Video Games as Written Art: Study of Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley, a complex farming simulation game, and according to stardewvalley.net, has sold over 20 million copies since March 2022, with 13 million sold on PC alone. Farming games appeal to the broad demographic of those interested in ‘peaceful’ gameplay – a genre far removed from the popular first-person shooters and sports-based games commonly associated with computer and video gameplay. Stardew Valley also holds a special appeal apart from the obvious gameplay. In this paper, I want to examine the different aspects of this game and how they draw players to continue to connect.

Stardew Valley was inspired by the game Harvest Moon. The sole creator Eric Barone was making this game in his off time while he was looking for full-time employment. Eventually the project got bigger and bigger until one day his wife pointed out to him that the game looks like his full-time job. His creation has helped change the way people see indie-developed games. Now an intriguing thought, titles made by such a small 'team' that allows for one creative vision to come through in the final product have inspired and set a new standard in the gaming industry. The charming style, open-ended gameplay, open-ness to user created mods, fanbase connections, and the commitment of Eric Barone to continually update the game, keeps it relevant years after its release in 2016 (Carter and Hara).

Although the game is called a farming simulator, there are different types of game play. The player can explore several areas. You can “go” dungeon diving, fishing, questing, and there is unlockable content like cooking, sewing, new areas, puzzles and hidden objects for extra gameplay. Plus, the entire map is customizable. Towards the end of the questlines the player has the option to upgrade some of the homes and buildings in town as well. Even though the game has a slower tempo, there are still many interesting things in the game that keep people playing and discovering new things in game. There are plenty of players on social media who are constantly expressing how they just found some new thing about the game. There is so much in the game and that still isn’t including any mods created by fans.

Check out this data pulled from Google trends. This tool grabs any mention of whatever subjects you can think and compares them. Please consider this example as only a comparison of like games; when compared to a big-name game like Elden Ring or Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley would seem like a flat line. Here I pulled data and compared Stardew Valley, Sims4 and Twitch. Keep in mind that the first obvious spike is from when the COVID-19 lockdowns were starting around Jan – Mar 2020. This is when the interest in streaming and video games in general were spiking as well. The second spike you see for Stardew Valley is when the 1.5 update come out at the end of 2020. It addressed common requests, added new content, quality of life features and improvements (Magically Clueless). The last spike we see in Jan 2022, the Stardew Valley board game was released, or it could be from Christmas since there was a similar rise seen in the Sims4. The grass has never been greener, especially now when presented with a romantic portrayal of farming life. We can see how marketable nostalgia can be just looking at these spikes for slower paced sim games.

Modern Adulting

The modern contemporary adult has been relegated to the city and “endless slog,” i.e., wage slavery. How there is this feeling that something is missing. Lena Wilson, a writer at the NY Times, in her opinion considers that easy access to the “simple life” is now a fantasy only accessible via video games. If anyone is interested, there is a study of effects of the pandemic on the accelerated popularity of video games and online streaming platforms (Scerbakov). It drills down into the feelings of isolation, loneliness, and how video games are being used as a coping mechanism to diminish the negative effects of the pandemic. How games are being used as a replacement for social activity, creating a sense of community and wellbeing. It was very interesting reading for me since my own TV is glued to someone streaming 90 percent of the time.

Look at a game like Elden Ring as opposed to Stardew Valley. The Elden Ring crowd plays for the challenge whereas the Stardew players will play for the distraction from their everyday lives. I’m not saying that all Stardew players are looking for an escape, many just want a relaxing experience. There was a recent study I found very interesting. Louise Fändriks, part of the Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Department of Game Design at Uppsala University in Visby, Sweden published their own thesis called “Players Game Choices When Dealing with Depression” in July 2018. Their study asks about depressed people’s game choices and the motivation for why they prefer certain games. Of course, the overwhelming choice is Stardew Valley. Although other multiplayer game options were mentioned, and people were choosing those games based on their needs for social interaction and competition, there was still an element of distraction.

