The Work of Relaxation | Stardew Valley, Marx, Alienation
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- Опубликовано: 23 окт 2020
- We turn to games like Stardew Valley to relax from our alienation, but how does the game's economy reproduce this same logic? Find out with the help of Karl Marx as we analyze work, labor, and profit in Stardew Valley.
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Works referenced:
Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Music:
Stardew Valley Overture, Grandpa's Theme, Mines (Crystal Bells), Spirit's Eve Festival, Fall (Ghost Synth) (all from Stardew Valley OST)
I hate twitter: / mirroredfog
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Игры
Stardew Valley is one of many games like Farming Simulator or Cities: Skylines that allows you to relax by essentially performing labor. Do you like this style of game and if so what’s your favorite?
www.heise.de/tp/features/Spielend-in-die-Apokalypse-3366976.html
People who prefer first person shooters might see an analogue to Stardew in the Fallout franchise. I love how video games are able to immerse players in a storyline on an equal level. Thanks to virtual reality, limitation is primarily in the programming, real world differences dissolve away in the virtual.
I think the code-based equality is an attractive feature of games in general. It’s a tidy, rule governed space that rewards you directly and predictably for effort. You can see growth occur in the compressed time of the game world and that feels nice, visible achievements.
I think FPS games like Black Ops/Modern Warfare are great too-the psychology of playing against others in a coded/level playing field is amazing. There is so much human psychology alive in online-multiplayer game modes-especially when you understand a map well and the statistics of where people prefer to sneak/hide etc., will they go left or right, set a charge at the top of ladder, toss flash/stun? Very fun community building/socializing as well when it comes to completing objectives and missions with internet randos on a mic. Hah.
Lots to love about games-however it does become a problem if you let them start eating up your life and keeping you from expanding into other hobbies and areas.
At one point I was coming home from my call center job to play Smooth Operators, a game where you... manage a call center. The difference being I actually had some agency in the game (no pun intended). Shit's pretty fun, though.
Cities skylines is my guilty pleasure
wait THATS what the box is for!?! ive been selling all my stuff to pierre directly this whole time!
Girllllll for how long 😭😭😭
For like 3 irl months 😭
Oh my god unbelievable I’m so sorry
I never got into Stardew Valley, but I *did* play Graveyard Keeper recently and I totally now how these games are a microcosm of un-alienated labour. In Graveyard Keeper, there's even this unique interaction with a donkey that threatens to unionize if you don't give it carrots. Great game.
Ooh, I’ve been meaning to check that one out!
One thought I had r.e. “telos” ; video games inherently have a lack of telos. When playing them the things you do will not have any baring on the real world. I always get to a point of “why am I playing this, I’m wasting my time” in every game I’ve ever played.
I guess for a game like Stardew the financial reward for farming etc. is there to keep the player hooked, it’s a motivator that helps ward off the feeling of pointlessness. Like you stated at the end :)
The lie of stardew valley being a "cozy" relaxing game is so crazy... Everything about the game is mechanically quantified and the end-goal is becoming a multimillionaire.
Amazing commentary on the animals mechanics!!! This video should be a smash hit
This is a great video. I’ve been playing Stardew since it came out and I was a young impressionable teen back then, but since being radicalized and starting a new play through this month I had the revelation that “wow, this is how life could actually be under communism. Where I can wake up everyday without the stress of labor, or not coming up with resources to provide for my land or family.” In stardew valley, even if you go broke and have no money, you’re never penalized in any way. You keep your land, you have no enforced payments, and there is always a way to go out without pressure and earn some money through foraging, fishing, mining, etc. Its such a beautiful way to live and I hope in the future, even if I am not around to see it, that future generations will live this life one day.
wow this channel is such a breath of fresh air; concise,thoughtful and serene this and your more introspective dreary yet poignantly melancholic analysis on dark have semented your content as insightful and pleasant. If you read this know i highly appreciate the thoughts you bring forth, thanks.
Always great ideas for videos, I love it.
You are criminally underrated
I love your essay
Very acessible video. I have not played Stardew Valley but perfectly understood your points.
Thanks so much!
Stardew valley is about the triumph of capitalism. Because of the Farmers possession of private property and a free market in which to sell he becomes by far the richest person in the entire valley short of large corporations.
how does this only have 5000 views??? This is phenomenal
This essay was so awesome i just finished my final paper on althusser and was looking for a video to watch while playing stardew valley (my reward for finishing the paper) and what do i find!!! How apt! And my god this was divine! Incredible! need a stardew commune simulator next...
Stardew Valley is one of my favourite games - I made a video about how it reflects an ennui in modernity (before I was really educated on a lot of Leftist theory, so I don't mention a lot of it), and I'm so glad more people are reading the game in a sort of thematic/leftist lens.
I'll have to check out your video!
@@SeaofFog It's pretty old, I wasn't the best at audio/video editing back then, so I apologize for that, but thank you!
