Busy doing nothing

[Originally published: 13th Feb 2023]

Hello readers! It has been a very long time since I have posted anything, and there is a good reason for that. Firstly, I was away for over two weeks thanks to my job. Then, while I was away, I caught Covid – so I was in no position to be doing anything, even writing menial blog posts.

Bed rest and boredom

Thankfully, I didn’t suffer too badly with the dreaded virus – probably because this was my third or fourth time catching it. However, I still had to isolate from people for several days, and the only activities at my disposal were reading, sleeping, and playing a select number of games on my Nintendo Switch. Sadly, I only had my work laptop with me, so book writing was out of the question: partly because my work laptop doesn’t have any of my books saved onto it, but mostly because I hate its tiny keyboard.

In the end, I wrote a little travel journal by hand. This process took me back a few years, as I hadn’t done any extended manual writing since my undergraduate days, taking notes in lectures and writing essays in exams. Turns out I’d forgotten just how easily your hand can start to cramp when your brain begins working faster than your pen. There was rather a lot to include in the travel journal, because the journey was long and unexpectedly hectic. In fact, my travels were so eventful that I might even blog about them one day, once the dust finally settles… The trauma is still a bit too fresh at the moment.

Anyway, one consequence of being bedridden with Covid is that I ended up playing an awful lot of Stardew Valley on my Switch – and that is what this blog post will be about.

An explanation for the uninitiated

For those who don’t know, Stardew Valley is a cute, retro-style, top-down, 2D game where you set up and run your own farm, growing crops, raising animals and making friends with the local townsfolk. On the surface, this might seem quite shallow – but the game is deceptively deep, with lots of things to do, lots of places to explore, and some surprisingly meaningful side-stories from the characters in the village.

Perhaps the strangest thing about these types of games is how menial and repetitive they can be. I am by no means exaggerating when I say that I have spent tens of hours “watering plants”, which involves pressing the Y button over dozens of tiny map tiles. Obviously, the reason I water the plants is because that makes them grow, so that eventually I can pull them up, sell them, and sow more seeds. However, there is no end goal for this. There is no score. In fact, there is no real reward for watering any number of tiles – and this makes the game fascinating from a psychological perspective.

Is it fun though?

I have spent hundreds of hours in Stardew Valley – so it must be fun, right? Well, I’d say the level of enjoyment varies from person to person. To me, there is a huge amount of satisfaction in working to grow things (be that plants, animals, your house or your connections with the villagers), and the promise of this eventual satisfaction is what drives the player to keep repeating the same simple actions, over and over again.

Stardew Valley strikes a perfect balance between menial tasks and satisfaction rewards. Yes, pressing the Y-button repetitively doesn’t sound fun, and sort of isn’t, but you do it for that dopamine hit when you finally get to yank a cute, pixel-art turnip out of the soil. I suppose this concept is similar to actual gardening – although in the real world, you get real vegetables. In Stardew Valley, you get virtual vegetables, nothing more. So why does it feel so good to harvest them?

Productivity simulators

My current theory as to why Stardew Valley is so addictive is because it simulates productivity. I’m the sort of person who always needs to be doing something, be that writing a book, writing a blog post, drawing, making a game, knitting, doing a PhD, writing music, or just SOMETHING that works towards a final product. Although I enjoy reading books, watching TV or playing story-based or skill-based games, I struggle to do them for long without feeling guilty that nothing has been truly achieved. Obviously, there is a time and place when I need to rest, but I’m still hyper-conscious of all time spent consuming rather than creating.

This is where Stardew Valley comes in. The game simulates the feeling of production by creating hard work in pursuit of a reward. You get to see your farm get bigger and better and prettier, and this feels like progress. The freedom to choose when and where you plant things scratches the creative itch, as well as the old design/engineering desire to make things as efficient as possible. Sixty hours in, you can look at what you’ve done and feel proud of all the work that made your adorable, clockwork paradise possible. But why? Why feel proud of your virtual kingdom? You haven’t ACTUALLY achieved anything. You didn’t actually grow 200 turnips. In fact, the only person taking any enjoyment from this pristine, pixelated farm is you.

I am sure there are people out there who do not understand this type of game, and do not take any enjoyment from it. They do not see the point of doing boring virtual tasks in order to make virtual turnip empires. And perhaps they have a point. Your work hasn’t really benefited anyone – even you! Unfortunately, for people with minds geared the same way as mine, Stardew Valley is unnervingly good at simulating productivity. It manages to provide that sweet, sweet, addictive satisfaction, making you feel as if you have achieved something even when you haven’t.

If it’s such a waste of time, stop playing!

For a cutesy game about picking turnips and milking goats, I have made Stardew Valley sound quite sinister. I’m sure the developer (singular – much respect) never intended their game to become a drain on creative minds and cause the eventual downfall of humanity. However, there is no denying that games like these can become a significant time sink, and of course that puts real creative projects at risk. Luckily, my recent spate of virtual farming occurred when I was stuck in bed with Covid, in no fit state to do much else. Still, other games out there (e.g., Factorio, Prison Architect, Minecraft, Civilisation, Animal Crossing) pose a similar risk, so it’s something I keep in mind.

But… fun?

I think these games are fine in moderation. Clearly, if I’ve decided to devote a whole blog post to it, I’ve spent enough time analysing my own habits and susceptibilities. There is very much a time and place for these games; namely, when I am too tired for other creative endeavours. This is why I will always have one within reach – and why, for a while now, I have been planning out one of my own, with all the features I wish I could play. It might get made one day – who knows? Maybe I will be too busy wasting my finite time on this Earth raging about a virtual lightning strike frying my poor virtual turnips.

I guess my take-home message is this: although these games might make you feel as if you have been productive, the only real production is of your own happiness. And if you aren’t finding it fun any more, or if it is eating into your other projects, then stop. Don’t let these productivity simulators become an addiction. 

Book update

I am back home now, and have started writing once more! The sequels to Highmoor are in the works. Have a great February, and stay tuned for updates!