Success Narratives and the Nuclear Family: Stardew Valley’s Neoliberal Ideologies Re-Packaged as a Techno-Utopia

Abstract

In an age of neoliberal pressures and fast-paced living, the features commonly associated with slow country-living (gardening, foraging, crafting, local festivals, et cetera) have come to be idealised for their therapeutic qualities and community building practices. This desire to ‘return to simple pleasures’ is evident in the recent upsurge in popularity of contemporary country life video games, such as Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Apico, and Spirittea. This article focuses on the perceived techno-utopia of Stardew Valley and argues that despite presenting itself as an escape from the fast-paced pressures of ‘real-life’, the game remains heavily informed by neoliberal ideologies. To make this claim, we examine how Stardew Valley’s proposed techno-utopia remains subject to the self-improvement and meritocracy narratives that are central to neoliberal thought. Utilising a critical framework of video game theory and neoliberalism, we unpack how Stardew Valley sees players experiencing a sense of achievement-induced satisfaction when they are rewarded for the labour of studiously tending to flowerbeds, crops, and animals, and restoring the community centre. Moreover, players are encouraged to build relationships with characters to expand their homestead and be rewarded with a family. In doing so, the game reproduces the neoliberal focus of productivity, success, autonomy, and the commodification of play, while also epitomising the perceived achievability of the community-driven, two children, white picket fence ethos of the American Dream. In short, this article aims to demonstrate the inescapability of neoliberal ideology within virtual spaces by exploring how the escapist, techno-utopian vision Stardew Valley presents actually reproduces the very systemic conditions of neoliberalism that the game wants to help users escape from.