My group was extremely uncommunicative. From the very first moment all four players logged in, we all went our separate ways with no inkling as to where or what the others would be doing. The only consistent communication was between the people at the same controller. I spent the first couple days figuring out how to use the controller (we never did) and discussing effective fishing methods with the person next to me (press Y and hope for the best). The most communicating we did with the other groups was when one of them requested that I bring them a daffodil that I had stumbled upon.
But as the first day ended, I began to pick up on a strange phenomenon. Given how chaotic the beginning of our session was, no one took note on whose house was whose. I am still not sure that each player had a designated house. When the first night started, we began to panic as the race to 2 am began and we struggled to find “our” house in the dark with unfamiliar controls. Some of us chose a bed early and waiting for the other players to return from whatever they were doing–again, lack of communication meant we really did nothing but sit and wait–but some players raced the clock to get in bed before 2 am. Adding to the hectic nature of this nightly event was the random shuffle of houses. Since no one knew whose house was whose, it was first come first serve. But for the players that were returning to the row of houses just in the nick of time, I noticed that stronger than the concern over being stranded at 2 am and fainting was the concern over getting in the same bed as another player.
Initially, this could be chalked up to a belief that the game would not let two players sleep in the same bed. Even on later nights when two players were able to successfully share a bed, this was most likely an accident, as Stardew Valley at night makes it very difficult to tell whether the difference between an empty versus an occupied bed. However, by the end it was clear that the game would still provide the player with the sleep option even if the bed that they had entered was already in use. I thought this would diminish the 2 am rush; now we knew that you could enter any house and pick any bed, just so long as you made it before 2 am. I was wrong. The players persisted in checking the house they entered, even if it was difficult due to the low visibility, to see if another person was already there. Though this surprised me, I found that it was a strange but comforting way of acknowledging the other people in the room. We did not communicate much or at all, but we still respected boundaries that were not set up in-game nor communicated to the other players. We did not share goals or intentions with the other people in the room, and we also most definitely did not share beds.
