Background
I decided to play Stardew Valley, an open-ended country-life RPG created by Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone available on all platforms. The game centers around the player expanding their farm but also enables open-ended gameplay through exploration and the building of relationships, both platonic and romantic, with local townsfolk. Stardew Valley’s benign gameplay makes it accessible to players of all ages.
Thesis
In this post, I will explain how Stardew Valley embraces feminist gameplay by subverting the hypermasculine culture of mainstream video games and deconstructing gender roles. Additionally, I will explain how the game is successful in supporting queer gameplay.
Analysis
Before delving into how Stardew Valley embraces feminist gameplay, it is important to define what it means to play like a feminist. In chapter 4 of her book, Play Like a Feminist, Shira Chess first critiques the hypermasculine culture and mechanics of video games, identifying how this style of games dominates the industry in a way that pushes out women and feminist gamers. Feminist play must therefore first redefine success and pleasure in video games. Stardew Valley, unlike the violent content dominating mainstream video games today, provides a more pleasant experience for players. To succeed in Stardew Valley does not mean to conquer or kill anything or anyone, but rather to become a skilled farmer and build meaningful relationships. In this sense, Stardew Valley satisfies the first checkbox of enabling feminist play.
I will extend Chess’s definition of feminist play by offering that it should also deconstruct traditional gender roles. The destruction of gender roles is most evident in how Stardew Valley presents its romanceable characters, particularly Abigail. During the first in-game week, I frequently encountered Abigail playing video games in her room and expressing interest in swords and the mines. Her interests are traits traditionally viewed as masculine within gaming culture, but Stardew Valley does not punish her or frame her as an outlier for these characteristics. During the second in-game week, after having built a friendship with Abigail, I entered a cutscene with Abigail in the graveyard where she said, “I’ve lived in the valley my whole life, but I’ve never really done anything memorable. I want to go on an adventure!” This moment in the graveyard reveals an internal conflict with the passive, domestic expectations placed on her as a young woman in a rural town. Her desire to break free mirrors a feminist rejection of restrictive gender roles that confine women in many traditional video game narratives. Through Abigail’s personality, behavior, and dialogue, Stardew Valley is successful in breaking down traditional gender roles for women in a way that cooperates with feminist play.
Stardew Valley also supports queer gameplay through what Shira Chess calls a “narrative middle,” which she described as the denial of a traditional climax or endpoint through the example of Life is Strange. Like Life is Strange, Stardew Valley’s narrative is nonlinear and instead allows the player to exist in an ongoing state of relational and emotional development. On the very first in-game day, the game suggested that I either harvest a parsnip or meet all of the townsfolk. However, I chose to take my own path, which was building relationships as quickly as possible with a small subset of townsfolk, which I was able to do because of the game’s nonlinear storytelling. Chess argues that climax-centric video games often facilitate heterosexual or masculine perspectives through the way that they communicate linearity, dominance, and resolution. Stardew Valley does not force the player to pursue a singular goal, like defeating a boss or saving a princess, but rather enables open-ended gameplay. It is difficult to find a critique for Stardew Valley’s queer gameplay, but one way that it could be taken to the next level is through a mechanic that enables gender fluidity. Currently, the player’s gender is fixed at the initial creation of the farm, but adding this mechanic would further contribute to a queer nonlinearity.
Conclusion
Stardew Valley exemplifies how video games can embody feminist and queer values through representation, mechanics, and player experience. The centering of emotional labor and nonviolence creates gameplay that opposes the predominantly masculine video game cultural sphere and also reimagines traditionally masculine ideas of success. The inclusion of characters like Abigail actively deconstructs traditional gender roles, inviting feminist gameplay. While queerness is successfully supported through a narrative middle and nonlinear storytelling, there are still places where this theme can be expanded, such as through a mechanic that enables gender fluidity. Overall, Stardew Valley is commendable for its subversive power and its enabling of feminist and queer gameplay.
