Two weeks ago I sat down at my computer, thinking about how to conduct a critical theory analysis of Stardew Valley. After spending some time reflecting on how I played the game, which, at the time, primarily consisted of chopping down trees and going fishing, I realized that I might be able to say something about resource management. Thinking about how I viewed the natural resources on and around my farm, and how the structure of the game shaped this view, I came to the conclusion that Stardew Valley mimicked and encouraged consumerist culture: by making natural resources (such as wood and fish) unlimited, you could consume as much as you wanted, with no consequences (like those resulting from deforestation or overfishing). Even after recognizing this potential problem with the game, I continued to blissfully chop down trees and go fishing – after all, it’s a virtual world with unlimited resources, so where’s the incentive to stop?
Entering the MAAD center to play Stardew Valley in multi-player mode, I feared that my lack of videogame experience would cause me to let my “team” down. As I sat down with the controlle
r, prepared to “take on” the virtual world of Stardew Valley alongside my fellow players, I got ready to collaborate with my classmates both virtually and in the real world. Five minutes in, and my anxiety dissipated. Before even completing the first day in the game, I came to a revelation: my actions had almost no impact on the others’ gameplay experience. It was just like playing on my own! I settled into my comfortable routine of completing tasks, chopping wood, and going fishing.
Throughout the remaining hour or two of play, each of us directed our attention to our own screens, which separated our gameplay both physically and figuratively. While I went about gathering copper and stones to build a furnace, another player would go to the wizard to get some energy, while the other player would go about their garden planting seeds. With little communication within and outside of the game, we all went about the virtual world of Stardew Valley as we pleased.
Suddenly, all of us received a message: “the Easter Festival is taking place! Come to the town center!”. While two out of four players decided to stay at the farm, the other two players made their way to the town center. Soon, they realiz
ed something: they couldn’t get to the town center unless every player went to the Festival. Removing themselves from their games (note the use of the word games rather than game), these players addressed the group sitting in the Weston Game Lab and asked, “do you guys want to go to the Festival?”. The consensus was against going. With little annoyance (in fact, none at all) the two players that were on the way to the festival quickly found another task to complete and went on their way.
The problem with Stardew Valley multi-player mode is that there doesn’t seem to be any incentive for collaboration – just like there weren’t consequences for chopping down trees or fishing too much, there were no consequences for choosing to work as an individual versus with a “team”; and just like there was no reason to stop chopping down trees or fishing, there was no reason to start playing as a team. While the Easter Festival may have seemed like an exception (after all, we could only go to the Festival if all of us agreed to go), it was a very lackluster attempt at encouraging collaboration – the two players who wanted to attend the festival didn’t seem to mind that the two other players prevented them from doing so. With no common goal to work towards, and few consequences for playing alone, Stardew Valley multi-player mode fails to encourage collaborative gameplay and instead (perhaps inadvertently) supports more individualistic tendencies.
It could be argued that, somewhat ironically, Stardew Valley’s multi-player mode reflects America’s obsession with individualism. Even as all four groups played together, in the same room as each other, we almost never actually played together. Perhaps we saw ourselves as empowered, self-reliant individuals who didn’t need the help of other players to succeed in the game; or perhaps, influenced by our culture, we believed that our own interests came before others’ (if we wanted to build a furnace, it’s more important to do that than to help the other player plant their seeds); or perhaps we just didn’t care what the other players were up to since, as I’ve pointed out, their actions wouldn’t drastically affect our gameplay.
When I entered the game room, I was ready to play with a team – I was prepared to take on team tasks, build a team farm, and manage our resources as a team. As it turned out, it was a mistake to equate “multi-player” mode with “team” – the only indication that I was playing with people, and not on my own, was the low frequency chatter surrounding me in the game lab.
