In all honesty, I have had difficulty engaging with Stardew Valley throughout the quarter, yet my confidence has grown over time with each week as I have logged in more time. I have also found that playing collaboratively with other people, including my boyfriend and during our recent class session at the Weston Game Lab, instead of navigating the game by myself, has been a more rewarding experience and has made me more engaged while playing the game. Thus, I have recently realized how inherently social the act of playing video games is, and I have found that playing video games without engaging with other people is not nearly as fulfilling of an experience for me.
I initially decided that I wanted to play Stardew Valley independently without the support of other people because I wanted to challenge myself since I admit that I have not played many video games in my life, but my initial experience navigating the game on my own was admittedly not pleasant. I attribute my rocky start with playing Stardew Valley to the fact that I downloaded the game on my phone, which was not a good decision. It was very challenging to maintain my farm and explore the game’s basic features on my small iPhone screen. As I attempted to remove any weeds or boulders in the game to manicure my farm (which I named after my dog, Archie), I would often click on the watering can instead of the ax, which was frustrating, and I was not able to plant seeds as accurately to ultimately expand my farm because my screen was so small and overly sensitive. My boyfriend, who is a much more avid video game player than I am and identifies as a “gamer,” discouraged me from playing on my phone and suggested that I download the game through Steam. Playing on my computer has been a much better experience, but I had hoped that it would lead to an overall better gaming experience for me. While playing on my computer has undoubtedly been easier for me to maneuver throughout the game without stress, I still found myself wandering aimlessly in Pelican Town without much purpose and not knowing how I should structure each day. I admit that there were days when I would not play the game as consistently throughout the week, and I frankly did not look forward to playing the game and viewed it as a “chore” and an assignment that I had to complete for this course instead of a leisure activity as it is for many players of Stardew Valley.
However, recently, I have enjoyed playing Stardew Valley with other people, and I have realized that I am a more successful player of Stardew Valley when collaborating with other people. I enjoyed our session on Tuesday, where I had the opportunity to play the game with my peers. It was a transition for me to play on a Switch because I had become accustomed to playing on my keyboard on my computer, but it was helpful to have support from my peers as we played in the Game Lab; when I needed help finding my inventory, I asked my peers for help. It was overall a very collaborative experience, and while we were all playing in separate groups, we relied on each other and needed each other, and we allocated roles to make this experience more efficient and productive for all of us. For example, at one point, one of my peers asked me to take on the daily task of watering the plants on our farm because I had a watering can in my inventory. We all helped guide one of our peers who was lost in the dark and struggled to get back to bed before the end of the day at 2:00 am. I felt that I learned more about how to play Stardew Valley more successfully by playing with my peers and also by seeing how they navigated the game. However, at one point, when the person I was playing with stepped outside, I suddenly found myself alone and struggling without knowing what exactly I should do in the game. Thus, my peers gave me more of a purpose in the game.
I also have been playing Stardew Valley with my boyfriend, and it has been an engaging activity for us that has strengthened our relationship. He also downloaded the game on Steam, and we have enjoyed playing the game together on separate computers at night on some nights after a long day. We talked about our experiences playing the game together, and we both agreed that playing together was overall more enjoyable than playing alone. Our farms were different and completely separate, and it was thus interesting to see the differences between our two farms and how they affected the game and how different our respective goals were. For example, my boyfriend had made more of a point to greet as many people as possible, and I already saw how his social relationships were more developed than mine. On our first day playing together, he showed me how to use the scythe to clear my plot, whereas I helped show him that there was crafting in the options menu and utilize his map more often. Thus, since we had different goals in the game, we could share tips and experiences as we learned more about the game and grew more confident playing together.
Thus, my experience playing Stardew Valley experience has made me realize that playing games is a social experience and that it can be more rewarding for me through playing and engaging with others, such as with my peers in the Game Lab and my boyfriend, and I have been more successful playing with others than by myself. My Stardew Valley journey continues to develop, and I am looking forward to seeing where this endeavor will take me for the remainder of this quarter.
