The farming simulation videogame Stardew Valley is centered on a central character who abandons their traditional work environment with a 9 to 5 workday and begins cultivating a plot of land on a farm once owned by their grandfather in the small town and pastoral setting of Pelican Hill. On their farm, the character is expected to maintain their farm by removing boulders, stumps, and weeds scattered throughout the plot of land and tending to crops to generate revenue and eventually expand the farm. Additionally, the character has to maintain relationships with the surrounding community, which can ultimately lead to marriage, where they can eventually gain additional labor support on their farm and maximize their productivity and product output. These tasks on the farm are all expected to be completed in a timely, orderly manner before the sun goes down at the end of the day. Relatedly, Karl Marx writes about capital, labor, and time that all dictate the means of production in capitalist society and the workplace. While this game is set on a farm in a videogame instead of a 19th-century factory that Marx has drawn inspiration from or the contemporary workplace, there seem to be some capitalist undertones in Stardew Valley. Thus, how can Marxist theory and specifically his discussions of capital, labor, and time be applied to Stardew Valley to better understand the character’s actions in the game and how they can ultimately be successful?
Marx’s understanding of capital, labor, and time is relevant to Stardew Valley. In Critique of Capitalism, Marx introduces the concept of “labour time” and states that “wages are the sum of money paid by the capitalist for a particular labour time or for a particular output of labour.” (Marx 204). While Marx is specifically discussing wages in this particular passage, and wages are not as emphasized in Stardew Valley, there is a general association with the value of a commodity and the amount of necessary “labour time” that a worker incorporated into it. Thus, in Stardew Valley, the more a character spends time cultivating their farm and harvesting the crops, which is “labour time,” the greater the investment and the more commodities that can come about from their farm, such as vegetables from the farm. Also, every character and shop in Pelican Hill has a schedule where they complete their own labor under time constraints that mostly resemble the contemporary 9 am – 5 pm workday, and the character is expected to visit them and interact with them within these time constraints. Continuously throughout the game, the time is always displayed at the top right corner of the screen and informs the character of what time of day it is and what day of the week it is. Next to the time is a scale that depicts a sun and a moon so that the character in Stardew Valley is reminded of when the workday is when agricultural work can be completed. Thus, this is symbolic and representative of how time is an important aspect of Stardew Valley that guides the actions of the character as they maintain their farm.
Additionally, in The Grundrisse, Marx writes that “capital itself is the moving contradiction, [in] that it presses to reduce labour time to a minimum, while it posits labour time, on the other side, as sole measure and source of wealth” (285). Thus, this is relevant to Stardew Valley as productivity is heavily emphasized in the game. The game encourages the character to use each day productively and efficiently and be a productive worker by maximizing the amount of time available when it is light outside and accomplishing as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible considering the time constraints in the game. This focus on productivity in the game is essentially no different from daily life in the workplace that the character originally abandoned as well as in the setting of Marx’s discussions in industrial factories.
Thus, considering the introductory sequence of the game when the character abandons their workplace and starts a new agrarian life in Pelican Hill, there seems to be an inherent contradiction since while the game appears to reject capitalism through the abandonment of the 9 to 5 workday and the acceptance of a slower pace farm life, we also see an emphasis on productivity and time in the agricultural setting. In the beginning sequence of the game, Stardew Valley emphasizes leaving the workplace and escaping the office with the cubicles and paperwork we see at the beginning of the game. Even though Stardew Valley is set on a farm and emphasizes a slower pace of life, capitalism, time, capital, and “labour time” are still a significant part of the game, even though they appear to be somewhat subtle. Thus, examining Stardew Valley from a Marxist lens reveals a lot about the game, and it is difficult to separate the actions and activities of the character from capitalism.
References: Tucker, Robert C., Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels. 1978. The Marx-Engels Reader.
