Red Dead Redemption 2 is the biggest game of the year, launching to the most profitable opening weekend of any entertainment property in history. It?s also a walking simulator.
At least that was the argument that YouTube essayist Mark Brown made in a since-deleted tweet. ?So it turns out gamers actually do like walking simulators, but only if they?re about cowboys and not about women,? the Game Maker?s Toolkit creator (who is one of the best critics working today, though I am about to mildly disagree with him) wrote on November 1.
The tweet was a reference to the angry reception that breakthrough walking simulator, Gone Home, received in some circles. Check the comments on any article or tweet about Gone Home today, and you?ll find more of the same. Some gamers just don’t buy that The Fullbright Company?s game is, in fact, a game. Gone Home cast players as Katie Greenbriar, a college student visiting her family?s new home in Boon County, OR, after returning from a semester abroad. Upon arrival, Katie finds that all of her family members are missing. After reading a note that her sister, Samantha, left on the front door, Katie begins exploring the new house, piecing together the story of what became of her family through scraps of paper, audio logs, and other bits of environmental storytelling.

That said, I don?t think you can make a serious argument that a giant open world action game with train heists, stage coach robberies, hunting, fishing, and stabbing belongs t...