★★★★★★★✰✰✰
[7/10 stars]
While I only played Stardew Valley for a few hours, I felt like there were so many different things to explore within the world. For one, there were seasonal crops, home expansions, NPC interactions, different places to explore, fishing, mining, etc. Despite not being to try all these different things in depth, I could see Eric Barone’s dedication and commitment to refining this game. One thing I would love to see implemented is a more user-friendly intro to the game. I don’t think I would have known exactly what to do without my friend’s guidance, and even then, I still felt confused about some mechanics behind the game.
When I first got into the game, I instinctively decided the best course of action was clearing up space in my plot of land. There were many trees and rocks that were blocking me from starting a decent farm, and since I can be peculiar about things like that, I felt like I spent too much time clearing up space. Since it took such a long time, I kind of lost interest, but knew there were still many things I could do after I did this menial task. Unfortunately, with the busy school week, I didn’t get too excited or immersed in the game. I ended up exploring the town, talking to a few NPCs, and went fishing. Because I didn’t get too far in, I wondered what the appeal of Stardew Valley was compared to a game like Minecraft. After discussion in class and reading the paired paper for this week, I think I figured it out.
One thing that makes Stardew Valley stand out compared to other farming or building games is its usage of capitalist ideologies. While Minecraft does have a trading system with villagers, the usage of emeralds is not the central focus of the game, whereas in Stardew Valley, your gold count allows you to expand– to refine your farms, travel to other places, make a lavish house, etc. Capitalist ideologies, as explained in “Playing in the global “village”: a comparative analysis of capitalist ideologies in Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons” by Kei Yan Kiana Ng, is integrated within Stardew Valley’s core mechanics. At the end of every day cycle, the money you made is displayed, along with a total count of gold in the corner. Every task you do is to gain money in order to complete your goal of town refurbishments. Tasks such as returning lost items to NPCs are rewarded with gold. Your very incentive to make money is to progress in the game. Ng argues that capitalist ideologies are valuable in the media as they shape the way people think about themselves and the real world (Ng 7). I think the usage of a capitalist system in this game makes it more refreshing compared to more open-world games like Minecraft, as you are competing against the time cycle to make the most profits as possible.
Overall, I feel like Stardew Valley is a complex game that gives you a lot of agency to explore whatever routes you want, whilst still giving you a cool end goal of refurbishing the town. In the future, I would love to be able to experience it more with a group of friends and explore more of the many options. Furthermore, I would like to be able to see the capitalist ideologies built within the game myself after reading the analysis, because it is something that is so ingrained in our minds that we might fail to acknowledge it initially.
Hi Ngoc,
I like your analysis on how Stardew Valley differs from Minecraft. I think you make a good point that Minecraft is more of a trade based/obtain it yourself game whereas Stardew Valley relies on capitalistic incentives to progress in the game. I think what else draws me to Stardew Valley over Minecraft is just the overall aesthetics and pace of the game. Minecraft has more mobs and isn’t as relaxing as Stardew is. Also, the 2d layout helps me play it for a longer period of time.
I agree with noticing the “capitalist tendencies” of the game after reading the paper. It is interesting to see how you spent a lot of initial time tidying up the farm; in a funny way, even the relatively small, early experience you had is a taste of the many tasks that you would have to do later on in order to make more money. It occurred to me that even the repetition of these small, tedious tasks could already start structuring players into doing whatever they can to make money so that they can do more.
Hi Ngoc, I also thought the same thing about wanting the game to have a better onboarding experience, since I also was a little confused about what to do when I first started too! It was only after having watched some YouTube videos that I really knew how to get started. I definitely feel like the lack of such an onboarding could possibly deter beginners away from it.
Hi Ngoc, I found it really interesting that you found the capitalist ideals refreshing in Stardew Valley. I kind of saw it start manifesting in me as I found myself trying to maximize profit, and then I tried to actively fight against that mindset by not caring about money at the end of the day. It definitely made me lose a lot of structure in the way I went about things, but I eventually found that departure from capitalist ideals refreshing.
Hi Ngoc! Your point on the onboarding generally being lacking is something that I definitely felt in my own playthrough — once I figured everything out things started to fall into place but in the beginning I also experienced that same arc of losing interest after clearing out the space. I wonder if this struggle might be something that is intentional to the game’s theming of the idyllic farm life? Maybe it’s reflective of how most people would definitely not be able to figure out farming, fishing, etc. immediately? I too am more of a Minecraft person 🙂