• Gentle Gamers: Welcome Home
  • About
Menu

GENTLE GAMERS

jump scares aren't for everybody
  • Gentle Gamers: Welcome Home
  • About

Subscribe to Gentle Gamers

Sign up with your email address to receive new posts, right in your inbox!

Emails come once a week. See you then.

Thank you!
media photo.png

All in the Timing: "Queers in Love at the End of the World" & "Where the Goats Are"

October 1, 2017

I doubt it's solely a modern metric, but there definitely seems to be a trend in contemporary art criticism: the exultation of "getting lost" in artwork.

Living in the era of binge-watching television means that television must (natch) be binge-watch-able. Good books are "page-turners." I've lost count of the number of times I've heard theatre-goers lament the show that feels too long. ("Two intermissions? Who needs two intermissions??")

This metric is equally applied to video games, and I know it well. Whether it be my childhood obsessions with The Sims and Age of Empires, or my more recent dives into Dead Cells or Stardew Valley, it's really no challenge for me to log dozens (if not hundreds) of hours in the world of an especially immersive video game. Indeed, all the games I listed have been lauded as "easy to get lost in." It is seen as a positive virtue when you are so enrapt in a game that you forget how long you've been playing it.

However, this metric assumes an antagonistic relationship between art and time. By the above criterion, art is good when it surpasses the oppressive weight of time, allowing people to feel -- however fleetingly -- that they are removed from time's binds and limitation

This relationship doesn't need to be antagonistic. It is much more interesting to think of time as one of the many components a work can use to influence a viewer.

Recently, I played two games that use time as a calculated storytelling mechanic in their game, rather than an antagonist: Queers in Love at the End of the World by anna anthrophy & Where the Goats Are by Memory of God. 

Click here to keep reading.

Tags game review, queers in love at the end of the world, anna anthropy, memory of god, Where the Goats Are

Latest:

Featured
Mar 15, 2022
itch.io's "Bundle for Ukraine"
Mar 15, 2022
Mar 15, 2022
Dec 31, 2021
The games that got me through 2021
Dec 31, 2021
Dec 31, 2021
Nov 23, 2021
Critical Path: Dungeons & Dragons as a new way to tell stories
Nov 23, 2021
Nov 23, 2021
Jul 25, 2021
A short hello of short games for short summer nights
Jul 25, 2021
Jul 25, 2021
Mar 17, 2021
Making conversation: Signs of the Sojourner
Mar 17, 2021
Mar 17, 2021
Dec 31, 2020
I'm Going That Way: a game of the year discussion
Dec 31, 2020
Dec 31, 2020
Oct 29, 2020
Making a hell-house a hell-home: Hades and game cycle subversion
Oct 29, 2020
Oct 29, 2020
May 19, 2020
It's dangerous to go alone. Take this.
May 19, 2020
May 19, 2020
Apr 8, 2020
Games to Get You Through the Inside Times
Apr 8, 2020
Apr 8, 2020
Jan 9, 2020
Favorite Games of 2019
Jan 9, 2020
Jan 9, 2020

Follow along at home:

Gentle Gamers' Blog RSS