta Friesem compiled a list of 351 games across varying platforms and analyzed the LGBTQ representation among them, and categorized them based on specific criteria. It was discovered that when it comes to representation of homosexual men and women, the women were often portrayed through relationships, where the men were portrayed using gay stereotypes. When it comes to the representation of gay relationships in games, it is often limited and controlled. For example, in Fallout 4 the characters backstories code them to be implicitly heterosexual, even if the game allows for same-sex options (Shaw & Friesman, 2016). Another example is the Temple of Elemental Evil, which offers a gay marriage option, however, there is still a second option which is mutually exclusive from the other, where if you meet a different female character first, you marry that character, instead of the gay character.
The majority of cases when it comes to LGBTQ representation does so in a manner that is based on rather negative stereotypes, or the more "taboo" segment of this demographic. For example, a lot of the LGBTQ characters are sex workers, to add a dimension of risk or danger to a game, like in the game Ultima VI. Having these types of representation in games is extremely harmful to the LGBT community, and boils down sexuality to sex (Shaw & Friesmen, 2016). Having these characters portray different sexualities as a commodity, or just a feature that makes the game more "dynamic", for example games that use cross-dressing for humour, or portrays transgender characters as an easy target to be labelled criminals, should not be seen as "representation". In Final Fantasy 4, to complete a challenge, the character had to "cross-dress" to enter a brothel or the challenge would not be completed. Using peoples real experiences in order to complete "tasks" or "challenges" especially when linking it to criminal activity, increasingly marginalizes these communities and ultimately has no effect on the narrative of the game, nor does it do any positive portrayal of the members of these communities. Adrienne Shaw's take on marginalized groups in video games is that the representation is often limited, meaning they are rarely intersecting identities. Gone Home does manage to do this by having a homosexual female character as the main "protagonist" so to speak even though you are playing the game as Katie (Shaw, 2015).
Out of the 351 games, nine categories were formed and games were delegated accordingly, only four games provided any representation through narrative. This meant that the central theme of the games were focused on the actual experience of gay characters (Shaw & Friesman, 2016). Gone Home was one of these games. Gone Home takes the player through the journey of Sam and Lonnie's love story with the intimate reading of Sam's journal entries. Certain notes, stubs, posters and other letters or artifacts the player is able to pick up and examine, however a mechanic of the game was that you actually heard Sam's voice read the journal entries aloud. You could hear the nuances in her voice, the fear when discussing having the hard conversation with her parents, the passion behind her intimate moments with Lonnie, and the pain in her shaking voice when talking about their love story coming to an end. This creates the aesthetic of narrative and expression. It connects you to a character you never actually get to see and draws you in to a love story that easily could have been left out of the game completely (Hunicke, Leblanc & Zubek).
It would be very simple for the creators of this game to have made a mystery game out of the "psycho house", the secret passages, the Ouija board, all of these tropes that create a good mystery to be solved, but they took it a step further and created a narrative that was much needed in the LGBTQ community. Especially involving female characters, these stories often get simplified down into hypersexualized lesbian sex affairs, rather than the sweet story of young love and self discovery. When it comes to women being portrayed in video games they are often used as sex symbols, "objects of the male gaze" (Kondrat, 2015) or used as a side kick to the male action hero. There is research that states the reason for over sexualizing females in video games is because it carries "strong sexual meaning for the young boys who predominantly play these games (Beasley & Standley 2002), which seems like a round about way to say that once again the use of female characters is for the pleasure of men. There are increasingly more diverse players in the game community and solely using female characters to feed the preconceived desires of young men is demoralizing and harmful to not only the female gaming demographic but more so the marginalized queer community. In terms of avoiding the hyper-sexualization of their characters, what the creators of Gone Home did, was eliminate that option completely. You play the game as Katie, but you never really see what Sam or Lonnie look like. There is a family portrait hung on the wall in the foyer and a picture of Lonnie's face in Sam's locked locker, but that is the only visual one gets of these girls. The rest of the story is pieced together by concert posters, cassette tapes and secret shared moments retold through a journal.
There was a study conducted that discovered a reason children watch TV was "to learn about myself" (Greenberg, 1972). Games being similar form of mass media, it can be argued that video games are another facet in which kids and teens turn to, to find someone like themselves being portrayed, giving them someone to identify with within the media they consume. More than 50% of participants in the Deloitte survey said they have gaming consoles in their house, which gives fair reasoning as to why games should be studied similarly as a form of mass media (Deloitte, 2013). If kids and teens are turning to television to find a diverse representation of themselves, they are likely also subconsciously looking at video games and trying to find an accurate representation of who they are and how they feel. If LGBTQ kids are trying to identify with video games, and all they seem to come across are cross-dressers, sex workers and novelties, it is likely going to have negative effects, leaving them feeling isolated and not worthy of representation. It is for reasons like this why games like Gone Home are so important and why more LGBTQ representation should be done through narrative and storytelling, not solely random characters and crime based tasks and challenges.
