Stardew Valley was designed, created, and developed by Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) alone first and the company he found to continue development. It is available on various platforms (PC through Steam, PS4, Switch, etc.) and targets people age 10+ who enjoy 2D-pixel style or hope to retreat from stressful real life. I played the game through Steam, enjoyed it a lot, and revisited it for this critical play.
Playing as a feminist, I found that Stardew Valley provides inclusive and non-climax-centric stories and relationship-building that mimic lots of adversities that both females and males face in real life to raise players’ empathy-building where players are included in part of the stories while flaws remain. From the beginning of the game, it does not matter whether we choose a female or male character, even the clothes and choices of appearances do not differ much. This makes the game unique from others where female or male characters would have different skills, actions, or storylines. In Stardew Valley, all the narratives remain the same regardless of the player’s selected gender. Players will go through the same heart events (special events when reach a specific number of heart levels in relationship building) regardless of their gender. This is also the same as marrying with other characters. Players can even choose to “marry” (become roommates) with non-human characters. In my different rounds of play, I selected to play female characters and got married to Krobus (it called this platonic relationship) and Haley. After marriage, if players choose to raise or adopt two kids, they must be one female and one male defined by the game, achieving equality among genders again. Similarly, the characters always use neutral words such as friend or love when talking to the players. Such settings make the game inclusive and equal among genders, aligning with the feminist theory.
I married with Haley as a female character (left). In another round of play, I got married to Krobus (right).
The narratives in this game follow the never-ending and non-climax-centric structures, perfectly aligning with feminist narratives perspectives. The players are included in the story through options in the conversations with other characters (mostly in the heart events). It is never stated whether the options that the player selected are correct or not, and instead, the feedbacks are only based on the characters’ pre-defined characteristics. For example, the players will improve their relationship with Pierre if they choose to hide his secret ‘secret stash’ from his wife and lose friendship points if they choose to disclose. There is never a strictly correct answer to such options, and it only depends on how players want and what the characters in the game are like (and clearly, Pierre likes to hide those secrets). Even though players will lose friendship points in some heart events, it is always possible to regain the points though would take extra time. Such a mechanism gives players high freedom in how to interact with the narratives and remove possible climaxes in narrative structures. Instead, the game makes the narratives more like a daily conversation to explore the stories of the characters to think and express their feeling and favors from their experiences and perspectives, matching the feminist theory.
For example, as shown in Wiki (it is super difficult to take screenshots in actual game play as one round of play only has one play of each heart event), the options that players selected do not affect the actual game plays a lot, making them more about chances to express players’ experiences, opinion, and feelings.
Finally, several real-life adversities, especially for females, are presented in such conversations to enhance players’ thinking about their experiences and perspectives and build empathy. For example, Leah’s ex-boyfriend was against her chasing her dream to become an artist in wood sculpture, but she decided to move to the valley to continue this dream. Abigail is a really cool girl who dyes her hair and loves playing games and mining, but her mom hopes she is a “normal” girl wearing beautiful clothes, and Abigail is sad and struggles with this. Such stories will be discovered when players talk to the characters, and as before, players can select different options to react in the conversations. During this process and along with the backgrounds and stories of the characters, the game prompts the players to reflect move on the real-life issues that people (specifically females) face and express their own experiences and feelings. Players’ emotions can also be aroused in such conversations when they find narratives related to themselves. For example, I did feel pity and anger when I saw that Lewis wanted to hide his relationship with Marnie just because he did not want to undermine his authority as the mayor of the town, which is unresponsible to Marnie. Such empathy and emotions prompt the player to think about similar issues, especially females face, in real life. Other common issues, such as mental illness, are also included in the game, such as Shane’s heart event where he was drunk and felt depressed and useless. Blending all together, the game makes the players resonate with the real-life issues that align with the feminist theory.
Leah is really good at making sculptures (Left) and Abigail is so cool and loves playing games (right). However, they were both against by their loved ones (Leah’s ex-boyfriend and Abigail’s mom).
I like Krobus A LOT. It does not have a gender at all but has all human emotions and is always truthful to the player. Having no gender at all could also be another approach for equality between genders. (Put the wide image here as a divider between advantages and flaws).
Overall, the game provides positive advocacy for equality between genders and real-life issues, while some flaws remain. I found that the characters in the game still follow many sterotypes of what roles are perceived to be done by females or males. It is always the female characters in the family who are doing all the housework. The doctor, athletes, and soldiers are all male, while the nurse and teacher are all female, following the sterotypes of genders. Similarly, the people with superpowers or authority are usually the males, such as the governor, Mr. Qi, Grandpa, and Professor Snail. The witch is cool but the players never have a chance to talk to her. I really like characters like Abigail, Robin (the carpenter), and the Scientist role of Maru who breaks the sterotypes of female roles, and hope to see more in the game. I also enjoy the “clothing therapy” from a feminist’s perspective where everyone was trying to disclose their true selves and wear clothes that break the boundaries of gender. However, such events are less usual in the game, and it would be great if there were more.
Maru is an amazing young scientist who made robots (left). She also has a telescope and will bring this to players’ homes if they get married (right from Wiki). I think she is one of the characters that do break the stereotypes of roles of genders and hope to see more in this game.
At the same time, with no correct options in the conversations, the game lacks advocacy to appropriate characteristics for some roles in society, especially for the male in relationships and family. For example, I feel bad for Jodi, who is always busy with the dishes and cleaning, while her husband Kent, although suffering from war and PTSD, does nothing throughout the day and just stands in different locations and looks at different places. Kent mentioned that he does not know what to do in everyday life as he was used to the structural life in the Army. I did have thoughts such as “What about helping your wife and making housework as part of your structural life as before?”. PTSD might be the cause but the game also does not show any clues about whether Kent is trying to recover, such as visiting the doctor. In a heart event, he also yelled at Jodi when she made popcorn which reminded him of war. Although he apologized later, the yelling still hurt Jodi at first. Overall, it makes me feel like Kent is not responsible and respectful of his wife and the family and the game does not show any clues about what could be a more appropriate and responsible husband. Similarly, as mentioned before about Leah’s ex-boyfriend, and the relationship between Marnie and Lewis, the game does not suggest how to be a good boyfriend but only shows the bad sides of them with only small and ignorable hints on appropriate actions from the feedback of the options in conversations. It is arguable that by playing the game, the players can resonate with their real-life experiences and know that they have to avoid those bad movements. However, given that the game is open to people age 10+ and a large audience, there are many young players who did not build up well-rounded values and beliefs. It might be better if the game could display and advocate to those players more about what could be the appropriate actions, or make the feedback from the conversation more impactful.
Side note: The featured image is the one when I achieved 100% perfection and could go to the top of the mountain with my partner (Haley here!) It is a pity that Krobus can not be in this scene as he can not go outside and see other characters (and I was on the top with Lewis for that round, uh… It is another flaw for me as I do not like Lewis at all and was upset when I saw him there).
