Throughout internet history, there have been many fan communities for a variety of games, movies, and many other things. Welcome Home is a website ARG that allows creativity to run wild through imagination, imagery, different perspectives and voices. It has you thinking critically, which allows for theorizing and different possibilities that could potentially lead to an answer. Exploring a deeper dive into this world, it has elements of horror, friendships, and LGBT+ relationships (once you have a clear understanding of the lore due to the facing factor it was in the 70s). Lastly, the biggest element that truly brings the world together is the amount of control and manipulation that Home seems to have over everyone. As an introduction to a fascination, the wide lens view of this is it starts with the Restoration Project which then leads into a rabbit hole of mysteries of what truly took place. This project took inspiration from childhood shows many grew up with, including the Muppets, Sesame Street, and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The Restoration Project started out by rediscovering Welcome Home after it disappeared “off the air” during the seventies and surfaced with only the videos and website leftover.
I want you to take a moment and think about what I am about to ask. What if you woke up in a world where it is just you and seven other random people in this desolated location, dressed as a television character and having no proper communication to the outside world. How would you react?
Throughout this series of Welcome Home there have been many updates with many of the following characters, such as: Wally Darling, Joyful Julie, Frank the bug lover, and a newly added update for Eddie the Mailman. Within each of the updates, it corresponds to one specific character and uncovers the deeper truth and lore of what lies under Home. From what is uncovered, the cast of Welcome Home experiences psychological torment from Wally himself as well as Home with onomatopoeia with sounds such as doors creaking, floorboards, and even Home getting to the point of learning morse code to communicate with the fellow neighbours to stay in their head for control of the show.
The story follows a pathway like The Muppets where they can freely roam the neighbourhood, have connections among one another, and face traumatic memories that were blocked out. Within this new update with Eddie the Mailman, throughout the website you can search for “rips” within the pages for the viewer to find and mend the answers for Wally. In the rips, there will be hidden messages or in this case, letters. Once you explore and find all the letters, the truth uncovers something much deeper than what was covered on the surface level.
The creator known as Clown, has graciously given the community so much to work with and emerge over the last three years. The stories are still ongoing as there is still a few more points of views from a few more characters that are left. As much as it seems like a lot, if theorizing and puzzles are your thing, please give some attention to Welcome Home!
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