[spydum]

Define a game? I disagree. I thought the main point of the article was that the major game mechanics are these forced scripts guiding the experience, or incentivized,reward mechanisms which provide no real story telling or exploration? I was raising the point that there are other games actively shaping what it is to be a game.. Trying to create more of a self exploratory story.

[ekianjo]

Then if gone home is a game, going to the local dump and looking through used stuff and junk is a game too. And Life is a game too. Seriously, do I have to explain why Gone Home is not really a game?

[deathcakes]

Yes. That would certainly help.

Another thing that would help is prefacing this and similar statements with "in my opinion". Should clear up any ambiguity.

[cwyers]

I don't agree with the author's claim that "Gone Home" is 'not a game,' and especially not with his apparent belief that it's obvious that his opinion is correct. But I don't see the point of prefacing things with "in my opinion." I thought that was generally assumed wherever applicable.

[kefka]

In all honesty, I do not seem to share the same disdain/hatred as others are about Gone Home. However, I would maintain that Gone Home isn't a game, however it does share its heritage.

In Japan, there exists a video/picture book called Visual Novels. They run on a computer, either with video or pictures, along with sound. They also have light amount of text, as 3D landscapes aren't terribly used as of yet.

This Gone Home should be more part of a Visual Novel genre. Like I said, it does look like a game in some aspects. Admittedly, having not played it, I cannot say there aren't game elements in it.

Well, that would be a good criteria for what a game "is":

'Is there a chance of winning or losing? And if you lose, does it cost you a loss in resource (including time)?'

[cwyers]

I've played a few visual novels, and I don't see what makes them NOT video games.