I focus the paper particularly on what players of Stardew Valley may learn through gameplay about farming practices, the contemporary imaginaries of rural life which are encouraged or challenged, and how these differ from those found in other forms of media engagement. In this paper I assess the narratives of rurality and farm life embedded in Stardew Valley gameplay, critiquing the extent to which this portrayal of idyllic rurality reflects tenets of classical and critical agrarianism. As a platform for contemporary imaginings and interactions with rurality, I argue that it is an important site of cultural production (Image 1). PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch) and 12 languages (including Russian, Turkish, Brazilian-Portuguese and several Asian languages), it is a global phenomenon. It has sold over 10 million copies (Strickland 2020), staying near the top of the Personal Computer (PC) game charts since its launch in 2016. Stardew is pitched as a playground for agricultural production and rural exploration, with a strong ‘retro’ vibe. In stark contrast to Grand Theft Auto and numerous popular first-person shooters, the text and images of Stardew Valley present an opportunity to engage in bucolic farm and community life: the image presented is of rustic housing a few crops, with a chicken ranging free travel is by horseback and mine cart a neighbour comes bearing gifts trees, wooden fences, mountains and a clear blue sky dominate the landscape. Thus reads the official advertisement for what GQ magazine dubbed the “unlikeliest independent video game triumph since Minecraft” (White 2018). With a little dedication, you might just be the one to restore Stardew Valley to greatness! But the valley seems full of opportunity. The community center, once the town’s most vibrant hub of activity, now lies in shambles. Ever since Joja Corporation came to town, the old ways of life have all but disappeared. Armed with hand-me-down tools and a few coins, you set out to begin your new life!Ĭan you learn to live off the land and turn these overgrown fields into a thriving home? It won’t be easy. You're moving to the Valley…You've inherited your grandfather's old farm plot in Stardew Valley. The success of the game in eliciting on-line debates, and the requirement for active performance and decision-making, demonstrates the specific potential of computer games as mediums for influencing and intervening in ongoing reworking of farming imaginaries, and enabling more critically engagement of the ‘desk chair countryside’ in important global debates. However, Stardew Valley gameplay implicitly reinforces the ideal that low input farming is the way that agriculture should be practiced. I argue that embedding issues of big-box development in gameplay enrols players in active reflection and debate on desirable responses, whereas the emphasis on reproducing classical agrarian tropes risks desensitizing game players to contemporary agrarian social and environmental justice issues. Conflict is centred on urban-based big business, whereas the farm is represented as a ‘bolt-hole’ or sanctuary from urban life. More recent discourses of critical agrarianism are noticeably absent, particularly in relation to environmental protection. The farming narrative demonstrates the hallmarks of classical American agrarianism: farming as the basic profession on which other occupations depend, the virtue of hard work, the ‘natural’ and moral nature of agricultural life, and the economic independence of the farmer. Player are given a choice to invest in the Community Center or to support ‘JojaMart’, a ‘big-box’ development. Stardew is based on a scenario whereby players leave a urban desk job to revitalize the family farm. In this paper, I critique the narratives and images of farming life expressed in the popular computer game ‘Stardew Valley’. Farming computer games enable the ‘desk chair countryside’-millions of people actively engaged in performing farming and rural activities on-line-to co-produce their desired representations of rural life, in line with the parameters set by game creators.
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