While I enjoyed playing Stardew Valley alone during the first week of class, I enjoyed creating a co-op farm with two of my roommates much more. The co-op farm became each of our primary focus, leaving our single player saves to fade out of concern. The camaraderie, banter, and shared goal of maximizing our farm’s output (with slight detractions, such as one of my roommates creating a maze with trees that had to be ventured through in order to enter or exit my home) made Stardew Valley significantly more entertaining for me. As expected with multiple people working on the same farm, productivity is substantially higher, thus resulting in expedited farm progress. We were able to expand our farm much faster, both in terms of farm buildings and farm technology, but also in terms of the number of crops we could plant and tend at a given time. You get more minerals from the mine, more wood by cutting down more trees, and you’re able to gather different resources much quicker by differentiating tasks. Two people could go to the mine, there was a strong belief in “safety in numbers” until someone was strong enough to go unattended and dying alone in the mine was a fast way to get berated by the other members of the farm, while the other handled other pertinent tasks to the growth of the farm.
Certain tasks are much more tedious and boring than others – at least in my roommates and my opinion. This meant we all shared the burden of watering our crops each day – until the game-changing ability to craft sprinklers was unlocked. Although even sprinklers were not able to completely handle the task for us due to how large the expansion of our crops were relative to the number of sprinklers we had and resources to create sprinklers. At first, we would all generally interchange the type of work that needed to get done to keep things fresh. However, unknown to us at the time, Stardew Valley exhibits the power of the economic theory known as specialization. The famous economist, Adam Smith is credited with the concept that “the division of labor through specialization will lead to growth” [1]. This specialization allows for individuals to improve on a core skill, thus, becoming more efficient at their job, which will lead to greater production [1]. Since we evenly shared the same work at first, our skill levels for different tasks all grew together at a steady pace, leading us to believe that it was a shared skill level system. After some significant expansions to the farm, I was left to harvest crops, while my roommates went off to the mines. It was the first major harvest we had, so I spent lots of time gathering all of the finished crops so that we could sell them to continue our quest for value maximization. I typically preferred going to the mine, but I didn’t mind doing my part and harvesting the crops. It was an appreciated change of pace compared to the constant worry of taking damage in the battles with monsters in the mine. After the day was completed, my farming level jumped up two above my roommates. This meant that not only could I sell our crops for more money, but I would expend less energy using the watering can and hoe. Energy is an extremely important resource in Stardew Valley. Typically, after watering our crops, we would have to spend some time resting in bed to regain some energy before venturing off into the mine or town. To truly maximize our farm’s value, it made sense for me to be the primary person for handling crop related tasks. This meant watering crops not within range of a sprinkler, always harvesting crops, and always being the one to till the soil. I embraced the role at first, because I was bought into our team goal, but as we played more, the game started becoming less fun. Now I was faced with the decision to genuinely enjoy the game or inhibit my pleasure to maximize a fake farm’s profits. Ultimately, there was no point in playing if I could not enjoy the process, so my roommates and I decided to try and maximize our farm while mixing up activities.
It is just a video game, and I would have rather stopped playing than having to continuously do the same mundane tasks over and over without the help of my roommates or ability to pursue other components of the game. Given there is no possibility for specialization in single-player mode, and I can conduct my daily actions in whatever way I want, I do not think I would experience the same problems as I did in co-op mode. However, I have almost exclusively played co-op mode, so there is no way to be certain that I would not get burnt out trying to maximize my farm on my own.
References:
[1] Team, The Investopedia. “How Does Specialization Help Companies Achieve Economies of Scale?” Investopedia. Investopedia, June 9, 2021. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/051115/how-does-specialization-help-companies-achieve-economies-scale.asp.