A more accurate way to describe this would be McQuail's typology (1987) and how it analyses what kind of reason or need a person can feel with certain media usage. In the case of queer narratives in games, that would classify under the "Personal Identity Section" which is described as focusing on the needs which help in finding reinforcement for personal values; finding models of behavior; identifying with valued others (in the media); gaining insight into one's self; Integration and Social Interaction; gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy; identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging; finding a basis for conversation and social interaction; having a substitute for real-life companionship; helping to carry out social roles; enabling one to connect with family, friends and society etc.” (Kondrat, 2015).
The main issue with the way games represent women, the barbie doll physique, hypersexualized traits or submissive roles, is that they have the potential to influence the "socialization of young people" as they make up the majority of the audiences for these games and thus may transform or reproduce gender representations in the general culture (Downs and Smith 2010). There is an argument that the general demographic for video games are typically men, therefore the hypersexualization and predominately male lead characters are intended to boost sales (Near, 2012). Multiple studies reported on by Christopher E Near found that there are less women portrayed as central characters, and when they are main characters, they are portrayed in a sexually exploitative manner, in the attempts to increase sales, although that was not concretely proven (Near, 2012). Gone Home is an important game in story telling, because it truly is the narrative that drives the story and entices the player to want to continue through the game and find clues that piece together this deep and emotion coming of age story, without ever seeing the or meeting the characters face to face. It proves that there can be successful games that do not need the sexualization of female characters, and can rely on the story alone to make a successful game.
Another important discussion to be had when talking about certain representations within narratives of games would be the mechanics of games and how it relates to storytelling. There are two schools of thought when analyzing games, and that would be ludology and narratology. The ludology view is what Greg Costikyan argues when stating that games and stories are not compatible (Cisneros, 2015). He continues to state that "if games are made more like stories they will be less enjoyable". Gone Home is a good example of the opposite school of thought, narratology. In the case of Gone Home it demonstrates that stories within games are extremely effective, and in fact make the game what it is. There are numerous layers to this story, that unfold through the game play. The more artifacts you find, the closer you get to solving the mystery of where Sam has gone, which in turn unfolds the love story between the two young girls. It immerses the player in the world and tells the story in a suspenseful way that makes you want to discover more clues and uncover all the secrets and emotions that lay within the walls of the psycho house. This is an example as to how story telling can be an important component in the representation of LGBTQ relationships.
Now that we have discussed numerous issues with representation of females and queer identities, the next step would be to ask, how do we solve this? The simple answer is to create more games that support queer narratives, and tell stories that are true to life and do not paint these communities as caricatures or gimmicks. Not only is this important for the people being represented, but it also can be used as a tool to teach other people that may not be educated on these matters, or may not know any gay people in their personal lives. "Learning style theory" is a school of thought that people learn more by doing, than by listening or reading (Woolbright, 2016), which is why games as a medium is important when taking into account the wide audience it reaches. Games do not necessarily have to be set out as "educational games" in order for people to learn from them. Shaw's research argues when people of these groups are identifying with certain forms of representation, it is not a simply seeing a glimpse, but more the interactivity with the story, the narrative and the characterization (Shaw, 2013).
In a course Lauren Woolbright teaches called "Game Design and Advocacy" she requires her students to play a series of games that touch on topics that deal with various social and political issues currently facing the gaming industry. She focuses on diversity, poverty, sexuality, war, health and narrative. In terms of the games focusing on narrative she has her students play Gone Home. She describes that it is because it gives the feel of a horror game but is actually not. Courses and discussions such as this are crucial in the growth of the gaming industry (Woolbright, 2016).
In conclusion, when looking at the representation of marginalized groups, such as women and LGBTQ relationship it is important to look at not only how they are being represented but in what context. If the portrayal of these individuals is a commodification or heavily based on stereotypes and adds nothing to the narrative of the game than it is probably not worth considering representation. Different types of narrative structures can aid in the story telling of games, which when surrounding the experiences of LGBTQ people or similar topics is important for the typically young and impressionable audience that are consuming these games. Games are just as influential as other forms of mass media, if not more so, as it has an interactive component that further allows for audience identification. The story telling and interactive narrative of Gone Home allows for an in depth story of young love and self discovery all within the framework of what seems to be presented as a mystery game. It is an important game and the industry should create more games that follow the lead of representation in a way that is not hypersexualizing women or painting LGBTQ people as caricatures or gimmicks.