This is a great video!! I love the themes because this generation is becoming more and more aware that there is more to life than work. We isolate ourselves purposely from the real world because we think we HAVE to, but that’s really not true. The way the economy works in this game is hilarious, and i think that’s the bigger picture at the end of the day that it’s just a system made by us that “doesn’t make sense” and has no life value. The introduction to the story is one of the main reasons it’s my favorite game.
I do really enjoy this style of game. My favorite is probably the original Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town (I’ve yet to play the remake but I’d like to).
I hate how much i actually think about alienation right now, I have been looking for a Stardew Valley essay (which i obviously found), but what I am thinking about is this:
I am working in a company that is producing biotechnological solutions for other companies, I myself am producing membranes that are used as filters for cleaning up for example the covid vaccines and we grew very much in that time. Now there is not enough work basically and we are in danger of being laid off ( sorry english is not my mother tongue i am not sure if that is the right vocab here) and everything feels horrible. I am not sure what I work for or towards. Everyone is frustrated all the time and vents off their steam on the other people. I just hate it.
Really good vid. I had been playing Stardew Valley a lot but actually lost interest a bit because I found myself prioritising doing the repetitive work for the money I don't need over interacting with the RPG elements, such as they are, and realised it wasn't actually that relaxing. I had thought that the leftist themes of the game seemed a bit in contrast with the endless work-for-profit model of it, so this was an interesting thing to see be explored
It's a similar ludo narrative issue that people criticise violent games with anti war messages from making. While seemingly preaching anti capitalism the nature of the game inadvertently encourages prioritising profit over all else and even seeing relationships as another resource to be exploited
Great video!
Jeez... If content this high quality only gets 3k views, I'm never going to make it on RUclips xD
I like the libertarian view of it since you can choose to invest in the town and how you go about your own farm, or you could just pay the corporation to do it
It's about choice in how your money and time goes rather than grinding and obeying
Personally the way the game goes I'd place it on libright
nice analysis! also def gonna sell more to Pierre now bc why should Lewis get to keep my stuff and not share with the community???
"but we need money to quantify the player's progress!"
This is a really unimaginative way to create a game when in fact, players can make any goal for a run category that they want, and a game could track any of them. An easy way to visualise this is Minecraft - you can build a bunch of houses in Minecraft, and then you have the houses. you can also make any number of other goals, like building a physical calculator room within the virtual bounds of the game.
A game that really values goals and purpose may even allow its fans to extend the game, and reprogramming the game to do more things can become a new kind of game. Think about what a far cry that is from a game where you can only do what you're told to earn money
Stardew Valley has become my favorite "alternative lifestyle" simulator, I can't stand The Sims or Farmville and Animal Crossing is just way too cutesy but I like bits and bobs of it now and then. What's funnier is that my favorite video game genre is FPS: The Half-life series, Halo, Doom, Quake, Bioshock... THEN Action RPGs: Legend of Zelda, Bayonetta, Fallout, THEN 2D & 3D platformers: the Mario Brothers Universes, Kirby, Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori and the Wil-O-the-Wisp, THEN Puzzlers, etcetera.
Your analysis of SV with Marxist philosophy was very intriguing and I'd like to hear your take on Bioshock and similar games.
My own personal Ideology with any domestic animal in and out of Stardew is that we are Stewards of this world. We are the masters of this world and it's resources.
However... It's also upon us to use and tend to them them responsibly. Instead of having cows wallow in their own filth and have to take antibiotics just to eat corn which their bodies were not naturally adapted to eating... We let them eat grass in the sun. And experience the world around them. Let as many roam free in the pastures before they inevitably sacrifice to serve our needs. A Transaction of life, not just service and death.
But the march of bigger profit always means that people and animals will have their happiness sacrificed to that somebody makes more profit.
I would prefer to be paid both in real life and in the game if I'm going to be doing any sort of fishing mini game.
I named myself Karl as well and the farm “Farmx farm” on my first run lol 😂
Really nice video, always nice to hear a Marxist perspective on one of my favourite video games
Glad you enjoyed it!
I was surprised when I realised that the heart system was based around giving gifts. I thought it was about just talking with people every day.
I was also unhappy with the autograber, but I ended up buying it because I needed the time for more profitable activities.
I never thought about the actual selling of the things, but I like to believe the town enjoys my products.
This game does have a little problem with over monetization that I never realised...
Smart fellow
There is no incentive to sell directly to merchants? Yes there is, if you sell directly, you get the money right now, not tomorrow, and often can afford stuff a day earlier.
I like the game, but I did not like Linus' scene collecting rubbish. It was kinda marxist alienation. And its price system is really unreal since coffee costs 200-300$ and gold ore 400-600$. In addition, gold is rare there, but it has low price, perhaps it means government is freezing gold's price... inflation is high as well.
Stardew Valley is basically a distributism game.
It's literally a dumb down version of capitalism