The study focused on the game before its multiplayer function, which was released just a month after the study. Among all the updates, the multiplayer mode is probably the most popular (Hara). Pruett has a theory on superfluous labor. Early studies of videogames framed them as training for the future participation in a computerized workplace. Pruett stated, “many videogames are not played as preparation for work but preparation for underemployment, providing affective relief from its associated stresses and enabling feelings of productivity, accomplishment, and social significance that are unavailable in the form of actual labor.” He asks why are work-like videogames so fun and satisfying as an activity when at this moment in history, good work is so hard to find? In his study they are looking at a new contemporary anxiety, the Great Recession leading to the development of the general failure post-industrial economies to integrate their new generations into the workforce. Pruett concludes that contemporary video game culture is aesthetic response to an economic problem. People substitute videogames for the inability to find good work. They are using play for certain experiences, competitiveness, advancement through effort, and provide people with a fantasy space in which they have the power to feel productive.

Twitch Gaming

Twitch streamer Lilsimsie, aka Kayla Sims, is a recent graduate with a history degree yet she spends many hours streaming video games with her husband. They make the majority of their living via streaming six days a week on Twitch and uploading content to Youtube. While Kayla is known more for her Sims4 streaming content, and collaborating with EA on the Snowy Escape pack, and EA Game Changers. She built three lots for the official game in Snowy Escape, and she has released her own renovated save file for Sims4. Kayla is the creator of several popular challenges, and as of July 2020, all the Cowplants, a carnivorous plant, are all named after her. Kayla recently became a judge for Youtube’s gaming creator competition shoe uTure.

Kayla enjoys the company, affectionately known as Chat, while she streams live on Twitch, of 443,000 followers and 1,440,000 subscribers on Youtube. She also enjoys Stardew Valley. She and her team won the first ever Stardew Valley Speed Running Contest in September 2021. There are certain milestones you must achieve, and luck is a big factor. The luck for the day is randomly generated, but you can also carry around meals that will raise your luck. I believe the record right now is less than 30 minutes for a speed run completion.

It is safe to say that video games can lead to a good job, but not everyone has the drive to make their living that way. Oftentimes, when I find am too tired and mentally drained to play a game myself, but watching someone else play and just hearing someone else's voice in the house helps me feel less depressed. With live streaming there is also the option of interacting with the streamer and chat, fulfilling that need for social connection.

The Rural Idyll

Lee-Ann Sutherland argues that “farming games represent important sites of cultural production, where contemporary representations and experiences of rurality are being produced and enacted. The makers and players of these games represent an important cohort which to date has been neglected in the rural studies literature: what I term the ‘desk-chair countryside’.”

The notion of the rural idyll is defined as a set of myths or images that endure over time, particularly invoking nostalgia and heritage. It is subject to romanticization. Sutherland claims that this persistence of idealized rural images reflects a deep, emotional investment in ‘good life’ ideals, and argues that media participants would rather abandon their perceptions of reality than these deeply held ideals.

It should be noted that depictions of rurality typically lack representations of crime, alcoholism, and homelessness. Basically, any topic that might shake one’s faith in the fantasy, will notS be obvious, but alcoholism and homelessness have been highlighted in Stardew Valley.

Her thesis of the “desk-chair countryside” is built on the work Bunce’s “arm-chair countryside.” Rather than be exposed indirectly through one’s tv, a third-person interaction, exposure through gameplay on a computer would be considered first person engagement. Playing as a form of transportation to online worlds where players can engage with other players. The downside is that these people are usually disconnected from the real world.

While the game lets you experience the small town feeling of being entrenched in a community, it is the player’s choice how deeply they wish to involve themselves in the NPC or non-player characters’ everyday lives. Each NPC or villager has unique story lines and a deep emotional depth; the villagers can be dealing with real world problems that players will feel connected to. The villager Shane deals with depression and alcoholism, he is also the number one choice for players to woo. Kent deals with PTSD from serving in the war, which opens a lot of world building questions and invites the player’s imagination to go wild.

The Extended Mind

The game gives me as a player this feeling of nostalgia and bubbly happiness as I play. Every bit of the story lines and art in the game hits my aesthetic just right. Miranda Anderson, a scholar of history, researcher in philosophy and literature, and author, believes in the “extended mind.” She subscribes that our beliefs are not only inside our heads but constituted through resources outside the brain. Viewing art offers the materialization of an experience that shares connections with and distinctions from one’s own lived experiences.

