221. Stardew Valley

In the last year, Nora has become a skilled fisherwoman, a master gardener and restored the community center in her town. No, she didn’t buy land in a rural county, but she did buy a new video game. 

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Nora: I’m Nora McInerny, and it’s going to be okay.  A few weeks ago, I got a letter from my dead grandfather, letting me know that he was leaving me his farmland in his will, and encouraging me to leave my humdrum life in the big city to return to the land outside of a small town that I’d never heard of.  I accepted without question, and ever since I’ve been slowly teaching myself how to grow and harvest crops.

How to forage in the surrounding woods? How to mine  in the mountains.  I am a newish resident of Stardew Valley on the Nintendo Switch that we bought for our children at the beginning of the pandemic when we thought they’d be home from school for a few weeks and we needed something to distract them from the horrors of the world. 

I bought it and said I would not play on it, obviously, of course, because the last video game I played was Donkey Kong Country on Super Nintendo.  I attempted to play Mario Kart with my kids on the Nintendo Switch when we got it. Also, saying Nintendo Switch is so hard for me. Um, I can’t drive on a screen.

I can barely drive in real life. Mario Party, which is very fun for them, is very stressful for me. I like to play Tetris, but it’s not a team sport.  But Stardew Valley  is another story altogether. I learned the game from my kids who had been playing it together for a few months and they taught me what buttons to push to select an axe or a hoe, how to water a plant, how to tell when your crops are ready to harvest. 

The game starts, just like I said, with your character inheriting land from a grandfather. And showing up with zero skills to a small town where something is happening, but you don’t know what. They’re in an economic depression. A big conglomerate named Joja Mart has come to town. There’s no community center.

The bus line is broken. Trains aren’t coming to town. You have to Interact with your neighbors so that they will stop by and give you supplies. They’ll teach you secrets The more you pay attention to the animals the healthier they get and the more milk they make for you to sell  and this  Game  this game has become Everything to me in so many ways.

It has made me feel as though I could Inherit a farm and help it thrive when all I’ve really done is sit around and push some buttons. I have been playing this game now for a few months, um, which in the video game itself is I’m on year six. I’ve started dating somebody. I hope to marry soon. I’ve become a level five fisherman.

I’ve become a level  seven farmer, a level eight minor. More importantly, it has given me something to do  outside of scrolling my phone, watching TV. Obviously I read a lot, but it’s also given me something to do. with the kids. And I always kind of looked down on video games because I was raised by snobs who were like, that’s not family time.

And that’s not, no, it, it is such family time. And yes, I bought my own Nintendo switch so that I would not have to share with the kids, but  I open up my little farm. I built little cabins for the kids. They log on and we’re all playing together on our own screens and we’re cooperating and we’re sharing resources.

And it is such fun.  It’s, it’s good to rethink  our strong opinions about, you know, kind of unimportant things. And I was wrong about video games in general. 

I’ve had so much fun connecting with  people my age, with, uh, with kids, with kids, with my friend’s kids about Stardew Valley, about this game, about secrets and tips and tricks and learning things and uncovering things. And I was wrong. I was wrong about video games.  Video games are awesome. This video game is awesome and it is so fun to just do something that is absolutely no point except your own enjoyment.

No point. I am mastering skills that do not translate. I did get chickens in real life. It’s not the same as having them in a video game. It’s better. It’s better.  But it’s not the same.  So to all my other middle aged gamers out there, or middle aged gamers who don’t know that they are middle aged gamers yet, honestly,  Switches aren’t for kids.

That’s an adult. That’s, that’s there for grown ups only. Video games are now only for grown ups.  I don’t know. Try it. I love Stardew Valley. I’ll see you there. Um, again, level 4 fisherman. Possibly level 6. I’ll have to double check my fish I’ve, I’ve really gotten a lot of fishing skills. And I’ve fully restored the community center.

Not to brag, but that was something that I did for, um, my community  in a video game.