RND/ on haunted play narratives of gone home
Part of the Hypertography One Exhibit
one becomes full member of sum community not simply by identifying with x explicit symbolic tradition but only when one also assumes x spectral dimension sustaining x tradition/ undead ghosts x haunt living secret history of traumatic fantasies transmitted between lines through lacks / distortions of explicit symbolic tradition
– slavoj zizek
in which alpha ur ludonaut theodore miles considers gone home
while cynical play space critics wet dream/ opportunity for quote ludonauts to elf justify ir existence – with accidental play parodies so contrived n pirouette weightlessly off screen in faint shrill cry of hip martyrdom direct from unscreened episode of portlandia
dime store romance novel narrative of fullbright companys bland research space space appears contested / unconscious – if not fully virtual / haunted/ indeed n bills elf as quote interactive exploration simulator/ yet what truly interactive – wheres exploration – what precisely seems publicly simulated if not mere notion of gone home elf
consider undisclosed tension split or dissonance between explicit / assumed narratives allegedly told by / through gone homes creepy playspace – between x uninspired haunted house aesthetic / parallel -yet strangely conservative glove story suggested through found memory fragments – diary entries notes audio logs music / other cheesy non engaging -consumerist ephemera
x thin setup however – missing family / ghostly matrix of inherently uncertain memories / records on display – feels oddly paralleled in main character/ resarc somehow also becomes another mere spirit entity conspicuous only through vacancy -les vacance – spectral presence x manipulates useless objects without hands who manifests only through rich yet ultimately empty tapestry of frozen 90s nostalgia time
where resarcs drift aimlessly through deserted house inspecting trivial symbols for shallow clues regarding invalidity of ir own existence trying vainly to find elves through lives of vanished others/ yet no mirrors exist in x uninspired facsimile – only disembodied voices of strangers forever floating somewhere in artificial rain swept darkness
consider quote going home young adult fanfiction starring / for troubled undying/ cheap counterfeit simple bait / light switch – dead simulation of cold cavernous / largely insubstantial stories of / told by vacuous upper middle class home owners forever in absentia
misplaced desperation of play critics to find grains of meaning in such virtual desert glorified tech demo containing only little but fake plastic sand resulting in gushing uncritical reviews even including words such as astonishing
astonishing really
in which only good bit in entire sim seems mildly risque nancy drew style back story regarding unlockable 17 inch steely dan in parents bottom drawer -kidding
t shirt idea/ resarcs find home creepy
in which such flat boring non special research spaces get such high research industry praise – not because ir so automatically flocking great but far more simply because said evil industry wants resarcs to – ultra cynically – see mainstream industry as remotely progressive or somehow vaguely welcoming of ir vague notion of diversity
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// how to play big science