Based on this definition of the extended mind and what constitutes an outside resource, I believe video games fall into this category as well. Stardew Valley makes for an excellent example of art because this game has only one creator, Eric Barone. Based on the theory of the extended mind, this game is an extension and reflection of Eric’s mind. But if it is art, does it change people? And is it changed in turn?

If something is created because it was inspired by another piece of art, would it be considered part of a collective? There are several games I can list that have created because they were inspired by Stardew Valley: New Horizon, Lakeburg Legacies, Coral Island. But there is also art that has been created by fans. As avid players, one man created a popup book to propose to his girlfriend. I have seen several times where the game areas have been recreated inside of another game like Minecraft or Animal Crossing, characters made in the Sims. I’m sure there’s even fanfictions out there. To me, this just shows the insane popularity of the genre and how people want more of it.

An example of how the game has been changed is the narrative of the storyline. Adrienne Stallings shared with me her thoughts and we talked about the queerness and sexuality of the villagers. We discussed about how the default of the villagers is hetero, and how the pursuit from the player affects their settings. This was very interesting for me because of the discussions in online communities. The prevailing perception of the game is that it is very welcoming to those in the LGBT+ community and thus praised for its progressiveness, yet here is an argument that this is a player-manufactured openness, and the villagers are not actually queer coded. There is always the option of downloading mods to suit your own needs, but that is beside the point here. Of course, you could date all the available characters at the same time but there will be consequences unless you are carrying around a special item. Ah, wish fulfillment at its finest.

Join us: Thrive

The massive online following for the game and modding community is quite active since it is endorsed by Eric Barone. You can often find him on his Twitter account encouraging players to try mods. By far, the mod at the top of my list to try next is SVE, Stardew Valley Expanded. It has 27 new NPCs, including new locations, events, and quests. Of course, there are other mods that can ease gameplay, and I have several already, but sometimes I do cheat a few items.

Before you begin playing, the player must create a character and enter information like the name of your farm, character, name your dog or cat, and your favorite thing. It is up to the player if they want to play strictly vanilla, or if they are willing to cheat. The player can choose inputs here that correlate to item codes and when these codes are spoken by the villagers (nonplayer characters) in game, the item will appear in your inventory if space is available. Name your character [74][279][337] and you'll be swimming in Prismatic Shards, Magic Rock Candies, and Iridium Bars everytime someone says your 'name.' This cheat also works when naming animals bought for your farm, one time only though. You can find the item codes here.

There are different game paths you can try as well. There is the small-town store or the Joja-Mart routes. The way the game is introduced, you are immediately biased against Joja-Mart, everyone has even dubbed it when you side with them rather than the local shop as an “Evil Run,” contrary to all evidence. It has become something of a joke for people to attempt a “Joja Run.” Lilsimsie herself even did a recent stream where she goes for a Joja run and talks about how she feels about throwing in with the mega corporation. Surprising even themselves, u/ToyboxOfThoughts recently made a very compelling argument that a Joja run has no real reason to be bad. They lay out a long and detailed defense of Joja, ultimately deciding that kicking Joja-Mart out of town only results in harm to the community. When people play the game because they want to relax, the normal run has the player on a strict timeline. Rather than hauling around trying to complete your bundles, it's pretty chill. The only positive they can see is that the local store will be open on Wednesdays. When you play the normal route, Shane, who is my favorite villager, loses his job, then there's a little Junimo, a forest creature, that becomes trapped in the closed down Joja mart. But I suppose that is also part of being an adult, realizing that as you grow older, you connect more with the villian. Darn those biases.

Conclusion

With a thriving online community, sometimes I’ll come across a post on Facebook that looks so strange I must stop to question humanity. Then I realize that the post is from a Stardew Valley group. I think interacting with the forums keeps the game fresh and fun and inspiring for replay value. To me, a video game is a collection of created images and text that tell a story specifically made to be physically played and mentally experienced, thus it is art. I conclude that gameplay is not the only draw for players to this game, the story reflects the creator, and we (the players) are learning and growing as we play and interact with each other. This game excels at being able help people process and come to terms with hard concepts, this correlates perfectly to the theory of the extended mind. By using a video game, written about troubling situations, people are able compartmentalize their issues and work on them without becoming overwhelmed. I believe the engagement of video games was essential for maintaining our mental health during the pandemic.